‘Trash the dress’ or ‘post wedding’ photo shoots are some of my favorite creative projects. They are fun, adventurous, stylish. The bride gets the chance to enjoy her gown one more time in a relaxed, pressure free context. A nice contrast from the (sometimes) fast paced wedding day, when time matters.
I got excited when Laura contacted me and mentioned she was thinking of having her photos taken in Muskoka. One does not neeed to travel to exotic destinations in order to get some great images. I usually have a pretty good idea about where I am going and the type of feel I am after. This time around we were planning for some beach shots. A couple of nights before the shoot I was sitting by the beach in Toronto with a friend of mine. While enjoying the colours on the water at sunset, I noticed a lady doing standup paddle boarding. By herself, in the middle of the lake. The sight was surreal. I turned to my friend and said: ‘can you imagine how that would look if the woman was wearing a wedding dress’? Whenever something like this happens to me, I know I need to follow through…I just could not get that vision out of my head. I came home and emailed Laura. Against many odds, she told me she was familiar with standup paddle boarding as she has previously done it. After a bit of research, she found SUP Bala, a lovely and super friendly rental place. The rest is…what you will see below.
I have to add one more thing, which made it all even more fun: Laura was done with her paddle board and came out of the water. Just to find out that Carling, the beautiful Husky belonging to one of the SUP Bala owners, loved to go on the paddle board! I looked at Laura and asked her if she would go on the water once again…she gladly accepted and so did Carling…
I drove back to the city with a big smile on my face and with a feeling of joy at the thought of magic coming my way again…
