"The path of love is not a tedious path.
It's a Path of Joy.
It's a path of singing and dancing.
It's not a desert. It's a valley of flowers."
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
There's excitement in photographing someone who's a photographer. From one creative to another, I guess it's comparable to musicians playing with other musicians. It would be like if you were a guitar player and then another guitar player would ask you to play guitar on one of their songs. Although, it wasn't your song in the beginning, but as the recording progresses, your ideas and input will start taking shape and coalescing itself to the song. Which at the end of that recording session, that particular song will have imprints of your art and soul. I think the same goes for photogs who asks another photographer for a photo session. Besides the fact that it's completely possible for a photographer to do their own sessions using just a combination of a tripod and a wireless remote, it's the vision of their fellow artist that is more difficult to obtain. I mean you can have a group of photograhers taking photos of the same subject and I can guarantee that each shot will be dfferent from one shot to the next. Which shot is the better one will surely be based on the eye of the beholder. And that is the beauty of photography. An image from a particular photographer will unknowingly just speak to you in a way that you can't really explain.
Although Celesti and I have have been talking for a couple of months prior to this shoot, I've always tried to push the idea of shooting in Joshua Tree to her. The beach is always the "safe" choice, since living in the west, we will always get the best sunset. I mean, if we were at the beach, of course I would've made them sit on a rock or lay in the sand. Just wait for the sun to set, then BAM. There's your money shot. But there is always a certain "uncertainty" in shooting in the desert. You can never know what you can utilize in an unfamiliar environment. So here is where one's creative vision and art comes to play and benefit a client. Besides the familiar let's-hug-and-get-cozy-behind-this-rock shots that is commonplace in every Joshua Tree engagement session, the one thing I haven't seen is the actual yucca palm tree being utilized to it's full potential. Yet. And yes I've Googled it. So a big S/O should go to Celesti and Jason for being adventurous enough and trusting in my vision and art. It was difficult and a litte bit dangerous, but if you're going to be in Joshua Tree, might as well be ON a Joshua Tree.
