This is one of my favorite model shots, taken on a table top mountain in Sedona, Arizona. The story of this shot involves a seminar that I participated in back in 2016, with professional photographer, Jared Platt, of Chandler, Arizona as instructor. I got picked (randomly) as one of three lead photographers at the seminar, to try to shoot for the cover of a teen fashion magazine, which went under before they got a chance to run our shots. This shot was done under pressure at the end of the seminar, as we only had about 15 minutes of this beautiful light to take the shot. Each of us as lead had a team of 3 other photographers to assist and/or shoot as well. I got a lot of help from my team, but this is my shot, as I set up the lightening, the location on that part of the hill and I set up the pose. It was also my idea to use a local Indian musician who happened to be on the hill, Calvin Mockingbird, to join the shoot.
Still, without a lot of help from my fellow photographers and training at the seminar, I would not have been able to get this shot. For example, one of my fellow photographers is standing just off camera right, shading the musician as he was way to bright with sunlight hitting him from the side. A little bending and twisting got him in the shade and slightly darker than my model. It was a fun, pressure filled shoot, but the art director, who was hovering my shoulder, loved the shot, even though they never got a chance to use it for the magazine. She thought it would make a nice two page spread. Even so, Jared got a number of our shots, including one of mine, in a sister magazine, but that is also part of the magazine game. You never know what will happen to your shots after you turn them in. Anyway, I like the shot and considering the pressure to get it done in a limited window, I like the way it turned out.
