STORIES FROM THE SET: BEHIND THE SCENES OF DESERT DESPERADO

Oh, photoshoots – they’re never, ever dull. As far as they go, though, Desert Desperados wasn’t too bad! We faced the usual conundrums – early mornings and long days, and of course, our frienemy, Mother Nature – but we learned a couple things from past mishaps, had a couple of new hands on deck who saved the day in the most important way, and of course, our girls got us laughing!

While the collection and the catalog were new and fresh, the set was familiar. The gorgeous White Stallion Ranch in Tucson, Arizona, is also where we photographed the 2018 Travelers & Traders: Neo Nomad collection.

“That’s a testament to this place,” Mitchell said. “Not only to how beautiful and scenic and photogenic it is, but it’s also a testament to graciousness and hospitality of our hosts at White Stallion Ranch. Photoshoots are grueling, one of the most exhausting and challenging things we do at Double D, so if a venue or a vendor adds conflict or complication to that, you can bet we won’t be back. It’s simply not worth it, we don’t have the stamina – or sanity! But White Stallion Ranch, can’t recommend it enough; the place, the people, everything. I love shooting there.”

The problem is, that no matter how hospitable your hosts are, Mother Nature doesn’t always align with our agenda.

“We had to pivot right away, right out of the gate,” laughed Mitchell. “Seriously, on the very first day we had to scrap our schedule because of rain and start with ‘studio’ days first, where we shoot inside on a backdrop. It ended up working out fine, because our models are consummate pros who always just go with the flow, but ideally, we like to shoot on set first, when everyone is feeling fresh and rested. But hey, that’s just the way photoshoots go! Luckily, the rain passed quickly and we were able to shoot in their beautifully landscaped gardens outside the casitas.”

You know the other part of nature you’ve got to work around on a shoot? The sun.

“Dawn waits for no one!” Audrey exclaimed, tongue-in-cheek. “We had everybody up and at’em and off on a remote part of the ranch before breakfast was even served at White Stallion, and you know that means it was EARLY-early!”

Thankfully, we had some new hands on deck for this one: recent additions to the DDR team, Kelly and Greg Temple, joined us on this shoot – their first ever – and assisted with driving the RV and being runners and just generally jumping in where they could. Most importantly, they saved the day by bringing us breakfast from town. (Because lemme tell ya, a hungry crew isn’t a happy crew!)

We did manage to overcome one important element of nature, though; we’re very happy to report that we seem to have learned our lesson from the Travelers and Traders photoshoot.

“No cactus incidents this time!” cheered Cheryl. “After the Cynthia shoot, where getting a sock, shoe, or bare ankle full of cactus quills started to feel like a rite of passage, we were all VERY aware of where we stepped at White Stallion.”

Not all legs were free from the “prickle” of Mother Nature, though.

“The last day, it was COLD-cold, it was freezing outside,” Hedy recalled. “And we had poor Lozzie out there modeling some shorts, and so I said, ‘I’m sorry you’re so cold, Loz’ and she replied, ‘It’s a good thing I have these hose on, they’re a big help!’ Which is funny… ‘cause they were fishnets.”

And that’s not the only time Lozzie had us LOLing in Arizona.

“One night, after shooting, the girls went to CVS,” shared Hedy. “Lozzie had bought a heat-and-eat meal to warm up in the microwave. Got to the room – no microwave. Mind you, the lobby did, in fact, have a microwave, but she declared she was too lazy to go downstairs and use that one, so she heated her food with her hair dryer, one bite at a time.”

Desperate times, desperate measures! (Pretty much the unofficial slogan of photoshoots…)