Dachs Thoughts

My next trip of the year was to be a UTadventure tour built around an idea I had talked about with Auroraa when she and I shot together earlier in the year. The idea was to have the opportunity to shoot with a male model in order to broaden my artistic horizons and and stretch my creative muscles. She was excited about creating this new opportunity as she had already been communicating with a male model who was interested in doing the kind of shooting they do. This tour would also be visiting some locations in northern Utah where I haven’t visited on my previous tours.

The first hiccough occurred a couple of weeks before I was set to leave. A problem arose between the organizers and the male model they had originally planned on using. After a bit of scrambling they identified a couple of local male models as well as throwing in the opportunity to do a maternity shoot with a local female model. This sounded like a good plan going forward. Unfortunately, another problem arose a few days before I was bout to leave for the trip. I developed a problem in my lower back (which I think is a pinched nerve) that caused some sciatica pain. I rested as much as I could before leaving, and things seemed to be improving a little, and I decided to proceed with the trip. The travel was grueling with the public transportation and the plane ride. By the time I got there I had aggravated the problem.

I rested the evening I arrived but was in worse shape in the morning of the day we had originally planned to have two different shoot locations. For better or worse, Dima’s car developed a problem, and the morning shoot was scrubbed (which was probably a good thing, giving me a chance to rest more), and after some scrambling we proceeded with the evening shoot at Stansburry Island on the southwestern side of the Great Salt Lake. This featured both Auroraa and Christian, their friend who was just new to modeling. I was in quite a bit of pain but managed to get through it, and managed to get some good pictures from up in the hills overlooking the lake. Christian did a good job considering he was a novice. Unfortunately the first shoot was going to be the maternity shoot, but initially there was the possibility of moving it later in the tour. As driving seemed to aggravate my back as much as anything we tried to adjust the tour sites and abandon those requiring long drives. The next day we had two shoots around the Great Salt Lake, the first on Antelope Island in the morning just using Auroraa, and we again returned to Stansburry Island near sunset with Auroraa and Christian. I did manage to get some nice shots, but it was very taxing on my back. By the next day I was in such pain I couldn’t even comfortably get out of bed and hobble to the bathroom in my hotel room. I ended up cancelling all the shoots for that day. Dima, Christian (who had had recent experience with back issues) and Auroraa were great with helping me out with care, ice packs, a back brace and getting medication.

After a day of bed rest, they identified a beautiful house of their artist friend DeVon in highlands of Salt Lake City where we could shoot. This could be done without driving far, and I could do a lot of the shooting sitting down. While still a challenge to my back this turned out to be a very nice location, and I shot some nice pictures of Auroraa and Christen. The next day Christian had arranged an appointment for me to see a physical therapist (who did what he termed “structural ingetration”). Having never had any kind of massage before I agreed because I was actually worried about being able to manage the trip home on the following day. He really worked me over, but I think it was a good thing. After some rest, later in the evening Aurora and Dima had me over to their house for a barbeque of some grilled meat and salad prepared in a traditional Russian style. It was a nice evening of good food and socializing. The next day I headed off to the airport and managed to get home more or less intact.

From one perspective the trip was a disaster. The originally planned agenda with 8 locations including up in the Uinta Mountains, working two male models, and a maternity shoot fell by the wayside due to my physical condition. Trying to look at things in a positive light, I still managed to get 4 different shoots at some beautiful locations, and even though the only male model that I was able to work with was a novice I still was able to get some experience with that and take some interesting photos. I also got to experience some extreme care and kindness from the group. Luckily I was the only photographer for this tour, so it allowed a lot of flexibility around my situation. Now I just hope my back recuperates in a reasonable amount of time.