24 May 2014
I research through magazines, built a contraption and even went to the Sydney flower market and spent a few hundred dollars to get the variety of materials that I needed. And then the inevitable happened. Our photographer, Ben's wife is having high blood pressure in the late stage of her pregnancy and he wasn't sure if he could be there for the photoshoot as the baby could come out any time now. We communicated every day speculating what is going to happen and it was very stressful for all of us leading up to the day. I tried to organised several replacement and it all fell through and there is nothing I could do.
The day of the photoshoot I woke up at 5:30 am to prepare, make, transport and set up the hanging piece for the day. Everyone was scheduled to come at 3pm and I had the best time when it's time to put the flowers in. I was alone in a gorgeous garden under a massive willow tree and there was hardly anyone there. The weather was great and I even brought music with me, I had such a great time it feels like I'm dreaming!
We don't know if Ben was coming at all but we decided to go ahead with all the preparation because we have Kevin, our 2nd photographer back up. And then Ben texted me at 2:20pm to say that he is coming. His daughter, Olivia Sarah Thomas was born that day a few minutes after noon and Ben had to rush out to his photo shoot straight after. Oh my goodness.... All I can say is, thank you so much Frances for letting your husband go for a few hours after your big moment!
That was all well and good. Except, he took one photo of my hanging piece and told me that the light wasn't great under that tree and moved on with the model. I was so shattered as I didn't think that there's anything I could do about it because this arrangement is so big. I felt crushed that he lost interest in my hard work so quickly that I teared up and felt like my hard work had fallen apart.
And that's when Greg saved me. We only had 30 minutes worth of light before the sun goes down and he took the ladder, took my arrangement down, carried it on his back and put it up on a different tree- didn't even care which tree. I couldn't believe that he did all that single handedly! It's like I married this normal person and then 3 years later I found out that I have actually married superman! Feeling pretty good about my life choices at that moment.
Finally Ben manage to take photos of my arrangement that he could live with- just minutes before the light disappeared completely. I couldn't believe the amount of stress this photoshoot had caused me. Needless to say that I will have a longer break in between this photoshoot and my next one.
And finally to Olivia (cutest baby in the world!), when you grow up and read this, know that your parents are legends and that I'm thankful that you didn't pop out a few hours later than you did- you have stirred me up good little one! xo auntie Fionna
After the photoshoot I came home with a migraine and wasn't feeling amazing after this shoot and my graduation speech stunt. I only see my dad once in a few years at a time and if I could have him with me in any time of my life I was glad that he was home that night when I wasn't feeling great. I told him that I feel like a failure. And he said, "Successful people are usually successful failures. If you don't keep trying you will never succeed but if you keep trying you will fail a lot but will sometime succeed." Hehe, my dad is so Chinese I love him.
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