"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; you put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
Bruce Lee
When Mark originally scheduled the infamous river shoot it was to be 7am Friday. I promptly told him that I couldn't make that … well I actually said something a lot more negative than that but Mark understood my thought process. After a couple dozen back and forths between Mark, us GR8 interns and the +s the day was moved.
Fortunately/unfortunately for me I was able to make it.I put out a call for models, and a trio of lovely ladies responded that they would be interested in coming to the shoot. Sweet!Now applying alittle model math I figured at best one of the three would actually show.
All three of my models showed up, albeit one late, but still they all showed – wow! The first time I tried to get models for an intern shoot none made the shoot. So I'm batting 500 at this point with model turn out.My wife joined me which was awesome as she tends to act like my muse.
So a little bit after seven in the morning, a horde of photographers and models descended upon our unsuspecting location which turned out to be a fairly wide expanse of the Chattahoochee with a variety of interesting backgrounds to shoot against.
Now a little random info the 'Hooch,like most rivers and creeks I've been to, is a lovely shade of brown and full of various wild life which reminds me greatly of the a pond my family's land where I learned to swim and the Ocmulgee River – also known as the Old Muddy River by from Middle Georgia – which I also swam in growing up.
Mark took a group shot of everyone then told us to get to shooting. I pulled one of my models out into the river and started shooting. I did my best to swap models out to get photos of all three of them. One of my models, who's a photographer, informed me that "You need to work on your directing" which sadly is very true and something for my "to work on" list.
If you recall I mentioned this shoot was unfortunate for me here's why. As I finished with one model and was heading back toward shore to swap models and go somewhere else, I slipped and went into the Hooch. Head, shoulders, knees, toes, camera and all spent several seconds in the water.
So now I'm trying my best to 'be water' as the great Bruce Lee said and adapt to this curve ball that was thrown my way – two baseball reference in one blog go me! I'm glad I went to the shoot but man do I wish I could have skipped swimming in the river.
