The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

"Survivorman"

"When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don't give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself."
-Edward Steichen

The Good:

I was out hiking trails to scout out locations for my London Andrews shoot. Far and wide, I traveled, traversing the ends of the Valley. I drove back out to the Mormon Well Road, that I mentioned in a recent entry, to check out one spot that I was curious about. Then I drove back down into and back out of Las Vegas near the town of Blue Diamond and did some more trails. While scouting this one spot, I came across a neat and interesting family who were enjoying a nice Sunday late afternoon hike into the canyons. We met and talked and I ended up staying with them for the duration of my hike.

I enjoyed the company of Scott, his wife Tiffani, Regina, and their kids and it made for a very interesting rest of the day. Its always good to meet new people that you gell with and have pleasant conversation. We were only missing the wine. I enjoyed their kids who agonized on the feasibility of domesticating tadpoles, and we had fun. Scott found some wildlife that I was able to take a few shots of and we found several great spots to shoot. I think I'd like to come out here more often and explore these canyons more fully. I know I'll be bringing models out here all summer. I sincerely hope hook up with Scott, Tiffani, and Regina often.

The Bad:

Well, my London Andrews shoot had to be canceled. I found out when I got home from the scout hike that something important came up and London couldn't make it. Talk about bummer. Its not every day you get to shoot a London Andrews. I first discovered her a month ago and then to get contacted by her to arrange a shoot was more than I could have asked for. It would have been a most excellent shoot, I think. Several in my group expressed the same disappointments, as she's not just the typical model you shoot whenever you feel like it. Disappointments are a factor of life and in this line of work you've got to come to terms with things like this happening. Its a cost of doing business. If you can't handle that, its better to go shoot butterflies and babies. Yeah, it would have been a most excellent shoot. But alas, like weaving ropes of sand, some notions must be turned over in the earth.

The Ugly:

A friend invited me out to walk the strip Monday night. I brouht my girlfriend along. We met up at the Bellagio, but since Angel and I hadn't eaten, we elected to do the Harley Davidson Restaurant just a little ways to the south of the Bellagio. I know it was Memorial Day weekend and could expect lots of people, but I was amazed at the degredation of the Strip. Trash was everywhere along the streets but the trash cans were piled up and overflowing. We passed several sites as such and it was simply disgusting to see the city streets covered with trash and smut. I REALLY do not appreciate the peddler who stand on the corners shoving prostitution trading cards in your face. You have to actually build up a tolerance before you can walk by with out taking anything. If its your first time on the Strip, you'll end up with pocketfulls of smut cards wondering how you got them.

Then as we approached the restaurant, there's a guy RIGHT OUTSIDE the entrance way, puking his guts up. Again and again, this guy is just heaving right on the decorative landscape just outside the friggin' door. Now mind you, its not even late yet. Its only about 7:30pm and he's just standing there with no seemingly destination on his mind. This is just what you want to see right before you sit down to a meal. My friend who's 10 year old son accompanied us, had a difficult time putting it out of his mind. I just could not believe what I was seeing.