Joshua Tree Music Festival London and Matthew fly into Tucson, we hop in the car, and head to the California desert for a 3 day music festival in the town of Joshua Tree, CA located just outside of Joshua Tree National Park. We camped, we danced, we clapped, we sang, we met exciting people, heard amazing music and saw beautiful artwork. The whole festival was wonderful! It had really good energy, from the musicians, to the people, the vendors, the art work, the environment...good vibes all around :) There will be another one in the fall that I hope to attend.
Los Angeles
After the music festival London, Matthew and I drove out to Los Angeles. Unfortunately Matt had to fly back home to Syracuse, NY the next day, but London and I spent the next week in the city doing a bunch of photo shoots. The fist part of the week we stayed with a friend, another model, Samantha Grace. We were all excited we could walk to a Vietnamese restaurant from her place, "PhoSho". Jes, Matt and I really love us some Pho and were real excited about the name of this place. The Pho was bland and quite disappointing, but watching Matt & Jes try to flavor up their Pho with spice was very entertaining. They had so much hot sauce that tears were streaming down their face and they sniffling like crazy to avoid runny noses. High class dinner entertainment right there. It was hilarious! (In case you are wondering what Pho is...it is a delicious yummy rice noodle soup made of pure happiness. You should find a Vietnamese place near you and try some right now!)
The rest of the week was also full of pure entertainment! We got invited to a play "Absinthe Opium & Magic: 1920s Shanghai" put on by the theater group, the Grand Guignolers. Through the play we were taken on a luxury cruise to the most decadent city in the 1920s with Chinese geishas, brawling gangsters, opium dens, blood and magic. Most of the people in the audience were all dressed up in cocktail dresses and suits from the 20's. It was a lot of fun! I also had some of the most fun & interesting shoots with London this trip...
We shot on the Queen Mary, a very old ship docked in Long Beach harbor that has been converted to a floating hotel. The photographer had an English accent and looked like a scruffy pirate. He was a lot of fun! He put us in vintage dresses and lingerie and shot us in one of the biggest suites on the ship. Everything was very old with lots of wood paneling and brass fixtures. The suite had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and lots of portholes I enjoyed hanging my head out of. Very high class back in the day. I felt like Rose from Titanic! But there was also this creepy ghost like feel, like I was actually on the Titanic or on the set of the next Shining movie. It was a super neat place, I could feel all the history surrounding me. While we were shooting London would look over at me every once in awhile, bend her finger a few times while saying "Redrum! Redrum!"
Working with Cinema Photography is always a pleasure. The photographer and wife team are fun to shoot the day away with. Super nice people and they always have a bunch of ideas to shoot they get real excited about. The studio is also part of the great experience. It is one of the nicest I've worked in and I would recommend it for anyone needing a shoot location in Long Beach. Smash Studio rents real cheap, starting at $20/hr, and you can also rent lights, backdrops and props, which they have plenty of to choose from. It is also always clean and well organized, which unfortunately, seems to be a rarity in this industry. The best part is the full bathroom and giant movie-star-like dressing room!
One of my favorite days was working all day with Wet n' Messy shooting pictures and video clips for messy fetish. London and I got dressed up, did our hair and makeup and then got all messy destroying all the beauty work just done. Then we would shower, blow dry the hair and start the process all over again...and again...and again. The 10hr day consisted of 6+ messy photo/video sets! There was also a nice lunch break and some fun hang out time too. It was a really great time! I'm real happy to say that at work, I got in a pie fit, had cake batter poured over my head, took a mud bath, got shot in the face with a whip cream splat gun and got to paint London's and my body with colorful paint. What else can I say...this job is crazy, but so much fun and I love it!
The top shoot of the week however, goes to Muki's Kitchen. The most interesting shoot and probably the most odd fetish I've experienced. It is a fantasy of cannibalism. Not real cannibalism...you don't actually eat women, it's just a fantasy. Hmmm...fantasizing about eating people....not sure how I feel about that, but what the heck , I said, let's shoot and see what it's all about. The main thing that pulled me into this shoot was a blog London had previously written called Beware of Butt Carrot. A fan posted a comment on her blog about wanting to see her with a carrot in her butt. Another blog reader thought this was hilarious and wrote a whole fictitious scenario about how could anyone want to see anything else but a carrot in
London's butt. She made a blog entry out of it and a few months later, Muki's Kitchen was contacting her about shooting when she came to LA. I went on the trip with her to LA, so I got to be a part of this crazy shoot as well! I was dressed up like a pilgrim while I captured London, undressed her, laid her on a platter with her hands and legs tied, basted her with honey and garnished her with peppers at her side, an apple in her mouth, and oh yes...a carrot in her butt! (it wasn't actually in there though, we cut it and gently set it in her cheeks to make it look like it was up there). I then slid the London platter into a giant sized oven and let her cook! I must say it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen. I purely enjoyed being on my side of that shoot =)
A more common and familiar fetish to me is bondage. London and I got to shoot with Donsir for some shibari bondage and suspension. I really love shibari. The rope feels nice and becomes a part of me as it is wrapped around my body and tugged in tight. It feels as if the rope is a giant hug, holding me, filling me with a feeling of being safe and secure, protected. It's like a second skin. Being suspended in the beautiful rope adds more exhilaration and relaxation to the experience. 
It's really neat to experience both of those feelings at the same time. While suspended I feel as if in a body hammock, suspended in the air in my own open cocoon. I feel graceful up there and feel beautiful stretching out, posing for the camera. released, it feels as if I shed the second skin. As the rope comes off, my skin takes a fresh breath of air and tingles a bit in a refreshing way. Its an awesome feeling. Donsir is a great rigger and photographer. In addition to taking wonderful photographs, he took great care of us; great suspension work, made sure our limbs and body were always in good condition and that we felt good and were well hydrated. Trust and safety are very important when using rope and suspension ;)