Final edits from Erica's shoot in Los Angeles!

Hey, Steemit. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there. For years, prior to meeting @vermillionfox, I was a single dad raising @guthrie on my own. Each year, I’d wake up to dozens of texts and messages from @vintagevandalizm, @michelinepitt and my closest friends, all wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day. Life is infinitely easier with the support of @vermillionfox, but I still smiled this morning getting Mother’s Day wishes from thoughtful friends and family.

I’m at @caffetto now, wrapping up edits on the few clients I still owe from last fall. I don’t like being this far behind. It’s twice as much work to get caught up and I’m easily stressed by text messages that peck day in and day out inquiring when my clients will receive their images […even from those that are entirely polite]. Dark Pinup upended everything from a work flow point of view. @wcpublishing and myself had a deadline to print […which we just barely made]. It was the priority and now that the book is out, it’s double time.

I’ve recently posted about Erica. A model in LA that contacted me before my trip to LA with @guthrie and @vermillionfox in February. Erica was the last shoot I’d be taking before we left Minnesota. She’d met me on my last day in LA before making the drive to Palm Springs to visit our friends Berrit and @danielkiessler. She arrived hair and make-up ready and we had access to an entire mansion estate in La Cañada. It was a beautiful day with blossoming flowers and temperature in the mid 70º’s […which believe me, from the perspective of three Minnesotans was a dream].

The estate we shot at is owned by a family I’ve become close friends with over the years. It’s a dream to shoot at. So many interesting nooks and crannies. There’s an entire room with ornate, orchestral instruments, complete with an 6’ harp […after 20 years of shooting full time, you get excited about things you haven’t photographed a hundred times and a giant gold harp fits in to that category]. Within 90 minutes, we’d shot over 400 images both inside and outside. We wrapped and I got on the road with my family for Palm Springs.

Thanks for reading. For more photography, art, illustration and the stories behind the work, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!