Beautiful Ericka Moya graces our hero image. I’ve been putting in some work recently on the site. As a photographer, I sometimes find it difficult to get in as much design time as I’d like. As a designer, the same goes for photography time; including exploring, learning, paying the bills, and meeting with people on my travels. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. In case you’re wondering what is with all the butterflies, it is a pretty interesting story.

Moera Creative began with a simple observation I had one day. I saw a moth among all these beautiful butterflies. The moth was flying around towards a light, and it kept bumping into it repeatedly. The butterflies fluttered until they disappeared from sight. I don’t really know why I found this so interesting, but I imagined that the moth was a bit of an outcast among its winged peers.

Moths and butterflies are a reoccurring theme for Moera Creative. It is symbolic to me. Maybe it has to do with doing things differently. Either way you look at it, I do  look forward to our cover image evolving with models from all over the world. Now, about the shoot. The gothic dark blue theme is a spontaneous idea I had. I reached out for the talents of Amy Moya. She did a great job with the hair and makeup, and I took part in choosing the wardrobe.

Ericka is an awesome little model. She’s been working with me and my ideas from infancy. It helps that she is my daughter, and she is all for my creative direction. The outfit is essentially a dress with shiny buttons that show up quite brilliantly with this kind of low key lighting.

I used a profoto snoot for the shots to highlight her face. The results were very interesting.

We had a very awesome time with this photo session. It should give you a general idea of how awesome low key lighting really is. I look forward to shooting this style again. The hair/make up, wardrobe, model, and all the elements involved made this a very memorable shoot. I hope you enjoy the results.