Julia and I lived quite literally 10 minutes away from eachother. When I first found Julia, I had no idea that she lived in sydney, let alone in the next suburb from me. I'd contacted her through email first, and then through facebook, and we gained an online friendship through twitter, flickr, facebook, tumblr, you name it. In person, she is exactly the same as she appears online, sweet and oh-so talented.
I had messaged her earlier on in the week, about shooting on the Saturday. As we've both struggled to find a free day out of our busy schedules to shoot together, we took the opportunity to shoot, planning it all out the night before.
When Julia arrived at my house, I felt like I'd known her all my life. We started out by walking through our location, which is my (actual) backyard; 5 acres of forest. I showed her my favourite places to shoot, including the exact locations I'd shot some of the pieces in my 365. When we had gotten used to the location, and the lighting conditions (which were changing constantly throughout the day), we set our stuff down, and started shooting.
The first thing she had asked me to do, was to flip my hair around, and so I did. From that, she had an idea pop into her head and we photographed it straight away! Most of the day consisted of this. We layed down in long grass, branches, walked barefoot through mud, twirled in circles until we were dizzy and had a really enjoyable day.
After we had shot a few pictures, and we'd gotten used to the way we photograph, we sat down and talked. We spoke about what it was we wanted for our careers in photography, and in so many ways, Julia is someone I want to be like in the future. She is so determined and driven, and yet so humble and down to earth. She knows exactly what she wants out of life and knows how to get there. Speaking to her and getting to know her, personally, was overwhelmingly inspiring and I genuinely feel within my heart right now, that I can make it as a photographer. As an artist.
We tried conceptualising with our photographs a bit more, and we went inside to find some things to use as props. Julia found an old book that she used in a photograph called "storybooks".(http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperaeroplanes/8081962454/)
I also shot a conceptual photo that I'll try and edit sometime within the next week!
We then walked around our street, shooting in neighbours gardens and in their backyard. Even on one of my neighbour's roofs.
Overall, the day with Julia was completely surreal, and I cannot wait to do it again! She is such a kind soul, and has so much talent. Be sure to keep updated on both my flickr and facebook page to see links to Julia's photographs of me from yesterday! Here are my photographs, even though I didn't shoot too many pictures, what I did shoot, I am very happy with:
I'm still in awe that this day happened.
