Behind The Image
Underneath the surface of every image I create there is a story. I'm not talking about the stories behind the photographs that influence their meaning and interpretation. Quite literally, I am talking about the story of how I created each image and the memories I have from different photoshoots.
Creating can become quite the adventure. Not two shoots are ever the same and because of this they can produce some of the best stories to tell. In this post I want to share with you a few of my favorite stories from various photoshoots throughout the years.
To start off, I want to share the story of a 300 pound claw-foot bathtub and how it ended up in the middle of my backyard. In 2016, I came up with this idea of a giant bathtub sitting in a forest full of butterflies and spring flowers. It was a pretty cool idea yet it involved buying and transporting a giant tub out into the countryside. Thankfully the store where I purchased the bathtub from was extremely helpful and transported the tub all the way out to my house and left it in the spot you see in the photo. There the tub sat until late last year, it is definitely the oddest yard decoration I will probably ever have and is now being used as a planter. To read more about this particular photoshoot, check out this blog post I wrote about it.
More often than not, parents often seem to look down upon their children if they decide to pursue art. Fortunately I have been blessed with parents who not only support my passion but tend to assist in my crazy ideas. Even when it involves pouring pounds and pounds of soil into the living room, sitting in it for a while, and then transporting it back out.
While the photoshoot was relatively calm, what happened afterwards was one of the craziest things I have done. Early in May, my family and I traveled to the ocean on a absolutely perfect day, chilly and stormy. Definitely my type of beach day. Earlier that year I decided I wanted to try to get in seven bodies of open water in the hopes of overcoming my fear of them (it unfortunately did not work that well). So I plunged into the Atlantic wearing a nightgown, while live on Instagram. It was thrilling and quite the experience.
While in Utah visiting family, I fell in love with the landscape and did as many photoshoots as possible. I managed to create some of my favorite images in my portfolio, however while creating one I left my camera remote out in the middle of the desert on accident.
The next day when I went to do another shoot I realized this with a sinking heart as it had rained during the night. I thought for sure I would never find the remote. Yet we decided to look for it anyways and the weirdest thing happened. When I got to the location of the photoshoot I walked directly over to where I had put it the day before, almost as if I knew exactly where it was. Upon further discovery, I found that it still worked much to my surprise.
One of the craziest photoshoots I have embarked on took place at the bottom of a drained lake. After heavy rainfall in our town there was dam failure at this particular lake and to keep it from flooding the neighborhoods below it, they drained the lake. This revealed a completely new landscape and so my mom and I ventured out for a photoshoot.
I'm not sure if you've ever walked on the bottom of a drained lake or not, but I was extremely surprised to discover how muddy it was. I expected it to be muddy for sure, but I has no idea it would be in the genre of sucking you in mud. As we ventured further out onto the lake it got muddier and muddier to the point where my mom and I couldn't move. It came up to the top of our boots and locked us in place. Through fits of giggles and nervous laughter was struggled to pull free and it resulted in my mom having to pull her foot out of her shoe, her brand new galoshes.
There it was submerged in mud and I'm frantically trying to dig it out as the mud sucks it in further and further. The more I dug the more I could smell the awful lake water. I eventually got the shoe out but not before working myself knee deep in mud.
My all time favorite photoshoot was the very first one I did with my Sony camera. It all started with this idea of having a dead try supporting a clock in the middle of the field. Simple enough especially since we had a relatively small tree that was dead in our front yard. After pulling it easily from the ground we discovered that it was a lot bigger than we thought it would be and struggled making room for it in the car.
From there we drove to a field I has scouted earlier only to realize once we had carried the tree across the road to the field that it was filled with poison ivy. Retracing our steps we carried the tree back across the road to a different field right as five or six police cars sped towards us with their lights flashing. I have never been so convinced I was going to jail in my life. Thankfully they continued on my way and I continued on mine.
After the photoshoot I single handedly carried the six-foot tee back along the busy highway wearing shorts, combat boots, and a bed sheet wrapped around me like a toga. I'm 100% positive I made quite an impression on people driving past that day.
Never underestimate the importance of memories and how incredibly special they become as time goes on. In the moment we often do not realize we are making memories until long after the fact. Live each day in the present moment and you will be surprised how many amazing memories you have down the line.