Delicate Arch
This is tone of the posts in my category that I call anecdotes. These posts are about all the seriously funny to really dumb things that have either been said or happened while on my photo shoots. Trust me when I tell you that there no geographic boundaries when it comes to the things people say. From Timbuktu to Kalamazoo, it never ceases to amaze me what can come out of the mouth of babes!!!!
As usual, the names have been changed or left out to protect the innocent, and whose little hearts you just want to bless and keep safe.
I was shooting an advertising campaign for Asics, more years ago that I want to even think about, or can remember. The first in the series put us in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. We were there to shoot a testimonial ad that featured Douglas Wakiihuri wearing a pair of the companies tennis shoes. Douglas was a famous world class marathon runner, whose credits put him at the top of his game.
I had chosen Arches because the agencies Art Director wanted a backdrop that created a feeling of Zen. I arrived a couple of days early to scout the different arches and select one based on the best exposure to the late or early light. After taken readings from my Sunpath chart, and using my Morin2000 hand bearing compass I found Delicate Arch to be the best background. It was an hour and a half hike up to the arch, but worth it as it’s the most famous arch in the park.
That afternoon the client arrived with her new assistant and Douglas. After a pre-production meeting we planned to meet the next day in the parking area that was the beginning of the path up to Delicate Arch. When we all arrived and began to get ready I started talking to the clients new assistant, who had recently received her Masters degree in marketing from a top eastern college. I told her that I was looking through a brochure on Delicate Arch and had read that it took three hundred million years to carve the famous arch.
Without skipping a beat, the assistant looked at me and said, “Really, someone carved that arch?”
There was only stunned silence. The world around me began to spin out of control, the air around seemed to have been sucked out into the cosmos, and I started to feel dizzy; dizzy enough to faint. Fortunately, as the last moment of consciousness was fading and darkness was wrapping around my freaked-out brain, I regained control without anyone noticing. I suppose they were still contemplating her response.
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram Be sure to check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
