Close Encounters of the Equine Kind

In 1977 Steven Spielberg would release a film that would go on to change the landscape for the American sci-fi film genre and that was, of course, Close Encounters of the Third Kind starring Richard Dreyfuss. Now you may be wondering what on earth that has to do with handbags and fashion, and to be fair there is – WAS – absolutely no correlation until one Saturday in October when two girls (I should say women) found themselves alone on the middle of Dartmoor with nothing but a camera and a collection of handbags…

closeencounterspic2.jpg

maxresdefault.jpg

It was a blustery day, so much so that I genuinely thought that my false eyelashes had emigrated to my eyebrows, the sky was grey with cold winter clouds and the moor was fair to boggy underfoot. We left the car in the deserted carpark close to the tor and like Buzz Aldrin and that other chap I can’t remember we set forth to venture where many had ventured before. Without a map for a guide, only one back up camera battery and a pair of bright pink wellies for protection Billie and I went exploring. The mission was to attain a collection of aesthetically pleasing photographs for our Autumn / Winter 2017 campaign and to do so with the smallest budget. A mood board had been designed and we were confident in our ability to achieve our goals that was until we stumbled upon a nonhuman life form.

MV5BMTUxNjA4MDY5MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDk0NTkyMzI@._V1_CR0,60,640,360_AL_UX477_CR0,0,477,268_AL_.jpg

It was hairy. It was large, far larger than either Billie or I. It had not one but four legs and was gorging itself on a mysterious green substance that was not fit for human consumption…

It was…

closeencounters_213pyxurz.jpg

A horse.

Nay! (pardon the pun) – Nay - it was a moor full of wild horses.

IMG_8128.JPG

They may be cute to look at but these infallible creatures are untameable with their long shaggy manes to rival any L’Oréal advertisement (other brands are available) and sass so sassy that it can only be described as Beyoncé on steroids: they would be our extra terrestrial interloper.

IMG_8147 - Copy.JPG

Modelling and photography is hard enough without the constant looming presence of a wild animal photobombing your images and eyeing up your products. Now you may be thinking, well why didn’t you move to somewhere else? And that is a good, logical answer and my reply to that would be, self-preservation. I’ve watched enough Bear Grylls surviving in the wild by drinking his own piss programmes to know that the wildernesses is a dangerous place and that nothing should be taken for granted when in the wild.

52903.jpg bear-grylls-man-vs-wild-102520_1024_768.jpg 

BearGryllsShows.jpg

N.B. As wild as you can get driving a Volvo in Devon.

With the weather turning against us (Bear always suggests checking the weather forecast before leaving …which I didn’t do) and our fingers turning blue with the cold we did as all intrepid adventures searching and striving for the progress of humanity… we sat in the car and ate a packed lunch. I bet Anna Wintour doesn’t do that.

But what we did manage to get before one of us was savagely eaten by a herbivorous horse (R.I.P Billie) was some great autumnal images of our products and even managed to rope together enough clips to form… A VLOG!

Yes TAMARA HARVEY is going up in the world and I have created our first vlog to show you all what goes on behind the scenes. It’s not on par with the work Mr Spielberg churns out and it’s highly, highly unlikely to ever win Best Picture at Cannes Film Festival however it was hilarious to make and I’ve inserted the link below. It you have some spare time please check it out on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3OTTDoCXZU

Thanks for reading!

Have a good one!

P.S. one last thing, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!

@tamara_harvey_luxury

@billie_sunshine_photography / @abiharvey21