Clearlake, CA: Jess as Sacagawea

 

Last week, I did a shoot involving awesome gals Jess and Lindsay..

I've been inspired recently to shoot rather hokey costumed portraits in front of existing painted murals. The first of which was in west oakland against the Alps, where I had my camera snagged. Eventually I'll reshoot that one, but Jess was free to do this last week, so we set a shoot date.

I saw this mural a few months back, and remembered a bison and plains and some sort of Indian theme. I made a road trip up to scout for it a week prior, and even called and gotten the owner's permission to shoot the side of his building.  Inspiration to recreate Sacagawea with her baby, I used Jess as a model, Lindsay's pug Dee Dee and some creative propping..

However, when we arrived, things were a bit crazy. The building owner was really grumpy and not happy I was there. After 20 minutes he walked back to check out what we were doing, and went nuts out about my using lights and yelled at me to stay out of the neighbor's driveway (he owns, they rent). Nevermind they had given me permission 5 min earlier. And nevermind that it really didn't matter to anyone at all.. Man on a power trip.

Once we started shooting, it all went smoothly and I got some photos I like:

Jess, Dee Dee, Lindsay

 So then, I offered the renters at the house we were by a family portrait. They had five kids and were all running around interested, but letting us do our thing. Thought it'd be fun for the kids and nice. Well, the mom proceeded to draw on her eyebrows (they'd burned off a while back) for the next 30 minutes and we couldn't leave.
 Don't believe me? See below:

 

I passed the time by shooting the kids: