The Hunter Becomes The Hunted: In the Studio With Sarah Van Sickle

Sarah Van Sickle is a woman on a mission.  She is changing the lives of women in the Knoxville area through an effort called What's Beautiful: Team Knoxville.   Sarah meets in various parks around the city and offers free workouts.

But it's more than just exercise.

Sarah is addressing head-on the self confidence issues which are such a struggle for so many women.  Sarah brings such energy and encouragement that her humble workout meetings have grown to several hundred participants.  Sarah believes that she is on a hunt for beauty and is committed to help each participant focus on the beautiful things about them instead of focusing on their self-perceived flaws.

In fact, her nick-name has become, Sarah the Beauty Hunter.

My wife, Sandra sent me a link to read about Sarah several weeks ago, when she was just getting started with her workouts.  I was so impressed with Sarah's passion for her workout students.  Even more touching though, was the way Sarah shared her own struggle with her beauty.  Yet, she has such incredible courage to go out everyday and help other women face their fears and doubts.  Sandra and I agreed, that we both wanted to help.  So we called to arrange a photo shoot.

Once, I talked with Sarah, she confessed that she was super nervous but that she needed to face her own fears.  You see, like so many of the women Sarah is helping, Sarah doesn't feel beautiful.

As a photographer, I see this all the time.  My portfolio is full of beautiful faces, but like Sarah, each of those people struggle with their beauty.  I have come to learn that photography is far more than mega-pixels and great lighting.  As a photographer, I've got to find a way to connect with my client and make them as comfortable as possible so they relax and authentic smiles and laughter come through the images.

I knew I could  show Sarah just how beautiful she really is.  It was time for Sarah the Beauty Hunter to become the hunted!

To help me with this I enlisted the help of professional makeup artist Kimberley Bell Thomas.  She did the awesome makeup for my recent Tribal Affect images.  Oh and Kimberley did  Pat Summit's make up for the photo shoot images used on the ESPYs award show for ESPN. 

We knew we needed to take Sarah beyond the edgy sports look that everyone might expect.  We wanted to give her the full beauty and fashion experience during her photo shoot.   The behind the scenes video below shows Sarah on set in the studio and some of the resulting composite images that I created for her.




Sarah had a great time at the shoot and loved the images.  I'm so glad that our team could show her just how amazingly beautiful she really is.  Thanks to Sandra who shot the video and Kimberley for rocking the hair and makeup!  I don't think folks are going to start calling me Jim the Beauty Hunter, but if they do, I'll take it as a compliment!  I'll go on to tell them I once shot Sarah the Beauty Hunter!

PS  When we booked the shoot with Sarah, little did we know she would go on to be selected as one of the new faces of Under Armor.  Congratulation to you Sarah and all the women who have joined your hunt for beauty!

Emory's First Birthday Party!

Wow, how time flies!  It's been awhile since I've found time to blog.  Time for some catching up.  

Shot these for Emory's first birthday!   

 Heather (mom) brought Emory's present to the studio so we had lots of props to shoot with.

Of course at the end of the shoot, it was time to get messy!

We all had a great time, especially Emory!