Operation Snow White

 We made magic this week. 

One of my former students - who has been away for a bit, being busy with a wedding, a graduation, a new baby -- came for the day to 'star' in a photo shoot for our good friend and absolutely brilliant photographer Christina Handley.

What Christina had in mind was a White Horse, against White Snow, with a rider in a White Wedding Dress.

Chantelle put up her hand to volunteer.  She is made of hardy stuff, our lovely northern gal.  It was a blessedly mild day, but it was still winter out there... 


Bailey, the trusty steed, was more of a 'volun-told'.  He endured four separate bathing sessions, and had his tail soaked in blueing solution to transform him from his winter 'drab' to his photo shoot 'fab.'

We had also, it seems, failed to mention to him the utter volume of the dress...  which produced much snorting and cavorting before we set out, but once the horse 'said Yes to the Dress' it was all fun and games.      It took some arranging to get the dress 'just so' -- Bailey is a big lad, but the train could still sweep the snow.

The Support Crew stood by -- with various accoutrements including Taffy (who not being sparkly white was not allowed to be part of the photo shoot, much to her disappointment.)  Charmaine, Chantelle's mom, as in charge of the newest member of the family who was a trooper -- he timed his feeding sessions perfectly so we didn't have to figure out how to breast feed an infant without the rider dismounting, or having to apologize to the little man for his meal being served up as ice cream.

Chantelle declined any offer of boots, socks, jacket... She said Bailey gave her enough of a workout, and being bareback, she had the heat of the horse's body to help out, she was not as cold as you might have expected, and bless her True Top Model heart, she kept on smiling and 'working it' throughout the shoot.

Christina had a vision -- and went looking for it down by the lake, and near Sunflower cottage.  We also took a foray up the road into the back field -- and yes, we stopped traffic. 

Now, with my little camera, I got nifty pictures... but Christina, she makes magic.

She took this photo...






And she turned it into this...

 When working in 'full colour mode', she got shots like this one...   which I don't know about you, but I think is stunningly lovely and rather "Middle Earth."   It just goes to show that you never know just what you'll find going on here at Bondi Village!










And she captured this -- which might just be my favourite of the day.  This was such a fun afternoon, so nice to meet up with Chantelle and her mom again, to meet her new baby, to visit with Christina ...   and to see a very Clean Bailey in March.




This is not the first time Christina has come up to us for a photo shoot -- Bailey in fact has featured on the cover of several magazines over the years.  This one, with Kelly List on board, is still one of my favourite photos ever.

You should go over to her website and check out her work -- it is varied, creative, breath-taking in its beauty and unusual in its vision.