Saturday Tease: Mojave, 3d tour (long post)
Yesterday, Saturday April 4th I went to Mojave desert for a third time during the last few weeks. With me in my car was my cameras, location lights, some BBQ stuff and my new model, Alyona.
The plan of the shoot was loosely based on the one we did with Anya two weeks ago. It had the same same start, but then we planned to deviate towards North and explore some ruins and whatever else we may find there. I scored some potential locations from google maps (users maps) but from my prior experience those pointers are not always exact, so we were prepared for for some hit-and-miss action.
#1: We arrived to our first location (orchards) at dawn, 15 minutes before the sunrise:
#2: Yes, it was 32F (0C), i.e. freezing point:
#3: My model was really hesitant about doing this part:
#4: And rightfully so:
#5: Sun's coming up. Typical Mojave skyline:
After much deliberation she was finally ready to give it a go, but... security guards came and politely, but firmly asked us to leave the premises... I actually was glad they didn't come five minutes later, since it was again "Garden of Eden" theme...:wink
Alyona was seriously disappointed, but we had a long day ahead of us, so I told her not to worry, and we took off to our next goal. Needless too say, by the end of the day she was so overwhelmed with the rest of the shoot that this little rough start totally went away.
#6: You may recognize this wall from my shoot with Anya:
#7: And this little place is where I took Janey to 3 weeks ago...
#8: Our third (and last of the the pre-visited points) stop was in the Antelope Valley Cal state Poppies Reserve. Apparently, this year "orange hills" are not going to happen: there were small patches here and there, but the primary area was barren.
We still managed to snap a few shots and then took off North.
#9: Our next goal was to try and find one of the ruins near the Backus Rd. The location was kinda approximate. Finally I decided to hike up the hill and take a better look at the surrounding area. And guess what - we were right next to it (the little thingie between the large rock and the houses, on top of the inverted U dirt road). I think we would totally miss it if it were not for our little up-hike.
#10: It didn't look like much from above, but since we already were there, I decided to get a closer look. And boy, was I glad we did:
#11: After finishing the shoot with this tiny, but awesome "fireplace ruin" we went further on Mojave Tropico road, looking for few other places I spotted off the g-maps. We located two out of three. Unfortunately, they were all on a private property with the clearly displayed "no trespassing" signs. Having in mind our morning incident we decided not to trespass. :dunno
We were almost ready to leave that particular rural mining area and head further North, when we spotted two dilapidated shacks right by the road:
#12: Another one, 30 ft aways from the first one.
#13: Alyona got extremely excited and we spent another hour or so playing around this building:
#14: You can only guess what we shoot in this "honeymoon suit":
#15: I'll give you a hint, though: :wink
#16: By the time we were done with this place it was half-past three. We were quite up North, so it was time for us to go back for our last, and now traditional, Mojave-shoot part: shashliki, grilled kebab Georgian (Russian Georgia, not US Georgia:-) style.
#17: Lamb - it's what for dinner!
#18: Grill with a view:
#19: All in all, it was a great shoot, Alyona was a great model, which made me a happy photographer:
Enjoy! Finals will follow (watch Go Figure;-)
This post was made with the assistance of url=http://www.starexplorer.com]Star*Explorer[/url]
The plan of the shoot was loosely based on the one we did with Anya two weeks ago. It had the same same start, but then we planned to deviate towards North and explore some ruins and whatever else we may find there. I scored some potential locations from google maps (users maps) but from my prior experience those pointers are not always exact, so we were prepared for for some hit-and-miss action.
#1: We arrived to our first location (orchards) at dawn, 15 minutes before the sunrise:
#2: Yes, it was 32F (0C), i.e. freezing point:
#3: My model was really hesitant about doing this part:
#4: And rightfully so:
#5: Sun's coming up. Typical Mojave skyline:
After much deliberation she was finally ready to give it a go, but... security guards came and politely, but firmly asked us to leave the premises... I actually was glad they didn't come five minutes later, since it was again "Garden of Eden" theme...:wink
Alyona was seriously disappointed, but we had a long day ahead of us, so I told her not to worry, and we took off to our next goal. Needless too say, by the end of the day she was so overwhelmed with the rest of the shoot that this little rough start totally went away.
#6: You may recognize this wall from my shoot with Anya:
#7: And this little place is where I took Janey to 3 weeks ago...
#8: Our third (and last of the the pre-visited points) stop was in the Antelope Valley Cal state Poppies Reserve. Apparently, this year "orange hills" are not going to happen: there were small patches here and there, but the primary area was barren.
We still managed to snap a few shots and then took off North.
#9: Our next goal was to try and find one of the ruins near the Backus Rd. The location was kinda approximate. Finally I decided to hike up the hill and take a better look at the surrounding area. And guess what - we were right next to it (the little thingie between the large rock and the houses, on top of the inverted U dirt road). I think we would totally miss it if it were not for our little up-hike.
#10: It didn't look like much from above, but since we already were there, I decided to get a closer look. And boy, was I glad we did:
#11: After finishing the shoot with this tiny, but awesome "fireplace ruin" we went further on Mojave Tropico road, looking for few other places I spotted off the g-maps. We located two out of three. Unfortunately, they were all on a private property with the clearly displayed "no trespassing" signs. Having in mind our morning incident we decided not to trespass. :dunno
We were almost ready to leave that particular rural mining area and head further North, when we spotted two dilapidated shacks right by the road:
#12: Another one, 30 ft aways from the first one.
#13: Alyona got extremely excited and we spent another hour or so playing around this building:
#14: You can only guess what we shoot in this "honeymoon suit":
#15: I'll give you a hint, though: :wink
#16: By the time we were done with this place it was half-past three. We were quite up North, so it was time for us to go back for our last, and now traditional, Mojave-shoot part: shashliki, grilled kebab Georgian (Russian Georgia, not US Georgia:-) style.
#17: Lamb - it's what for dinner!
#18: Grill with a view:
#19: All in all, it was a great shoot, Alyona was a great model, which made me a happy photographer:
Enjoy! Finals will follow (watch Go Figure;-)
This post was made with the assistance of url=http://www.starexplorer.com]Star*Explorer[/url]
"May the f/stop be with you!"
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Comments
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I should probably wear a more conservative style of clothing though.
Looks like it was a cold but productive trip.
Jeff
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Well, you see, it's either clothing, or food...
Thanks for stopping by!
14-24 24-70 70-200mm (vr2)
85 and 50 1.4
45 PC and sb910 x2
http://www.danielkimphotography.com
But at least I'm still getting the girls
no doubting that.
14-24 24-70 70-200mm (vr2)
85 and 50 1.4
45 PC and sb910 x2
http://www.danielkimphotography.com
This is gonna be interesting....!!
Looks like quite the fun day!
Good to see you putting Google Maps to good use. Can't wait to see the full shoot.
Z
Internet is amazing tool if used right...
Hopefully finals will be up soon - unless a couple of eeeeeextremely hot models from other states who are coming to LA for their spring break and want me to shoot them this week do not interfere..