I've always believed that the magic of a shoot lives in everything you don't see in the final image. For me, so much of that magic over the past five years has come from Hafsa Lewis. From our very first project together on Nantucket in 2021, she's brought my vision to life in flowers, and somewhere along the way she became one of my most trusted collaborators.
We've now done four shoots together, and I've watched her wade into the ocean to steady a boat, install hydrangeas in 90 degree heat, and take a literal leap of faith off the Jaws Bridge, all for the shot. I wanted to sit down with her to talk about her process, the hydrangeas that have become so synonymous with our New England work, and a few of the stories that don't always make it into the frame.
1. Can you walk us through your process when you're preparing flowers for a shoot? How do you decide what works for a specific location or mood?
My process for any job always starts with listening to my client's needs and wants, which are not always the same thing. From there, I work backward. So much of my job is education. Helping clients understand cost, seasonality, what flowers will hold up in a specific environment, and color stories.
For a shoot, I'm always thinking about the location first. What is the light doing? What colors already exist in the space? Is the mood romantic, wild, tailored, nostalgic, dramatic, or quiet? Flowers should feel like they belong to the place and the story being told, not like they were simply added at the end. I also think about scale, texture, movement, and how the flowers will photograph from different angles.
Color matters deeply, especially when working with brands and businesses. There are so many shades within each color family, and one pink, blue or yellow that's not quite right can completely change the feeling of an image. I pay really close attention to those details so the flowers support the brand, the setting, and the overall mood that my clients are looking to achieve.
Working with Gray is a dream because we bypass many of those early translation steps. He has such a vivid idea of what he wants, and there's a strong visual language between us. On our first project together on Nantucket in 2021, I was able to take his vision and develop it in a way that created trust, which is always one of my biggest goals when working with any business or creative team. Which then lent itself to more opportunities to work together, and there's truly no better compliment as a creative. To find people who can work with and alongside you really seamlessly, and the end result is just pure magic.
2. The Nantucket series is so special partly because you sourced all the flowers yourself. What drew you to those specific blooms, and how did the landscape influence your choices?
For the Nantucket series, Gray knew from the beginning that he wanted hydrangeas. Funnily enough, they're my least favorite flower to work with, but in New England, and especially on Nantucket, they're completely iconic, so you can imagine I get asked to use them a lot because they're so tied to the feeling of summer here.
I can't take credit for selecting which blooms to incorporate in the shoot, as Gray knew what he wanted out of the gate, but I did have to source different colors and a mix of faux and real blooms for the various vignettes. I had to think about each vignette completely differently, and the environment guided the way I used them. Nantucket has such a specific visual language, and the flowers needed to feel connected to that world rather than overly arranged or out of place.
For each setup, I thought about how the hydrangeas could either blend into the landscape or create a strong moment against it. Even with one type of flower, there are so many subtle choices to make: tone, scale, fullness, movement, and how natural or composed each vignette should feel.
We shot in early June, when hydrangeas are not yet in season, so sourcing became a huge part of the process. For the fresh hydrangeas, I ordered through my wholesaler (and real-life flower fairies) at The Floral Reserve in Providence, Rhode Island. We sourced them from Holland, which made a huge difference because I was able to get these incredible tones and colors that were perfect for each shot.
For the Compass Rose, Brant Point Wreath, and Sconset Arrival, we used silk hydrangeas. Silk blooms have a bad rep, but if you can find high-quality ones and work them in alongside textured pieces, they can look very real. Those scenes needed to hold their shape and withstand the elements. Especially for outdoor installations on Nantucket, you have to consider wind, salt air, heat, timing, and durability. So the flower choices were not just about what looked beautiful, but what would actually work for each location and each moment.
3. Hydrangeas feel almost synonymous with New England coastal photography. What is it about them that translates so beautifully on camera, and do you have a favorite way to style them?
I chuckled when I read this question because it is fairly well known that hydrangeas are not my favorite flower to work with. But that's also why they're good for me as an artist. It's important to be challenged, and hydrangeas force me to think outside the box and find ways to translate them in a way that feels beautiful, distinct, and still true to my design style.
My floral style is very English garden-inspired, which comes from growing up in the UK. My roots inform my love of ethereal, layered, romantic floral design. Hydrangeas, by nature, can feel very round, heavy, and structured, so when I work with them, I am always thinking about how to make them feel less bulbous and rigid, and more light, airy, and dimensional.
One way I do that is by pairing them with other textural blooms, which you can see in the Compass Rose shot. Texture helps break up the shape and adds more movement to the arrangement. Color variation is another major part of it, as you can see at Steps Beach and Brant Point. Hydrangeas have these incredible shifts in tone, blues, greens, lavenders, creams, and pink, and those variations photograph beautifully because they create softness and depth.
For Sconset Arrival, it was really about movement and dimension. Even though it was the same flower repeated, not a single bloom sat at the same level. There were different heights, angles, ins and outs, and that created visual interest and depth of field. That is my favorite way to style hydrangeas: not as a perfect round mass, but as something with movement, air, shadow, and a little bit of wildness.
4. What's it like collaborating with Gray on set? How does he communicate his vision to you, and how much creative freedom do you have to interpret it?
I have to get a bit mushy on this one. When Gray first emailed me back in 2021, I nearly fell out of my chair with excitement. I was still so new to my field, only about four years in, and suddenly there was Gray Malin popping up in my inbox. As an artist, knowing that whatever I created was going to capture and preserved through Gray's lens was a gift before the work even started. The master of his craft, was going to capture my art?? Pinch me moment.
From that first shoot to the present day, working with Gray has felt a bit like a symphony. There are so many different pieces moving at once, all working together to create this beautiful thing, with him as the conductor. There's synchronicity and mad genius at the same time, that's hard to describe unless you've experienced that kind of creative trust on set.
He communicates his vision with clarity, but it never feels limiting. He knows the feeling he wants to create and the world he wants the viewer to step into, and then he gives me room to interpret that through my own art, storytelling in flowers.
I have now worked with Gray on four shoots: Nantucket twice, on Martha's Vineyard, and in Boston, and I can safely say each time we learn something from each other. There's a full trust in the way we both show up.
Ultimately, I'm there to support his overall vision, and there are so many moving pieces on a shoot: people, dogs, cars, planes, boats, props, vendors, weather, venues, and sometimes fans walking by. That's the glorious world of Gray Malin. Art can feel like both beauty and chaos because it begins in the imagination, and it takes someone really special to bring that world to life. I believe the best collaborations are not about one person controlling every detail. They're about being deeply aligned while still leaving room for instinct, and that is exactly what working with Gray and his team feels like.
5. Any memorable behind-the-scenes moments from your shoots together that you'd love to share? We'd love to hear the stories that don't always make it into the final image.
Brant Point Wreath: The inspiration came from an iconic driveway at the top of Steps Beach. Brant Point Light traditionally has two wreaths during the season (one in April and one in December), a time-honored Coast Guard tradition that began in 1997 and is still upheld by Station Brant Point today. There has never been a third in the history of the wreath. I was able to design this for the community post-COVID with the permission of the Brant Point Station Master Chief at the time. This will also always be my favorite wreath in the world, because it brought me to my husband (a story for another day!).
Sconset Arrival, Nantucket was actually not planned. I created the flowers on a whim because the car's color was so incredible. I immediately saw flowers billowing out of it, and when I looked at Gray, he basically said, "Go for it." So I did. I created this big, billowing moment with hydrangeas, and it became one of the best-selling prints in the series. I think that says a lot about the beauty of trust on a shoot. Some of the best moments happen when there is enough room to respond to what is right in front of you.
Steps Beach was absolutely hilarious. On this particular day in June, it was 90 degrees, so everyone, and I mean everyone, was at the beach. Cut hydrangeas hate heat and humidity. They wilted like you would not believe, so we had to keep them as hydrated as possible while simultaneously waiting for people to come up and down the Steps Beach path. It was a true sight to behold, but we did it. We shot the scene with blue, pink, and purple hydrangeas. I suggested we also photograph only the blue and purple hydrangeas on their own. That ended up being the version that made the cut. I think that's a good reminder of why options matter on a shoot. You never fully know how something will feel until after you see it through the lens, and sometimes the image changes once a story is assigned to it. What feels beautiful in person can feel different on camera, so giving yourself room to experiment is always worth it.
The Beach Path, South Beach, Martha's Vineyard The Martha's Vineyard shoot was so special for so many reasons. Gray had sourced a local florist for that project, but he also asked me to come and be part of the creative team, which was a true honor.
I was on set for a full week and I was able to assist the local floral designer, Casey from Fire Cat Farm, with those vignettes which was so FUN. She was such a joy to work with. One of my favorite moments was the beach path. Gray had a vision for it, but he was shooting a plane at the same time, so he trusted us to go for it while he was working on that part of the shoot.
My favorite part about the MV shoot was that the flowers were wild and local, right up my alley! And it was a totally different style from Nantucket. Casey and I installed these stunning flowers along the path, and there were approximately 283,092,380 ticks, so I was absolutely freaking out. Thankfully, none of us got bitten, but it was definitely one of those behind-the-scenes realities that people do not see when they look at the final image.
I loved creating that flower-filled path with Casey because when Gray came over and saw it to shoot, he was so happy. Those are the moments that make all the chaos worth it, when the trust, the collaboration, and the shared creative vision all come together.
Afternoon Dip, Jaws Bridge, Martha's Vineyard: That first shoot I ever did with Gray on Nantucket in 2021, he had this idea to go out to Great Point and shoot a scene from the boat on the beach. The problem is, you don't "swim" in Great Point waters. There are a lot of seals, which means there are sharks. The currents are strong, the depths can drop quickly, and generally, you just know not to swim there.
But Gray had a vision, and before I knew it, he had jumped off the side of the boat with a chair and umbrella, holding it above his head swimming to shore. All I could think was, "Oh my God, I think I just killed Gray Malin." Suffice it to say, he survived, and all was not lost. I remember thinking to myself, this man will do anything for the shot.
Fast forward four years later to a foggy June morning on the Jaws Bridge in Martha's Vineyard. Gray had a vision, again. When he asked if I would jump, I thought, "On the 50th anniversary of Jaws weekend, shooting with you? Of course I will. Anything for the shot." Luckily, I had a bathing suit in the car.
It looks a lot higher than you think when you are standing up there, and the Atlantic isn't exactly warm in June, but it felt like an opportunity to take a leap of faith… literally. So off I went. Thankfully, we only had to shoot it once, and then Gray turned it into art. It became symbolic for me in every way, and that print now hangs above my bed because it reminds me that the best things in life require a mix of faith and courage.
The Christmas Dory: This one might be my favorite thing we have done together, which is funny because there were no flowers involved.
This scene was created in July, in the height of Nantucket season, during Nantucket by Design week, right at sunset, with what felt like a million people walking by. I couldn't figure out how to unclip the boat from the mooring, so I ended up wading into the Boat Basin, which requires swimming LOL, to manually unclip it and get the boat to shore so we could decorate this tiny Christmas tree.
When Gray and I first discussed the vision for the tree, he knew he wanted vintage Christmas lights, and I suggested tinsel as a nod to my British roots. So imagine us there, in the dead of summer, soaking wet, decorating a Christmas tree in a boat while a very large audience watched from the waterfront.
When it was time to shoot, I got back in the water and held the boat in place by hand, hiding behind the tree so you could not see me in the shot. Gray would call out, "A little to the left, a little to the right," while I tried to keep the boat steady. To make it even more complicated, we were running power from a friend's store on the water, so I also had to keep the cord lifted above my head the whole time to avoid any electrical drama.
It was completely ridiculous and so much fun because we knew it was going to be worth it. Now, whenever I see those prints, all I can see is what it took to bring that image to life, the water, the tinsel, the chaos, the trust, and the absolute joy of making something magical together.
The Hydrangea Garland Boat (the new Nantucket print): When I look at this shot, I see coordinating boats, ferries, wind, current, lobster rolls, rosé, and champagne. It was a hilarious mix, but somehow all the right ingredients for a beautiful June evening on Nantucket.
The hydrangeas made their debut again, this time all real, in a garland strung across the bow of a yacht that I designed and zip tied to the bow. Thanks to my friend Leah, owner of Nantucket Mermaids, we were able to take the boat out at sunset and capture the scene from the water.
For anyone who does not know Nantucket waters, this particular spot has heavy boat traffic, with ferries constantly coming and going. So while Gray was looking through his lens, I was coordinating with the captain and calling out directions: "A little left, a little right, can you back it up a little, can we turn around, incoming ferry!"
It was also very funny to witness from shore because the flowers made it look like a wedding, but you could clearly tell from the boat passengers that it was not.
After five years of working with Gray, I have learned that props are always welcome, so I brought all kinds of things on board: lobster rolls, rosé, champagne, and anything else that felt like Nantucket in June. We shot those too, because options matter, and I am so excited to see the selects he made.