
The River Monster is the dress, not Hannah. It was a dress we found at the Goodwill store that was covered in seashells and fine gold thread netting over a lace over layer. It had a smooth V shaped split up the front and a longish, wide train from the lace over layer on the back of it that looked very fin-like. I could see this dress being perfect for some under the sea themed prom or something. It was horrible, beautiful and awesome…. All at the same time.


As soon as we saw it, I knew what I wanted to do with it. I just hoped that it would fit Hannah. If it was too small I would have gotten it anyway and used someone else with it but I wanted Hannah in it.


I had to take it in some at the chest but otherwise it was perfect…. And yes, I can sew. Thank the old woman who lived across the street from me as I was growing up. She was kind of like a 3rd grandmother and she taught me to sew, long before I learned to read or write. I have a sewing machine and as well as hemming my own pants, I have been knows to make my own backgrounds and other bits and pieces as needed. 


Hannah supplied some shells for the ground in front of her and a necklace that worked with the concept. All we needed then was the water. All right, I guess I should have called the Creek Monster, but it just doesn’t have the same feel to it. I wish we had an ocean around here, I could have called it the Sea Monster then.

I keep referring to it in the past tense because it was so filled with sand, pebbles, twigs and the baby oil we used on Hannah to keep her wet looking when we finished shooting with it that I threw it in a dumpster.


Hannah was an excellent collaborator in this session, she is normally great at this, but in this case she was inspired. She is extremely creative and imaginative. She had great input in this session and helped make these photos absolutely amazing.

So what we were going for here was a beautiful water creature crawling out of the water. I think we succeeded amazingly. :) Some of these are in both color and Black and White, I couldn’t make up my mind between which is better on some. I like things about both.

And if you would like to see the dress a little better to see what I was talking about, here are two links to photos on my facebook page… Photo 1 and Photo 2. I shot those with my pocket camera right after I got done pinning the dress up so I could alter it to fit her. :)

by Ernie Rice
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