A Red Letter Day

It was just one year ago, my first shoot with Tyler Gould. He is a dear friend of my best friend, Miss Victoria Jae (luvs to you!) who is an extremely talented photographer. We had been trying to get together for a shoot for weeks and weeks, but our schedules never seemed to mesh. Finally it was one cold December afternoon that he needed an extra model for a shoot, and was crossing his fingers that I would be free. Normally, I would not be - but as fate would have it, that day I was. I was so happy and excited to finally be working with Tyler. With his fantastic style for capturing stark and fashion minded photographs, I was more than eager to finally be one of his subjects.



I arrived and met the two other models, lovely girls. Dez and Lauren, I believe her name was. We each had our turn under the Makeup Artist's hand, as she applied dark heavy eyes and accented cheeks to all of us. Then on to the extremely creative Hair Stylist, who turned Dez's petite frame into a fierce haunting with a new age mohawk, Lauren into a rather swirly mass of an updo, and my own into an extreme backcombed fashion/dreds look. It was fantastic. We were each asked to bring an prom-sy type dresses that we had and heels, and we were soon zipped into our dresses and headed to the shoot location.

We started underneath one of the many bridges in downtown Portland. It was the one near Union Station...it's name escapes me at the moment. I remember it being around 40 degrees or so, and with us only wearing our formal dresses and heels, we were soon taking turns under as many coats as we could pile onto ourselves while we waited for setup. We were on location for more than 6 hours, but I've never enjoyed a shoot more. It makes so much of a difference when everyone is all happy to be there, and excited to create something amazing. Our breath was freezing in the air, and our fingers and toes were numb, but we were still laughing and sipping warm coffee on breaks.





Around five o'clock, Dez suggested another location nearby. It was an outdoor semi-private garage area that was a part of these spendy Condo's along the river - McCormick Pier. We headed over with our equipment and set up inside the garage. We were somewhat warmer in there, perhaps because we were partly shielded from the wind, and we took a few hours of fantastic shots in there as well. I look back over these pictures as some of my favorites from any shoots. It was such a fun day, despite the extreme conditions and I made new friends as well. But most of all, I remember that day as being a certain marker, for when I truly realized this was more of the life that I had always wanted, and being around creative, energetic souls that are kindred to mine.