IF YOU WANT THE RAINBOW...
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!”
I remember hearing this quote for the first time when it was sampled in a David Dallas song actually. David Dallas is a rapper from New Zealand that I found years and years ago when I used to take deep dives on YouTube to find new music. Even in the song, they talk about the surprise of someone like Dolly Parton saying something so prolific. I like Dolly, but even I was surprised!
I have been working with a group of creatives that I found on the internet where we work on different photography concepts and props to show how individual all of our work turns out even when the concept is similar. It’s so fun to do and i love that I found this little group of creative people that have turned into good friends all over the world!
Our theme for the months of April was “umbrella”.
Last Christmas, my MIL gave me a clear, bubble umbrella as a gift. Ben’s family are “gift” type of people, which is a hard adjustment for me because giving gifts is my least favorite “love language.” It is such a hard love language for people to understand when others don’t value it because who doesn’t like to receive a gift? And there’s this inherent idea that if you don’t want to accept a gift, it’s rude. I’m never rude about gifts, but I do struggle to want to buy others gifts when I’m more of a quality time person. I’d rather get together for a dinner than force people to buy me a gift for my birthday, especially when I’m an adult. Or, taking our whole family on a nice trip where we spend time together rather than buying someone something they don’t need.
I have to admit that it has taken many years to be able to write a “christmas list” and put it on my MIL’s fridge. This is something all of her kids do where they specifically ask for things for Christmas. My family stopped doing Christmas gifts a long time ago when we weren’t kids anymore. So, in my worldview, it does feel strange to see a 40 year old man asking their mom for socks for Christmas lol! I feel like we can go out and buy our own socks…
Needless to say, I put the umbrella down because I knew I would love it for many different photography reasons/props, but would never buy it myself because who NEEDS a clear umbrella lol. BUT, I love having one!
One thing about me is I like to do something different…special…extra. And not in a bragging way, but moreso in a “fill my creative cup” kind of way! I get ideas in my head that sounds CRAZY when I try to explain to someone else. The amount of times I have told my sister about an idea like a “disco ball sandwich” always has her saying “I don’t quite see it, but if you’re going to do it, I know it’ll be AMAZING".” :)
My SIL gave Waylin some rhinestone fringe that she could use for her Barbie fashion designing hobby. She discovered that it was too tough to cut and style with her designs, so we saved it for something in the future. Surprise! It’s the future now! We used that same rhinestone fringe to decorate the umbrella and make it super sparkly!
I didn’t have perfect weather conditions, so we couldn’t do the WHOLE idea I had in my head. It actually almost made me NOT complete the shoot by my deadline. I was laying in bed worrying that the weather was too cold for her to wear a specific outfit we decided on and it hit me. Why am I acting like this is the ONLY picture I will ever take with an umbrella? LOL, like I am putting all this pressure on myself on the weather, which is out of my control, and I almost didn’t create ART because of it.
I can always do this shoot again. I can shoot the same rhinestone umbrella in the same location with the outfit I imagined…I laugh at myself sometimes in how I get stuck in these thought patterns. But, hey…we broke it this time! I put her in her winter coat and we headed outside in the background during golden hour.
