Mother Nature Milk Bath ~ July 2019

Nov 10, 2021

2 min read

Updated: Apr 9, 2022

When it comes to collaboration with fellow artists, there is an opportunity for the manifestation of ideas that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. It takes a team to create the type of art that we made with this session.

This was the first photo session that I could say I travelled for. Michelle Clarke is the beautiful woman you see in the portraits. All behind the scenes footage for this portrait session was captured by Sarah Rose. We travelled to San Antonio, Texas from Austin, Texas. We were pursuing a vision for a 'Mother Nature Milk-Bath' concept.

The "Mother Nature Milk Bath” is one of my favorite photo session concepts that I've done. It would be an honor to recreate this with more individuals. There is so much potential by slightly modifying various features. -Sophia Raquel

After driving about an hour and a half we made it to the location we planned to take our portraits in. We traveled the distance because after hearing about the concept, Michelle's mom offered up her living space to be the location. She was so generous and even provided the greenery featured in the portrait from her own garden! The rosemary smelled amazing.

The session...

This was the first milk bath that I ever had attempted. First finding the concept on Pinterest back in 2012, I had aspirations to pursue this idea, but this was the first time to have the resources to follow through. At the time I was a college student on break for the summer. I did these portraits on a day off from my other three jobs; labor & delivery photographer/videographer, working at a cat/dog boarding kennel, and working at a learning center. During the summer of 2019, this is what I did for fun. It was fulfilling and was a wonderful creative outlet.

Michelle, Sarah, and I went about this session by sharing ideas ahead of time and then coordinating together before the session began. Deciding who was bringing the milk, food coloring, flowers, location, accessories, etc took time and energy. This is how we achieved the results we did; lots of planning and then following through with the vision.

During the session we played music, openly shared and accepted the flow of ideas, and lifted one another up. It was a very empowering summer afternoon in 2019. I cherish the memories and portraits captured from this session.

If you have any questions, comments, ideas you want to bounce off someone... send me an email at contactsophiaraquel@gmail.com and I'll get back to you!