In the Garden of Eden photo shoot.

Welcome to the wonderful world of off-the-cuff creativity. Joe (actionjoephotography) and I met Samantha Harris and Kyle Gask-Wilson for a photo shoot  at McCormick park in Williamston, Mi.

I barely remembered this park from my childhood. When I was 12-years-old or thereabouts my friends and I rode our bikes from Lansing’s South-side to Williamston to attend the jubilee festival. My family has some history in Williamson. Both of my grandparents on my mother’s side are buried there and my Great Grandfather owned a candy store in Williamston. I haven’t been there in a long time so my memory of McCormick park was vague.

Joe suggested the park as an excellent place to shoot. Once I got there I was taken aback by the vast expanse of open field. “What do we do in this space?,” I wondered as Joe and I walked the park in search of shooting ideas. We noticed a gentle river that flowed around the park with some very nice scenery on the opposite banks. We also crossed the road and looked at the decorative bridge that crossed Putnam Street. “Hmm…This could be interesting,” I thought “but it’s going to be difficult to find enough scenery to keep a shoot going for more than a half hour.”  The last shoot I did with Samantha and Kyle was on the top of a parking garage in Lansing in freezing cold weather. That shoot was over pretty quick because of the cold. This was much different and a welcome change.

As I was walking on the bridge to get a feel for the place Joe motioned me over to the edge where he saw a blue racer coiled up on the rocks below. “This is the place,” I thought because Samantha was bringing Sir Hiss, her albino corn snake to the shoot.  I figured the blue racer sighting was a sign from above that we were in the right place. I often leave my shooting up to the man (or woman) above and let whatever power there is in the universe flow through and make the shot. I don’t try to force it because I like the shooting to happen naturally. I often find that this leads to a more organic result.

Anyway. Enough talking. Let’s get to the pics. To me, this shoot seems like another movie idea. It’s like one man goes searching for the Garden of Eden where he meets and falls in love with Eve.

Here is Eve played by Samantha Harris and the explorer played by Kyle Gask-Wilson. (The snake is played by

Sir Hiss)

BTW. We spent hours on this shoot and had a blast!