The joy of my art is working in nature, though it brings many challenges. Up a steep hill, I carry a backpack stuffed with my Rumie and Uncle Hawthorne puppets, camera gear, and a heavy bag in each hand filled with lights, battery packs, props and a repair kit. At the top of the hill, I’m already tired but when I see the stream, I forget all of that. It’s a beautiful forest in Nova Scotia and I’m about to shoot a scene from Rumie’s adventures….
Below are some of the spots where I shoot, captioned with the story of how I create in nature, including a few photos of a practice toy mouse I used to use, before designing and making the puppets for my book.
It’s a patient process, but I love collaborating with nature, especially when I’m able to capture the best moments on camera. It doesn’t always happen, and looking back over my photos, sometimes I wish the sun could have been a bit to the right, or a random cloud didn’t appear at the wrong moment, but that’s life – you have to make the most of what’s offered and move on to the next shot. And sometimes amazing things happen you couldn’t possibly plan! Like when a curious frog came along and sat in exactly the right position in my photo, looking on as my puppets readied themselves for a boat ride at the dock. It was a dream moment I had to pinch myself to believe! If you pick up a copy of Rumie Goes Rafting, you can find that very frog on page 33.
(You can watch the moment afterwards, when the frog decided to get a little creative with me in this video – though I’m a nature girl, it really freaked me out! Haha!)