Coiled into the rock cliff, Dendara makes a nice, compact form.
In October, I had a very quick California shoot. I left Tucson before sunrise. Drove to the desert in California, and scouted my location. I met Dendara (model) in 29 Palms and then we headed out to shoot. We did not see another soul throughout the shoot. It was a nice, private spot. I took some pictures in several spots, taking advantage of natural rock formations and the occasional Yucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree).
I’ve shot this pose in the studio, but we did it in nature. Little did I expect that it would get over 2500 likes on Instagram!
There were a couple Joshua Trees in the area, and here’s one.
Dendara has been modeling the past 5 months , inspired by her husband (Russ) who drove her to meet me. She describes modeling as a “Nice little hobby for me”. She modeled before. About 10 years ago, she modeled for 2 years in the Bay Area. She modeled for Russ, who was taking a photography class after retiring.
When you talk about retirement, you generally get to my age group. Dendara is considerably older than most models I’ve shot. She’s 57. But she still has the long blonde hair she has had since the 1990’s. In fact, her hair is older than most of the models I’ve shot. She says “He’s so weird about my hair”, saying that Russ is more attached to her long hair than she is. I don’t think many people will think that’s weird.
With her plentiful hair, this shot is a bit like Cousin It on the Addams Family. Still well liked.
We shot a couple of hours, got quite a few shots. One was more a more specific pose. I did not use it in the main photo for that pose, but I decided to do the editing and see what I could get from the shot. It was actually questionable in my mind, but I decided to post it since I had spent the time. To my surprise, it was VERY popular. That photo has 2742 likes as of this composition. I show it here in the uncensored form. The censored form is on my Instagram, @toweralan.
Dendara enjoys modeling because she likes meeting people. In this case, we met, shot briefly, and I returned to Tucson the same day I left for the shoot. I guess that really is the essence of a quick California shoot.
The desert often looks great in B&W.
If you’re wanting to shoot in the Southern California desert, give Dendara a call and she’ll oblige.