We had a beautiful photo shoot this week. I am still celebrating! After so much preparation, all of the hard work paid off. These photos were taken by the makeup artist, Marz Collins, while the photographer, Eli McFadden, was shooting the real photos (soon to come). The farm could not have been more perfect in Leiper’s Fork, a high-end rural area of Nashville in Franklin, TN. I had the time of my life and feel this is the best shoot I have ever done.
I have worked with Eli since 2009, and it has been nothing but a pleasure each time. I knew after the first shoot that I would never work with any other photographer again. Eli now lives in Los Angeles, and with me working in NYC, Nashville and Los Angeles, it takes a lot of planning but worth it. This was our fifth time working together. At the end of the day I told him we were very on, and he said, “Dwayna, we are always on.”
I am pictured with his sweet daughter, Molly, as we began the day at Westlight Studios in Franklin, a famous studio where many of the biggest stars in country music have worked down through the years. His beautiful wife, Nikki, is also a great photographer, and I love the whole artistic family. Our previous shoot in Santa Monica coalesced with all of the others, as I have seen myself grow as an artist since our first shoot in Nashville in 2009. Now, for my forthcoming bluegrass CD “Mountain Music” we needed a farm for the shoot for this CD of bluegrass standards like “Rocky Top,” “Mountain Dew” and “Precious Memories.” After so much work and research, it was an answer to prayer to find the right farm. It was a cold day but perfect. I was so happy and in the moment that it felt like I was walking on air. These new photos from Eli McFadden should be out by this spring.
