Model: Jessie Rabideau
MUA: D'nelle Almanza
Had one of the most interesting weekends I've had in a long time this past couple of days.
The shenanigans started in LA, where I met up with adorable Jessie (America's Next Top Model) to help her move to her new apartment in Hollywood. Contrary to most truck owners, I actually enjoy helping friends move. I enjoy putting in a little work to help my friends, and this move was relatively painless (aside from a dent I put in the side of my truck.) Afterwards, we used her apartment as a makeshift studio to do some simple body shots for her portfolio. The shoot offered some new challenges in the way of working in a small space, but the results were good. We were going for a simple look, and we got it. As payment for both the move and the shoot, Jessie offered me beer and pizza (which I gladly accepted.) The beer put me in an 8-hour coma in her living room, which worked out rather nicely because I had plans to head out to Norco early that next morning.
One thing I always notice about LA is how busy it seems to be. People are always running around, car horns are always honking, and there never seems to be a break in the action. This was a stark contrast from the day I spent with one of my favorite models to work with, Jessa Cygan. She is an extremely accomplished horseback rider/trainer, and she took me out to ride my first horse in her hometown of Norco, CA. The country life is definitely something I could get used to. The living there was very relaxed, and it seemed that no one was on a strict schedule. We went out riding for a few hours (which was a blast, and I think I did pretty well - not as good as Jessa by any means, but good for a first timer :P) and we followed that up with hanging out on the ranch, taking swigs of whiskey out of a reused Jack Daniel's bottle and talking about pretty much anything that came to mind. To wind down the night, a bunch of us headed out to a local bar and had some delicious food. It was such a great time and everyone was extremely friendly. Looking forward to going back in the near future.
Click the image to the left to see the rest of Jessie's photos.