The Spiral Jetty Sirens

FYI - This is a bit of a long post, but it was such an amazing experience, I have to get it all down in one shot. If you're not happy about reading through it when you're done, give me a call and we'll talk!

A few weeks back I got a message from Auri's dad on Facebook asking for models for a photo shoot. I know I've mentioned him before on here, but for those of you who don't know, Tom is a professional photographer and his work is absolutely beautiful. He's had this idea floating around for a while to do a series about The Sirens from Greek mythology and was pulling all the pieces together to make that happen. I cannot tell you how excited and honored I was/am that he asked me to be a part of it.

The idea was to do a shoot out at the Spiral Jetty at the north end of the Great Salt Lake. It's very close to the Golden Spike Monument which marks the meeting point of the country's first transcontinental railroad. I've lived in Utah my whole life and have never been to the monument or really even knew what the jetty was... but let me tell ya, it's pretty freakin' cool. I'm not really sure of the history behind the jetty, but I know it's interesting so I'll be reading up on it soon.

On Saturday afternoon we all converged upon the various agreed upon meeting points and started on the trek up north. Noelle, Callie and I hopped in Auri's car and somehow I got designated as the driver... just kidding, I love driving. Auri ended up getting sick and wasn't able to come with us. The poor thing was in tears when we left and we all felt so badly she couldn't join us. I'm sure there will be a next time seeing how Tom is her Daddy!

The girls and I had so much fun driving, talking and chillin' that we all missed the sign for the turn off and ended up driving clear up to the Boise/Pocatello, Idaho, split in the freeway. We realized we'd gone to far just as Tom called to see if we'd seen the exit so we flipped around and made our way back to the turn off.

From the exit on the freeway it was another 20ish miles to the visitor's center at the Golden Spike Monument and then another 16 miles out to the jetty on a dirt road. The last half mile requires a car with high clearance as there are LOTS of rocks and bumps along the way.

About half-way up on the freeway I noticed we had about half a tank of gas. No problem... I figured we'd go out there and then get gas before we left on the way back. Too bad I didn't realize we passed the last gas station about 2 miles off the exit and there were no services until we got back.

And too bad the gas light came on as soon as we got onto the dirt road after the visitor's center. The three of us had MASSIVE anxiety worrying we were going to run out of gas in the middle of nowhere. But, I'm happy to report that miraculously, we made it ALL THE WAY BACK to the gas station... like a gazillion miles away from where we started when the gas light came on! Auri's little Pilot is a trooper!

Sadly, we lost part of the plastic cover that protects the undercarriage while off-roading. I had to have the man at the 2nd gas station help me get it out from under the car! I hope it's not going to be too costly for her to fix. I'm not even sure it's a vital part of the car... I guess we'll find out.

Once we got out to the jetty, we parked the cars and started getting dressed... or undressed, depending on how you look at it. The Sirens were instructed to all wear either a bustier or corset and our choice of clothing, or lack thereof on the bottom. The only other requirement was to bring a billowy scarf for a prop. I think it's pretty amazing that after everyone was dressed, we all looked so incredibly different, yet similar at the same time.

Other than our scarves, the only other prop we had was Tom's white angora blanket. I think it should be referred to as The White Angora Blanket as it's taken on a personality of its own... Tom is in the middle of doing a series with the blanket and his only request is the model underneath be completely nude during shooting. It is up to that individual person how much skin he or she wants to show, and that was the same premise used at the jetty. There were about 6 or 7 of us that took turns posing with the white angora blanket and it was such an amazing experience! Nothing like getting naked out in the middle of nowhere!

In all there were 13 models, Tom and a couple of production assistants. The Sirens headed down the rocky trail onto the jetty and wandered all the way around until we converged the center of it. From there we all took our turns in the blanket and Tom posed us in groups all throughout the area. We started in the center of the jetty, worked our way out into the lake (thank Jebus the water was only a couple inches deep because I was having massive anxiety with it), and then wandered back to the rocks on the edge of the jetty where we finished up.

The shoot was such a wonderful and amazing experience and I thank Tom from the bottom of my heart for inviting me to be a part of it! I hope you guys enjoy the pictures and I'll be posting more as soon as he's got them edited!