Scout 2 - Emily (Patreon)

My friend Emily (who is not a model, but does act, and is a writer, as well as being a barista at a coffee shop I used to frequent most mornings when i lived in Culver City, CA, which is where we met) kept telling me how much she liked the photos I was shooting in nature and asked me if i would taking her into the woods to shoot her (that sounds bad! hah!) even though has cannot really model, and isn't rail thin.  I told her "Of Course!" She probably had no idea that I had wanted to shoot her since i met her 5 years ago.  

We made a plan to go hike in one of my favorite local mountain canyons just outside Los Angeles the next time it looked misty or rainy. This was in the middle of the wettest winter California had seen in years, the winter that finally broke the state's 5 year drought, and the next rainy day ended up being the heaviest day of rain Los Angeles had seen in many years.  We drove to the trailhead and found not a single other car parked, and thus were giddy as we walked into the mist, knowing that likely no one else would be in the canyon.

We found a good spot and Emily just went for it and disrobed next to the creek so we could make photos.  Likely it was the first time she had ever taken her clothes off outdoors. It was cold and wet, and as i photographed her nestled into the maze of branches of a fallen tree, i heard rocks falling from the canyon above.  I froze actually - watching a huge rock about a foot wide come bouncing down the canyon toward us. I couldn't even say anything. Thankfully it landed about 6 feet from her, but I got us away from the steep canyon wall.

We worked our way up the trail as the rain picked up steadily.  Further up we found a spot where the creek was shallow but the canyon was much wider, and stopped in the cold and mist and rain to work again.  This time i splashed a bit of white wash on her already wet body, just to see how it might look, and told her to go have a look around, explore a little.  I just shot images - it seemed very strange to be out on this trail I had hiked so many times in drier, warmer seasons, when the grasses were dead, and the creek dried up to barely a trickle. Today it felt like a different place, a different time even, especially seeing her exploring with streaks of white dripping down her body.

The whole scene was so beautiful and disconcerting at once.

Emily in the Angeles National Forest, CA. February 2017