FOj Photoshoot // Behind the Scenes

In late August I had the pleasure of working with an amazing team of folks to actualize a photo shoot that had been in scheming for a long time.  The finished product photos you can see throughout the website and will be used for an FOj lookbook, but here's a peek behind the scenes. Big thanks to Meghan Tansey Whitton for her patience, artistic vision & technical wizardry on the camera, Melissa Dube whose helping hands and experience were indispensible on site, Emily Moore who works magic with hair & make up, and Yailen who did an amazing job as a model who's not a model, rolling with it all, and lending her ingenuity to wardrobe glitches.

We shot in two locations throughout the day; spending the morning in a lovely pocket of forest, with the sun filtering through the trees, and the afternoon in a metal scrap yard I'd been dreaming of shooting in for years.  It was a bit of a mad shuffle but we made it work,  with snacks, wardrobe, hair and make-up changes on the fly.

For the forest shoot, we'd decided to run with the idea of building a structure using yarn (an elaboration of an idea that Meghan had explored through a self-portrait project she'd worked on a number of years back) to create an interesting graphic effect to combine with the natural backdrop of the forest. 

Meghan and I spent the evening before the shoot building the structure out of rebar and yarn on site.  This involved tying up each individual length of yarn, which took a while.  We ran out of sunlight, eventually busting out the flashlights and working into the night.  Fine tunes, beer and nuts kept us fueled and on track.

Meghan getting started tying the first few lengths of yarn.

       The view at dusk.

It was pretty amazing walking up to the site in the early morning after having finished it in the dark.  Here's what it ended up looking like:

And here are few more snapshots of our shoot in the forest:

After packing up, we headed to the scrap yard for round two.  This place was/is such a marvel---it was really a treat to wander around amongst the most magnificent mountains of rusty metal.  Here are a few snapshots from our time there:

It was a super day, a ridiculous amount of photos were taken, and I'm thrilled to have had the chance to make this happen with such lovely & talented people.  Here they are workin it:

Meghan Tansey Whitton, photographer, in some serious action.

Melissa Dube (photo assist), Yailen (blurry but beaming model) & Emily Moore (Hair & Makeup Artist)

THX ALL!!!

Autumnal shifts

The cold seems to be settling in as of late, after a warm and beautiful fall season on the east coast.  It is now dark around 5:30pm here in Halifax.  The optimist in me holds onto the resolve that the long evenings of the colder months are great for scheming, production, organizing & making. The animal in me responds to the darkness with an unwinding of fortitude---drawn towards warm resting places to surrender the the pull of the slower season.  I hope to maintain a balance.

Shifting into production mode in the studio, I'm preparing for the upcoming bustle of the holiday season.  X-mas orders have already been coming in!  Fervour's Own will be at the Halifax Crafters Holiday Fair this year on December 5, 6 & 7th, 2014.  If you are in Halifax that weekend, be sure to drop in---it is always a great time with so much incredible talent to check out.  I usually bring along with me a collection of pieces that I produce in limited runs---made of salvaged & reclaimed materials---that aren't available via the website or for wholesale (button studs, leather pieces, etc).  So come visit! 

Besides being a blur of sun-soaked swimming adventures and other summertime spectacles, the past number of months were spent producing work to send off to shops, planning and organizing a pretty epic photo shoot that happened in August, working on a new website, and designing/making a few custom pieces.  These custom pieces were fun and challenging.  One commission was quite simple and smooth to roll out while another turned out to be quite the adventure; a longer haul, full of experimentation and learning.  Both satisfying in their own ways.  I am thankful for having been connecting with some really super clients.

Individual posts about a couple of the projects I just mentioned will be on their way before too long.  For now, let this be a brief overview of what my hands have been dirty with, and an acknowledgement of the shifts in seasons and energy.

FALL SONG

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

                                                        -Mary Oliver