It was with great excitement that I received the call to be included in the Australian Women’s Weekly rural portfolio for their March issue.

The logistics however were a little harder. At the time I had already decamped over to the main homestead following more flooding. The question? When can I get back in to my cottage to get some clothes for the shoot.

 Somehow appearing in workshirt and shorts didn’t seem quite appropriate! A mobile call to David to tell him I needed to come back into our place, followed. Fitting in with his work schedule (which always verges on the impossible) led to a late afternoon crossing of the ‘water over the Boomi bridge’ on the saturday prior to the shoot. Nothing like a thigh high wade with your laptop over one arm and your boots in the other to get across a low slung bridge with no guide rails.

 The rest of the trip was comparatively easy compared to the floods of 2011-12. No jetski required! Just the trusty flood mobile. Two days later we were crossing the bridge again. Me with laptop and a pair of jeans, white shirt and a jacket – just in case. With this being my first foray into a national mag and with the most basic of briefs given, I hoped what I had would suit the photographer. The lovely photographer Alana arrived with a selection of shirts, none of which she decided were appropriate so we settled on my clothes.

Mum provided the pearl bracelet and earrings as I totally forgot about the possibility of the photographer wanting jewellry. The high tops I wear in the shoot were a last minute addition to the picture. Alana was looking for texture and different colouring (I did explain that no one actually wears their boots tucked into their jeans in the bush!) and the props – carried in the back of the landcrusier to an old shed,  were specifically selected by Alana to match the history of our property. Alana had to take four unique shots, bearing in mind that although only two of the four authors involved in the shoot (myself & Fleur) are actually on mixed agricultural properties, the pictures still needed to have a rural flavour.  We were shearing the lambs at the time however with a wool shed shot already having been taken (Fleur McDonald), a very atmospheric shot done for Cathryn Hein and Rachael Treasure known for including a horse and dogs in her pics, we went for an old-world feel in the ‘old-world’ grain shed. 

All went well courtesy of the lovely Alana from Bauer Media and I was thrilled with the shot. Then of course, it was back to reality…