For most of my life, I've driven (or been driven) past the dry Owens Valley lakebed twice each year and longed to get out there and take photos. When we started doing outdoor pole shoots the itch got worse - what a location! The ever-changing high desert skies, the Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance, the lakebed stretching out to the horizon... well finally, we put together a test shoot for an outdoor aerial photo project we're tentatively calling Aerial Nomad. This is the first piece of that project.
Initially, we tried to invite a ton of people to come play since the weather was looking good and we had all the permits in place (no run & gun necessary, for once) - but we could only get the invites out last minute so in the end, only our good friend J. Rose Delima and her partner Jeff could come. As it turned out though, that was a good thing.
Getting to this location is a story all in itself, but I'm too anxious to get to the actual images to spend much time telling it! Suffice it to say two weeks' worth of permitting, insurance wrangling, three hours of highway driving and at least two hours of rally-worthy speeding through deep sand and brush and raging winds to find a proper spot went into these photographs. The incoming storm made for great clouds but the wind was insane! We were all thoroughly exhausted by the time the color faded from the sky and we made it back to the highway. However, I think the results made it worth the slightly crazy adventure.
You might note that since I am in about half of these images, for the first time they are ALL shot by Joe! I only fired about five frames the whole time - too much crazy costume changing in the wind!
Enjoy~
Iris
