My clients put a lot of trust in me. Enough trust to follow me onto a path that I say will lead into a great big canyon while admitting I’ve never actually walked the path myself, and I might not really be sure how far of a walk it is or how steep. I like to call it an adventure. After I propose this crazy idea I finish with “Would you like to go on an adventure?”
So this couple said yes to adventure. Which ended up being a good thing but didn’t seem that way for a while.
The canyon is Los Penasquitos canyon which I love to shoot in. When I first saw it it took my breath away, for real I gasped. You don’t see this kind of open space in San Diego. I found it by trying to find different places to go running so I google-mapped it and kind of found my own trail head. I parked in a nice neighborhood and took this fire road that turned into a trail straight down into this canyon. But it was steep and took some time to get in and out. In past photo shoots I’ve left completely starving and out of breath.
This photo shoot I decided to take a chance and see what more popular trail heads there were. I picked one that seemed popular, emailed the clients and again reminded them that I’ve never been on this particular trail. Adventure right?
We met up and started walking. The trail was along the top of the canyon and far enough away that we couldn’t actually see it. Along side us was tons of construction for a road and houses which looked pretty darn ugly. So we walked at a brisk pace trying to make good time, we walk and we talk and we walk and now it’s been about 30 minutes and the scenery hasn’t changed and I’m getting nervous. A mountain biker is coming towards us so I ask how far until the trail goes down to the canyon? One mile. Crap.
So I love to think positive and I believe my thinking morphs whats up ahead in life whether metaphorically or literally to my advantage. My positive thinking was pumping and just around the next corner, was not the trail to the canyon but some scenery I could work with.
And we began the session, we were photographing all over the place. Laughing and having a grand ole time like we never walk a mile through construction with no end in sight.
Then the last photo we did was this one. I couldn’t have been happier. So when you least expect right? Positive thinking folks, that’s the magic trick. Also awesome clients help too! We were having a blast just talking to each other and agreeing that it must be around the next corner. Eventually we were all right.
