Late Tuesday night a bunch of us arrived at my friend’s farm in Saline, Michigan to hammer out a video and create more assets for my public speaking and book platform. By 5 am we were already cranking. At about 5:30 am our photographer arrived and we simultaneously cranked out video and still shots. The video piece that my man Matt Diddle was locking down needed to have us both up in a tree stand well before the sun began to rise.
The sunrise came in with incredible clarity and the pre-scouting we did to pick the perfect location for the shoot could not have worked out any better. The weather was stellar and it all clicked beautifully.
As the morning moved on we continued the still photo shoot which was a little awkward at first but ended up yielding us some amazing assets. As the later morning came in the UTV machine went dead and caused us to have to do some serious hiking back to the barn. Looking back, it seems that it all happened serendipitously as we continued to find incredible shots that would have been easy to miss moving quickly on the machine.
We then took a 4-wheeler out to jump-start the UTV but it stalled out as well. It became quite comical and at one point while I was waiting for the 4-wheeler to un-flood, I suggested we all go morel hunting even though I knew it was pretty early. About half-way through my “let’s all keep busy for fifteen minutes” morel hunt, I realized there was poison oak/ivy all around us.
Thankfully I was able to start the 4-wheeler, successfully jump the UTV, and wrap up the shoot in one piece before 1 pm and get everyone washed up with soap to get any oil from the plants washed off–I hope.
Essentially, despite the mild drama, we killed it on the shoot.
As I reflect now, I realize how cool some of my job is and how blessed I am to actually do this stuff for a living!
