Photo-Off Challenge: Inside All Of Us is a Wild Thing

Frankly, this challenge scared me. We don't own a copy of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (we do have it on Scholastic DVD, but I haven't watched it) so my knowledge of the story is pretty basic: Kid imagines / dreams he's among monsters. And there are big palm trees, I think. In any case, I knew the story and its imagery are iconic, which made me nervous about how I could interpret this challenge in a way that would be true to the story without being too literal.

But then I had an idea: Rag curls! :-) It's funny how one mental image can reassure and get me going.

I tied up Uno's & Dos's wet hair in rags and let it set overnight, waiting for the afros that would surely erupt the next day. I planned to tease them as high as they would go and lacquer them up with stiffening spray. The girls took the rags out the next morning earlier than I would have liked, making the afros far less poofy than they should have been, but oh well. I did the best I could with my limited hairdressing (and later makeup) skills -- and then the girls did the rest:


On the night Max wore his wolf suit


and made mischief of one kind


and another


his mother called him "WILD THING!" and Max said "I'LL EAT YOU UP!"


so he was sent to bed without eating anything....



The girls and I had so much fun with this shoot! (Though it's clear to me that Uno has been watching a bit too much of America's Next Top Model with me -- she's all about looking fierce / pretty, lol.) I've already done a little bit of post-processing; that last shot, in particular, looks much better converted to black and white and with the distracting background removed. So while the thought of this challenge gave me the heebie-jeebies at first, now I'm really glad to have done it. I feel like every shot is full of their personalities -- strong and brash and creative and sweet -- so I'm grateful to have these pictures that really capture them, my little Wild Things. :-)

Mary, your next challenge is: GREEN! I know you're with me when I say I need to see much more of that color than I have the last few months. ;-) Have fun!


~RCH~