Saturday was an adventure. I hopped, skipped and jumped on to a plane to fly to Auckland for a photo shoot with mumble-mumble all in aid of a very good cause that I can’t talk about yet. (All shall be reveled next month).
We pulled up outside the random studio in ‘I don’t know where we are suburb’ in Auckland and I felt that eerie ‘I have been here before’ feeling. Turns out I had been there once before many many years ago when I interviewed Kiwi Super Model Rachel Hunter for TVNZ. She was at that exact studio shooting the marketing material for her clothing campaign with The Warehouse.
Small world.
I met the assembled team of experts for the shoot. A make-up artist come hairdresser: Stefan – he was my mane-man (get it!) lol He did gravity defying things to my hair, (he is also the first hairdresser that I have ever worked with on a shoot that hasn’t had a bit of a freak out at how much hair I have – so loved him immediately and the other reason to love Stefan was he used this Cloud 9 thing on my hair that was like a vintage ring sizer and it gave me the most awesome curls – that stayed in all afternoon – you are a legend Stefan!) Jane was the super nice & funky stylist who had sourced the incredible pieces of clothing & accessories for the shoot. There was Louise the journalist writing the piece and Tanya the nail technician slash hair stylist slash make up artist. Tanya gave me her ‘make-up tip’ du jour and it was a goodie. I think this top is changing my life already) There were photographers, lighting assistants and other VIPs coming in and out all afternoon. And as lovely as those folk were… there was also a cat. I walked in and immediately had to ‘Stop, Drop and Pat the Cat’. Meow.
He was a big tough old tabby and he loved smooches. All was good in the world for there was a cat. In. The. Building.
I was whisked through hair and make up, shimmied into some Nancy Gantz… ( my new BFF). Before long it was my turn to stand in front of the camera lens. Lights were tweaked and moved while I smiled, faux-laughed and faux-smoldered at the camera for about 20 minutes. Such fun!
It really was. It took me about an hour to relax and while Tanya was doing my makeup I realized why I was on edge… It was because I am so used to working hard on shoots like this as a stylist where I am arranging, ironing, dressing, running, organizing, holding reflectors, feeding people, doing nails and working, working, working that it was hard to realx and simply enjoy the process.
Once I recognised my totally unnecessary tension I could turn my brain off and simply enjoy the day – it became much more fun! I had shoes, jewels and dresses thrown at me and at one stage had about 4 people working their magic on me at one time – it really was a big thrill. My hair became progressively bigger, my eyelashes were bigger than Ben Hur and my nails became 70’s throwback chic in pearl.
Can’t wait to see what the shots look like and how the magazine uses them because the waiting is by far the hardest part of the whole experience. (Apart from brushing out all that back combing)
While we wait let’s enjoy some behind the scenes shenanigans:
thevintageteenager 