Puerto Penasco!

This last weekend, Don Giannatti invited me to return to the fall 2008 Lighting Essentials Workshop in Rocky Point, Mexico. I went this time not as a student, but as a veteran photographer, there to assist the workshop attendants. I had a blast and got some amazing photos last time, so I had absolutely no reason to say no.

The line-up included:

Models:
Nichole Jansen
Taylor Renteria
Kassi Jayde Hansen
Briana Shaker
Christina Roelant

Make-Up/Hair:
Lorri Mitchell

Photographers:
Don Giannatti
Evan Romine (Me)
Jerry O'Conner
James Allen
Jim Vigileos

Location:
Las Palmas Resort

We left on Friday morning all together in a caravan. James got pulled over 5 minutes into the border, but luckily got out of a ticket or jail time due to the sweet talking by Kassi. We had lunch shortly after in the border town.

We got to the Las Palmas Resort in the late afternoon, checked into our beautiful casa directly on the beach, unloaded our gear and quickly rushed to get the girls into hair and make-up for shooting. We kicked off the weekend with a bang, having the girls ride jet-ski's and sail-boats in the photographer-filled gulf. Next were the obligatory sunset/bikini shots. The rest of the evening consisted of meeting everyone and getting settled into our rooms.


The next day, we woke Lorri up as early as possible to start on hair/make-up. Don started with the Workshop and some of us ventured out on our own to set-up individual shoots. The workshop broke and then we all worked together and combined forces with the workshop attendants. We shot until the sun went down and had dinner and drinks at the resort Cantina.



On Sunday, we all loaded up to go to a private beach-house on the other side of town. The owners invited us in to take over and shoot whatever we wanted to. We started off by pairing some of the veterans with the workshop attendants "buddy-system" style. This worked out well because we were able to put our heads together and each set-up our own individual shots/set-ups. We started shooting horses on the beach, this was particularly tough due to the harsh lighting and the ever changing position of the horses. it was a good lesson for all of us though. We spent the rest of the afternoon shooting at the beach-house.



After eating a delicious lunch, we went back to the Casa to see off some of the people who had to return to Phoenix and then we loaded up once again for our trip to downtown Rocky Point. We again broke off into teams, and divided the three models into the groups. We once again caused a ruckus in the town stopping traffic, posing for the local's camera-phone photos and getting invited to eat/drink at every bar/restaurant. We all shot until there was no more light and then went back to the comfort of our Casa.



That night, some of us ventured out to downtown once again to find somewhere to drink and dance. I won't tell too much about this, but those are definitely times that I won't forget.

Monday morning was rough for some of us, but we managed to wake up and shot even more. We all got ready to check-out and leave in the afternoon.



This was a great trip, we all got some spectacular shots, met new friends, helped each-other learn, and burned some awesome memories into our brains forever.

If you would like more info on the Lighting Essentials workshop, please click here. The next workshop will be in April of 2009.