I have run several other “minlypse“  events in the past (pretty much one ever year since 2006). We have worked with hundreds of models, amazing makeup artists,  wicked talented designers, etc. Some of the locations we have shot at in Utah are Saltair, the Alta Lodge, a mortuary, the downtown Library,  business offices, the Salt Flats, a court room, and the Utah Arts Alliance. And then there was Hawaii at the Byodo-In Temple, the North Shore, and a sunset sail! Some of the concepts we have included are devils and angels, skateboarding, vintage circus, business, winter sports, and that is just to name a few.

This year, we have decided to make our minilypse event more artsy by transforming our basement into several different photography sets including large foam gears for steampunk, a fashion set, a spaceship, + zombies and monsters! We will have stocky family shoots going on in our home upstairs, and all the artsy stuff going on downstairs. In order to pull this off, we had to create a makeup room in the basement for all the artists, hair stylists and models, etc. Photographers coming to this event had to be exclusive contributors to iStockphoto with a certain amount of Vetta files (top notch work!). I can hardly wait to see the images that will come from this event!

First, we will start with the BTS shots of us preparing for the event

Large Foam Gears

Half way through his project, I looked over at my husband and thought (out loud) we are so random, haha. I mean, who wakes up one day and thinks… lets make some gigantic gears out of foam! It turns out that foam props are ridiculous expensive, so the only way to make this happen is to make them ourselves anyways. And it was a great idea, the gears are turning out really cool. Here are some photos:

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(slideshow will include gear images + all other images I am using this post)

We were super excited to see how it translated on camera… so here is  a quick shot of Todd wearing steampunk goggles holding an antique blow torch…

Steampunk Hat

If you try to buy things like this online, you might pay something like $200! Top hats are expensive, and so are the gears & goggles, etc. I put this together for around $90-$100 bucks…

Makeup Room

In order to host an event like this, we needed a room where models could get ready! There is no way that 50+ people over the weekend could get their hair and makeup done in my little bathroom, lol. So we converted a room in the basement on a budget with $2 2x4s, 2 $20 closet mirrors off of KSL, and some discontinued track lighting. Then we decorated with a little paint, curtains and poster that we had lying around. It looks great!  I am glad that Todd just happen to be great working with wood.. he will be building two changing rooms that we will wrap with fabric some time today. Here are some pictures:

SPFX Artist Chris Hanson

We are just plain lucky to get the chance to work with Chris Hanson… he is a wicked talented artist who works on movie sets and usually much bigger jobs than our little event. In the picture below, he is sculpting an alien prosthetic for our spaceship shoot!! A M A Z I N G!!

Wardrobe and Artist Rachael Domingo

Anything Rachael does is gold… she will be creating a fashion set, bringing in her wardrobe designs and is currently making aliens to bring as well. This is going to be the coolest weekend ever, lol.

Update: The event was a success!!! What an awesome collaboration of art!!

Here are a few of the BTS shots of the event:

Some of my final shots…