Monday, December 6, 2010

Tears...A Couple of Smiles...Chattering Teeth...

I was lucky enough to take pictures of one of my oldest friends, way back to the 6th grade!  She was brave enough to let me experiment on her and her kids.  The really big problem we had that day was that it was crazy cold!  Teeth chattering cold!!  Before I even left for the shoot, I put on a pair of my husbands snowboard thermals under my pants, layered up with 3 shirts, and the thickest pair of snowboard socks I had.  I am telling you guys...brrrr kind of weather!  So, we all show up and the wind is blowing and the kids immediately start to freeze.  We are used to the sunny warm weather here in California and this was not making any of us happy, especially the kids.  Of course, my friend Lisa had already bribed her kids with food and video games...but that nasty bitter cold was winning this battle. 

I would say 10 minutes into the session we had our first tears, and I really can't blame them.  It was a little scary though when my friend Lisa started to cry!  :P  Just kidding around.  So, we decided to move to this abandoned train box car on the tracks to shelter us from the wind and cold.  Plus, how cool to be in a train, right?  After we finally get ourselves up in this thing, which was not an easy task...let me assure you... we start to take pictures.  Then some kid who was around 16 or so years old hops the train and starts to tell us to be quiet, and that we didn't see him jump in here.  He was strutting around with that gangsta sort of walk and seemed to just maybe be high or something!  Wonderful!  He ends up bailing and we all take a breath of relief.  After that we go our separate ways to the wonderful heaters set on high in our SUV's. 

However, on the ride home I start to itch all over my back, neck, and arms like crazy.  I get home and my husband the very, very, careful, analytical thinking engineer gives me one heck of a lecture why it isn't safe to just hop into a cargo container.  Why?  Well, apparently some people transport..oh...I don't know...nasty chemicals, etc in them.  Hmmm...to the shower I go, after I call Lisa and tell her to bathe herself and her adorable kids.  Fun stuff!

So, what did I learn?  No shoots with little ones on crazy cold days, they are miserable and that takes all the fun out of getting pictures taken.  Also, don't hop a train and roll around on the ground trying to get that great shot...could have some sort of nasty chemical eating your skin off!  Not to mention, the people and their kids that you are taking pictures of could get hurt!  What else?  Oh!  I think those movies where people just going running next to a train to escape the cops and they gracefully hop onto the train is a big pile of rubbish!  It was stinking hard enough to get in that non-moving train and I am not too sure I am a believer of the running...jumping...onto a moving train pitch!

2 comments:

  1. Hey Jamie... you are doing such a great job i love your photos... i have been looking for a good stop to take photos on the train tracks... where do you go ? maybe some day you can fit clay and i in to your busy photo taking schedule.

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  2. Hey there Carrie! Thanks for the nice compliment! I shoot you off an email here in a sec. Have a good rest of your day.

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