Models, Heartache, and Sauvie Island

    I was on Sauvie Island Tuesday for a creative test photo shoot. I decided I'm in love with Sauvie Island. It's beautiful out there. There's houses that float on the river. For a brief moment I decided I would move there, and then I remembered I had a six year old daughter, we would have no neighbors, and we already love where we live now. Maybe I'll get a summer house on the river where I can spend all day on my boat...when I get a boat.

    Oh yeah...I'm supposed to be working. This cute, bubbly, pretend model couple are blowing bubbles just outside an immaculate airstream trailer when a breeze trails across my face and then...what's that I smell? What's that familiar smell? My stomach turns, not in a eeuuw that smell was bad kind of way, but something just punched me in the gut kind of way. I realize it's the fragrance the male model is wearing on his skin. I know exactly what it is, but I can't remember the name. "What's the name of that scent you are wearing?" I kindly ask.
    "Sandalwood."
    "Oh," my stomach twists again. Why does it have to be sandalwood in all places? Especially in my new favorite place.  Sandalwood was of course what the ex-boyfriend wore that shredded my heart into little tiny fragments and left it up to me to try to figure out how to put it all back together again. And I'm not good at puzzles.
    With technology the way that it is, and my masochistic artistic nature the way that it is, I woke up this morning thinking I'd google the smell and take just one more whiff. That's when I realized you can easily take another look or listen and fill your nostalgic needs anytime via internet, but thank God I can't look up the smell.

 www.artofmakeup.com

The Simple Life

   The other day I had a test shoot out on Sauvie Island, the outskirts of Portland where the farms are, where you can pick your own berries in the summertime, swim in the river, and get lost in the corn mazes at Halloween time. It's not even that far of a drive, so I hadn't imagined it would be much different from the city itself. I was wrong.
    When I arrived to the shoot location, I nearly passed the unmarked dirt driveway. Fortunately a truck pulled in at the same time as I did with an unnaturally handsome boy peeking out the window. "Is this where the shoot is?" I asked.
    "Yes," he answered with a dazzling smile. It was pretty evident. I followed his dusty path down the road and parked my car as the beginning of what felt like an oddly voyeuristic day began. He slammed his car door and swiftly strode into the arms of the bikini clad model that awaited him near his truck. They embraced for what seemed to be an enormous amount of time.
   "Hi!" I brightly smiled at the two of them. "Where should I set up?"  The gorgeous specimen of a male pointed to some kind of habitat. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't kept up.

    "You can set up in here," he said. "It's not fancy, but this is where I live."  Wow, I thought. This is new. Ok.
    So that was my first impression. I wasn't too impressed I should say, but things grow on you.  As the day went on, I awkwardly watched this sexy young equally hard bodied couple pretty much makeout with each other, because that was the theme of the shoot, for about four hours straight.  They rode his motorcycle, played along the river and smeared berries on each other. I watched the sun set over the river, and I thought...you know what, if I were young, beautiful, lived on a farm on a river, and had a muscly model boyfriend, I wouldn't mind a bit about living in a tiny trailer with no belongings. Ah, the simple life!

www.artofmakeup.com

Adidas Yoga

Adidas Yoga

Believe it or not, these clothes were about 3 sizes too big and we had to bunch and clip them where you can't see in the shot. I can't believe we somehow made them look like they fit. These girls held these yoga poses for about 4 hours straight. Their legs were burning by the end of the shoot! Actually, well before the end of the shoot...but the shoot must go on!

www.artofmakeup.com