making magic (and a mess)
You may have noticed some pretty new imagery gracing my website recently. I thought it might be fun to share a little ‘behind the scenes look’ at how the pictures come together. And I warn you - these ones aren’t so pretty!!
We - a small but mighty crew and myself - took over a Toronto studio for a week and had two large truck loads of furniture and accessories delivered.
Never has so much cobistyle been together in one place - WOW!
It was a little overwhelming but super exciting to see at the same time.
I had files of pictures and ideas to use as starting points, but beyond that it was a ‘lets make some magic’ kinda vibe..
We basically just ‘played’ with the pieces to find the prettiest vignettes. It doesn’t get much more fun than that for a bunch of like-minded Artsies.
As groupings were formed, we moved on to the next and let the pro photographer get her shot.
I never dreamed the colours in this shot would work so well together - such is the beauty of decorating - the unexpected surprises.
At a certain point I had to run to the washroom down the hall and put on a clean shirt to mug for the camera (never my favourite part of the process).
Thank heaven I had the talent and keen eye of make-up artist Jackie Shawn (in the coral) on my side.
I also had the energy and talents of stylist/decorator/girl-about-town Sam Sacks (in the pink); photographer and owner of jumpshots Margaret Mulligan; and budding photographer and assistant extraordinaire Alex Lukey who all managed to keep smiling no matter how matter how many boxes needed packing, carpets needed rolling, lamps needed hanging - you get the picture (literally).
Of course none of this would matter without the artistry, energy and special eye of photographer Virginia MacDonald working her magic with every shot.
We had a great time creating beauty and order from chaos - at least I know I did.
Alex sneaked a little video of the action one day - have a look. (Sam and Meg had to keep moving so that they appeared blurred in the image behind me)
Thanks everybody. I think - no, I know - all that fun we were having came through in the shots, and I’m grateful to be able to call such talented people, friends.
