Being a blogger is a lot of work. Hours and hours go into operating this business every week. There’s an incredible amount of unseen effort that brings you Trends and Tolstoy every day. And although the photographs only take up about 40% of that time, they’re one of the most crucial elements. Being a blogger in New England is a double dosage of work. The majority of my photographs are taken outside. And with the recent string of snowstorms in Boston, this is becoming increasingly difficult. Here are a few cold, hard truths about blogging in a New England winter.
1. The Shoes – No I do not wear open-toed stilettos when there are six foot snowbanks everywhere. I wear the motto boots pictured above or a pair of thigh-high, black leather boots on a daily basis. But I change into the heels because they complete my vision of the look I’m going for. This isn’t meant to be deceitful. The shoes I would normally pair with an outfit I just genuinely can’t wear outside in the winter.
2. The Smile – Shooting outside in the winter is not fun. In addition to sometimes sub-zero temperatures there’s wind, rain, snow, and slush to deal with. Usually I’m just trying to think about the warm coffee I can have as soon as we’re done. It takes a lot of effort for my photographer to coax that smile out of me in the winter time. If you pass me during a winter shoot I’m likely fake-laughing hysterically in an effort to force a realistic look of happiness.
3. The Scene – Finding a location is another difficult part of shooting in the winter. The picturesque Boston that you see in my photographs is unfortunately a largely created aesthetic. What Boston looks like right now is huge piles of dirty, slushy, snow and ice. And a whole lot of disgruntled people. My photographer and I sometimes walk for hours before finding a place that doesn’t look completely miserable. And sometimes getting to that place means climbing snowbanks, trespassing on private property, or standing in the middle of a busy street.
While blogging overall is not for the faint of heart, blogging in New England takes a special kind of tenacity. There so many wonderful things about Boston, but the snowstorms are just not one of them. Cheers to all my wonderful blogger friends who can be seen outside on the coldest of days in open-toed shoes, fake-laughing their hearts out.
Photo by Rebecca Isenhart.