Sunday, December 21, 2008

An Amazing (and Harrowing) Night!

Saturday, December 20, 2008 was one helluva night to remember. I had my second shoot with the amazing-in-every-way Bridgette Colette. Like last time, I drove down to Marysville (57 miles) to pick her up, drove back to Bellingham to shoot in the studio, then I drove her back home, then finally came back to Bellingham myself. That's 228 miles of driving, except this time the roads were covered in snow and ice. And by the end of the shoot... well, we'll get to that. The shoot was just incredible. It began with shooting some Christmas-themed photos, including what will be my Christmas card for this year. Then it moved through a bunch of different "scenes" which were dramatically different from each other, including a sexy fishnets shoot, an innocent "springtime" shot, an early Valentines Day shoot, a "chic smoking" shoot, an improvised idea with a felt hat, a sexy shoot in the style of FHM and Maxim with her playing with the stereotypes of male bachelor behavior, and then a couple of different "tough girl" shoots -- one somewhat hair-metal in style, the other a bit Tank-Girl-like in nature. We got a huge variety of shots, and made this surely the most diverse AND the most ambitious shoot I've ever done. Fresh chocolate chip cookies capped it off perfectly, and around 8:30 we set out for the trip to drive her back to Marysville. The drive from Bellingham to Marysville was a bit tense at spots, with lanes sometimes being invisible due to the snow, plus some unpredictable slippery moments. But mostly it was no problem for somebody who is good at driving in snow and ice like me. In the snow, the one-hour drive became nearly two hours long. We talked the entire way, and when I dropped her off I wished we'd had even more time to talk. What a great, wonderful girl she is! One I dropped her off, I headed back north to Bellingham. That drive was a whole different affair. A new snowstorm was hitting hard, and now the lanes were completely covered, and much more slippery. Worse, there was a lot of blowing snow. For several miles north of Burlington, I was stuck in a genuine whiteout. All I could see was thick, swirling whiteness at the hood of my car. I could not see the ground, nor even the headlight beams. The only thing guiding me for a while was two little red dots -- the taillights of the car in front of me. I just hoped that they knew what they were doing and steered to keep those red dots in front of me. It was all I could do. It was the most intense, stressful, exhausting drive I've ever done. But to shoot with Bridgette, it was absolutely, unquestionably worth it! I can't wait to start posting finished photos Sunday afternoon. This was an incredible day, and an incredible shoot. I'll never forgot today.

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