Of course, as a Denver photographer, getting down to the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado has been high on my shoot list for outdoor boudoir photography.
Kara, Dominique & I have been on three outdoor boudoir photography adventures together & each one has proved it’s own set of challenges. I guess I can’t pick a location that makes it easy for us. The good ones, the really epic, have made us work for it! We loaded my Rav4 up with food & way too much clothes & headed south. It was mid October so we knew we were taking a risk as far as the weather, but again all our adventures have had a risk of weather. But that’s why I love these girls, they have always been down to do whatever for the shot. We also knew that scrambling around the dunes was gunna suck, let alone with gear. We were ready for cold, we were ready for a hike and we were ready for the sand. Or at least we thought we were ready. The only thing we over planned for was the cold, we got lucky in that it really wasn’t all that bad. The hike & wind though, kicked our ass. Mother nature is no joke & she made us work for it.
We were there on a Thursday and I was somewhat surprised that there was a decent amount of people there. We definitely got some looks on our trek up & luckily people could see we were shooting and avoided us. (But not without some curious stare our way) When I shoot outdoor boudoir photography, I live for that golden hour light. So I wanted to give us enough time to hike, feel out the area and the girls to change so we got there a few hours before sunset. That and I knew once we lost the sun it was going to get chilly.
These girls are fucking troopers! We hiked to the first taller dune, we wanted to get to the top-top but that would have made for some serious hiking, and the wind was paralyzing. Now, I HATE wind. Like despise it, border line scared of it so this shoot was especially hard for me. Finding the light I wanted, dealing with sand blowing directly into my lens and face on top of Kara & Dom getting pelted by sand, it was honestly the best organized chaos of all time. Not only was the wind paralyzing, it made it hard to see and hear, all things we needed for while shooting. It was hard for the girls to hear me while I was shouting directions to them and it was hard for them to keep their eyes open and of course their hair. Haha, the hair. Luckily I LOVE messy hair so embracing that was something we could give up to the wind.
I was expecting this outdoor boudoir photography adventure to be hard, but I was naive. After scrambling around the dunes for a couple hours, the set was going down and we had all had enough. Sand was more than everywhere, out legs were jello and it was getting cold. We headed back down to the parking lot where we could NOT WAIT to walk on a solid surface. Is there such things as sand legs? I remember on the way back, the sunset was incredible, the stars were so bright and one of the girls said something like “well, I hope you at least got a couple good ones.” I laughed a little cause I honestly thought that too, but I think it’s safe to say got a few.
Mad props to Kara and Dom for giving me their all in these conditions. As crazy as it was, we are a tad crazy too so it all worked out.
Where should we go next?
Ready for your own photography experience? Click here for more details.
