Published by Natasha Marchev · 1 hr · No, our day did not start early ... but it did... 0500am wake up is not early any more for such projects...
we were at the Alternative View Alpaca Farm at around 0100pm though as we had to sop several times to walk the dogs - so the drive turned to be close to 5 hours plus a stop over for coffee to wake up the sleepy driver (myself in this case).
I am extremely grateful to Blaise Maree for this accidental discovery of mine as the owner of the Victoria's most famous and most desired by tourist and local Australians, Alpaca Farm was all in our disposal for the day and night. Special thanks also to Blaise's best friend Ali Birch who helped us so much with many things to list some: photo shoot cutest model and best ever peaches owner, the fruit that warmed my heart this season (!!!!) :)
Brigitte Kats turned out not only to be the best ever host who spent hours with us walking alpacas in the forest (best-est and cutest experience of my life with these smart humming animals with the biggest and most beautiful eyes ever!) , then allowing us so much time to photo hoot the animals but also the woman full of knowledge (and not only about alpacas but spiritual awareness and conscious living on this planet.. you really need one only sentence, only one deep comment to know that in your heart: who the person really is ) Brigitee house was warm and and very cozy. We came back with more members to our crew apart from my travelling pals: Misha and Elena Tretiakova.
When we came back Erkin , our photographer was already in the house and Elena Fostri, our third model for the day was there too.
The cottage where we stayed was surrounded by gardens full of flowers: wild and growing in the lush soil of the South Gippsland region and Mirboo North in particular, they khorovoded the house like the jewels in the forest people's necklaces. The colors were breathtaking so my camera could not stop working and I could not stop walking around the farm... The cottage to accommodation fits 7 people settling in 3 bedrooms and also has a living room with open plan kitchen, toilet and bathroom. I also noticed that the house was decorated with lots of abstract image painted panos (table, bathroom panels, bathtub, par ts of the walls etc etc) but forgot to ask Brigitte what are they were: they looked like some one's art works... The pups were curious searching each and every corner of the garden, making new friends with chickens roosters, turkeys and dogs of course. It was a bit wet to show them alpacas and we were scared to make the animals nervous.
The air was pure oxygen, I have no words to describe it... it came all the way from the mountains and the ocean .. .though my mobile phone could not stop getting the messages about tomorrow's weather in the region.. I kept replying that the weather was amazing but in reality the rain was teasing us appearing and dripping here and there with the mercury falling down to 13 degrees - we were all freezing... The bigger rain literally washed away all our hopes for the alpaca shoot on the day... I was scared to say to Blaise that we still have to dress up and shoot... The garden at the cottage seemed small but at least it had a shelter to hide the rain would change it mind again...
There are more than 200 Aplacas at the farm but needed we only 2 for an hour which for them probably felt like eternity... They kept humming and asking for food... All dressed up three models courageously occupied the garden while Misha joined them for the later shoot dressed like American Indian (biggest thank you to Erkin for the costumes for both Blaise and Misha!).
When the dark hour fell down at the farm and the stars could not be seen through the thick clouds Elena opened a bottle of Russian champagne and served the softest Italian cake that we all shared - biggest thank you Elena! The first bottle went under the table emptied out and was exchanged for a new one that went in the blink of an eye... what do we do to warm up after a joyful dinner? dance of course... the music was on so was Erkin with suddenly discovered drum in one of the bedrooms.... Elena danced and we just laughed and applauded to the spontaneous concert...
Do you think the evening stopped there? no way! Erkin dressed Blaise and Misha again in the American Indian outfits and they went out for the night shot... I know 100% that Misha is Russian but poor Blaise was freezing to death... All well.. we went to bed after the marshmallows open fire roast... The camp went to sleep and they said only my bear mother snoring was waking up the frightened alpacas in the stud... :) we worked hard as we gave out the light so did the stars as they did the same all night...