Zombie March Chicago 2012 - Post 1 - June 16, 2012

I'm interrupting our cute little swallows and pretty butterflies and whatnot to bring you Zombie March 2012!

NOTE to the regular readers who are used to cute, fluffy squirrels and happy little song birds...  These zombie posts contain exactly what you'd think of when you hear "zombie".  A lot of stage make-up gray faces and latex flesh wounds and currant-juice fake blood.  If this is not what you signed on for, please feel free to look away now.  Personally, I found it all to be a lot of "Hey look someone in make up", but some people on the street were legitimately startled by some of the participants.


Last year I posted on Zombie March 2011 and how much fun it was, so I went back this year.


One major thing I noticed right off the bat was that we had to be a good 20 degrees hotter today.  Blergh.  We took a different route and had a fair number fewer zombies.  Not that there weren't A LOT of Zombies, but not as many as last year.  I suspect the heat kept some people home.  Some of the costumes and make-up jobs are pretty intense.


Anyway... I still had fun.  Here's a few random shots to start the posting off with.  Just some of the ones I liked best. :)

 The contacts were out in force again.  I played some with isolating parts of the make-up jobs.  This one is probably one of my favorites.

 And of course, the thing about portraits of people, versus what I usually shoot, is that I can say, "Hey over here where the light is better, okay now turn, like that, move here..."  Seriously, I'm so used to shooting wild animals that I almost forget that I can have people move to where the shot will work the best.

Zipper 'embedded' in the skin was the hot new make-up trend this year.  This was one of two really awesome examples I saw of this.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot of the other one.

 As usual, there were a fair number of people and characters you might have known when they were alive.  I recognized Amy Winehouse right away, but someone had to explain to me who Blake on the left was. :)

This was a total accidental shot.  She's coming up the stairs as we went down Michigan and I either caught her blinking or looking down as she came up.  But there's something about her colors and make up job that combine with that expression and... you get the most serene zombie ever!

And of course, there are always the cute-kid zombies.  I should have asked if she was celebrating how many years she'd been alive or how many she'd been undead. ;)




























Okay, more tomorrow.  If you are in any of these shots and you'd like them removed, just let me know.  Or if you'd simply like to put your name with the shot, you can let me know that too.  I can be emailed at kymberleericke [at] gmail dot com. :)