Flower power
I think my new favourite saying is, “There’s magic in chaos” and nothing could describe this shoot more accurately. For those who don’t know me, I like to plan out every possible detail of a photoshoot. I make back-up plans in case the initial idea doesn’t work out and sometimes I even have a third set of plans just to guarantee that the photos always turn out. I don’t believe in perfection, but I do believe in being prepared.
That being said, when I’ve worked with someone as long as I have with Christelle Souverbie, I like to go with the flow and see where the wind takes us. We have a history of putting together last minute shoots that have turned into our best work so we don’t over plan. With this photoshoot concept, we knew we wanted to combine these 3 elements: water, flowers and make-up Christelle has never tried on herself before. After a few months of back and forth inspiration sharing, we decided on a ‘60s Flower Power theme.
The day of the shoot, I pick up all the fresh flowers from Costco (my favourite place to buy flowers for photoshoots) while Christelle drives in from Quebec City. Whenever we prep for a photoshoot there tends to be more talking and catching up than actually prepping for a shoot. At one moment I look over at my phone and the weather app says that we should expect a thunder storm in the next 30 minutes… and of course we were not ready to start shooting. We start hustling, taking short cuts with the hair, wardrobe and throw everything onto the golf cart to head over to the kiddie pool for our shoot.
We toss the flowers into the pool and I start to really stress that we won’t get any photos before it starts raining. I hurry Christelle into the water and try to quickly give instructions on how to pose in the water. The thing most people don’t realize is that when your ears are underwater, you can’t hear anything. Thankfully Christelle understood my wild hand movements and quickly got into place. The photos look like we carefully placed the flowers but I swear we just threw them in and wished for the best. Just as we thought the rain was going to come down, the clouds floated away and the sun came out. It was a photoshoot miracle!
That wasn’t the only good luck we had out our side. I had purchased a kiddie pool based on its size only to realize it had clear plastic walls. This meant the light was able to bounce along the bottom of the pool and remove any shadows creating this brilliant blue colour. Christelle did an incredible job posing in the water, which trust me when I say, is a lot more difficult than you would think. At the last moment, when I thought I had enough flower photos, I had Christelle pose by the willow tree. The wind picked up and she froze her buns off being soaking wet in a dress, but I absolutely appreciate her making the effort.
I could not have been happier with how this shoot turned out and am so grateful the gods of chaos were on our side. It’s always such a pleasure to work with someone who trusts me and lets me try different looks. I love anytime I can combine vintage with modern, Christelle truly is a Modern Pin-Up in these photos. I can’t decide if I like the colour photos or the black and white photos more. Which do you prefer?
If you rather hear me talk about it then read about, check out the behind the scenes video at the end of this page.
xx Andrea
