My partners and I are always looking for new location ideas and so when I recalled that there was a huge dry lake bed in Jean, Nevada, everyone’s response was a resounding “LET’S DO IT!”
The Jean, NV dry lake bed is located just 20 minutes or so outside of Las Vegas and absolutely worth the drive. There’s a goodly amount of scenery along the way, too; perfect for an engagement session, post ceremony wedding photography, boudoir and fashion and the experience was absolutely wonderful from front to back.
It had rained just a couple of days prior and to my delight, the lake bed wasn’t entirely dry. We set up next to this tiny pond and I spotted a young man with his dog and went right to work.
The scenery reminded me of something from Star Wars meets Road Warrior and no sooner did we start snapping away that we spotted a young lady by the name of Nickee, in a mud covered racing uniform with these vibrant pink butterflies on the side.
It was such a dichotomy that we approached her and after she removed her helmet, we discovered that she was a fashion model!
My partners and I exchanged glances that said “no way”. I mean, what are the chances that four photographers just happen across a fashion model while on a scouting trip with full gear at the same location at the same time? Nickee hit her marks without direction like an established professional and her look reminds me of Avril Lavigne.
Nickee and her family were out quadding (MS Word tells me that ‘quadding’ isn’t a real word, but I’m leaving it anyways and pretending I don’t see the squiggly red line underneath), which I thought looked just amazing! Her sister or mother (they all looked so great and energetic that I couldn’t be sure of anyone’s age) experienced a flip while jumping the pond and was thrown from the quad, but quickly popped back up and was smiling as if nothing had happened.
I touched up a few of these photos, but decided to leave a bit of caked mud along the jaw line to underscore the dichotomy of beauty vs. dirty. Truth be told, despite not wearing makeup, Nickee already looked great and we’re hoping to have a few shoots with her in the very near future!
For the rest of you, the dry lakebed makes for a wonderful shoot location; it’s private, there’s dozens of spots along the way to pull over for portraits, the view of the sunset is just second to none and my partners and I will leap at the opportunity to shoot at a truly unique spot such as this.
