Introduction

Hello all, my name is Crystal Vickrey, and I’ve been offered the very exciting opportunity to assist with writing for Dawn Allynn Photography’s Blog =). But before I go on to anything else, I would like to share how I became acquainted with Dawn.

About 6-7 years ago I was a friend of her oldest son’s, and when Dawn asked if I would be interested in modeling for a portrait idea she had been playing around with, I was estatic in the way only a vain teenager can be. Nothing spectacular as she had just started exploring her interest with photography and her first camera, which I believe was a total whopping 3 mega pixels at the time and was the size of a square Kleenex box, though about half as thick. It was a dark and moody portrait with black lace and she played both makeup artist and photographer. Took us several hours and many side distractions before we completed a couple of images that we were happy with. Though it wasn’t until after the shoot when she had uploaded them onto her computer that we realized even though she had successfully given me a ghostly smooth, white complexion, we had forgotten my summer tanned arms and hands, which she had posed me laying my head on. An awkward looking portrait for sure, but a start non-the-less. Through the following years Dawn asked me a couple more times to pose for an idea here and there, but I found myself more and more attending her shoots not as a model, but as a very interested assistant. Many of which involved a pre-shoot session with me as the guinea pig. Dawn’s creativity and enthusiasm for her work was contagious, and I found myself as an eager participant in the search for the right lighting to a scene, or for that missing piece of the puzzle that was needed to impress upon the observer the emotion and story behind every photo, and every pose that had grown from Dawn’s very active imagination. Something that inspired me even more wasn’t just the extravagant scenes that she was able unfold before me and others, but the ones that she could pull out of a normal day to day place, such as something from the side of the road, or outside her office window.

As a beginning photographer with an already packed schedule as a full time office manager and a large family, even with a very supportive fiancee the extra lighting set or essential tripod didn’t always enter into the equation. However, Dawn is nothing but a genius when it comes to ingenuity. After bumbling our way through many “all most” make-up disasters (that might have involved gluing feathers my face), jury rigged shoots with the assistance of many pieces of insulation (cough) I mean reflectors, and maybe one incident that involved a skunk, Dawn has not only spread her wings as an artist but has also become a resourceful asset for the community.

The experiences that I have gained while working with Dawn are varied and wide in range, from start-up local models to professionals from out of the country, fairy tale childrens portraits to weddings that bring out the excitement of a new beginning, to the rescue of random wild life with no safe place to call home, and chasing down insects for a quick shot. It is because of these experiences, and the support of my sweetheart, that I find myself with a brand new camera, not only eager to start unfolding my own fairy tales and capturing my own precious moments, but to work alongside a very close friend with an exceptional (and slightly skewed) view of the world.