I’m feeling slightly conflicted about how to go about writing this post. On the one hand, there’s my whole obsession with the White Witch to talk about- I had a small addiction to the BBC version of The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe as a child. On the other hand, there’s the work that went into making this photo- an entire year of iterations, planning, amazing teamwork, and a hefty dose of luck (head over to The Exalted Tailor blog to see the making of the epic dress). On the other other hand. I HATE snow right now. I hate winter. I hate cold, I hate ice, and I don’t want to subject anyone to anymore of it.
Except I don’t hate snow. I look at these photos and I remember I don’t. It’s magic. Winter is shiny, bright and sparkly. But, like all good things, it’s difficult. I think. Maybe if I didn’t have to keep shoveling my car out from its city parking space, I would remember that. This year, winter’s magic is buried deep, very deep, under many tons of snow.
There’s a funny thing about all this. The day before this shoot there was no snow on the ground. And it wasn’t all that long ago. I remember the panic. We had one day to shoot this. No backup date- Tricia aka The Exalted Tailor was in town with her custom dress for one weekend only, so it had to happen. I’d planned for the worse, shooting on a frozen lake embellished with ten pounds of Spanish moss that had arrived on my doorstep a few days prior. Then it snowed. It snowed just enough to coat the trees with snow and crystalline ice. I smiled when I saw it all glinting in morning sun as Molly braided Tricia’s hair.
TJ and I hung the Spanish moss from the more typical New England landscape of snow-covered trees. Molly helped Tricia into her dress, and we were good to go. We shot for hours, forgetting our cold fingers and toes. We’d conquered winter.
That was Sunday. By Wednesday morning it had snowed another three feet of snow. By the following Tuesday, another foot and a half of snow had fallen with temperatures barely reaching 20 degrees on any given day. A week later, another 18 inches, bringing us to today, which saw another 15 or so with no thaw in sight. TJ and I have cancelled all our outdoor photoshoots for the next month, and even the more mundane of life’s activities seem to be cancelled every other day.
C.S. Lewis’s White Witch cursed Narnia with an endless winter. I’ve started to wonder what we’ve unleashed.
Maybe it’s time to put out a casting call for a lion.
***** Kayt
Credits:
- Date: Sunday, January 25, 2015
- Location: Houghton Garden, Newton, MA
- Photography: Kayt and TJ
- Model/wardrobe: Tricia Augustine (The Exalted Tailor)
- Hair/Makeup: Molly Leahy
