"Don't Call Me Miss" - Ellements Magazine

Infinite striving to be the best

is man's duty; it is its own reward.

Everything else is God's hands.

- Mahatma Gandhi

This shoot was originally scheduled as a fashion shoot, but when plans fell through a mere 12 hours prior to call time, we decided to switch directions and create a beauty series instead.

The photographer had the idea to gather some bow ties and base a makeup look around each one. Thankfully, I have an extremely well dressed, exceptionally dapper best friend who had a plethora of formal neck wear to choose from. 

Pressure was on for me to produce 3 very different looks, with not much time to plan.

I'm a lover of neutral tones. Color is...well, was...not my "thing".

Styling this shoot really forced me out of my comfort zone with a vengeance. 

And I'm so glad it did.

I did all the makeup - eyes, lips, contour - using matte eyeshadows from the 

elf Studio 144 Ultimate Eyeshadow Palette in Bright.

Just a $15 palette I grabbed in a panic off the shelf at Target a few hours before the shoot.

The first look was based around the black/silver bow tie.

We went for a robotic look with a strong, blacked-out brow, a silver-to-black ombre lip, 

and a deep burgundy contour under the cheekbones.

The second look was my personal favorite. The rounded, drastically contoured eye with a clean under eye line to form the "tail" was directly inspired by the shape and color of the paisleys on the bow tie. 

A nude lip and electric orange facial contour completed the look.

The third bow tie reminded me of one worn by the colorful Mad Hatter portrayed by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland from 2010. I blended a few pinks for the eye lid and under eye color and pressed the same shadows 

into her top lashes. I lined her lower water line with a black shadow and 

created a second ombre lip with colors similar to the ones in the tie.

I'm so proud of how this turned out.

I've been using more color ever since this shoot. 

Not a lot...but more :)

I was so excited when we were told that our beauty series got accepted in 

Ellements Magazine's March 2013 Beauty Issue - Book 2.

The magazine released for order yesterday on www.ellementsmagazine.com and I can't wait for my copies to arrive! 

Print & digital copies are available for purchase on their website.

I'm so blessed to have been a part of this shoot and so excited to share it with everyone!

None of this would have been possible without the amazing talent and hard work of the incredible photographer - 

Thuy Vo of Vo Photography.

My canvas was the always beautiful model - Magdalena @ dep MODELS.

This beauty series was so much fun to create and so exciting and rewarding the see go to print. 

I'm so fortunate to share this with two of my favorite people to work with!

Follow us on Instagram for more photos of our work!

Photographer : @vophotography

Model : @m4gpie

Hair/MUA : @halicarr

Magazine : @ellementsmagazine

For pricing/availability please contact me -  

Email : hali_carr@yahoo.com

Facebook : Hali Carr

:) 

Fitness Model Shootout Winner - Magdalena Martynowicz

Carry out random acts of kindness,

with no expectation of reward, 

safe in the knowledge that one day

someone might do the same for you.

- Princess Diana

Throughout the month of February, Nordby Photography held their 2nd Model Shootout Competition, this time with a Fitness theme.

fit.ness - /fitnis/ noun 1. The condition of being physically fit or healthy

All areas of fitness - for both male & female - were welcome to participate...

Bodybuilding

Figure

Flexibility

Dance

Swimsuit

I chose to style only one model for this competition so I could place all my 

focus on perfecting her look and promoting her photos.

I teamed up with Magdalena for this shootout.

I spent many hours with her picking out the swimwear, planning hair & makeup, choosing inspiration, and practicing poses.

Anyone who thinks this is easy should try holding some of these advanced Pilates-style poses for 3-5 hour long shoots! 

Maggie also adopted a clean eating lifestyle 5 weeks prior to the event - Paleo!

No grain, no dairy, no legumes.

LOTS of protein, veggies, fruits, and nuts.

She's become very passionate about the lifestyle and wants to inspire others 
to experience the same positive changes in health, mind, and body.

We chose to use the Victoria's Secret Swim 2013 catalog (with focus on Candice Swanepoel's images) as our main inspiration - a look that Magdalena embodies quite well. 

After all the preparatory effort and 24 long hours of promoting her photo, Magdalena was named the winner of the Nordby Fitness Model Competition with just over 1,800 votes!

Congratulations Maggie!

This image earned her a $500 cash prize which she plans to use to fund a trip to Los Angeles this spring to meet with some of the top modeling agencies in the country.

Such a wonderful accomplishment to open the doors for many more!

We are so grateful to all our amazing friends who teamed up from all over the country to support and bring in such an astonishing number of votes.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

The biggest pay off of it all is witnessing a good girl who did not finish last.

She is such a hard worker, exhibits commendable dedication, & has a beautiful heart.

I'm so proud of you, Magdalena!

Forever my muse ∞

Follow this beautiful model on Instagram @m4gpie

To view more work by this outstanding photographer, please visit

www.nordbyphotography.com

or contact him on Facebook here - Jeff Nordby

Follow on Instagram @jeffnordby

To contact me for pricing/booking please email me

hali_carr@yahoo.com

Contact me on Facebook here - Hali Carr

Follow me on Instagram @halicarr

Elizaveta Brotherton - Nordby Model Shootout Winner

When Elizaveta Brotherton's competition photo received over 700 votes in the first Nordby Model Shootout, she won an amazing prize package that included an all day, on-location, couture photo shoot.

I was so excited when I was brought on to style this shoot for the brunette, 

light-eyed, Russian beauty with an Adriana Lima-esque, exotic appeal.  

So the planning began....

We were so fortunate to be connected with the owners of a fabulous private estate here in Anchorage who were more than willing to allow us into their home for this shoot. 

This location had everything we envisioned - 18,000 square feet of opportunity including an elaborate foyer with circular staircases, a gorgeous library, a theater, amazing flooring and furniture.

We couldn't have asked for more, but we were blessed yet again when Fourth Avenue Boutique accepted our offer to have our selection of their beautiful gowns featured and promoted through this shoot.

We began at 8:30am on Saturday morning.  I wanted Leeza's look to be glamorous and stunning without overpowering her natural beauty.  She had just returned from a vacation in Hawaii, so her bronzed skin and dark hair were already such a lovely contrast from her light eyes.  I applied a customized smokey eye using the Urban Decay Naked Palette and the bh Cosmetics 3rd Edition 120 Palette and tied it all together with a set of MAC 7 Lashes.  Her flawless, contoured skin finish was thanks to Revlon Photoready Airbrush Foundation, Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer, MAC Mineralize Skin Finish, and Smashbox Bronze Lights. 

I set her hair in rolled, pinned iron curls with a Hot Tools Professional 1 1/4" Spring Iron after gently teasing the roots with got2b Sexy Voluptuous Volume Hairspray and allowed the curls to take their shape while I applied makeup.  When I let the curls down she had gorgeous textured waves with plenty of volume that lasted all day long.

We had a long day - almost 12 hours from start to finish - but the images that resulted were worth every effort.  

Jeff Nordby's genius artistic vision and experienced lighting techniques made 

every aspect of the shoot come to life in a way none of us could have expected. 

Leeza was adorably excited, sweet, and hardworking throughout the entire day.

She was an absolute joy to work with.

Special thanks to my best friend and incredible assistant, Ross Alexander, who assisted both Jeff and me with anything and everything we needed throughout the day.

Finally, none of this would have been possible without the incredible generosity of Fourth Avenue Boutique and Isis Jordan, who dedicated her day to fitting Leeza in the gorgeous dresses pictured here. 

The finished images are an amazing pay off and visual testament of everyone's hard work.

Thank you SO much to everyone!

All dresses are available for purchase at

Fourth Avenue Boutique

610 E. 4th Avenue

Anchorage, AK 99501

(907) 277 - 4425

Please contact/visit them for all your prom, wedding, or formal event attire!

Follow them on Instagram @fourth_ave_boutique

Photography by Jeff Nordby of Nordby Photography

Contact Jeff Nordby  on Facebook

or at Nordby Photography on Facebook

Follow him on Instagram @jeffnordby

Follow our beautiful model on Instagram @elizavetabrotherton

For styling pricing/booking please contact me 

hali_carr@yahoo.com

 Hali Carr on Facebook

and follow me on Instagram @halicarr

Ross Alexander, Elizaveta Brotherton, and Me

Jennifer, Jillian, and Heather

I was so excited and blessed to be presented with 3 different opportunities to work with two of my favorites in the photography business this week - Jeff Nordby and Jen Konopa of Nordby Photography.

I was asked to help plan and style creative photo shoots for 3 beautiful girls.

First, I worked with Jennifer Legorreta. Jennifer is a such a beauty and a joy to style - I'm a huge fan of her exotic dark features. I pinned her hair in a simple chignon bun for the profile shot and then let it down it soft, full waves for the others.
I applied a very basic, black and grey, contoured smokey eye which we maintained throughout all the shots and added a dark red lip for the final image. Our goal was to combine interesting poses with intentional shadowing near the beginning and finish out the hour with an intense scene involving red and black paint.

These are her final images...

For the next shoot, I had the opportunity to bring to life an idea that Jen Konopa and I have been obsessing over for almost 2 years. When Jillian signed up for this creative shoot, we knew she'd be the perfect girl to take on challenge of being covered in frosting, sprinkles, and candy. I'm usually anti-pink, but Jillian makes pink look good. 

I applied a natural shimmery shadow and a pin-up style cat eye with two pairs of faux lashes to Jillian's eyes and a matte, cotton candy pink to her lips for a very baby doll look to start off the shoot. Jillian wore a beautiful Betsey Johnson dress and playfully posed with huge pastel balloons. As we progressed, I added pops of hot pink and lavender eyeshadows and lip colors, as well as a temporary pink hair spray, to accentuate the sweet treats we covered her in. 

Pink frostings, hot pink sugar sprinkles, pink candy everywhere!! 

Jillian did not disappoint. She was adorable and convincing in her role. No one could've done it better! This shoot was a blast and everything we could've hoped for. 

We decided on a floral-inspired theme for Heather's shoot. We designed a stunning head piece at Bagoy's Florist and brought along a wide array of loose flowers in a variety of colors and textures. For hair, we did 3 different looks - long, loose waves, an intricate braided combination of inside-out french braid, fishtail braid, and 5-piece braid, and a sleek, tight top knot. Heather has the most beautiful green eyes and I have so much fun experimenting with different makeup colors on her. For this look, I was inspired by the intense purple and green colors of Irises, so I started off with a subtle green contour on the lid and a vibrant purple lower lashline for her eye makeup. We wanted to transition from hippie flower child to an extremely dramatic, floral nymph, so for the final shots, I added extra purple underneath her eyes and dragged it out into a reverse cat eye.  I used a striking emerald green shadow to line her eyebrows and contour her cheekbones.  With that same green, I filled in her lips - while also adding two lighter shades of lime and mint green to the center of her lips to add depth and create the ombre effect. 

This is what we came up with...

In the final 10 minutes of the shoot, the combination of this makeup change, Heather's beauty and dedication to the concept, and Jeff's incomprehensible lighting and photography talent resulted in the most stunning images I've ever been a part of. I'm so proud of the teamwork and and passion that went into creating this. 

These are unforgettable images.

 

Thank you so much to everyone involved in creating these images!

Jeff and Jen, without you two, this art wouldn't exist. 

Thank you for sharing your passion and talents and for giving these young women opportunities to see themselves in a different light and build new confidence in themselves. 

Jennifer, Jillian, and Heather - thank you for including me in these shoots. I love each of you and I'm so blessed to have these opportunities to collaborate our efforts and bring our ideas to life.

For pricing/availability, email me hali_carr@yahoo.com

Follow me on Instagram @halicarr

"Synergy" lensed by Nicholas Bradford

"Art should comfort the disturbed

& disturb the comfortable"

- Cesar Cruz

I recently styled Magdalena for a photo shoot with my infinitely talented friend, 

Nicholas Bradford of Nicholas Bradford Imagery.


(click image for larger version)
Face
Smashbox Photo Finish Primer in Original
Revlon PhotoReady Airbrush Foundation in Medium Beige
Garnier Skin Renew Anti Dark Circle Eye Roller in Light/Medium (under eyes)
MAC Blot Powder Pressed in Medium
Smashbox Bronze Lights in Sunkissed Matte (contour)
MAC Powder Blush in Coygirl (dicontinued) similar - Well Dressed

Eyes
MAC Paint Pot in Painterly (as primer)
e.l.f. Studio Ultimate Eyeshadow Palette (lower right colors)
MAC Fluidline  in Blacktrack (upper lid, waterline)
MAC Eye Pencil in Ebony (lower lid)
Kiss Premium Lashes #03  (two pairs)
L'Oreal Extra-Volume Collagen Mascara in Blackest Black 
MAC Eye Shadow in Charcoal Brown (brows)

Lips
MAC Lipstick in Myth & Angel

Every time I work with Nick, I'm reminded of just how strong my passion is for this art. He has such a beautiful, original mind that radiates through his work.  On this particular occasion, we had prepared a list of various concepts we wanted to bring to life - all of which were impossible to do on the day of the shoot due to cold weather.  We met up on this November morning with not one specific idea to go off of, all we knew is that it had to be indoors.  
Nick turned my closet into the smallest studio any of us has ever worked in, 
but we managed to create something bigger than we could have expected.

4 hours later, we were all very excited with what we came up with.  

Simple, seductive, synergy. 

 Photographer / Nicholas Bradford
Hair & Makeup / Hali Carr
Magdalena Martynowicz @ dep MODEL
(click images for full size version)


I am so grateful every time I get the opportunity to be surrounded by 
Nick's brilliant creativity and Magdalena's magnetic beauty.  
Thank you both for your hard work.

synergy (sin-er-jee)

noun, plural syn.er.gies

1. the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions etc.; synergism

Please visit these sites to see more of Nick's incredible work -

Facebook : Nicholas Bradford Imagery

Model Mayhem : NicholasBradfordImagery

Email me for pricing/availability : hali_carr@yahoo.com
Follow me on Instagram @halicarr