inspiration is everywhere

The best days for me are the ones where I am completely at ease and doing what I love.  That day was Friday.

Earlier in the week a fellow photographer and friend asked me if I wanted to go on a photo walk…duh, always.  Luckily our schedules worked out and we were able to schedule it for Friday morning after the kids were all in learning mode at school.  We had not worked out the fine details but that would come later.

Thursday evening came around and as were “talking” on Facebook I had one of my ideas.  Why not get someone willing to model for us and go to the stables.  I had some locations that I had been dying to use as a backdrop and knew that the morning light would be perfect.  Alice was up for the adventure and I quickly called on the perfect person for this particular shoot…Mariel.

It was a chilly, yet beautiful morning and we took full advantage of Mother Nature’s generosity.  The main area I wanted to shoot at was where they store the hay for the farm animals that are used on rotations here at Fort Irwin.  I can’t believe how lucky we were to see that the hay was stacked perfectly.  I had Mariel climb on up and we started shooting.

Right next to the hay were some huge rocks that I can only assume were placed there for photos.  Isn’t everything?  The backdrop of the animals and Tiefort Mountain was beyond perfect.

Being the crazy animal lover that I am I had to get Mariel over next to the donkeys and goats.  That made for some interesting and fun photos.  Especially when the donkey (our photo bomber) thought Mariel’s hair was hay.

He is checking was sniffing her hair and she started to worry that he was going to eat it.  Nonsense.

So, I was wrong.  He went for the hair and she got away with none missing.

It looks like the donkey gave up on the hair.

If you are wondering as to whether or not I had all of this planned in my head ahead of time the answer is no.  Many of these ideas came to me while we were there and, luckily,  Mariel understands me and my odd directions.  She kind of figured me out during Kelly’s sessions.

As we were walking away I saw this nifty lifter thing just waiting to be used so I had her climb on in.  We weren’t sure if we would get in trouble for this one so she was trying to be covert.

I just love the white fence that is next to the stables and am always looking for something new and different to try.  Mariel was ready and willing to give it a shot.

I had her do a few twirls for me on our way to the fence.

I had to get a couple of close ups.

Again, this was all spur of the moment but I asked Alice for some help with this one.  Instead of glitter or confetti I thought, let’s throw hay.  Well, good intentions equaled poor execution by all of us.  We tried and luckily a couple of the shots actually came out.  However, my favorites are the ones with Alice trying to throw the hay just right.

I love the look on her face.  It’s all about the fun.

The intent was good but the execution…

After a lot of thrown hay we got the shot!

We thought we were done after all of this until I remembered seeing what looked like a wagon in the barn by the white fence.  We still had some time so we went on in to explore.  We were trying to be inconspicuous and I had Mariel whipping her head like crazy as she posed straddling the wagon when a door marked Classroom opened and out came the 11^th ACR Horse Detachment soldiers, so much for being sneaky and quiet.  They were awesome and just kept about their business as if we weren’t even there.

As I was lying on the ground to get the shots of Mariel one of the guys asked me if we needed anything or if I wanted a tarp to lie on.  I told him no thanks since I had already been all over the hay and this was probably the cleanest area yet.  He casually mentioned that they had recently used the leaf blower to clean up this particular area.  Cool.  A huge thanks goes out to the 11th ACR Horse Detachment for allowing us to run free.

As you can see, we had a very productive hour and a half with a lot of fun involved.  You never know where you are going to find inspiration.  I only hope that I always have someone around to humor me as I drag them to all of these places with a camera in their face.

A special thanks to Alice for getting me out of the house and doing what I love and to Mariel for patiently modeling for us on such a chilly day.  I can’t wait to do it again.  I can guarantee her that it will be fun and somewhat adventurous with a lot of laughter.

P.S.  Don’t forget to leave a comment…