Don't Go Where the Midges Will Get You
If you know me, you know that I’m not very familiar (or comfortable) with taking photographs of people. My go to photography comfort zone is nature, the big blue sky and the dark green mountains to be exact. Every now and then though, we have to step away from our comfort zones to learn and grow and that’s exactly what I did last week. With the help of my friend Jess (you can find her on Instagram @jessicaellenschmidt) and a little inspiration from Pinterest, we picked a location and we found some beautiful humans that wanted to get involved. We organised everything a few weeks in advance and then the shoot crept up on us…
We got to the day and everything that could have gone wrong for a location shoot, did.
I drove to our chosen location a little earlier than everyone else (mainly because I was nervous and wanted to make sure I could check the place out beforehand but also because I’m naturally an early riser) and it was unfortunately closed to the public. With about 20 minutes of driving around the area, it looked as though the entire area was closed off to the public (quite a few places are closed recently due to COVID-19). So the best I could do with the time I had, was open up the maps application on my phone and desperately search for a place nearby that was suitable. Luckily, the next best location was about a 12 minute drive away, so off I went.
Once I arrived at the new location, I meandered along the creek and checked it out while everyone else was still on their way. One by one, the rest of the ladies involved in the shoot turned up and we began to feel uncomfortably itchy. So itchy in fact, that we each had to sit back in our cars. Why were we so itchy? Because we were being eaten alive by tiny, annoying midges. Each of us searched high and low in our cars to find anything that might ward off the midges. I think I even pulled out a grapefruit scented hand sanitiser which likely made the situation worse, but who knows now. In the end, Jess zoomed down to the nearest chemist and bought the largest bottle of Aeroguard one could. On her return, we each doused ourselves in a scent so strong that it took us all the way back to childhood camping trips with our families.
Now that the midges were taken care of, we moved forward to our first shoot location - which I’m going to call ‘The Bridge’. It was perfect for all types of images - group images, individual images, head shots, etc. At one point, Belle was even walking along the hand railing of the bridge (safe of course, we weren’t at an extravagant height and all she would have fallen into would have been a pile of mangroves). We spent the next few hours shooting at The Bridge, Creekside and also wandering through The Tall Grass.
I felt my nature photographer eyes loosen up and experience people for the first time in a while. It was quite an honest and raw experience. I felt humbled by being able to photograph women that both felt comfortable in front of the camera and also knew how to work the camera (even if they didn’t feel like they could). I enjoyed it, a lot. So much so that I want to continue learning to photograph people. I’m inspired by both the women that joined us on the day of the shoot and the photography out in the online stratosphere. One day I’ll have a whole collection of magical images of people, or maybe even people in nature.
Here’s to learning, growing and never going where the midges will get you!