The shoot was bound to be EPIC. I had my two best friends, Isaiah Garnica and Sara Mohr—who just so happen to be the most perfect androgynous pair I have ever seen—and hundreds of dollars worth of BL clothes in the back seat of my car.
The plan was to do a fashion editorial story. We had several locations picked out to shoot, and they all were outdoor locations around the LA area.
We got to the first location which was just this big shopping center on Sunset that had this 99 cent+ store with all these clothes displayed on the sidewalk that we wanted to shoot in front of.
Being in a parking lot obviously we had a lack of places for Sara and Isaiah to change at. Thankfully both of them have no shame and stripped down right next to my car and put on the first BL look.
Only a few shots deep, It starts raining....
 |
| This is the only outdoor shot that made the cut before the downpoor |
I didn't think rain got through the smog in LA anymore but I guess I was wrong...
At this point Sara had another casting she had to run off to for a bit so Isaiah and i spent the next few hours frantically searching LA and Hollywood for an interesting, Brian Lichtenberg-worthy indoor location.
We inquired on several cheap motel rooms to shoot in hoping to try and bank on the hot as fuck, Dressed Up and Messed Up look in a trashy run down cheap motel. Isaiah and I kept getting strange looks as we would ask to see the cheapest rooms they had.
After several hours of locations searching, Frizzed our hair from the rain and a bag full of Cheesy bean and rice burritos from taco bell later, we finally found the right hotel room.
Well to be honest, it wasn't anything what we were looking for but quite frankly at that point i could care less. I just wanted a place to shoot. I charged a room for the night, picked up a few sparks a pack of cigarettes and a $5 dollar bottle of Taaka Vodka and we were good to go.
side note: don't EVER drink Taaka Vodka. You get a hang over before you get drunk.
Sara wasn't back yet from her casting yet so Isaiah and I just went ahead and started shooting some of his looks.
 |
| first look in the hotel for Isaiah |
At this point I wasn't feeling it. It wasn't exactly where I wanted to go with the shoot. In retrospect, however, I am really happy with these ones. Especially the one directly above. I don't shoot too much with available lighting, so this was a challenge for me...and I must say I'm very happy with that shot.
Sara finally finished her casting and met up with us at the Hotel.
All three of us were struggling to really push the shoot and create something EPIC out of so little to work with (location wise). It's hard to come up with something original when you are confined to a hotel room.
At this point we started heading in the right direction. We decided to throw the beds up, in order to have more room and also to change the scenery.
When we lifted the mattresses up to move them against the wall, under the bed we found a used, crusty pair of underwear and a broken meth pipe.
Turns out we did a better job getting a trashy cliche' Hollywood motel than we had thought...
This is where the magic started happening. We were hitting a wall and all three of us were getting frustrated because things were not turning out the way we were wanting them to. We all had a vision in our head for the shoot and we just were not hitting it.
BUT THEN WE MOTHER FUCKING HIT IT
RIGHT ON THE HEAD.
thus, the images that follow....
The funny part is that you can't tell that ANY of these shots are in a Motel. Sometimes things just work out like that though. Every shoot I've ever done, something magical always happens.
There's always something unexpected and whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, it always seems to work out.
Big thanks to Brian Lichtenberg for allowing me to pull from his line. This shoot wouldn't have been the same without them.
Check out more of his clothes here...
xo.dirk
[fingers crossed]
