Maddie and I headed out to the garden this morning with high hopes of making something special happen. We had everything we needed – including a wonderful Manet poster to use for our background, and a tiny, antique picnic basket. It would only be a matter of time before we created photographic magic. I was sure of it.
Well.
It took half an hour to work out the right distance between the doll, the backdrop, the props, and the tripod. And then, as I sat smugly waiting for the camera timer to go off, the wind blew and my backdrop fell over just as the shutter clicked.
That’s the photo above. As you can see, Maddie gamely continued to pose and smile. Dolls are patient that way.
I was feeling less patient, especially by the time we’d done 45 more equally disastrous shots.
Then the ravens arrived.
I’m not kidding.
There were three of them perched on a wire just feet from my head, and they were squawking furiously at me for being in THEIR garden. I’m not going to lie – they were kind of scary!
By this point I was getting lightheaded from the heat. I was sweaty, grumpy, and itchy from crawling around in the grass. And I had several nasty, new bug bites.
I’d also completely ticked off my favorite humming bird, who wanted to eat from the tree above my photo shoot and had plenty to say about my being in her way.
Of course, if a photo shoot is productive, all the blood sweat and tears are quickly forgotten. But there’s nothing glamorous about the process.
I’m going to have a shower now, and then I’m going to edit the photos I finally managed to take successfully. You can find them HERE in the Gallery.
To read all the posts from Maddie’s red sprigged summer dress project, click HERE.
And to see all of Maddie’s wardrobe projects so far, click HERE.