Modeling

©2012 Mark Dawson

A few weeks back I decided to help out a friend with a photography project and model some.  I'd never done anything like this before outside of senior portraits for high school.  Mark, the photographer, let me know how I needed to dress and wondered where would be a good place to get what he was looking for.  He's very familiar with WV, but not as familiar with high elevation areas with rock outcroppings and a view as I am.  There are a lot of places that meet this criteria around here, however during the winter months lots of roads are closed to these places.  This issue greatly plagued our options.

The best location I could come up with (that still required a mile + hike in due to road shut off for XC skiers only) was Lindy Point lookout in the Blackwater Falls State Park.  This location ends up being one of the coldest, if not THE coldest in WV at this time of year.  While our winter has been unseasonably warm (boo), this day's windchill on top of the low temps had it feeling like single digits (Fahrenheit, people).  And BOY was it windy!

The photo above was a shot he took for me after he was done snapping the ones he needed for the project. I was NOT allowed to wear that jacket for the other shots.  Oi vey.  I shivered violently at times and just had to laugh at the absurdity of the situation.  There I was, voluntarily exposed on a rock outcrop above the Blackwater Canyon in single digit temperatures.  Absurd.  C'est la vie!  A fun experience, but not one I will likely repeat anytime soon!

Oh, and if any Marmot reps happen to stumble across this photo....I LOVE your products and this jacket is but one of 4 and a pair of pants I have from y'all.  YOU ROCK.