I like to celebrate my birth month. I’d make my birthday a national holiday if I could. Happy Brinsday to all who celebrate. Is my Leo showing?
I began the morning of my God-given birthday by biking over a fresh rat. Luckily it didn’t spoil my appetite for my birthday picnic: the ultimate from scratch fries. Got the recipe from Epicurious. Both white and sweet potatoes because I don’t have to choose on my birthday. From the overnight soak to the hours of chilling to the double-frying, I thought of my great-grandma Ninny, who made the world’s best fries and never used recipes.
Next I pulled a Ninny and made a milkshake from scratch without a recipe. Paired it with a hot pastry because all desserts are better warm. Except ice cream, which is always better with a warm dessert.
Treated myself to a delicious solo collage picnic. Reveled in the sensory ecstasy of James’ present to me, noise cancelling headphones.
Because I’m a lucky girl I got another present from James. my orthopedic sneakers developed a hole after many long, rambling New York walks. James' signature white Solomons started to take hold of me. He loves them so much he has two identical pairs - indoor and outdoor. When I pictured delightfully nauseating his and hers matching sneakers, I was sold.
The Buffet in Queens had just recently captivated James. My bestie Alex was also intrigued, so I corralled it into a little pre-celebration-actual-birthday lunch before my birthday party. I’ll never pass up an opportunity to celebrate.
After lunch Alex did my nails. In the last year she’s taught herself gel nail art and her talent has completely taken off. It’s also treasured girl time for me.
For my birthday party, I gathered up my besties for a day trip to Seaside Heights, the proud birthplace of Jersey Shore. We ate deep fried Oreos on the beach. James braved the Ferris wheel just for me. I rode my first upside down roller coaster in 15 years. It was perfect.
Birthdays are the most legitimate excuse for self-aggrandizing photo shoots. Think a dozen handmade piñatas or 15 beach umbrellas in a field at 6 AM. This year marks my 4th birthday photoshoot in my Unretouched Self Portraits series.
The prep for this shoot began two years ago, when I began hoarding vintage electronics from curbs and Craigslist on my top closet shelf.
I watched tons of underwater photography tutorials to get my feet wet (hehe). Some favs:
Underwater Photography For Beginners
Adam Brown - New York Underwater Photographer
Underwater Lighting - Strobes vs Video
I wondered, what could I do on land to prepare me to pose underwater? I began breath training for divers. By practicing freedive.uk’s breath training tables daily, I doubled my time in a month. In diving, O2 training focuses on increasing the body's oxygen capacity and efficiency, allowing you to hold your breath longer. CO2 training trains your body to tolerate higher carbon dioxide levels, keeping you calm and controlling the urge to breathe, crucial for diving deep and staying underwater longer.
The shoot required letting all the air out of my lungs and sinking to the bottom for a while. This lack of oxygen is where the C02 training really pays off. I also discovered a unique tolerance for repeatedly getting water up my nose water up my nose.
The deep diaphragm breathing I learned really helped me stay warm and relaxed in the chilly water. Now I’m in the habit of deep breathing throughout the day because it’s really good for you. Overall the breath training was such a fun experiment.
Next I tested swatches of waterproof makeup. This About Face liquid eyeshadow was most successful along with temp tattoos by a client of mine, INKED by Dani. As I developed creative, I gravitated towards y2k futurism and a chrome and black color palette, so I went with INKED’s black fine line tattoos.
I knew I had to move fast for this shoot. With the sun as a factor and limited time underwater before needing to resurface for air, I needed to keep it short and sweet. So I deployed my secret weapon for speed: the storyboard.
i organized shots by makeup look, props, and styling using my Stylebook digital wardrobe. I used images from my Pinterest board as base and sketched out each shot so i knew exactly what I was going for.
Storyboards take a good chunk of time upfront, and I don’t do them for every shoot. But when it’s time to bring it to set, they feel like divine guidance. They bring every detail into clarity and help you pull off miracles.
It’s hard to embrace Y2K futurism without indulging in a little dystopia. This Summer I’ve caught myself shedding some strange tears when a weekday morning walk ended. I spent a lot of the season thinking about how our human need for fresh air competes with the relentlessly digital modern workplace. I started imagining how far remote work can follow you – even underwater. It’s almost like swimming in a pool of my own tears, cried for being glued to my computer all Summer.
The final twist of the knife is I dumped water all over my real laptop one week before this shoot. RIP.
Originally, this shoot was going to be a shoot / birthday pool party rolled into one, but the party had to go a different direction due to a million water-related logistics such as the threat of being banned from AirBnb for throwing a laptop into a rental pool.
So we rented a car from Brooklyn for the first time and drove out to a pool in Pennsylvania, thanks to friends that welcomed us to their slice of Poconos paradise. A weekend of sniffing the delicious nature-scented air and holding frogs wrapped up my birth month just right.
