It took me a long time to realize that it was ok to fail. In fact you can’t really grow or improve unless you fail on a consistent basis. Who knew?!?!?! So it was with my first Trash the (Prom) Dress shoot. I had it all arranged: 2 lovely models with prom dresses in tow, locations picked (first the grungy parking garage, then Tin Pan Alley, then off to the river to get them wet, and finish up on the ridge above the river at sunset with the mountains in the background). Sounded perfect. What could possibly go wrong? Well we hit the garage and everything went fine. Then we hit the alley and everything went fine. Then we hit the river…..Now, let me back up a second. In my original plan the river portion of the Trash the Dress was the key location. At all the other locations we were just visually trashing it by having these lovely ladies wear the dresses in less than lovely environs. The actually trashing was going to be in the river. Now, let me back up even further. Last winter was a record or near record year for snow. We had a huge snow pack in the mountains. Evidently such a snow pack means that the river stays unusually cold longer into the season. Again, who knew?!?!? Well, fast forward to these two lovely ladies….they found out! Turns out its really difficult to get relaxed expressions from people when they can’t breathe. I’ll let the pictures tell you the whole story.
