STORIES FROM THE SET: NU RODEO

Nu Rodeo was uncharted territory for us in many ways, from exploring an unfamiliar aesthetic, to actually adventuring across the country to capture it.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time we have ever photographed on the East Coast,” shared Mitchell. “We were fortunate to be granted access to an extremely beautiful private horse estate in Northern Virginia. It was absolutely perfect in terms of our vision for the editorial images – we could’ve shot twice what we needed because there was so much beauty around – and a really lovely experience overall. Well, once we got there, anyway.”

Yeah, so about that. The being there was wonderful, the getting there… well, that felt like it may never even happen at times.

“It’s been rare, if ever, that we’ve full-on rescheduled an entire photoshoot on account of weather,” said Audrey. “We’ve powered through some really wild conditions – shooting in between rain showers, holding umbrellas just out of the shot, putting models in parkas until the last second before the camera clicks, handheld fans to cool them off between takes, you name it – so having to completely cancel and rebook this shoot due to consecutive days of non-stop rain was massively frustrating. Felt like defeat by Mother Nature, and you know how competitive the McMullen women are!”

But we accepted that defeat and did what had to be done to get the team and talent rescheduled for sunnier days. (Well, with the exception of our usual video crew, TA Visuals, who had a conflict; shoutout to Mitchell’s college buddy, Matt, with 11C films for coming down from New York on short notice!) Then, we were hit with the typical joys of travel – to a degree we’ve never quite experienced before.

“I can hardly talk about the rental car situation,” Mitchell said. “It gets my blood pressure up. That line was the longest I’ve ever been in, and also the slowest moving. Anyone who knows me knows what a unique brand of torture that is for me. And I wasn’t alone, people were getting feisty in there!”

Unfortunately, a few hours later when Audrey & Co. arrived, they had a similar experience. And then it got worse.

“I ended up in a smoking rental!” exclaimed Mitchell. “Who even knew there was still such a thing?! I haven’t seen a hotel you can smoke within 50 feet of in over a decade, but you can still rent a car to smoke in. I was honestly shocked. But I was also too worn down to fight it.”

Rest assured, we have since enrolled as priority members with a national rental company because we will NOT be doing all that again.

The deck felt a little stacked against us getting there, but once we arrived, our woes waned. It was a gorgeous setting and the sisters really leaned into the whole East Coast experience, staying in a quaint and charming farmhouse. Dinner was prepared for us every evening by a private chef from Fields of Athenry Farm, which was unanimously voted a highlight of the shoot.

“First of all, the food was so, so good,” shared Mitchell. “But also, just having a cooked meal ready for us at the end of the day was so nice. It may sound like a minor convenience, but man, after a full day of shooting, it’s a massive luxury.”

Speaking of luxuries, one of the luxuries of owning an exquisite horse estate is that it affords you an exceptional amount of privacy. We had to be led on to the property each morning, and we literally had to be escorted to the gate and back, even if we just needed to go get something. But, as it turns out, the velvet rope only applies to human guests.

“An uninvited skunk joined the shoot,” Mitchell said. “I, personally, was not crazy about this; I prefer to keep my distance from skunks. Robert, our tech, assured us that unless we antagonized or spooked it, a skunk will not spray you. I would rather not even be in the position to find out.”

In the end, we all ended up un-sprayed and deemed him a friendly skunk, seemingly geriatric and a perhaps a little vision impaired.

Oh, and if you’re wondering if Mother Nature did us a solid with some lovely mild weather after totally upending our original plans…

“Absolutely not,” laughed Mitchell. “We were not expecting it to be as cold as it was. None of us were packed correctly. We had to make a group run to Target the night before the shoot to get additional layers.”