cougar buttes – Ann Street Studio

Rachel Roy’s

April 29, 2013July 15, 2013Posted in Fashion EditorialTagged american exotic, americanexotic, campagin, cougar buttes, fashion, fashion editorial, gabriella lopez, gabriellalopez, kelly framel, kellyframel, Rachel Roy, RachelRoy, rrexotic, southern california, spring 201313 Comments

In the heat of the day, our desert wanderer begins to hallucinate…the landscape becomes an unnatural dream, a smoky haze of psychedelic color on her search for her desert oasis.

We conceptualized this aspect of the story early on, and after Rachel approved it, we had to figure out just how to make it happen. How do you get the saturated colors of the Indian holiday Holi in a way that won’t leave marks on either the clothes or the landscape?

Kevin and I spent the greater part of our Christmas vacation out at my parent’s house in the Texas countryside cooking colored smoke bombs…which DID NOT turn out quite like the YouTube tutorial (see our ridiculous failed attempt here). After many failed attempts, we hit the highway and found a fireworks store. They provided the colored smoke bombs you see in the photos, which we had to order and ship to CA due to fireworks laws…and airport security *gulp*.

Just wait until you see behind the scenes for these tomorrow!

Rachel Roy Spring 2013 campaign starring Gabriella Lopez, styled by Kelly Framel, hair & makeup by Gloria Noto, shot in California’s Joshua Tree National Park, Cougar Buttes and the Salton Sea.

Rachel Roy Spring Campaign

April 25, 2013November 18, 2014Posted in Fashion EditorialTagged american exotic, american west, americanexotic, americanwest, ann street studio, annstreetstudio, california, cougar buttes, editorial, fashion, fashion editorial, gabriella lopez, gloria noto, jamie beck, jamiebeck, Joshua tree, kelly framel, model, Rachel Roy, RachelRoy, rrexotic14 Comments

We traveled out west with trucks of beautiful clothes from Rachel Roy‘s spring line. We brought our muse, Gabriella Lopez, to the gorgeous locations we had found.

Everything was in place to make our dream story a reality: the story of a girl lost, looking for something in the desert sun, something exotic…American Exotic.

Rachel Roy Spring 2013 campaign starring Gabriella Lopez, styled by Kelly Framel, hair & makeup by Gloria Noto, shot in California’s Joshua Tree and Cougar Buttes Park

Rachel Roy Travel Diary

April 24, 2013July 15, 2013Posted in TravelTagged american exotic, americanexotic, behind the scenes, cougar buttes, diary, journey, jousha tree, joushuatree, landscape, palm springs, Rachel Roy, RachelRoy, rrexotic, salton sea, socal, southern california, southerncalifornia, travel12 Comments

If you remember from our #RRExotic Instagrams, this past January our team headed out west to sunny Palm Springs to shoot Rachel Roy‘s Spring / Summer 2013 Campaign. We spent the first couple of days location scouting with our amazing producer in areas all around southern California. We danced on boulders in Cougar Buttes, walked the sands of Joshua Tree, found a desert oasis at the Salton Sea and felt the colors of the earth at Painted Canyon.

When we are location scouting for a story, we look for the scenes that have been playing out in our imagination to come to life. We look at the light, we imagine the scene and we take test shots. When we get back to our hotel, we go through the images and match them up with the looks our stylist has sent stills of from the fitting the previous day back in NYC, plan out routes and timing and make lists for the next day of what we are still looking for. I love location scouting; all the possibilities are ahead of you, you just have to see it.

Here are some snapshots of our journey to and around California taken with an old point and shoot Olympus camera, a Polaroid Spectra with ImpossibleUSA film, Fuji Instax and a Canon 1DX.

Also, this place in Palm Springs was AWESOME.

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