Rowan & Riggs - Circus Edition

I have collaborated with Ashley, the mastermind between Rowan's Heart, several times, resulting in some of my favorite photos to date. Ashley primarily makes custom children and women's clothing, but she has made my husband an item as well. She also has a VIP group on Facebook where happy customer's share their photos.

In October, we came together to photograph Rowan, Ashley's seven year old daughter, in her Halloween costume. Rowan was a lion tamer and their goldendoodle dog, Riggs, was the fierce lion.

Rowan was so excited to wear make-up and false eyelashes for this session! A friend made Rowan a "whip” to add to the costume. Riggs's lion mane was purchased off Amazon along with some of Rowan's accessories. I purchased the metal bucket from Michael's a year ago and we just turned it upside down to create a podium for Rowan to stand on. It worked in a pinch but if she were any older, it would not have been sturdy enough. The wooden crate that Riggs is standing on is actually my dog's toybox. We emptied it of toys and turned it upside down. I came prepared to the session with my fanny pack of dog training treats. Can't forget the biodegradable poop bags! Riggs was the perfect dog though and very well-behaved. He got lots of "good boy" comments from both me and Ashley throughout the session.

Ashley's wrote a detailed blog post outlining exactly how she made Rowan's costume. You can read more about the process and see behind-the-scene photos here.

The entire photoshoot reminded me so much of the book Water for Elephants and the movie of the same name. Both the movie and the book have a magical and vintage-aspect to them.

I love partnering with this mother-daughter duo and I cannot wait to create more magic with them again soon!