Lord of the Rings/Hobbit

I really love J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Maybe too much. I read the books in college around the time Peter Jackson’s movies were coming out, and became nearly obsessive. My roommate and I decorated our room in the style of Rivendell, made ourselves “Elven capes”… and we threw an Oscars party the year Return of the King was up for all the awards. Every time LotR won a little gold statue, we kissed a poster of Orlando Bloom. I am not making this up. I’d post pictures, but I seem to have accidentally set them all on FIRE.

So I’m a little bit obsessed, but I haven’t done a photo shoot until now because I had this strange, irrational fear of wrecking one of my favorite stories by taking sub-par pictures of my adorable children. I know- crazy. But with the release of the first Hobbit movie, I found my courage and inspiration. And I’m glad, because I can finally replace all those Legolas posters.

For my she-elf, I made a simple dress, cloak (see tutorial here), and crown out of floral wire. It mysteriously disappeared five minutes before our photo shoot. Sad face.

For my hobbit, I assembled cutoff pants, a shirt, a vest, and I made a green cloak (same tutorial). Oh, and of course a ring of POWER.

I watched out at antiques stores for a platter and pitcher to recreate a bit of the Galadriel in Lothlorien scene for our cosplay.

I now know why all the good LARPing is done in Europe. With gorgeous scenery, castles, ruins, and extreme geographical features, I want to never leave. Which is why it was easy to plan this photo shoot when we decided to spend our vacation in Norway. Cliffs, Mountains, waterfalls, and truly breathtaking countryside made everything seem real.

Finally, once we had our cameras back home to process the pictures, we created a new Lightroom preset. I have included it in my collection, and you can purchase it in my Etsy Shop.