Earth Warrior

 

 

Vision: Michelle Gardella

Model: Victoria Schaefer

Hair and Makeup: Meg Ryan

Fire: Braedon Gardella

Headband: handmade by Braedon Gardella

Tipi: On loan from the Lily Simone Gardella playroom

Encouragement, Love and Support (always): Thomas Gardella

 

 

Sarah Seven + Michelle Gardella Photography

When Sarah Seven wrote to me and asked to shoot together while she was visiting the East Coast I just about died. Today was the day, and let me tell you... my soul is singing.

Thanks to incredible support from Chelsea and Mel from Everthine Bridal Boutique, Meg Ryan working her magic on hair and makeup, Victoria Schaefer modeling, and of course the incredible 2013 designs from Sarah's latest collection, this shoot was beyond words.

While Sarah's designs are very soft, delicate and airy I really wanted the shoot to feel rooted, powerful and brave.

It was all about honoring my deep connection to, and appreciation for, Mother Earth.

Just wait...

Here's a little sneak peek:

 

If

I was shooting a wedding, the bride getting ready, when I spotted something. In a dusty dark corner beside and a little behind a bookshelf I found this paper poem. When I picked it up, the backing fell apart as though it hadn't been touched in a hundred years.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about these words since they sang in my head Saturday afternoon...

 

 

If

If you can keep your head when all about you  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much: If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it...

-Rudyard Kipling