The Epic Adventure of Shooting Aspen's Feature Set

Aspen's June 2013 Wu's Feature Set Banner

Sometimes things just don't happen the way you plan them. That sure was the motto for shooting this year's Wu's Feetlinks Feature Set for the site. Aspen (this year's featured Soles of Silk model) and I just couldn't seem to catch a break when it came to making good on some really awesome ideas. And as I stated in the blog, "Today's Shoot - Aspen," a few weeks ago, the story behind this set deserved it's very only blog. So now it's time to embark on the epic journey that ended up resulting in Aspen's Star Spangled Beauty set - an idea that was picked only days before it was shot.

To cover the entire timeline of this story I have to go back to early 2013 while it was still very cold. Wu slotted Soles of Silk and Aspen in for the month of June. I was glad to get a warmer month as I love to shoot outdoors. So upon sharing the news with Aspen, who was very excited by being asked to be a feature model, we began to brainstorm ideas.

Shot when our cherry blossom idea failed.

Idea 1 - Cherry Blossoms

The first idea Aspen and I came up with was to do a shoot while the cherry blossoms were in bloom. I know Washington, D.C. is famous for its cherry blossoms, so I knew I could find some there. But while looking around for other shoot locations I found a neat little park in Delaware that featured a lot of cherry blossom trees surrounding an old looking water fountain. I loved the location and shared it with Aspen. She agreed and we began watching for when the blossoms would be in bloom.

Luckily for us (so we thought), the blossoms were predicted to bloom while she was finishing up a break from school. We both freed up the day and the weather actually turned out to be nicer than we expected. But there was on major drawback. Only two trees were even showing signs of the blossoms blooming. The rest of the trees were bare.

Not wanting to waste the day Aspen ended up doing a set on a nearby swinging bridge (photo above). I had wanted to shoot her there anyhow after the feature set, so we just did that. Following the shoot the air began getting a little cooler and we ended up spending over an hour in my car with me rubbing her feet.

Idea 2 - Wonder Woman Bikini in the Fountain

After the cherry blossoms failed I was back to thinking up ideas for the set. I always like to go above and beyond for these sets, so I came up with an idea that I liked even better. While down in Washington, D.C. a year before I saw a large water fountain that you're allowed to get in. There are waterfalls and spouts shooting off everywhere. I thought it would make for a very unique location. To top this off, I found a cute Wonder Woman bikini at the store that I wanted Aspen to wear. I even found Wonder Woman earrings and bracelet to accessorize.

Being a comic book fan I just loved this idea. Wonder Woman even worked out of Washington, D.C. in the comics for years. How could this go wrong? Well, it did.

About a week prior to the date we planned to do this shoot, I was down in D.C. and wanted to check out the fountain. I was thinking that the water might not be turned on until around Memorial Day. Then I found out, it wouldn't be turned on for a few more weeks. Of course they decided to do some maintaince work on the fountain and have it drained until mid-June. I sent Aspen a text and all she asked was, "So what are we going to do?"

Idea 3a - American Flag Bikini in the Waterfall

Not sure of what to do I went back to the drawing board yet again. A couple of days later I remembered that the store where I bought Aspen the Wonder Woman bikini also had a really hot American flag bikini. But the question remained, where to shoot her in it?

I ended up deciding to shoot Aspen in one of two different waterfalls. Problem is, I used the one with Nikki already in an unposted set. I really didn't want to use the same location, so I decided to go with one a little bit closer to home. I sent Aspen a bunch of pictures of this waterfall and she liked it.

So the day comes and we make our way to the waterfall. I find the small road that leads to the parking lot for the trail to the falls. And when we get there, there is more than 20 cars and no place to park. These falls are that large, so I know if we walked the trail we'd only find it packed with people.

Aspen looked amazing in the falls.

Idea 3b - American Flag Bikini in Another Waterfall

As I pulled over to vent to Aspen about how this set hasn't worked out from the start, we began talking about what to do. She began throwing around options like going to a local beach, or maybe some waterfront location instead. Wanting to shoot more than one set of her that day, I asked her if she thought that the second location, which was waterfront, would work. She said yes, so we decided to go there.

On the way I told Aspen that this second location also featured a smaller waterfall, but I didn't really know how to get to it from the parking lot I had on my GPS. After figuring it out on the fly, we were at the only creek coming through the park. I pulled over and we saw the falls from the road. And it was beautiful.

Aspen and I made our way down to the falls where a guy was taking some pictures of his girlfriend and knew that all the failures above had paid off. This location was so much better than the one we just tried to shoot about 15 minutes prior. Plus, the couple was leaving and we were left to ourselves to take over 150 pictures. For more detailed information about the shoot itself, check out the "Today's Shoot - Aspen" blog post.

In Hindsight

Now that the set is done and posted, I can honestly say that I'm glad things happened the way that they did. These pictures are some of the best that I've done in a while and ones that Aspen is totally in love with. So that is the epic tale of how Aspen and her succulent size 8s finally made their way into that waterfall for you all to see. And don't think you won't see the failed ideas get done somewhere down the line too.