Episode 25- Shooting Again with Ms. Emily and Creating Art in Some Crazy Places

Listen to Jason's latest episode where he teams up again for some shoots with his long time Assistant and Muse Emily Rinaldo. In Episode 25 Jason updates you on the recent shoots he's been able to do with Emily as they've gone through the California desert and beach creating some more beautiful work.

Locations include San Onofre Beach, Jacumba Hot Springs, Salton Sea, Niland, Salton Beach and El Centro. Jason shares his adventures in speaking with the locals in these crazy locations and how you can create art in some crazy locations.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
What is up, guys. This is Jason Lender with jas
Lennar Unfiltered. I'm very excited to do this podcast. I'm
very excited to be talking to you guys again. It's
been a good minute since I've last spoken with you,
and I have some explaining to do for that. I
apologize for Batardi on the podcast. It's just been crazy

(00:33):
the last couple of months. Well it it's been about
four or five weeks since I've done a podcast, so
shame on me, and thanks for sticking around. But we're
gonna have a fun time here and I'm very excited
to have you. This is a episode twenty five of
Jason Lennar Unfiltered. Super grateful to be here with you
guys today. Today we have quite a bit to talk about.

(00:55):
To be honest with you, I shot again with miss
Emily Amazing, the incredible Misse Emily, and so I have
to fill you guys in on that because that's just,
you know, that's pretty newsworthy in Jason Lanier for Doorland.
So I'm gonna fig you in with that, fill you
in on that, I should say, and uh, something that

(01:17):
we were talking about which is really funny that I'm
gonna talk about is creating art where sometimes other people
commit crimes. So I kind of like that phrase, so
I have to explain that a little bit. But I
do tend to like to create art where others commit crimes,

(01:37):
and I don't know, it's just what I'm kind of
drawn to. I don't necessarily think I want to be
shooting in places that are are are full of criminals,
but those places usually look really cool. So I'm gonna
talk about that, guys. So just thanks, thanks again for
sticking around. It's it's been. It's been a journey and

(02:00):
I'm glad to be here with you guys. So I'm
gonna fie you in. I want up what I've been
doing the last couple of weeks, and then I'm gonna
talk about miss Emily, and then we're gonna talk about
some of the crazy shoots that we did, and then
and then we're gonna just talk about beautiful mysteries and
all that other kind of stuff. So at any rate, welcome,
thanks for being here. One thing that's really cool that

(02:23):
I should mention is I've started been I started beIN there.
You go, Jason, good job with the English language. I
have been scheduling workshops again, so slowly but surely, we're
getting back to some semblance of normal normalcy here in
the world. So if you guys are interested in the workshops,
because I do get questioned about this quite a bit.
If you want to check out the workshops, go to

(02:43):
Jason Lineer dot com slash register. I have workshops that
are already scheduled. We have Photo con Kentucky, which is
its own boutique convention just for you guys and me.
It's gonna be awesome August twenty eighth and twenty ninth
out in Frankfurt, Canucky, which is nestled like a baby
riding between frank Louisville and Lexington, So you can fly

(03:07):
into Lexington or Louisville and you can spend two days
with me for what would normally cost you a lot
of money, and it's not gonna cost you much at
all because it's a convention. So we're gonna limit it
to a certain amount of people, and we already have
a beautiful place called the Foundry that we're gonna be
shooting it at. I just got back from Kentucky after
having done some promo work for this event. Big thanks
to my man Jim out there for help me with that.

(03:30):
And we're gonna be doing a lot of other fun stuff.
I'm gonna be doing Vegas for WPPI in mid August,
and then we're moving on to Seattle, Boston and New
York in September, and I'm pegging October COVID contingent. I'm
pegging that to be a lot of the makeup workshops

(03:52):
that we were supposed to do in twenty twenty. We're
gonna be doing like Minicitaly, Paris, France, London, those kinds
of places. I still have to get Australia back on
the map as soon as they open their country, their
beautiful island back up to people like me. And some
exciting news is if you guys may or may not know,

(04:12):
I was supposed to do Egypt in twenty twenty. December
twenty twenty, I was supposed to do Egypt, and we
had so much of it lined up and then freaking
COVID just kept lingering. So I have re engaged with
the individuals that are helping me form formulate a trip
over there. We're going to go to Cairo, Luxtore, Oswan.

(04:35):
We're talking get. It's gonna be awesome, dude, like getting.
But we're working with the Tourism Agency of Egypt because
I'm not gonna like go over there and like try
to sneak into the freaking Sphinx or the Geza Pyramids.
I ain't doing it. So long story short, it's gonna

(04:57):
be awesome. And I was even talking with the last
night about this. There's a guy named over there named Maggot,
and he's helping me out with this, and he has
his own travel agency and business and it's gonna be awesome.
I'm really excited about it. And I was even talking
to him about going to the city of Petra and Jordan,
And if you guys don't know what that is, take
a little little lookie poo up on Google and check

(05:20):
that mother freaker out. This is freaking Raiders of the
Lost Arc, beautiful stuff, and I am beyond excited if
you can't tell to do it. So we're lining up
models out there, we're lining up some little seminars and stuff,
and it's so funny. I was talking to Maggot about
it and he's like, Okay, well, what kind of accommodations

(05:41):
do you want? And I said, you know, I don't
need fancy, remember Indiana Jones, Man, I just want the adventure.
I don't even care as long as it's safe. And
you know that's kind of an interesting that's kind of
relative with me. But as long as it's safe, let's
do it, baby, let's roll. So if you can't tell,
I'm excited. Egypt has been on my to do list

(06:03):
top three to do list forever and I'm going to
be knocking some of this stuff off. I'm going to
be knocking it off. I'm really trying to get something
booked for Chernobyl. I'm really excited to do this stuff.
And so if you guys are interested, you can join
me on some of these adventures and it would be awesome.
So even looking at Kenya, so lots of fun stuff
up on the menu for yours truly, So stand in

(06:27):
the look out my friends. People ask me all the time.
I released a video about my weight loss journey. So
things are really moving from me, no pun intended. Today
as we speak is day two to five in a
row of me doing ten thousand or more steps and
it's changing my freaking vita loca. It's I love it.
I love what I'm doing. If you guys are up

(06:50):
to date on my ig TV and on YouTube. I
released a video about three weeks ago that marked the
sixth month point of me doing ten thousand or more
steps per day, every day consecutively without freaking stopping. And
when I started this journey, guys, this was back in

(07:11):
late September of twenty twenty. So I'm going on, what
are we at now? I'm well, geez, wow, that's ten
months almost. It'll be ten months at the end of
this month that I've been working at this, So about
nine and a half months i've been working on this.
And when I started that in late September, I was
at two sixty four. That's where I was at and today,
as we speak, it's day two oh five. But I

(07:32):
can't make this up. I'm at two five today, so
I've dropped about sixty pounds as of today, which is
my lowest mark. I'm currently at my lowest mark in
about four to five years, which is really really cool.
My all time highest weight ever was two ninety two
when I was really tipping the scales and I had,
you know, every time I was driving on the highway,

(07:53):
I'd have to pull over Okay, I'll stop making jokes.
I was kinda sayd to go on the truck scales.
But my biggest memory of all of that was I
was in Alaska and this is about eight nine years ago,
and my mom took a picture of me that to
this day is haunting because I look like the Staypuff

(08:14):
marshmallow Man for those who remember Ghostbusters, and I look awful.
Just to be honest, and so I deal with some
of my insecurities with weight loss by having a little
bit of levity. And I hope you guys can appreciate that.
I'm certainly not making fun of overweight people. It's been
the struggle of my life. My hip plus my ankles

(08:37):
plus my way equals Jason's struggles. Take away those things. Baby,
I got it. I got it in spades, It got it,
got it, got life, got everything. So anyway, I was
two ninety two and I was down in Homer, Alaska,
and I went to a bar down in Why did

(08:57):
Jason go to a bar, mister diet Well, I was curious.
It sounded like a cool picture spot. So Homer, Alaska
doesn't have a lot going on, and that's where they
do a lot of the Deadliest catching that kind of stuff.
So I was, I was down in Homer and I
walked into a bar by myself, and I go in there,
and it's really cool because it's one of those kind

(09:18):
of bars where they put the dollar bills up all
over the place. They have another one out the Salt
and Sea is kind of like it, but this place
is the Salty Dog Saloon, famous place. There's all sorts
of stuff made up about it, not made up, but
you know, written up about it, and hoodies and blah
blah blah. Anyway, I go in there because I'm supposed
to go on a bear excursion. I'm supposed to go

(09:39):
shoot the bears for the first time out and cap
my Alaska. And in order to do so, you have
to go way in. Well, they don't have a lot
of places in Homer, Alaska to run these tours, and
so they're running it kind of out of this little
Salty Dog saloon, which is hilarious. So I go in
to pay the fee and it's like six hundred dollars
to go on this bear excursion, and again with inflation

(10:00):
now that would be six thousand thanks to everything going
on in the world right now. But I'll leave that alone.
And so I'm in there, and now I know that
my big boy, my big boy butt is two ninety two, okay,
when Columbus selled the ocean blue. And I am going

(10:21):
in there now, mind you, I have snow boots on
poncho blah blah blah. And I didn't know at the
time that you could only be three hundred pounds to
go on one of these cessnas, these seaplanes that land
on the ocean and take you into Bear Country, Grizzly
Bear Country. And so I can't tell you the feeling

(10:42):
it felt like when I walk into that place and
I'm filling out the forms and it says right on
there in big bold letters, Hey, if you have a
three hundred pounds, you can't do this. That's the max
weight capacity we can handle it in the plane per passenger.
So I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the Santa
Marie little Bit moment. I mean, I'm really I don't
know what I'm gonna do. So guys, if you were

(11:06):
there with me, you would laugh at it with me too.
I go and stand on the scale and I'm looking
down as this thing. It seems like it's turning. You know,
it's one of those old school scales that has the
you know, the medical scales. It's not like a digital one.
So it seems like you just won't stop turning. And
I'm like, oh my gosh, Jason, you should have laid
off X, Y or Z whatever you ate last night.

(11:26):
And I'm watching this thing go up and up and
up and it goes to two ninety eight. Okay. The
lady looked at me and she goes, wow. She goes,
you barely made it, and I said, yeah, you're right.

(11:48):
I did barely make it. And I'm embarrassed and I
have like sweat coming off of me. And she's like,
she said something to the effect of, hey, Tony, too
much before tomorrow when we go on the excursion. I said,
are you kidding? I'm not eating anything. So anyway, that
was my big wake up moment. If this is going

(12:11):
to prohibit me from being able to do these adventures
that I want to do, not to mention the physical wellbeing,
not to mention the effect it has on my ankles,
and blah blah blah. This is going to be me
and if I want to live this Indiana Jones kind
of life, got to lose weight. So that's what I'm
that's what I'm still working on. So when I hit

(12:33):
one ninety two, my fine feathered friends, when I hit
it one ninety two, which is let me do the math,
that's five, that's eight, that's thirteen pounds from now, I'm
gonna have a big, mother freaking celebration because that's one
hundred pounds that I will have lost in totality from
my highest point, and so I'm super excited about that.

(12:54):
I'm trying to get down to about one eighty five
twenty five, so I'm thinking about twenty pounds for my
current weight. And just to keep myself honest with you guys,
I'm gonna post a picture on my Instagram. It's a
progress picture. You're gonna look at me. I'm wearing a
nice blue shirt, so you'll know I'm not making stuff up.
I'm wearing a blue shirt today and it's just a
T shirt and just a little selfie I did in

(13:14):
the bathroom. It's totally a guy's bathroom. MA can tell
because there's nothing else in there except the picture that
I took in the Virgin Islands a number of years ago.
So at any rate, go check it out. And I
only share this stuff because I understand what it's like
to struggle with obesity and being overweight and physical disabilities
and being legally handicapped. And I hope that my journey

(13:38):
and my stubbornness to refuse to quit, I hope that
that inspires other people out there, and that's why I share.
So we're gonna take a quick commercial break. Guys, if
you're like me, when you listen to podcasts, all you
have to do is hit that arrow button that has
a thirty second thing, So just go ahead and skip
through the commercials. But I have to do these, but

(14:00):
if you're like me, you're gonna skip them anyway. So
we'll be right back. We're going to take a quick
commercial break, and then we're going to talk about all
this craziness with me shooting Miss Emily. Stay tuned, all right,
my friends, welcome back. I'm very, very excited to talk
about just everything that's gone on with shooting. For the

(14:23):
very few, I think the vast majority of people in
f door Land obviously know who Miss Emily is. She
was my assistant muse for two years, and honestly, I
got to say together we created some of the most
beautiful work I've ever done. Well, what some of you
guys may not know out there is Emily is also well.
We all know she's intelligent, but you may not know

(14:45):
that she's a She has a master's degree from a
very good school, and she's a she's a well educated
speech pathologist. So Miss Emily enjoys being both a creator
and also being a speech pathologist. So pretty much after
so two years of craziness with me, she went back
to doing speech pathology again and we both kind of
had an agreement that when COVID nineteen, when some of

(15:07):
the madness kind of subsided a bit, we would create again.
And that's what we've done. It's been really awesome. I mean,
between my travel schedule and her going back to speech,
finding that opportunity to create again isn't always easy, but man,
we find it. It's incredible. And so she had a
two week break recently and she and I reached out

(15:31):
to each other and I happened to have a break
where I wasn't traveling, so it worked out fantastic, and
over the last two weeks we've really created some really
epic stuff. We've been able to get together both weekends
and shoot and we've done about four or five shoots
in that time together and that has been absolutely incredible.

(15:52):
I just got to say, if you guys are listening
to this, and if you haven't had a chance to
check it out, we've already released a video on this.
We did the ultimate guy to shooting flash with road
a light and even if you're not a shooting flash
with rodal light kind of a person, you should watch
the video. It's really fun and you can see just
how much fun we have creating together. And so you

(16:14):
can check that out on either ig TV or on YouTube.
And if you check out the comments on YouTube, especially,
y'all are super excited that that me and Emmy were
able to create together again, which is really cool. So
so what do we do on these five shoots? What
do we do? So that's what we're going to talk about.
First off, we did awesome stuff, but that's not a shocker.

(16:38):
We met up in Santa No Fray and went down
the beach there. Santa No Fray is next to Now
this is gonna sound funny, it's next to San Clemente,
which is in Orange County. It's in between La Orange
Counties in between La County and San Diego County. So
if you go up the five Freeway, for those folks
who are familiar with Southern cal if you go up

(17:00):
the five freeway past Ocean Side, north of Ocean Side,
next to Camp Pendleton, which is Germane to this conversation,
you will find Santa No Frey and it's a beautiful beach.
They have beautiful cliffs there. And so we met up
there and walked down the cliffs to this beach area.

(17:20):
And this this beach area we walked down I don't know,
I'm gonna guess half mile maybe Corey maybe a half
mile down to this area where somebody had built Like
I was joking around, thinking, you know, this is like
a naked and afraid somebody had made some little hut

(17:41):
at uh in this on this beach and left it there.
But it really looks like that. Guys like survivorman survivor
woman survivor whatever. Uh, somebody built a shack out of
driftwood and other stuff. But it's like a little hut,
like you know, like a little cave thing. But it's
right there on the ocean or on the beach, I
should say, not on the ocean that really wouldn't work.

(18:03):
So we found it. We started shooting, and dude, I
gotta tell you, man, it was like five minutes, in
two minutes, in maybe thirty seconds, and it was like, oh, cool,
well we're back. We're back to shooting really cool stuff again,
really cool stuff again, and that I gotta be awesome.
I gotta be honest with you. It was. It was amazing.

(18:25):
And the best way to describe it is like a band.

Speaker 2 (18:28):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
It's it's like having a really successful band that had
a great run and then every now and and again
we get together and play some jams. That's awesome, it
really is. And I gotta say, when we play our music,
the notes are fluid, they're easy to find in, the
melodies are harmonic. It's honestly a blast. And so we did.
We did so many beautiful sets down there. She had

(18:54):
a number of different outfits we shot. There was this
large log that was it was really freaking perfect. Dude.
There was this large log in front of this hut
thing and I've already posted one shot of this. I'll
post some more, but we got some just we created
some incredible work. And so what is one of the

(19:17):
memorable memories of there Is For those of you guys
who have been following along on my adventures, I've been
running around with this freaking drone everywhere and so Emily,
Emmy and I never really did a lot of drone
work together. I don't I don't remember whether or not
we actually did, but regardless, it's not something that if

(19:38):
we did, it was very rare. But so I popped
this drone up in the air and I'm I'm telling them,
I'm like, you know, this is probably a restricted zone
because we're next to Camp Pendleton. And as soon as
I popped that thing in the air, I'm trying to
get footage of it, fly back and forth to h
to feelm what we're doing, And sure enough and goes.

(20:02):
It has this thing talking about us being in a
restricted zone and it's going to force a landing. So
I'm trying to record all this footage that I can
before it forces a landing. So anyways, that was a great,
great time down at their Survivor Man Survivor Woman's shack.
It was awesome. Another memorable moment down there is there
were sheepskin It was like it was like being on
the hills of Ireland, Ireland or whatever. I don't know

(20:25):
where that accent came from, but it was like on
the hills of Ireland. What am I a leprecun pretty
funny stuff, but there are these beautiful cliffs, and if
you have been to Ireland there is there are some
beautiful cliffs called the Cliffs of More. And the reason
I mentioned any of that is because there were the

(20:45):
lifeguards were going by and it looked like they were
picking up like dead sheepskin. It was really really funny.
Em and I were joking around about that, so it
was it was a good time, really really good time.
The following day we go and we shoot, and we're
going and we're down in an area of southern California.

(21:06):
Now we've gone from Orange County, which is mid southern California,
if that makes sense. Southern California pretty much encompasses everything
from La to San Diego. For those who are not
in the know with California, Orange County is right in
the smack dab middle of that. San Diego's at the bottom,
Alley's at the top. So now we've gone past San
Diego and we've gone east towards the border South southeast really,

(21:32):
and so now we're in an area called Jacumba, Hakumba
if you are speaking Espanol, and we've gone down to Hakumba,
Jacumba and we're rolling around. It's an area that she
and I are both familiar with. We've actually done a
video number of years ago down a Jacumba and we
shot at this place. This video is up on YouTube

(21:52):
as well, but this is a long time ago. But
we shot in this area called Jakumba, and we did
a video at this old cycle commune. Okay, it's it
has it has a couple of houses, it has a silo,
it has a barn, and we went and we hung
out shooting there for oh my gosh, I don't know,
five six hours. This is This is a couple of

(22:14):
years ago. And then recently when I did my Border documentary,
I went back there to see if there was anything
related to border activity occurring in these abandoned houses or
this abandoned commune. And that's important to the conversation or
to the story that I'm telling because of the fact
that this is only this this this commune, whatever you

(22:40):
want to call it, Jim Jones, whatever it is, it
was only it is, I should say, only it's got
to be less than a mile from the actual border wall,
so you can easily see the border wall from this area.
And so I've been down there with Emmy a couple
of years ago, and I went down there by myself
for the Border Dot coumentary just a couple months ago.

(23:02):
No problem, it's nothing. Well, you put me and Emmy
together and it equals cops. Okay. So it's really funny
because we we kind of drove into Jakumba. We're kind
of looking around at some abandoned buildings and stuff, and
we're like, Okay, this could be cool, this could be cool.
And we're talking about this red little building that's out
there that could be really fun to shoot. And then

(23:23):
we drive past this and Emmy says to me in
classic she says, Jason, do not get me arrested. I'm like, okay,
no problem, no problem. And so you guys can kind
of see I'm foreshadowing a little bit. And so we're
driving around, driving around, driving around, and we pull into

(23:44):
this structure, this commune again, and it's now, I'll be
honest with you, it's an open road. We're not like
going over fances. We're not going anything. It's just a
freaking commune on a dirt road. Well, we pull in
and no sooner than I'd pulled in, and I had
been about all good, good grief ten seconds fifteen seconds
on the road, and and dude, we had a border patrol,

(24:09):
this big husky dude pulling up behind us in a
border patrol vehicle. Then we have freaking Starsky and hutch
coming through. Duke's a hazard style in an old beat
up black Ford Explore or something like that. But it
looked like something that they confiscated from a drug lord,
because it looks like something that you would use for
running drugs. And it's piling over. They ripped the hood,

(24:32):
not the hood, the front bumper off of it. And
Amy's like, I bet they ripped that thing off so
they can just drive over anything they want. And I said,
I think you're right. And so they pull us off.
We have three border patrol show up, and I'm thinking,
oh my gosh, guys, with everything going on, you're pulling
us over. Come on now. And so that led to

(24:52):
a very overly drawn out conversation. But because we are
not breaking any laws, and because of the fact that,
you know, border patrol is really their their job and
jurisdiction is to actually I don't know patrol the border.
Then we didn't have any problems. So I just remember
I got out of the car and I was talking

(25:15):
by my own volition. I didn't get out like it
wasn't arresting me or anything like that. I got out
of the car and I'm talking to the guy because
he wanted me to get IDs or something. So I
got out to get it. And so because ID was
in a backpack, and so got out and got some
IDs and gave it to him and it just talked
to him. And it's funny, guys, when you get any situations,

(25:35):
just talk to people. Just talk, and you're gonna see
that that's a common thread with everything that we did
and that I do on all these travels and I
go on. So at any rate, they wished us well,
no citations, nothing, We were just fine. But I remember
standing out there when this was happening, and I'm like,
you gotta be kidding me. Emily just said this to me.

(25:58):
It's just gonna murder me. Now. I will say, when
I was talking to em she said, I said, well,
we could go back there. She's like, a let's it'll
be a fine let's go. So you get us two
troublemakers together. You never know what will happen if you
only knew. Some of the other stories that I have
never told you guys, are the stuff that we've done
that's really fun, but I'll save that for another day.

(26:20):
But at any rate, really great time. So that that's
important because after that happened, we had planned on shooting
down there in Jakumba, and I'm like, okay, well, I
mean Jakumba is so close to the border. Now now
we risk having the problem of I don't know, the
border patrol harassing us the whole time, and we didn't

(26:42):
want to deal with that. So I was like, yo,
you know what, the Sultancy is only two hours away.
Why don't we just go to Sultanca. She's like, yeah,
let's do it, because we didn't want to mess with it.
So obviously Emily and I have done epic stuff, historic
stuff out of the Sultancy. So we went out there.
It's one hundred and fifteen degrees. Who shoots a one
hundred and fifteen degrees and makes amazing stuff? Well, we do,

(27:03):
and so we went out there, and to be honest
with you, there's so many places that we've shot out there.
I didn't want to just rehash it. I just didn't
want to redo it. And so we pulled up into
this area that is there's a border patrol check station.
As you come up from Nyland, there's a border patrol
check station there. And just as you passed that border

(27:25):
patrol check station, there is a there's a Boa boat ramp,
but you would never know it's a boat ramp. This
is from forty years ago. It was a boat ramp, okay.
And so you take this road I think it's called
the Nyland Boat Ramp if I'm not mistaken, because that's
near an island and you go down this ramp and
it's about a mile or two down and there's these

(27:47):
old structures. A number of years ago we did a
workshop down there, which was really fun. That's a we
did like a blue shoot with him, which was really cool.
But we go down and obviously leave the car running.
Emily's get ready and putting on makeup and do it,
just doing her best the thing that she does, which
looks amazing and does amazing work. And I'm running around

(28:10):
like a crazy man in one hundred and fifteen degree heat.
She probably has to think I'm hallucinating because I'm running
around doing my jazzy jazz fingers with my rings. That's
how I think. That's how I create. For those who
have been with me, when you see me do it.
And I'm running around and there's this telephone pole, and
there's this beautiful telephone pole sitting there, and I'm running

(28:33):
around finding props, and this is what I love to do.
I love to find things and create and create something
out of nothing. To me, that's so empowering. It's so
easy to buy a bunch of stuff, but it's much
more difficult and it's much more rewarding in my humble opinion,
to create something out of nothing, and to create something

(28:53):
that is truly organic and germane to that given environment.
To me, that's that's beautiful and I love that. And
so there's a telephone pole. M's wearing this really pretty
yellow dress that she got. I think she got it thrifting.
Almost everything she gets is thrifting. And so and she
put together this really pretty like a belt, and just

(29:17):
everything she does is just awesome. You guys know that.
And so she stood on top of this telephone pole
and then there was these cables that came out and
she would hold onto the cables. I fired the flash.
Everything was overheating, by the way, the cameras were overheating.

(29:38):
We're using a mono light. The mono light, the eighty
six hundred was overheating. What a shocker. In fact, it
was so hot out there that we had to take breaks,
not just for us so we didn't burn alive out there,
but also so the gear would work. The gear would
literally shut off. It was problematic. So we kept going in,
going out, going in, going out of the car just

(30:00):
kept the car running the whole time. And I was like,
are you sure you got enough gas? I don't want
to run out of gas out here, and I'm like, no,
we're good, We're good. So we did a really cool
shoot there and that was really rewarding and it was
matching tones. So when you guys are out there shooting,
try to match tones with location, with wardrobe, with props,
and try to bring it all together for some really

(30:23):
beautiful work. Now, next to this telephone pole was a
chain link fence. Now, there was one section of the
chain link fence that was still standing up. It was
still erect, but then there was the vast majority of
the chain link fence was had fallen down years and
years and years of disrepair, decay, abandonment, all of the above.

(30:46):
And so I'm sitting there getting my fitness Fedora program
going on, and I'm lifting up this chain link fence
that had that had a barbed wire on the top,
and so I'm scuffing up my hands a little bit.
Not the end of the world. But we Emily put
on this blue dress and we got a we have

(31:09):
a glue gun where she has a glue gun. She
has a glue gun where she's putting on I have
a power inverter in the car. She's got the glue
gun hooked into the power inverter, and then she's gluing
stuff onto the hat. And to her credit, every time
I shoot, one thing that you guys should know is
every time I shoot, she's very cognizant of where the
light is and which way she's going to be turning

(31:31):
to the light. It's one of the things I really appreciate.
I appreciate shooting her is her consciousness of the product
that we're creating, the output that we're creating and how
her part of it really plays into my part of it.
And so as an example, she's very mindful of where

(31:56):
to put the flowers in the hat. She wore a
hat for this one with the blue dress, and it
was a great hat. I already posted a picture of
this on Instagram that got a ton of likes. I
like a five thousand likes. That was awesome, and we
put that up and I just love how it came out,
came out really really beautiful. But it's amazing because what
I want you to understand is for me, you know,

(32:18):
five thousand likes is a great result from posting an image.
And this is simply a model. Emily's not simply a model.
You guys get my point. But this is this is
a model in the desert in front of a chain
link fence. No fancy setup, no fancy background. I mean,

(32:38):
the background's pretty, it's the desert. But the point is
we created some art and it was out of nothing,
just by pulling up a fence off the dirt. And
it's about being willing to deal with the elements and
deal with the heat, and to do things that other
people won't do, and that to me, is so important

(33:00):
with the act of creation. If you want it, you
have to do something many times that many people are
unwilling to do. And we created some beautiful work out there,
so that was awesome. I was really really excited about
that shoot. We pulled off two different looks without really
having to move the car at all, and it was great,

(33:21):
absolutely great. The next day we went out to the
other side of the Sultan Sea because again we wanted
to steer clear of any more Jakumba border patrol guys,
and we went to the Sultan Beach, which is on
the other side of the Sultan Sea, in a scenario
that Emily and I haven't ever shot at. So that
was really fun. And we found an abandoned building that

(33:43):
was full of graffiti, what a shocker. But it was
full of tires. And the really cool thing about this
place was the tires have been painted like the ridges
in between the tires, and we're talking anywhere from automotives
to huge tractor tires, and so it's really a beautiful backdrop.

(34:04):
And this is gonna sound gross, just the fire warning here,
but this factory thing had bird stuff on it. Obviously
there's birds you know in any band in place, they're
seeking shelter, salt and sea blahdah blah blah blaha. But
as crazy as it sounds and as gross as you
guys may go when I say this, it added like

(34:25):
a texture to the environment and the outfit. Emily wore
like earthy tones like a green and beige or brown
skirt in the top and really looks amazing and she
were this really pretty a beige hat and she actually
repurposed that from something else that we had done. And

(34:47):
again another credit to her for finding ways to make
something work more than once. Is another way to not
only create, but also to maximize and get the most
out of your supplies. So if you guys want to
see that, even if you don't shoot road a light again,
that's a really fun video. And playing with the drone
in there, I did crash the drone, So I did

(35:10):
crash the drone in there, and so there's a little
bit of that that went on, but got some really
fun footage. People have really responded positively to the videos,
so if you haven't had a chance to go check
it out the comments on there, it's clear how much
you guys like ceing them. In the video again and
it was super fun to do. So that was the
first set. Then I went to Kentucky. I had to

(35:32):
do some Like I said, the promo worked for photocon Kentucky.
And when I came back, she and I connected again
for another shoot, and so this time we wanted to
do something different, and so we went out the same direction.
We took off from San Diego and went out east
towards El Centro. Okay, and El Centro if you guys

(35:55):
don't know where that is. Of course, everybody has Google
these days. By the time I say all of this,
you could google it if you really are that, if
you really have to know. But El Centro's in between Uma.
It's about the halfway point in between Yuma and San Diego.
And so maybe even more now I think about it
because I think seeing signs, it's only like sixty miles

(36:17):
from Yuma. So never mind, it's almost to Arizona. It's
a ways. So we went out there. And the reason
I was going out there is I googled some stuff
and I had found that there was an old film
set for the movie American Sniper, and so Clint Eastwitted
filmed movie out there. And I'm like, well, jeez, if
they can make that thing, that place look like Iraq,
this could be pretty cool. Well, so Em and I

(36:41):
drove out there and this was nuts. Guys. Now I'm
about to tell you some funny stories from this El
Centro shoot. But we get out there again, it's blazing
hot again. Now I just want to say one thing.
I never take people, especially I don't take him into

(37:04):
places I know would present any danger to them. I don't,
so if I think there's any sort of a danger,
I try to do everything that I can to make
sure that they're safe while I go do the stupid stuff.
And in fact, when I do any of this stuff,
I tell em, hey, you can stay in the car.
In fact, I prefer you stay in the car, you
lock the doors. If something happens, just leave. And it
was so cute. I was like, you want me to

(37:25):
just leave you? And I said, I'll be all right.
You can come back in like thirty forty minutes, give
me a call on my cell, just whatever, and I'll
make it. Don't worry. I'm like a cockroach in that regard,
Like I can just like survive a nuclear blast. So
whatever goes down, you take off. So I say all
of that because we're out there, and I leave him

(37:48):
in the car and I'm just walking around and I'm
not leaving her in some crazy area, guys. It's just
she's out in front of this milk factory and I'm
walking around to kind of some of the back of
the house, kind of places where there could be ne'er
do wills. And so I walked back there and there's
this guy back there named John. And the minute I
walk on, you know, I have my typical smile going

(38:10):
on on my face. This John guy says, hey, what
are you doing here? And I said, well, I'm I'm
looking around. What do you drive? What do you mean
what do I drive? What kind of car do you drive?
A truck? What kind of truck? A silver truck? When

(38:30):
you want to know what kind of truck I drive?
Then he's like what kind of making model is it?
And I said, well, how about we do this? Why
don't you come out and walk with me and see
the truck that I'm driving if it's that important to you.
So he goes, well, well, who are you What are
you doing here? And I said, and I'm like, well,
who are you?

Speaker 2 (38:47):
Man?

Speaker 1 (38:48):
I mean, this guy's not wearing a uniform or anything.
He just he was a nice guy. So I'm not
going to make jokes, but we're I just said, come
on out with me, brother, and so we walk out,
and then there then he sees me truck and he goes, oh, okay, okay,
I feel better. Now, I'm glad you feel better. What
was that all about? And he goes, oh, we just
had a truck driving around causing his troubles. And I said, okay, well,

(39:11):
I'm a photographer and I just came here see if
I could take some pictures. That's why I'm here. Oh
you're a photographer. Yeah. Well, you know, it's funny when
you tell somebody you're a photographer. You're either going to
get a very negative response because they're like, oh, you
guys are the ones that are always in here trying
to take pictures and always creating problems for us, or
you're gonna get people who are very interested in the

(39:32):
in photography, people tend to really like photography and photographers
in and of themselves. It's an interesting vocation, it's an
interesting profession. And so he and I made friends, even
though he gave me the third degree. Over my making
model of my vehicle. He he and I became friends,
and so he said, hey, I'm sure it'd be fine,

(39:54):
but I need you to go over and ask the
guy who runs the tow yard. I need you to
ask the guy who runs the tow yard if you're
able to shoot here. And I said, okay, well what's
his name? What his named Steve? Okay, where is it
down there? And I said that building. He goes, yeah,

(40:14):
it's called Camel Towing. Said are you serious and even laughed.
He because, yeah, I'm serious, I says, somebody actually named
their their their toe truck business Camel Towing. Dude, this
place has hills, have eyes all over it, and I'm

(40:34):
looking around and I'm like, I can't believe it. So
I popped my head in the car. I said, I'm
going to go talk to the guys at Camel Towing.
And she goes, what I said, yep, yep, I didn't
make up the name. I'm just repeating what I see.
And so I went down to this place, Cammeltowing, and
I start talking and I find first I'm looking for

(40:55):
they tell me to look for Steve. Steve's not there.
Then they tell me to try to find Mondo, and
I'm like, Mondo, what is this a surfer in a
Hawaii or something? And then as I'm talking to one guy,
he's like, yeah, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, you
can shoot? Really, yeah, go ahead, you shoot in the
buildings because apparently John is in security for all these buildings.
Now this is not technically like really hardcore security, Like

(41:18):
I don't even know if this is official security. I
don't know if this is squat or security. I don't
know what's going on. But you know, when in Rome,
do as the Romans do. So I sat there and
said okay, and so then as soon as I said that,
then the Steve guy shows up, who's the boss of Cammeltwing.
He comes out, he starts talking to me, and I'm

(41:40):
trying to get permission to shoot in these buildings. He says, well,
you can't shoot in the buildings that has these planks
out there. That later on, Emily and I saw there's
a junkyard dog that's on top of these planks that
runs around on the roof and barks at people. And
then Emily was making friends with the dog. That's another
story for another time. But I talked to Steve A. Cammeltoony,
I can't and he lets me. He says, yeah, go ahead,

(42:01):
you can shoot at the recycled building. And I said, well,
what about the milk factory where Clint Eastwood filmed. Then
he goes no, no, no, we're not in charge of
that building. I said, well that's where John was. He goes, well,
John kind of has his own thing. I'm like okay.
So then I go back and I told John. I said, hey,
just you know, Steve said we could shoot at the
recycle building. He goes okay, And I said, hey, what's
the deal with the milk factory? And he goes, oh, yeah,

(42:25):
this is I wouldn't go in there. And I said, well,
have you been in there? John? And he goes no.
I said, well, why haven't you been in here? You're
literally next door to it. And he says, well, I
haven't been in there because there's two guys, two brothers. Okay, Well,
what's the deal. Well, I've heard rumors that they're dismembering

(42:46):
bodies in there. What really they're dismembering bodies? Do you
ever see people like go in there? Do you ever
see like like victims get dragged in there. They dragged
him in the middle of the Night of the Vampires.
What's going on? He says, No, I just I've just
heard and then there was a smell. There was a

(43:07):
nasty smell coming from an abandoned building. Yeah, okay, well
I've never heard of that one before. Sarcasm if you
didn't catch that. But so you think that they're dismembering bodies,
why don't you guys call the cops. Oh well, I
don't know. Okay, Well that's good to know. I said. So,

(43:27):
now now you've piqued my curiosity. That's a problem for me. John,
Now I have to go find out. He goes, No, no, no,
don't go find out. I said, John, I'm pretty sure
they're not dismembering bodies in there. There'd be blood, there'd
be screams, there'd be victims, there'd be cops. There'd be
John Wayne Gacy, there'd be Ted Bundy, there'd be a
lot of stuff. He's like, I'm just telling you. I'm like,
all right. He goes, one of the brothers is this name, Maurice.

(43:49):
I said, okay, Well, anyways, I again left em in
the car and I said, I'm going to go try
to find a chair because we wanted a chair to
shoot in this abandoned recycle factory, which was really cool,
and so I there was no other place. We looked
for chairs, we looked for stuff, and I said, I'm
gonna go to the milk factory and look for a
chair or a bucket or a basket or something for
you to sit on. And so I walk into this

(44:13):
milk factory. I'm looking around, to my utter and disbelief.
Again Q sarcasm, there's no dismembered bodies there. There's nothing
so at any rate, it's just it's just an abandoned building,
so with you know, garbage and stuff in there. But
again no murder, no serial murder activities occurring. So I

(44:34):
walk back out. I am sitting in the car, still
getting ready. And the funny thing was, as I'm walking out,
my hair, what is going on? Who's whistling at me?
I'm not I've lost a lot of weight, but I
don't think somebody's whistling at me. Well it is Elsandro. Nevermind,
maybe somebody was whistling at me. And I said, who
is this? And then I looked down and every time

(44:57):
I've been walking by, apparently this more Reese guy. And
I'm being dead serious here, This Maurice guy is sitting
in some shade under like an old If memory serves correct,
it was like an old tractor trailer thing that was
just out there abandoned in the desert. But he's like
slumped in trash, and he's looking at me. And I

(45:19):
looked at him. I said, are you Maurice. He says yes,
And I said, well, nice to meet you, Maurice. I said,
I'm just looking for some stuff, so if you need anything,
let me know. Okay. So I went and found some

(45:41):
other just trash and stuff that I picked up kind
of like the same I'm talking about finding stuff and
building your sets, building your props, all that kind of stuff.
Put it in the back of the truck, and Emily
and I drove just about two blocks away to this
recycle factory. We get in this recycle factory and and

(46:02):
it's this partially burned out building. The wooden parts of
the building have been primarily burned out, but all of
the structure, the bones of the building, the concrete, the foundation,
all of that, the walls, everything else, the roof, everything
is fine. So we explore the place a little bit.
We go up to this there's this you go around
the back of the building inside and there you go

(46:24):
up this ladder and there's this loft looking thing where
some homeless person has a bed and or some squatter
and apparently they call that the pigeon's nest or the
pigeons roof or something. And so we go up, we
check it out. We're like cool, we find the spots
that we want to shoot, and we start to get
set up. Now in this place was a really cool staircase. Now,

(46:49):
to kind of help explain what the staircase looks like,
there's this big, beautiful green, blue kind of till wall
and it reminds me of a factory that you envisioned
from the nineteen eighties. So if you think of a
movie from the eighties, there's a staircase that goes up
the side of this wall that would have led to
like a manager's office or something, but at this point

(47:11):
in time, it's just this staircase that goes up and
there's a door that says no smoking on it, and
it goes into some sort of an office. Now, we
didn't even go in there. We didn't need to because
we saw the staircase, and it was beautiful and the
wall was so pretty, it was so texture and beautiful
and everything else. And so beneath the stairwell, you know,

(47:33):
where you would see the wood or whatever. The it
had a cabinet that opened up, a large cabinet. So
the vast majority of the bottom where the top was
the landing area for the stairs, was this cabinet that
opened up, which was really perfect because it helped frame
the shots. So we opened that up. I then found
a table, like an old broken down table, a small table,

(47:56):
and it fit perfectly in between the opening of the
cabinet underneath that staircase. EM and I created some absolutely
insane work there, absolutely insane work. I'm so proud of her.
She did such a fantastic job. And what I did
is I lit in a way that i've you know,
you know me, guys, I kind of do the MCGUI
for stuff I've lit in some ways before that are

(48:17):
very interesting. This was pretty fascinating. I took the light
up there, and I just had light stand and I
didn't have what a shocker, didn't have sandbags, didn't have
all that jazz, and I leaned the light stand against
the staircase and turned the tilt of the light down

(48:41):
right on m with a forty eight inch oc the
box and it spotlt her like movie lighting. It was
freaking gorgeous. And then what I did was leaned. I
had to lean the light stand over to really accomplish that.
And so then what I did was take one leg
of the light and I jammed it into that door,

(49:03):
that no smoking door I was telling you about, and
it stayed. And man, we created some really cool work,
really really cool work. Emily's wearing like this really cool
vest that she again thrifting. She had an orange skirt
she pinned up on the sides to make it look
like something exotic. It was really an awesome, awesome set.
She did an incredible job. I'm so proud of her.

(49:26):
And man, I mean the positions of like getting dirty
and this the grime that she puts up with when
we shoot. Couldn't be more proud of her. She is fantastic.
So then on the outside of this building, Emily had
another outfit. She had a brown dress and she put
on this brown dress and then the very outside of

(49:47):
this building had a very different look, which was awesome.
And so what we did is on the outside of
the building. We went from those greens and those blues
and that darker cinematic kind of a light scenario. And
on the outside of the building there was a window,
a very large window that had a pane of glass
with an exhaust fan that would exhaust the air and

(50:10):
or fumes that at one point would have come out
of this factory out into the open air. And so
there was this exhaust fan sitting there, and there was
a large space for Emily to stand on the pane
of the window, and so she hoisted herself up on
the pane of the window. She's standing in front of
the pane of glass, and then there's this exhaust fan.
Well on the inside. What I did was I took

(50:33):
a flash. And it's funny I didn't have a light
another light stand with me to be able to prop
or to appropriately place this light that was going to
use for rim lighting, because what I was doing was
I was illuminating the back pane of the window as
well as the exhaust fan area. And so then what

(50:54):
I did was I got that table that Emily and
I had used for the first shoot, dragged it over.
Then I got the milk basket that I had found
when I visited Maurice at his milk factory, and I
put that on top of the table. And then I
found like a piece of fiberglass that was there or

(51:15):
it almost felt like a insulation that you use, you know,
for home, and I put I propped it up, and
angled it towards that window from behind inside the building.
I then went outside and got my key light, which
was again a monolight, because it was very bright and hot,

(51:37):
I got a monolight, positioned it outside with that forty
eight inch oc to box and really raised the level
of the light down to key light M. And so
then after doing that, I needed to tie in that
whole shoot. No pun intended with what I'm about to say,

(51:59):
But like I said earlier, I like to build an
organic and make things work. And so Emily's brown dress
had ties at the front of it, like the front,
you know, front area of the dress the way she
sinched it up would be with these ties. And so
I looked at that and I said, how can I

(52:20):
pair her? How can I make her belong to this
area of the window. And those are the questions I
constantly probe myself with. Is how do I make this
connect That's a very vital aspect to creation is connectivity.
And so I kept wandering around. And if Emily only

(52:40):
could tell you the amount of times she's watched me wander,
she probably thinks I'm just a lunatic at this point.
But I wandered around this yard, looking, looking, and I
did my little finger thing, and I'm looking and looking
and looking and looking and looking, and then finally I
see it on this chain link fence. Oh. I forgot
to mention. The guys from Camel Towing came over and
allowed us to park the truck inside of this structure,

(53:03):
which was awesome because then the gear was safe, we
were saved, everything was good. Forgot to mention that. And
so there's this chain link fence that were inside of,
and there was rope that was tied to the chain
link fence, and so I took the rope off, I
untied it, and there's about three or four strands of it.
So I tied those pieces of rope together, used my

(53:23):
good old boy scout skills. I tied those together, and
then I went back to m and the exhaust fan.
I tied the rope to the exhaust fan. And then
I went and Emily wrapped herself in the rest of
the rope, and then she pulled on that rope and
the way that that connected her with the it gave tension,

(53:47):
it gave purpose, It gave connectivity to that environment and
to that image, and the resulting image was stunning. And
nobody can pull it off like she'd. She's just awesome.
She knows, she knows just how incredible she is in
my eyes. So I absolutely loved it. It was an

(54:08):
incredible shoot. The funny part was it. The funny part
of it was as soon as we ended, we hear
this rustling down in like a basement area of this
abandoned building. And em and I had both been down
there as we were like exploring the place, and we
hear this rustling, and She's like, there's somebody in here,
and I'm like, yeah, I know. So whenever I'm in
these abandoned buildings, I just go towards people. I don't

(54:30):
walk run away from him. I don't whatever whoever it is,
I want to find out. I want to assess the
situation and deal with it accordingly. So I walked towards
the basement and as I'm getting there, he hears me.
He comes up. Now, this individual looked a lot like Maurice.
It wasn't Maurice. It wasn't the guy who was whistling
at me as I was doing my ten thousand steps

(54:50):
over at the abandoned milk factory who was laying under trash.
It wasn't that Maurice. But he looked a lot like Maurice.
And so I'm assuming, since John the security guard had
told me that Maurice had a brother, that this is
Maurice's brother. So I never learned this individual's name, so
I'm just affectionately calling him Francis. So I start talking
to Francis, and as I'm speaking with him, he says

(55:12):
to me, it's so funny, guys. I love these kinds
of environments. It just cracks me up. It's hard for
me not to laugh because he says, have you been
inside the building? Yeah? Have you been to the top, Yeah,
You've been to the pigeons nest? You mean up the
ladder where you like to have a mattress out there? Yeah, yeah,

(55:35):
I've been up there. Oh were you scared? No? What
did you hear any voices? No, not except for Emily
and my voice. We didn't hear any other voices. You
weren't scared. No, well you would have been scared if
you knew what happened here. Oh probably not. I'd probably
actually be more interested. And the thing I loved most

(56:02):
about this exchange with this individual was the fact that
I love watching people. It's something that it's so fascinating
to me to watch people and to watch how they
observe you, because the way in which you interact with
people is how they obviously are going to reciprocate and
interact with you. And so it was fascinating to watch
him go from this mind warp where he's trying to

(56:25):
you know, Yoda Jedi master me and make me tripped
out and scared of this building, and all of a sudden,
he's like, who the F is this guy? This guy's
not scared of anything, And so I said, now we're good.
He's like then he says, well, just so you know,
And I look at him and I didn't give him
ask you, I just give him confidence. Like he goes
never mind. I said, all right, cool. So we uh,

(56:47):
we got a kick out of that. After we saw
Francis again. Don't know if it's his real name. But
after we saw Francis, we decided to, uh, you know,
we had we were finished anyways. To be honest with you,
we'd actually started setting or putting stuff away in anyways.
So once we saw Francis Maurice's brother, we figured, maybe
he's coming home for the night. Maybe maybe maybe they've divorced.

(57:08):
Maybe Maurice takes the milk factory and Francis takes the
recycled one. I don't know, but we had an awesome
shoot and shooting with miss Emily again was absolutely incredible,
and we locked up the gate and left and it
was an absolutely incredible adventure. And that's where that's where
one of this these tag phrases came from. When we

(57:30):
were talking about it and we said, you know, we
we create artwork, sometimes other people commit crimes. And so
I just want to make it clear I don't put
her in situations that that that make it dangerous, but
it's just funny to be in some of these situations
where if you're just smart, you're gonna be just fine.
And we were and we had an absolutely incredible time.

(57:52):
So what's next, Who knows. Ms SM's back to teaching
and and doing speech pathology, which is fantastic. You know,
I think what we do from a creation standpoint, I
just call it a beautiful mystery. And she's back conquering
the world during speech. But she's such a dynamo. I
couldn't be more proud of her. But the reason I

(58:13):
call it a beautiful mystery is we don't know what
the future holds in regards to creating together. I'm sure
at some point we'll align our schedules to be able
to do so again. But it was awesome and I
think sometimes in life, some of the most beautiful things
are truly a beautiful mystery. And so thanks for listening, guys,
Thank you. Thanks to Emmy. If you're listening to this
for creating with me, you know, I think you're terrific

(58:36):
and I'm very grateful that you shared your creativity and
your passion and your time with me. Thank you, miss
em all right, guys, do me a favor. If you
go on to iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen
to this, give me a rating, give me a review,
say nice stuff, give me five stars or four stars
or whatever the top one is. I would really appreciate it.

(58:56):
I love you. Guys, I'm so grateful to you, and
again you can go to the workshops to find more
about you know what we're doing and I'd love to
see you there. Lots of fun to share getting back
out in the world and having a great time doing this.
So until next time, keep shooting, never give up on
her dreams, find articular works for you and remember you

(59:20):
only have one chance to get it right. I'll talk
to you guys later. Bye.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
That can that can paid her?

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
Of of that can.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
That can he? That can her? Patt U s a

(01:01:51):
first style of fens and as a style of things,
I guess for astor of passerstor of fas