I recently began creating a new series, Luna, and wanted to share a peek at what goes on behind the scenes.

I like to incorporate objects as symbolism in many of my self-portraits. For this series, I wanted a type of sphere to represent the moon. I purchased several of the Amazing Wubble Bubble Balls (Have you heard of them?) in white and blue. I also used a 3D printed LED moon lamp (which has some texture. Can you spot it?). Soon I'll be adding in pearl-colored children's ball pit balls for even more spheres. I chose shades of blues and whites because I felt they would convert well to black and white in my post-processing.

I began by setting up some test shots in my backyard to get a feel for things before changing into a cumbersome dress. It can sometimes be difficult with all of the back and forth to my camera while wearing a gown. Often, they end up dirt ridden, torn and tattered, but thankfully, the camera is forgiving.

Test shot to grab my focus, set my exposure, and get the placement of the balls.

My initial thoughts were to capture the balls in mid-air. This process proved to be complicated. It was tricky to time it out with my camera's shutter release and more times than not the balls landed on my head, knocking my glasses off.

Here you can see that I was trying to capture some movement in my dress.

In these outtakes you can see how I try to capture some movement in my dress.

Eventually, I ended up with a costume change and a call for back-up. Since I don't typically work in Photoshop, I need to find other ways to bring my visions to life. Sometimes that means asking for help.

You can see the hand on the left by the dress.

Once I finished, I brought my images into Lightroom and converted them to black and white. I added any texture and bokeh using Alien Skin Exposure software. It only took me about 10 minutes to edit each self-portrait.

Here are a few of the final edits.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into what goes on behind the scenes. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below, and I'd be happy to reply.