"If you're going through hell, keep going!" A painful yoga shoot at the Anza Borrego Wind Caves.

   

    Starting 2014 with a plethora of new ideas for shoots and images I want to make. I wanted to go out to the Anza Borrego Wind Caves and shoot yogis, acrobats and aerialists, so I started planning a campout photo trip for a bunch of my friends, several photographers and a bunch of models/performers/yogis. Thought it would be lots of fun, let me reconnect with some people I miss, and get some great shots. Little did I know I would wind up needing to recall the Winston Churchill quote in the title.

    I have been out to the wind caves several times since I have lived in San Diego, each time before I have just had my point and shoot with me, but images I got on those trips were the inspiration for the campout idea.

My girlfriend and hard core Ashtanga Yogi, this is after a mile hike in 112F heat!

   Posted something on FB, got a lot of interest, started planning for a campout and photo adventure later in spring. It's been a couple of years since I went out to the Wind Caves, so I wanted to head out and scout it out before that happened, so I could find a group camp spot and maybe a good place to set up a portable aerial performance rig. There was a model on model mayhem who had some  yoga shots I liked in her portfolio, so I shot her a message inviting her to the shoot weekend, but it turned out she was moving to Hawaii at the end of the month. So I wanted to scout the location, she wanted to get some shots before she moved. Seemed like pieces were falling into place, so we decided to head out on a Sunday afternoon.  In addition to the scouting, the two things I really wanted to play with was some day-to-night shooting with speed lights and balancing fill flash shots against a setting sun. We also decided to do some shots in a dress and heels, just to be different from all the other Yoga shoots I have seen.

   My girlfriend, wise woman that she is, said I shouldn't go out into the desert alone. While this is common sense, I felt like I would be ok since I have been out there on numerous occasions, including once in the same vehicle I would be driving on this trip. I made sure to pack a full emergency kit, she knew where I was going, how long I expected to stay, and I would call her before I went off road and again when I got back on road, since cell service is spotty to non-existent. I researched as usual before going, everything I saw showed that the trail was still accessible to high clearance 2WD vehicles.

   Sunday came and I headed out to pick up my model and hit the road. We got out to the trail head no problem. The trail was exactly what I remembered going out, pretty easy going if a bit bumpy. We found a good primitive campsite with some minimal facilities right off the main wash that would work for the group trip. We headed on and got to the Wind Caves trailhead with no problem. Grabbed all the gear and hiked the mile up to the caves. Shot for a few hours, several looks, everything went pretty well. The sun started getting low, so we started working on the stuff I really came out there to get, the backlit shots. I was able to play around quite a bit with some different attempts at fill flash and using flash to overpower the ambient, and I was also able to play around with some intentional flare and fun looks from shooting right into the sun.

    We called it a wrap before the sun set completely, I didn't relish the idea of hiking all the gear down or driving out in the dark. Got back to the truck while it was still fairly bright out, the sun had just dipped behind the hills. But I was tired and really already thinking of home, so I got distracted and backed the truck right into soft sand turning around to head out. Stupid move really. We were the last ones at the Wind Caves, although it is a fairly well travelled spot, there was no one still around. So I got the shovel and started digging myself out. Before I finished, someone did come along and was able to pull us out of the sand with my tow rope. Only problem was it was now dark. I had forgotten how different the desert looks at night. And that heading into the trail it's a straight shot only because all the forks are behind you. On the way out; however, you come to multiple forks, some of which are in between cliff walls that screw with GPS signals. Can you guess what happened? I went left when I should have gone right, got off the main wash I had driven in on. The side wash I picked wound up being almost completely soft sand. When I realized I had taken a wrong turn, I tried to get turned around without stopping or slowing too much, but failed miserably and bogged down in sand that was almost like fresh powder snow. That was around 6pm.

   No problem, I was ready for it. Plan A was get shovel and dig myself out. Didn't work. Plan B- Air down tires and try Plan A again. No joy. Plan C - Jack up on Hi-Lift and put rocks/shrubs under tires for traction. Nope. Plan D - High lift up and push truck over, repeat as necessary until tires on hard pack again. Nope. Plan E - Rope around trees/rocks and use hi-lift as winch to winch free- Nope. Now it's 7:30 and I am running out of plans. Plan F - Try to get a hold of anyone on CB emergency channel to for help. No joy. Crap. Now this is starting to suck.

   I have to admit I was starting to panic a little bit, I was freaked out because my best efforts and all the things I though should have gotten me out of it had failed. Nothing I was trained to do worked. Luckily, I remembered this was a Yoga shoot day, did some forced long slow breathing and made myself relax and think. It was clear I needed help, the only option I had was to grab the cell phones and hike up to the top of the nearest ridge until I got signal. We had one Verizon phone and one AT&T. I have to give AT&T mad props, Got three bars and 3G service halfway up the nearest ridge on that phone, I was able to call the Park Rangers and get help headed our way, call my GF to let her know what was going on, and even post to FB about being stuck. The Verizon phone never got enough signal to even send a text until we were back on pavement. Park Ranger only had a small jeep without enough power to get my big ass truck out so they called a 4wd tow truck for us. I got off the phone and headed back down the hill to let my model know what was up and recharge the phone. Took a minor mis-step on the way down and fell, but a nice soft rock and friendly patch of cactus broke my fall nicely. Had plenty of time before the tow truck arrived to pull the cactus spines out of my arm.

    Waited a bit, looked through the pics on the camera LCD and thought some of them looked pretty good. Around 10pm I decided to hike back up to signal so I could make sure the tow truck was still coming and update the outside world. While I still felt like quite the moron for being stuck out in the desert, once I got over myself a bit and I decided it's all in the attitude and I was going to try and be as positive as I could be. It wasnt too cold, the moon was out and almost full, I had plenty of extra fuel, blankets, food and water and power to charge phone batteries. We weren't in any danger, worst case I was going to have to call in, take a day off work and get stuck in the desert overnight with a beautiful model. When I thought about it that way, life wasn't too bad after all. (except I knew that I was going to be in for a lifetime of "told you so,"from my GF, of course)

   While I was up there on that second climb, after confirming the tow was still on the way, I decided that since I was a photographer, what I really needed to do was go down, get my camera and tripod, and take a good long exposure shot of the whole scene of my stuck ass truck. Sadly, before I could do that, the tow truck finally got to us at around 10:30.

    Turned out the wrong turn we went down was so freaking sandy that even the pro off road driver in  the 4WD tow truck had trouble not only getting us out, but if he wasn't paying attention he managed to get bogged down himself once or twice. But we finally got moving with him towing me until it was relatively hard packed again. We stopped to undo the chains, and I went ahead while he was stowing the chains and he was going to follow us out. Well, now it's almost midnight. I am tired as hell and stressed out, and it turns out I missed not only one but two turns, so I was way off where I thought I was, so I took a second wrong turn heading out and wound up down another horrible wash. He got us back out and headed back to the main wash, but it was still horrible going for quite some time, there was just too much soft pack and I kept bogging. We finally decided there was just not enough weight over my read drive wheels, so we went boulder collecting and put about 600lbs of rock into the bed of my truck. That was probably the worst part of the night, it's been two days and my entire body is still sore from that. Tell ya what, rocks don't roll. The final solution was me in low gear with the extra weight in the back getting pulled by the tow truck on a 30ft chain, sort of like a wakeboarder on the soft pack. It worked pretty well, I only hit the side of the cliff once, clipped one large tree and blew one rear tire sidewall on the edge of a boulder. Finally we got back on pavement a little before 3am and aired my surviving tires back up. Could have changed the blown one, but I was tired and since I have a dually I didn't really need all 4 back there anyway, so I left it and just drove back to SD. Dropped the model off and headed straight in to work.

   So, wound up stuck in the desert for close to 12 hours, lost a night of sleep, got some new scars on my body and dents on my truck, got stuck with a $900 towing bill and still have to replace a tire at some point before I want to drive my truck again. Was it worth it? Initially I said no way in hell. I was going to cancel the group trip, hang my head in shame and try to forget the trip had ever happened. About the only plus I could think of the next day was that I hadn't just gone for the group trip and gotten any of my friends stuck or lost out in the desert.

   Then I downloaded the images. While I don't really feel like I nailed what I saw in my head when I was planning the shoot, I think several of the shots from this batch are easily the best frames I have taken so far and I can easily see how I can improve on them even more the next time around.

   Take a look at the set for yourselves and let me know what you think of the images.

   Ultimately for me it was worth it. I got some of the best shots I have taken to date. I have some new scars and a good story to tell. I feel like this is all part of putting in my dues, paying the universe in blood, sweat and tears in my quest to grow as an artist. So I went through hell, time to keep going. I am actually thinking that the group campout is still a go, with the caveat that we will only use 4WD vehicles and make sure we have tow straps and gear to pull each other out if necessary as well as pay more attention to the right directions on the way out. I also got a chance to really work on my ability to remain calm in a bad situation and expand my personal yoga practice in that way.

    What I really wanted to work on was shooting fill flash against a bright sunset background, I think this is the closest shot I got to what I was trying to imagine in my mind.

   Although we started out with the standard tights/swimsuit stuff, I also thought it would be fun to do some traditional Yoga poses and shots in a long, flowing dress and heels, something other than the usual yoga attire shots out there. I think that was a pretty fun idea, will have to keep playing with it.

  While I was setting up for the sunset shots, I also decided I had to take advantage of the natural light that was there and tried to play around a little bit with intentional flare and got some decent results there too.

   

  Finally, I have to give major props to my Model, Mariesa. Not only was she an incredible model to shoot, she was totally chill and calm and never got upset or impatient with me at all throughout the ordeal, even though she had more than enough reason and right to be pissed as hell with me. She was a perfect Yogi. When she moves it will be loss to the San Diego community (although in all fairness, she probably wouldn't have shot with me again anyway ;-P)

   So, despite the insane financial hit I took for this test shoot, I am looking forward to heading back out for a weekend in March with a whole crew of friends, yogis and photographers - along with multiple 4x4s and lots of towing straps!