FROM VENICE TO JOSHUA TREE

I spent last weekend in California and it was absolutely amazing. It was a such a wild blur of adventures jam packed into three days that it took seeing the photos to remember all the details. We stayed in Marina Del Mar/Venice Beach the first night where we ate at the most delicious food and drank fancy champagne. Venice is absolutely beautiful! I was mesmerized by the oranges growing in the yards of the cutest bungalows and the smell of salt water as we walked down to the beach. Then we headed off to Joshua Tree and made it just in time for a quick evening shoot before the sun set over the rocky, desert mountains. Went back to the hotel and after hot-tubbing it for a bit, headed off to Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace for some burgers, blues and whiskey. Next morning we headed over to Queen Acres, loaded up the truck and had a wild, old desert cowboy named Jim Queen drive us out to Coyote Hole. Even in his giant 4-wheel truck, we got stuck in the sand and all 8 of had to push that beast of truck out of the hole. We pulled up to a pathway through the sand with towering rock walls on each side that became more narrow the further you walked until it finally came to an end. We set up all our shit and shot till the moon lit the sky. Afterwards we went back to Pappy and Harriet's where Skye and I demolished a whole rack of ribs, then we all headed back to the hot tub for our last night in Joshua Tree where we met two crazy old broads who break into hotel hot tubs on the regular. I had an underwater camera so we all decided to swim in the pool and take some photos, but it's February in the desert... We all lined up along the pool's edge, jumped in, and immediately jumped right back out screaming our heads off as we ran back to the hot tub. A security guard quickly showed up and kicked us all out. Woke up bright and early Monday morning and headed back over to Queen's ranch. Jim was waiting for us in his hot tub drinking a mug full of something he claimed would put hair on my chest. As everyone was getting ready, cowboy Jim - wearing nothing but a robe and a mug of booze, took me for a little ride in his 1960's-something bright red pick-up truck after showing me around his beautiful desert ranch compound. He pretty much floored it right when we got on the main road, windows down, bombing down this hill, holding his mug of booze as he took sharp turns, then showed me this crazy rock house he called the Flinstone's place. Then we all headed out in the pick-up and horse trailer with his sweetheart ranch-hand Robert. After the shoot we left Joshua Tree and headed back to LA with 4 of us crammed in the back seat with bellies full of a delicious breakfast. After burritos in Santa Monica we headed out to the airport and I was sad to say goodbye to the City of Angels. It was a weekend that I'll remember forever, an amazing opportunity with an amazing group of people I hope to spend more time with again soon.

Shot with an Olympus XA with Kodak Ektar 100