A portrait of the two of us in the style of the LaRoche I have in my living room.
I had a cosmic connection with an astral priestess during my recent visit to Tucson. Only an hour or two before arriving, I got an email from Kyeri saying she was available to shoot Monday or Tuesday. While driving down the road, I saw 2 roadrunners and a fox. I got back to her and told her the fox told me I should actually shoot with her both Monday and Tuesday. She said Fox was her son’s name.
Kyeri goes by the name astralpriestess on Instagram. I asked about her experience with astral projection. Turns out each of us has had an experience or two, but neither of us is proficient at it. I asked about other mystical experiences. I was able to suggest migraine activity as a possible explanation for a couple of vague ones, then she told me about a vision she had. No migraine explained that one. And, more to the point, it happened to be the exact same vision I had many years ago other than hers was purple, mine red.
Kyeri posing on a big rock in the saguaros.
This panorama was taken on Mt Lemmon in Tucson. A combination of 4 shots to get the full height here.
Just in case we two mystics were slow on the uptake, connections and coincidences just kept piling up. I called her a diamond, and 3 seconds later we were right beside a huge sign on a building that said “Diamond” (I guess it is a hospital in Tucson). Oh, and unknown to me at the time, she had a good size diamond tattooed on her chest between her breasts.
Even the last thing I did in Tucson, which was to chase down a big, old saguaro, was interesting. The ranger sent me to a specific trail in Catalina State Park. Got on the trail and immediately came across a sign that the trail was an archeological site. Kyeri is at the Univ. of Arizona studying archeology. There were more things, but I think that’s enough to prove the point. If you don’t believe in mystical happenings, then my suggestion is to have one. I guarantee you that a humdinger of a vision or an astral projection experience will convince you.
Kyeri leaning on a rock by a window view. We are just above a busy visitor spot, but no one has the least awareness of our presence.
Of course, our focus was on photography. She’s a model. I’m a photographer. Kyeri was one of the early people on Instagram before it was super popular. She now has over 15,000 followers. She posts nudes and other images there, but uses little emoji’s like hearts over the girl parts. We got to shoot together 3x in the course of my Tucson stay, and I made a new friend. I celebrate that with a black and white photo of the two of us taken in the style of the Carole LaRoche (Santa Fe artist) print that hangs in my living room.
Here the priestess creates her own headdress with the fabric.
She’s a great mom. Her son and her studies occupy virtually all of her time. She’s fiercely independent . Kyeri was very game to try stuff since she’s been modeling so many years and is not at all worried about a photographer posting a nude photo. She even went along with my silly request that combined my horticulture with photography, A photographic pun about having her “over a barrel”. We did some shots using fabric and she was a natural playing with it to make interesting poses. I composited a panorama to show the full height of the rocks where she stood with the yellow rose. The sheer fabric top fit her form well in the last shot here, which is also my favorite from the shoot.
“Over a barrel” will never mean the same thing to you after seeing this photo.
So, visiting Tucson I made a cosmic connection with an astral priestess. A connection and friendship that I hope to keep alive even if we do have to rely on more mundane communication like email and Instagram.
My favorite is this sheer top with her pose atop the triangle of light colored rock.