Beautiful Moments Photography

When I was a little girl my favourite tv show was I Dream of Jeannie.  I used to sit and watch it everyday, I loved the relationship between Jeannie and Major Nelson and all the trouble Jeannie created for him, but it was Jeannie’s bottle that really captured my imagination.  It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, all those bejewelled walls and plush pillows were what a little girl’s dreams were made of.  If I were stuck in that bottle for a thousand years I think I could be quite happy.   So, I had a dream – that when I was a grownup and I owned my own home I would have a room that was exactly like the inside of Jeannie’s bottle.

Alas, I have never made that dream a reality but about a year ago I came up with the idea of doing a Jeannie inspired shoot.  I lye awake at night unable to switch off my brain, it’s in these times that I come up with my favourite ideas.  One night I was awake thinking about the details of a Jeannie shoot and I came up with a tent, sand, lots of plush pillows, a persian rug and loads of pink and orange flowers. The only hick-up was that I didn’t have any clients that suited this style of shoot.  Then a few months back I met Anne-Marie & John, I immediately thought of them when I started to revisit this concept but it wasn’t until I read their answers to my questionnaire that I knew they’d be the best candidates for this shoot.  You see John & Anne-Marie have visited the Middle East together, and have experienced the exotic wonders that I wanted to create in this shoot!  Once I knew that piece of information I told Anne-Marie about my ideas and she immediately lit up with excitement.

Over the last few months I’ve been collecting the props for the shoot.  I found the old rug in my garage, a hidden treasure that had been long forgotten.  I bought the fabric for the cushions and tent and set about working out how to sew them to match the visual I had in my head.  I mentioned to a client of mine who owns a boutique that I was after some Moroccan lanterns and asked if she knew where I could get some, she immediately pulled out a catalogue and sent me home to pour over the products inside.  It was difficult to decide between all the gorgeous products available but I finally settled on some hanging lanterns, some table top ones and 20 stars that would light a path to the Jeannie tent.

I searched high and low for the tea glasses and finally found them at my local shopping centre, while Anne-Marie collected the platters, teapot, drum and arabic pipe from her mother and a friend of hers.  Between the two of us we had almost everything that we needed.  The last element was the flowers.  I had planned on going to the markets again and making my own bouquets like I had for my vintage shoot. I knew exactly what I was after as I’d had planned on using this bouquet for the Jasmine Star Workshop but it didn’t quite turn out as planned.  At the last minute my friend Victoria suggested that I get in touch with a new florist who was opening up a store just a few minutes up the road from me.  I will admit that I was hesitant, I had already experienced the disappointment of having a florist not connect with my vision, but Victoria had such faith in this new florist Sally Thompson so I decided to let go of my control freak tendencies and trust a new kid on the block.

The days leading up to the shoot were frantic, I don’t think I can work any other way actually.  The artist in me runs on adrenalin and zero sleep, much to my own detriment at times.  But having a friend like Victoria who is a frustrated stylist like myself to bounce my ideas off helped.  While my husband, my rock, is wonderful at doing the manual labour I often feel like I have to express my grand ideas to another kindred spirit.  That kindred spirit is Victoria, and while we are working on a new and exciting venture together it was very generous of her to offer up solutions to my roadblocks.  Thanks Victoria!

People often ask me why I bother doing sessions like this and outlaying my own money for them, and the answer is multi faceted.  I love to be creative, when I was in school my elected subjects were art, drama and photography.  Over 20 years later those 3 subjects are still part of my everyday life.  I love to decorate, draw, photograph, landscape, and sew – basically I love to express myself creatively.  I used to write and direct and act in short films and submit them to festivals like Tropfest so I love to create a good ’story’ when ever I can.  My other reason for doing these sessions is to inspire my clients to think outside the box, to express themselves on their wedding day in a unique way.  But another part of me likes to break the mould, likes to come up with new and innovative ideas and push the boundaries.

The day of the shoot was perfect, I couldn’t have asked for a better day to capture this session.  The light was amazing, the location was sparse with visitors and everything came together perfectly.  Steven, Victoria and I put everything together while Ben played in the sand a few feet away.  If I wasn’t so busy making sure everything was perfect before the light disappeared it would have been a moment to savour.  Anne-Marie and John where such troopers, it was the first time they’ve had professional photos and I know for a fact that John was nervous about the session.  We moved quickly and captured as many shots as we could before the light left us and I had to photograph the glow of the lanterns before the last rays disappeared over the horizon.  Ann-Marie, John, Steven and I ran around lighting candles as the wind started to whip up and blow them out, it was a mammoth effort to keep everything alight and at one point I came close to catching my hair on fire!  A price I am not willing to pay!  LOL.

But when all was said and done and we had packed up the cars in the dark I felt a huge sigh of relief.  The shoot was exactly how I imagined it in my head, down to the very last details.  And never one to lye idle for long, I have already started planning the next concept with Victoria feeding my craziness!  Now if only I can convince her and Steven to travel to the outback with me  Stay tuned for more ideas soon!  LOL.

Anne-Marie & John, thank you so much for trusting my vision for this shoot and for being so easy to photograph.  Steven, thank you for being the muscle on the set!  Victoria thank you for helping out with setting up and hooking me up with the Florist.  Helen, thank you for ordering the lanterns especially for me, and Sally & Catherine thank you both for doing such an amazing job on the flowers!  You are all fabulous and I couldn’t have done it with out you!  xxx