It's hard to believe but my wonderful model had to remind me that this entire trip had occurred! In my defense, it was an especially productive few months and she and I had been on an absolute tear across the countryside with absolutely epic shoots tumbling over one another. I had looked at this one and been a bit disappointed in myself and set it aside for almost a year until getting a nudge. Models, don't hesitate to nudge your photographers! I was juggling running a small production company, carrying out a summer season of music festivals and events, cramming shoots into every bit of spare time I could find and, yeah, forgetting to look closely at every little thing in the moment! I'm so glad she did.
This next week we're going to take a couple days to get out and shoot again — Jordan has relocated to the magnificent Desert SW and we haven't seen each other in a few years so this is going to be new fun all over again! One of the ideas in my mind is to revisit this location and mood but shoot it with six years more experience. Will it work? Will it be different? Can we recapture the wild magic that we found the first time? I tend to shy away from repeating things. When I started I remember seeing a guy in Austria who posted picture after picture, always a different model but always the same LOOK — the model emerging from a mountain lake in bondage-y harness gear. From the looks of it he planted a camera at the edge of the lake and had "those settings" ready to go. Looked like a multi-light setup, certainly more complicated than a lot of my natural light endeavors. But my takeaway was that I would cut my own wrists if I took the same picture every time. So for the last eight years I have restlessly challenged myself with new ideas and new looks, from early experiments in saturated light to an emphasis on natural light and camping adventures, to more recent thinking about strobe infill and creating sets in unusual locations.
We'll use this hot summer to do some revisiting. Maybe I can find something interesting in it!!
