I said I wanted to share more about shooting Ends of the Earth! It's been a hectic few weeks for me but I finally go to sit down and work on a blog for a bit. Yay! As soon as I heard about @campSG and the self-shot contest, I knew I wanted to shoot a backpacking set. Both because backpacking is one of my favorite things and to show off the beautiful new places I've been getting to explore in Utah.
Some set specific logistics:
A couple things made getting ready to shoot difficult for me: I got a roller skating injury shortly before I intended to shoot my set. I couldn't really hike for a bit, and my butt wasn't really in good condition for a photoshoot anyway haha (there's a pic of my road rash a bit further back on my profile aha) . The temperatures in southern Utah also get really hot early in the spring season! By the time my butt was healed enough to shoot, temps were already getting well into the 90s. Rough weather to load up a pack full of camera gear! And finally....Due to shooting a longer nude set (SG sets are 40-60 images), I knew I needed to find a spot where I felt confident I could shoot without being interrupted for 2-3 hours, which meant planning for a decently long hike on less-populated trails.
Thankfully my butt did heal enough to hike and shoot while still being within the timeframe of the contest! I was planning to shoot on a Tuesday (less foot traffic on trails during the week!), but the Friday before we ended up getting a really nice temperature drop so I hastily packed up all my stuff and ran out onto the trail I picked to try and find a suitable location. Unfortunately, the trade off of the cooler weather was TONS of wind! This made hiking in and out really difficult as the wind was blowing sand everywhere (SoUtah is part of the Mojave desert. We have....a lot of sand). Thankfully the spot where I shot my set offered enough protection from the sand! The wind did continue to make things difficult throughout the shoot. I brought an old phone I keep as a backup to try and take a timelapse of my shoot. The wind kept blowing it over though, so no timelapse unfortunately..
Here's what the wind looked like on my hike in and out!
Self-shooting is difficult in general...you can't always tell what you look like from the camera's angle, you are constantly back and forth to adjust angles, you have no one else to keep an eye out for other people if you're shooting outside, making sure the camera is focused correctly can be difficult, etc etc etc.
While this was probably the most challenging self-shoot I've done, I really enjoyed it and I'm glad SG gave me the push I needed to submit a self-shot set! I've always wanted to submit one. I have one more in the queue now and I imagine will shoot more in the future since I have too many set ideas queued up!
and if you aren't familiar with @CampSG yet you should check it out and join a troop! I'm in Troop @lemon and you can check it out here if you want to join us!
And if you haven't seen my set yet, or maybe you'd like to give it another visit, Ends of the Earth would love your support!
@lemon @penny @missy
