Have you ever been at a photo shoot and had your model fall into the freezing cold waters of the Bosphorus to only have her followed by four men who think it was smart to fall ontop of each other in a failed attempt to rescue her?

I had a shoot scheduled this Sunday with a gorgeous young lady called Elena, who thanks to her infinite patience, kindness and wisdom decided that she absolutely wanted to work with me. Little did she know that what she thought would be a pleasent evening taking shots would end up in her being stung by jelly fish and covered in 7 types of different seaweeds.

Elena is a stunning young woman who has been working as a model for the past 4 years. She worked with several big Turkish fashion houses and you can see her pictures plastered accross the walls of the city often when you drive around in Istanbul.

Elena and I were at her place for hours picking what she was going to wear during the shoot, meticulously laying out thousands of euros worth of designer clothing that she keeps in a room slash walking closet, right next to her enormous room which just happens to have one of the best views of the city. Things like these happen when your father is a Russian mafia lord.
She picked this black Valentino evening gown, which flowed to the floor and looked like something out of a dream. The fabric used was exquisite and made her look like she was ready to walk down the red carpet right at that instant.
I would think that one wouldn’t even need an elaborate hair do or extravagant make up to go with this dress since it was enough to make anyone, especially Elena, look gorgeous.

A couple of other outfits were picked and given to her assistant who prepared them for the shoot. Everything was loaded into her Mercedes van and we set to go to the scene of the crime.
We wanted to work in Yenikoy, which is 20 minutes away from where I live and right on the Bosphorus. Studded with old Yali’s, Yenikoy is by far one of the only areas in Istanbul that kept its charm and beauty.
We arrived in her car and the van was already there. Her assistant and my crew were ready for us and thankfully, one of my friends who lives there had accepted to let us use his house so that Elena could change and get ready.

After a hearty lunch, which was much needed due to the blistering cold and the long hours of work ahead of us, the make up artist started to work on my model. Everyone was fluttering around her, helping her and responding to her every request. She was truly the star of the day and the pampering helped her remember that. If only she knew what was to come, she would’ve probably enjoyed it much more.

My make up artist made her look like a diva of the 60s, in her long black gown and her natural beauty. We covered her up with coats and shalls so that she wouldn’t freeze to death outside and set to walking to our location which was being prepared by the crew.
Without going into too many details, the props were set and everyone was waiting for us, ready to start working and cooing at Elena while she got into character and started to pose for me.

There is a huge difference when you take pictures of a model and a non professional, models like E already know how to work the camera, they know what looks good on the image and it is much easier to guide them.
Working with E was effortless, she gave me a pout, a fierce look which illuminated my whole scene and off I was shooting image after image.

I work with memory cards of 8GB when shooting and I had gone through my first one. I set the camera down so that I wouldn’t let it slip out of my frozen hands while changing the card. I took it out and handed it to one of the assistants and put in a new one. While I was busy fiddling with buttons and adjustments on the camera, I heard a huge splash! I remember distinctivly holding my breath and looking at the props praying that one of them had suddenly fell and rolled down till the edge and fell into the sea. My eyes were frantically looking around trying to see what it was that had made everyone freeze in place and look down into the dark waters of the Bosphorus.

Suddenly, the assistant to whom I had handed my precious memory card threw down one of the cameras he had in his hand onto the floor, which ended up making a huge smashing sound, and threw himself into the very dirty water. He was then followed by the rest of my crew, who decided to jump right onto the same spot of water where the initial crew member had jumped upon.
I then suddenly realised that I was alone with Elenas assistant and the make up artist and it had dawned onto me that Elena was missing from the set. A wave of panic overcame me and I started running around like a headless chicken.
All of this happened in a matter of seconds, even though when I think about it it felt more like minutes and minutes long, and suddenly a blue face rose up from under the black waters of the Bosphorus. Followed was four equally blue faces, helping Elena swim back to the steps that would lead her to the safety of firm land.
Elenas assistant was frozen, I think she was in some sort of shock which she didn’t seem to want to get out of, it must’ve been warm and comfy in shockland because I had to help Elena out, strip her infront of everybody and cover her up with 4 blankets. All of which I was doing while tears of laughter were streaming down my cheeks.
I had started laughing as soon as it had dawned on me that it was my friend that had fallen into the water, and not a prop. I couldn’t stop giggling. Even when her color had come back to its natural state of pinkness, I was still cracking up and smirking.
Ofcourse, the pictures that I took were destroyed, thanks to the heroic rescue attempt perpetrated by my courageous crew member, and so was the magnificent gown, which ended up back in Elenas closet (once dried), to be never worn again.