January 19th, 2010:
When Jo emailed me and asked if I could manage a few “Bad Ass Rockstar photos”, I was totally up to the challenge. Felicia and I took a drive around the downtown Arts District in search of gritty spots – think trains, steel I-beams, graffiti and brick walls. After about an hour of stopping the car, jumping out, running around and giving thumbs up or thumbs down to a dozen locations, we had a plan.
Jo and Red arrived, totally chill about their session, and totally game to ‘climb on stuff’. I love that attitude!
Jo & Red met while Jo was working at the box office of the Colony Theatre in Burbank, and they gamely reenacted the ‘Hey, how are YOU doin’?’ bit in this random wooden shack we found.
We were able to spend about 8 minutes on the train tracks before a police car pulled up, and my heart sank. “Uh oh…. Crap!”
The cop took down my name and address (“…in case any terrorist activities happen.”), and…. surprise, surprise: told me it was ok to keep shooting but please be careful.
Wow. I thought we totally lucked out, but not 10 seconds after he was done talking to us, a Union Railroad official rolled up and chased us out. The cop just shrugged and told us to listen to the man, but helpfully suggested another spot about 5 blocks away where no one would bother us, and we would have a view of the city.
Unfortunately we didn’t managed to take his advice as the sun was already getting low, but I’m sure glad we didn’t get arrested or fined. We made one more quick stop in the Arts District, then made our way up to the 4th Street Bridge, which crosses the train tracks, to catch the fading daylight and a bit of twilight.
Jo and Red were awesome when I told them to hold still for the long exposures, with traffic rushing by and the blue of twilight in the skies.
Congratulations again! Felicia and I are both thrilled to be shooting your wedding in May!
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