On Sunday, April 25th, Indigoverse & Firefly-Path got together to conduct got together to conduct another in a series of shoots for the Dragoon collection.

MOJAVE DESERT, CA…

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

This shoot would be the furthest we have traveled for the Dragoon series to date, Our journey took us beyond Las Vegas and into a beautiful area known as Nevada’s “Valley of Fire” a perfect title and location for this shoot. Our trip started of on Saturday night of April the 24th with an 11:30pm rendezvous. JoEllen, Vanni & Indra arrived at my place in the Southern Mojave desert and when we transferred all the baggage & equipment from their car to my truck, we hit the road with no further delay!

“Behind the Scenes of the Fire Dragoon 2010″

The only stop we made was at the Mad Greek Cafe’ in Baker to get Greek coffee for Jo & Greek yogurt for me. Unfortunately, they Greek coffee machine was out of service so Jo just settled for the usual coffee as she now became the Driver and I took passenger.
I admit that I was a bit tired and didn’t mind letting Jo have a go at the rest of the drive from that point on. Our destination for the night was a Vegas vacation house on the west side of town. It was offered to us by Brittany’s amazing Mom & Pop! They gave us the keys and let us stay there for the duration of the shoot. “What a great and most generous gift!”

VALLEY OF FIRE, LAS VEGAS, NV…

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

The next morning, we had gotten up and prepared for the shoot. Jo was feeling a bit anxious because we had trouble getting the boiler to engage so that Indra could get a hot shower. Rather than wait, Indra just said “no problem” and jumped in for a cold one!….”What a trooper!”
Of coarse I was next….lol, fortunately I became accustomed to cold water therapy in the previous months due to health issues, so this was no biggie =)
While I was getting all showered up, Jo started on Indra’s makeup while Vanni took over my place as videographer. Aimee (a.k.a. SeptemberSky) was on her way with her daughter Alondra from across town with our lunch sandwiches and a cooler full of drinks!
Once Aimee arrived, we ate our lunch and then loaded the vehicles with all the essentials and equipment that we needed to take with us for the shoot. Our photo destination was approx. 70 miles away, so we left immediately and Jo was once again our pilot….”She loves the Diesel!”…lol =D

Upon arriving, Aimee was in the lead and payed for us by using her Nevada Driver’s License to get us in for cheaper. I guess the price went up, but only for out of state visitors
The girls were both amazed and in awe of the Valley of Fire. Neither had ever been here before, so it was a special treat, especially for Indra who is from Florida and had never been to Las Vegas, let alone this wonderful hidden treasure of the mojave desert.
Once we found our spot, we unloaded and quickly put on the SPF 55!, the weather was perfect, but hot. It was about 90ºF and I knew that we had to stay as hydrated as possible, because even spending as little as 2 hours in that kind of heat would drain you. I got the video cam and started a quick interview with Indra ^__^

“Jo puts the final touches on the costume…”

Here are a few samples from the first round of photos, Aimee lent me her Canon 85mm F/1.2 for a test run. I had been raving about this lens for awhile, so when she offered it to me, I did not hesitate. (I ordered one after the shoot, yes it was that good…lol) Thank you Aimee so much for letting me experience a shoot with your awesome 85!!!

The 85mm performed beautifully, giving me razor sharp clarity and contrast with a magnificent depth of field to boot! The first spot we chose started to lose sun light for the reflector and so we moved to a different location with more background to offer. Vanni was a huge help when I was shooting, as she was always there top take over the video documentation, and if she was using the reflector, then Aimee would break away from shooting stills to take over the video documentation. “We had a very nice workflow happening that day!”
“Vanni taking picture of you taking pictures of me….lol”

We tried one location that was shaded so we could bounce light into the scene, but we would have to move fast because the sun was moving behind one of the tall rocky towers behind us.

The shots came out very nice and gave a sort of natural vignette to some of the photos. Indra’s vast knowledge and skill with taking on a multitude of poses was a huge help!, I honestly have to say that I have never worked with a model who was this good at jumping right into character so fast and with such genius! She made this one of the most enjoyable shoots I’ve done in a good long time. =) Here are a few sample shots at this location using light bounced into the shadow.

After losing all workable light at this location, we decided to move it to a sunnier location on the other side of the gorge. The day was feeling as though the heat was intensifying, but it was just all the hiking we were doing to get to the all the places we wanted to shoot. Once we established ourselves at the other side of the gorge, we took a quick break to get situated and ready for the next set of shots.

“Indra, takes a minute to refuel herself…”

After the quick break, Jo & Vanni assisted in getting Indra to the top of a higher rocky plateau where we could focus on getting some of the magnificent background into the shots. Once Indra made it to the top safe and sound, Jo passed up the reflector to Vanni so we could start firing off the next round of photos for this location.

The new location proved to be awesome, I started firing shot after shot and we stayed here for quite a while longer than the other locations due to all the great potential that the compositions would have here. Here’s another group of shots from this location…

While I was shooting away at this location, Jo spotted another potential area in the form of a cave like rocky crevice. We dragged our equipment just a few short steps away into a dark area which we could bounce plenty of light into =D
“As we got set up, I showed Indra what I had gotten so far…”

After setting up, we were ready to start the next series of shots at the dark rocky crevice. The distance from the available light to bounce and our model, Indra, was a solid 12ft, but this was no problem for the massive 4′x6′ reflector we were using. The shear size taunt nature of this reflector made it possible to light up Indra with no problem even at that distance =D
This location was rather fun I admit, and we shot quite a bit here as well. Here are a few samples from the shots taken at this location.

Once we finished at the rocky crevice, we had Indra climb to the top of a small rocky structure to get some final shots for the day.
“Indra looking a bit exhausted, while Alondra chills on a rock above”

Once Indra got positioned on the small rock above, we started one last photo session for the day…

After I decided to do a quick experiment with shadows & silhouettes =D

After 3 hours of shooting, we finally called it a wrap and started to head back to the truck for some water and snacks. The sun had drained us and we were ready to get home fast, but we took our time to relax and take in the beauty of this place. After getting all packed up and ready to roll I took the girls on a quick tour of the rest of this Valley with what little sun remained. Jo’s first reaction was to come back for hiking! =D
“I’m in total agreement of that, I love hiking!”
Once we gave the park a ‘once over’, we started our way back home for the evening. Aimee followed us back to the house and helped us unload. She then said her goodbyes and headed home to get ready for her work week. We on the other hand got some rest so we could hit Vegas the next day for Indra’s first encounter with the City of Sin! ;P

CREDITS:

Costume/ Makeup/ Hair: JoEllen Elam (a.k.a. “Lillyxandra”)
Fire Dragoon Model: Indra Rojas (a.k.a. “Fantasy Ninja”)
Videographer/ Lighting Assistant: Vanessa Walton (a.k.a. “Vanni”).
Assistant Grip: Alondra Cordova.
Assistant Photographer: Aimee Root (a.k.a. “SeptemberSky”).
Photographer/ Videographer: Indigo Verse (a.k.a. “Indi”)

That’s all folks! hope you enjoyed this li’l adventure and we shall catch you on the next blog!!
“Cheers!”
~Indigo .H

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