Week 29/52 - Hoop Canary & Crimson Flow
I'm happy with the progression of the series. I'm noticing with each week I feel the quality of my photography and writing is improving and thought provoking. Here I am now revealing the 29th portrait of the week for July 16th to July 22nd. The woman in the red dress is Sandy. We met from Landmark education in our advanced course class back in the end of April. On the last day of the three and a half day, I asked her to be in my project and she said yes! We picked a week in July for a summer outdoor shoot and then finalize the perfect location. What I will share is a short bio about Sandy, our time together, and insight on photographing her completely in the water. Let's go out and play!
Sandy is a bubbly woman who does sail boating and works in the restaurant industry in the event coordinating side. She recently went to Italy for vacation weeks prior and experience an event called Festival Musica Distesa. The festival had live bands playing and wine tasting alongside with camping. She shared me about her music festival experience when I asked what she was wearing around her wrist. Let's see what else; she twirls around a hola hoop, into photography, traveling, hiking, and food festivities. Majority of that can be seen on her website here. What else does this woman do?!
As mentioned prior, we met during a weekend course. Being shy, I never spoken a word to her yet was intrigued about her. Her hair was incredibly green and my eyes were drawn. During the weekend course, I approached her and talked to her for the first time. I shared with her about my project and asked her to have a photo shoot with me. Interested about what I created, she couldn't wait! I had no idea what the photo shoot would be like. Whatever plan we come up with, I wanted to create a magical experience.
Days before our shoot, we talked about the location and theme. Realizing we set up our shoot in the middle of the summer, specifically our shoot fallen into my birthday week, what better way to have a sunset shoot at Golden Garden beach. She mentioned about hula hooping, water, and dresses with the beach being her favorite place.
We started at the time being 7:10 PM. Hours away from the anticipated sunset, I see Sandy in a yellow dress and her hula hoop. We made our way to a less crowded part of the beach and walked into the water. A bit intimidated about being soaked, we walked into the water before it past our knees. After numerous twirling in and out the water with sea weed latching all over our feet, we switched into a different outfit. I am a sucker for red and black. The colors meshed with the yellow sun behind Sandy. We continued to explore the beach with climbing on large tree logs, pushing through tall grass, and walking deep into the water. This was my first time walking into the water with my camera to the point of being soaked. Sandy has had her photos taken with her dress in the water and that got me excited to capture her with the sunset in front of me. In the end, I was pleased. I loved how it turned out.
My experience with having a photo shoot was amazing. I didn't realize how much joy I had being in the water, knowing I was risking my camera being damaged. This makes me look into investing underwater equipment and do an underwater photo shoot. I bet that'll be cool to see.
The last shot of the shoot will always be inclusion of myself with the person. We were deep in the water. I already accepted my butt being wet and cold while her dress was being dragged. Truly a joy with Sandy to have some fun in the sun, find a funny yet gross item in the tall grass, and end the evening with a chill Italian dinner. Overall, a fun evening and would love to do this again.
Sandy, thank you for having fun with me. Also, happy belated birthday! The photos here are my gift for you. Cherish and share the photos around to your friends and families! Bumbershoot is coming for you. Even though you are working, you better have a blast at the festival with this year's overall lineup being incredible.
It is my goal to publish week 30th portrait before August 19th. I'm catching up and releasing them as soon as I can to catch with the present week. Keep your feet grounded! Thank you for reading!
- Sally