Aaron- Joshua Tree Lifestyle Photography

Aaron and his family moved out here two years back to take up the position of worship leader at our church. I still remember the first time we met; Sarah had hung out with his wife Mandi at a party and I suggested that, being new to our church, we should invite them over for dinner. When they walked in, he introduced himself "Hi, my name's Aaron- nice to meet you" and then it hit me- "WE JUST INVITED COMPLETE STRANGERS OVER FOR DINNER! Oh no, this is a blind dinner date- I really hope it isn't awkward!"

That night I learned a couple of things: 1) The Blantons are TOTALLY cool people and would have eventually become good friends anyway, 2) Inviting complete strangers over to your house (provided that it's a calculated risk) really isn't that scary, and 3) whether it's business, friendship, or life in general, taking initiative is always the way to go. But onto the shoot...

Two Fridays ago, Aaron and I left at 4 AM to do a sunrise shoot out in Joshua Tree and hang out for the day. He's going to be releasing a new EP sometime early next year and he really liked the whole desert feel. Neither of us really do 4 AM very well, but it was definitely worth getting there for the early morning Joshua Tree light. Side note: Aaron has been in the music industry for almost 15 years and has been in a couple of well known bands- Sonic Flood and By The Tree. He probably hates that I'm writing this right now because he's a very humble guy, but I have to give him props- Dude is legit. We are blessed to have him every Sunday.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Blantone.

CRAZY beautiful morning light.

You wouldn't guess it from the pictures, but it was probably about 35 degrees when the sun first came up...

After a few hours of exploring Joshua Tree, we drove over to the Salton Sea to check out the lively vacation spot... not! It was actually really ere and sad how rundown the neighborhoods were around the sea... very post-Apocalyptic. The Sea is about half the size of Orange County so we didn't even get to half of it. At least a third of the houses we saw though looked like they had been abandoned for a few years, and there was all kinds of debris left around places. It actually made for some good moody shots.

And toward the end we found an old yacht club that had this submarine playground.

Happy Tuesday!