A beautiful mess.

Last Saturday I had a commercial gig i've been looking forward to for months.

It all started quite magically, really. One day I received a screenshot from a friend of her friend's instagram stories that sad something like: "ISO photographer - fun & creative project for the right person" and I immediately thought I was the right person (I have this overly confident side of my that LOVES a good challenge, even when I have no idea what it is).

After many messages and audio exchanges - it took us a while to manage to have our first live chat on zoom since she is a mom of 9 months old twins - we closed a date of the photoshoot and started discussing the creative direction. It was all music to my ears - a beautiful and emotional branding, very tasteful and high quality products, two wonderful people behind the project and we were going to shoot them at Bowen Island, which I hadn't been to at that point.

This photoshoot happened last Saturday and here's how it went:

I wanted to get on one of the first ferries to the island so we could do an early shoot with the beautiful morning light. So I woke up at 5:30, walked and fed the dog since my partner was away, showered, got all the equipment that I had organized the day before and drove to Horseshoe Bay. But I failed to plan according to the ferry timetable (I naively thought there was a ferry every 20 min), which means I waited for 45 minutes to actually get on the ferry. But as soon as I went upstairs on the top deck of the ferry I forgot all about it with the view of Bowen Island across the ocean on morning light.

Once I arrived at the client's home I couldn't help but feel I was in the right place doing what I was supposed to do. Lovely family, great coffee, the twins with the best smelling heads (I always smell baby heads, and I am not sorry) and Banjo, the cutest dog that quickly became my BFF. So I knew we were off to a great day.

After loading two cars with products, mattresses, camera gear and props we headed to the first of two locations: a somewhat secluded and tiny beach with incredible light and view - and fresh blueberries to pickup fresh from the tree. The beginning of a photoshoot is always a warm up to me. It's the time we need to figure out the proper camera settings, the best angles, the best product display and brainstorm ideas to showcase the product. We were lucky to have amazing weather - not too sunny nor rainy either - and a beautiful blend of greens, from the trees, blues, from the ocean, and browns from the driftwood on the beach.

All was great until we realized it is mosquito season and we had no repellent - and it seems like I am allergic too. Five minutes in and both my legs and bum were covered in mosquito bites that got super swollen - and itchy.

So half way through this photoshoot I decided to go on top of a cliff near the beach to get some aerial shots. Looking back it may not have been the best idea to do that with 2 cameras on my harness, one film camera on my neck and my iPhone that have recently been recovered from an almost deadly fall from my electric scooter. While I was sitting on the cliff shooting I started noticing little spiders on the grass, some attempting to walk up my legs, and the mosquitos not giving me any break from the bites. But I kept thinking that I just had to get the job done on the cliff and I was good to go back to the beach.

Until I noticed that there was a little ‘step’ down from the cliff next to a tree that would give me an even better angle to shoot from and a perfect framing with the tree branches around it. So i decided to go for it.

Again, looking back that probably wasn't my finest idea either.

After hitting all my three cameras against the rocks around me (note I couldn't walk vertically to that spot, instead I was trying to crawl there like a 'reverse plank bridge' pose - i just googled it and seems about right) and decided I would leave the cameras, crawl there first, and then pickup the cameras with my not-so-long arms. But while doing that I completely neglected my phone that slid for like a meter away towards the ocean and its rocks. And it took me a very careful body movement to be able to get my phone without dropping a single grain of sand that would just make it fall right into an unreachable part of the sea.

At the end it all worked out just fine. I managed to get the shots, the phone, the cameras and myself back to the beach in one piece.

So once we wrapped up this first location it was time for the second one - a beautiful little forest with the most gorgeous greenery around the products and a view to yet another cliff with the ocean on the background.

We had a lot of fun with all the shoot testing, playing around with colour compositions, until I had to use the bathroom. While in the middle of nowhere the only bathroom option is nature. Nothing wrong with that, i've gone camping several times, I got this. So I went behind a large tree to get rid of the excessive water I drank on my way to the island which is when I saw one of my worst nightmares: a snake.

That was completely terrifying and needless to say I did not have the courage to pee (Yup, I just said pee on my photography blog, there's no coming back from this). So I just had to get back to shooting and trying not to imagine a snake would be crawling up my legs while I literally tried to focus.

But then the client's husband arrived bringing nana, the twins and Banjo.

Turns out the babies were making an appearance to some of our lifestyle photos and it was the cutest thing I ever shot. Picture two babies in linen onesies playing around a queen air mattress with an abundance of colourful linen bedding in the nature (I can't share the pictures just yet so all you can do right now is picture it - in a couple of weeks I'll come back to show the final results).

The pictures just kept getting more beautiful and cuter by the press of a shutter button and I just couldn't wait to get home and start editing for the final results. But I couldn't help myself and I had to ask my client 3 questions:

- Are the babies hungry, do you want to breastfeed them now, and can I document it?

There's something about a mum breastfeeding their babies that I can't help but admire and photograph. Specially with twins. It's a moment that can't be posed. That has the most beautiful aspect of nature right there. It is love and connection in its purest forms. There are tiny feet and hands everywhere, pulling mum's hair, playing with her necklace, little eyes falling asleep with a satisfied look and the mum is just there, doing what she does best: nurturing babies with milk and care. A beautiful, beautiful mess.

This beautiful mess made me forget of snakes, mosquitos, a full bladder and the ferry timetable. And once the babies were asleep they headed home with the rest of the crew and we kept shooting the products. Another couple of hours went by until we headed to the cliff next to us to have a drink and wrap up the day of shooting.

And on that moment, right there, after a whole day shooting beautiful products, surrounded by a few wonderful souls, with great connections made, baby heads smelled, breastfeeding shooting and a sunsetting right before me that once again I was reassured that I truly have the best profession I could create for myself.

It is not about just the job itself, but everything that comes with it and makes me not even care about mosquitos and snakes. It's about the connections, the beauty in the simple things and documenting the things that move people - with intention.

Which is why I always say: as long as there is love and connection, I'm here for you (and your brand).

I can't wait to see what's next.

Obrigada

F.