“Fun session for a 30th birthday”? Heck yes!
When someone approaches you to ask if you are interested in doing a photo session to celebrate a 30th birthday and it’s going to be fun and creative, you say YES!
That’s what happened to me, recently. This bouncy, youthful about-to-be-30-year-old reached out to me with an idea she had for celebrating her 30th birthday with photos. The kicker is, she chose me specifically for my experience in newborn photography. Yep, you read that right! A 30-year-old wanted to hire me as a newborn photographer…FOR HERSELF!
What the heck does that even mean?
What does that mean, you may ask (and even if you don’t, I’m still gonna tell you)? She wanted to have photos of herself in the same types of outfits, poses and backgrounds as what I do for newborn sessions. Now, that already grabbed my attention because, as anyone who knows me can attest, I absolutely love, love, LOVE doing fun and creative things with my camera, but she upped it even further than that with what came next. The second part of this birthday celebration session was going to be a “dirty 30”. As you may have guessed (but probably didn’t), that meant MUD…lots and lots (and LOTS) of mud. She and her sister had planned out a mud wrestling event between her and another local young woman they hired for the event. I mean, how fun is THAT?!?!?!
The takeaways.
We had a lot of laughs and fun during the session, wrestling match photos and looking everything over at the Reveal. I can also honestly say that I learned a whole lot of things during these endeavors. First, while it takes less than a minute to wrap a newborn, it takes about 20 minutes to wrap an adult. It also takes almost a full bolt of material. Definitely not for the feint of heart (on either side of the camera…she learned how important core and balance are). I also learned that a package of mud powder weighs about 60 pounds when the water is added to it in an inflatable kiddie swimming pool. That means it’s almost impossible to clean up and get rid of. Part of this lesson is that when the thin plastic tub rips as you try moving it, 60# of mud lands on the floor in a literal mud slide that just keeps coming and coming and coming. All that aside, the images are really great and I would gladly do it all again (though I would probably move the tub match OUTSIDE).
So, if you are looking for a wacky, cool, fun, unique 30th birthday photo session (or any other kind of session, for that matter), and you happen to be in the Laurel, Billings, Columbus, or Red Lodge area (or anywhere in Montana/Wyoming that’s close enough to travel here) then I would love to talk to you!
