Tonight was the beginning of this year’s theater season for me, with the first CalShakes play of the year, Octavio Solis’ Quixote Nuevo. This was a world premiere production of this play by a noted Latino playwright, adapted from the classic story Don Quixote.
This was a solo trip for me as Bill and Andy had to switch nights due to a conflict, and I wasn’t able to fill my other seats. It was a very pleasant evening considering it was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the first official day of summer. The play addressed many issues from elder care and dementia, life choices and the road not taken, and immigration issues on our border. The staging was well done with modular units for various set elements could be wheeled in and out and opened up. There was also lots of tejano music throughout the play. It took me a while to get into it, but in the end it was quite moving.
I’m still a bit concerned with the change in structure of the season to just 3 plays, only one of which is a Shakespeare, it it is an amalgamation of several plays. We’ll see how it all goes, but I’m trying to be optimistic.
The last day of our tour started with a fairly early start to go to a location fairly close on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, behind a 20th century resort pavilion known as 
As this was our last shoot, I tried to do some shots with everyone. I got some nice pictures as again this was somewhat of a unique setting along the tour. At each stop I seemed to take more and more shots, and at this one I got more than 1000.
Our last full day of the tour turned out to be a long one. We got up early and headed to 
I started the shoot by working with Kate Snig, who is great at finding interesting backgrounds to shoot against, and does amazing poses. As we moved further along the trail, I switched off shooting the various models, and we finally ended up working around a big rock monolith with all four of the models. I think everyone sensed we were getting the the end of the tour and tried to take as much advantage of what we had available. The models even did some fun shots posing with cameras and appearing to take pictures of each other.
After finishing the shoot, we returned to Moab and checked out of the hotel. After that, we ordered take out for dinner from the restaurant we’d had lunch at the previous day, then we had lunch at a food truck famous for their Quesadillas, allegedly the best restaurant in Moab. It was good, but not being an expert on Quesadillas I’m not sure how I’d rate it. After lunch we began to head back towards Salt Lake City, with one planned shoot midway in 
Our navigation got a miscue so we ended up taking a bit of a long detour, finally ending up correctly in 9 mile canyon. Driving along it, I wasn’t quite sure how good the shooting location would be, but we finally ended up at a little stop right near the road that had some cool ancient petroglyphs along a wall, with some beautiful green growth on the land is surrounded. It had rained a little before we got there, so the clouds provided some good light for portraits and some dramatic skies. I was able to get some interesting shots which was a bit of a surprise after a long drive without high expectations of something interesting.
After several days of long days and somewhat tiring shoots, the organizers wisely built in a rest day with an optional shoot in the evening. The day started with a leisurely check out from our hotel, and again moving our base of operations to a hotel in Moab. Moab seems to be a bit of a free spirit town out in the middle of Utah. After checking into the hotel, we went to lunch at an interesting Moab restaurant. Not knowing when I might get the chance to see this part of the country again, I elected not to take a rest break in the afternoon, but rather to go on a driving tour around Moab that ended up at 
Even though it was optional, everybody signed up for the shoot which was at an interesting rock formation known as 
After the sun set, Dasha suggested doing a “fire shoot.” We weren’t really alone there, as there was another group apparently filming some video for what I later learned was a paraphernalia company’s product. They had started a bonfire at the base, so we did some shooting of the models around the fire using just the firelight for illumination. The video folks we’re getting into the act as well and our models seemed pretty chill about the whole thing. Ultimately we headed back to Moab, stopping for a late dinner in town before ultimately getting back to the hotel. Another very fun day even though I didn’t get too much rest.
The day started early as we left the hotel to go to 
We were also able to work with the models as a group getting some very cool shots as they climbed up into the patterned rocks. Shooting for a couple of hours takes some energy, and we had worked our way a ways into the canyon, so when time came to leave it was a bit of a slog getting back to the van, particularly as it has started to warm up quite a bit.
We headed back to Green River to have lunch in a restaurant there and grab some take-out to have later for dinner. Mid-afternoon, we left again for the San Rafael Swell and our next shooting location. Along the way (I think we were traveling the Buckhorn Draw), we saw a nice prairie setting with some dramatic clouds before a storm, so we all got out and did some shooting. A little further along the road we came upon the 
This site was similar to the previous evening, but provided some variety landscape along the edge and some ability to climb down a bit to get some different perspectives. This also helped as there were more folks around here which made shooting with nude models a little more challenging. I got some really interesting shots including some of Kate Snig posing up in the branches of a dead tree right on the edge of the cliff. I was also able to get some nice shots after the sun set during the blue hour.
The second day of our adventure stated early with a move of our base of operations to a hotel in Green River, UT, about 3 hours SE of Salt Lake City. After checking in, we grabbed some lunch to go and headed south near Hanksville to 
After getting things sorted out, we neared the canyon. There was a large boulder, and the models started working and climbing. People got so enthralled with those shots that Dasha had to kind of nudge people along so we would actually get into the canyon itself. The geology and landscape is beautiful with beautiful red rocks carved straight down into a narrow canyon, at times so tight one person could barely pass. This provided an opportunity to take some great shots, and the models really knew now to take advantage of the backdrops. I got to shoot all the models at this location, and got some particularly nice shots with Dasha.
We spent a couple of hours shooting in the canyon, then headed back to the van and traveled to our second shooting location of the day, Burr Point. This took us over the first of many bumpy dirt roads leading to a beautiful overlook of the Dirty Devil River Box Canyon. We got there a bit before sundown, so we were able to get some nice golden hour light. It was challenging to shoot in the setting sun as the canyon edge threw shadows onto the landscape. But it was a beautiful overlook.
In mid-May, after I’d had about 3 1/2 months to settle into my retirement, I spent an amazing week in Utah with 
It was kind of amazing to see these sand dunes suddenly appear in the midst of what seemed like otherwise flat semi-green Utah desert. It was also my first chance to experience photographing art models nude in nature. This generally went quite smooth throughout the trip, with the tour leader Dmitriy keeping us pretty much away from the public and keeping models aware of members of the public that might be wandering near so that they could cover up. The models were great to work with, with seeming boundless energy and creativity. We shot till dark (or a little past into the blue hour). After that we had a little picnic with some sandwiches we’d grabbed a lunch, then we headed back to the hotel in SLC. This gave us our first hint of a lot of hours in the van each day, but it was a good first day.
I officially began my retirement on Thursday, and not much time elapsed before I hit the road on my first adventure. On Friday, I headed down to LA to attend a two day 
The workshop was built around doing three different “looks” for the model each day, with the goal and setup were described by Holly, followed by her doing some shooting and observing her directing the model. In addition to Holly and the model, there were more crew including a lighting grip, a makeup artist, as well as some other helpers. It gave you what it felt like to be working with a professional crew. After Holly went through her example, each of the students had 6-7 minutes to shoot, with any needed guidance being given by Holly. We had one model for the entire workshop, the very lovely 
Holly’s parents’ ranch where we were shooting had some great locations. I managed to get some really nice images, and learned some things as well. I enjoyed the experience very much. Day 2 was structured just like day one, but some of the students were different for both days.
I made it through Christmas this year without getting sick again, so a good trend is underway. As 2017 comes to a close, it marks the end of my LX year, and my primary working life, but I hope also signals the start of new opportunities and a new era of living. Since I’ve pretty much had some sort of job or predefined structure to my life for the last half century, I have some anxiety as to what is coming, but I’m also excited about the freedom I’ll have to pursue new interests and live life in a new way. I just have to make sure I don’t let my sedentary tendencies and procrastination take over. I’ll miss the folks I work with, and that will probably be one of the hardest parts of this life change. 
Since I was near the Florida Atlantic coast I decided to do a little sightseeing at the beach before I headed inland for my Monday meetings. I spent a few hours visiting the