When Chuck and Tara broached the idea of doing something different for their engagement session, I was already prepared. Chuck is the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Love Cinema Vol. 6, and his melding of performance art and off-the-wall antics are pretty well documented, so I knew that a walk-in-the-park style e-session was not going to be in the cards. Not to say, I didn’t try, but he looked at me like I was nuts. “I want an experimental plane, an air strip, and I want to recreate a pose that screams cigarette advertisement meets Casablanca,” Chuck thought out loud. “You get me a plane, and I’ll do whatever you want,” I said figuring the chance that he’s going to find a plane is slim to none.

A week later, I get an introductory email from Ian—a friend of Chuck’s—asking me what airport I’d like the plane delivered too. “The one that won’t have Homeland Security escorting me out in cuffs,” I replied. “That’s going to be a little tough,” he explained. “But we’ll pull it off.” A few weeks later, a little story boarding and a few brain storming sessions, and we’re sneaking into a local small-plane airport before the gates close behind us. We had half an hour to set up lights, move a plane into position, and shoot the set before the cops came. To top it off, the sun was glaring from all directions and we had to make it look like it was sunset. Somehow we pulled it off with time to spare. Tara was sequestered in an air conditioned car while Allison and Chuck set up for the shot in the 100 degree heat. No one complained and we pulled off every scene without a hitch. Afterwards, we found a cute little field for a few final, and less stressful shots.

As an aside, I usually don’t put this much styling into my photos. I love color and black & white and rarely stray from those two looks, but Tara and Chuck wanted a real vintage feel, so I spruced the shots of with some cross processing. I think it work perfectly. Of course, with subjects as hot as these two, I don’t need to much help with the eye candy. Thanks for the amazing day. Can’t wait to see what you have planned for me for the wedding. By the way, the last shot in this series of Ian. Thank you so much for lending us your experimental Russian plane. You rock.

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