The Hi brand, it’s a thing. I have the vision to grow it and have a friendly and trendy fashion brand. Wearing Hi on your shirt is a perfect way to signal that you’re a friendly person. The Hi Project where I wave in different scenes has been going on since 2017, and recently I was able to create these shirts and sell them in my Hi shop on this site. The purpose behind the Hi project was a few-fold, I wanted to take on a project that allowed me to practice film techniques with a simple routine, I wanted to have a fun way to create content for my site and social media outlets and lastly, I wanted to root it in a cultural purpose — causing a tiny ripple of change in our digital world to make it a bit more human and friendly. So I’ve been waving away, but If I want to make a bigger impact I’ll need more helping (and waving) hands.
For this shoot specifically, I saw it as another creative challenge and I wanted to practice a couple of things: Mainly fashion photography and how to work with a model and be flexible enough during the shoot to switch back and forth and make sure I have some good footage for a little bit of video too. I always love working with my friend Helen Pavlovskaya on creative projects. She’s outright lovely — down to earth, always down to make fun stuff and just a joy to work around. (we also had her dog Travis which added for some extra cuteness and some exercise for Helen as he kept finagling a way out of his leash). Everything went great until I dropped my camera and smashed my lens about mid-way through the shoot. Thankfully we still came away with a handful of good shots and footage before the fumble.
Here are some of my favorite photos from the day:
Do you want a friendly Hi shirt? Buy one from the Hi Shop link below. When you buy a Hi shirt, you’ll get a Hi Shirt — that’s the deal. Your money will go to me and some will go to the company who makes the shirts. Yes, that’s right, I get your money too. I’ll use that money to support more creative endeavors and grow my practice and dreams. I’ll aim to use those funds, skills, and goals as ways I can bring more humor, delight, joy, comedy, good fun-loving energy and friendliness into the world. So if you’re into supporting that kind of stuff and signaling to others that you are a terrifically friendly and approachable human. Buy a shirt!
P.S. Here’s a throwback of another video Helen and I made earlier this year. Spoiler alert, you’ll get to see me in a dress. Classic comedy gold that caused my mom to yell and reprimand me.