David Yarrow
There are a number of very special
locations in Monument Valley, but so much depends on the time of day and the
position of the sun.
It therefore takes time to location scout as there is only one place a day that
can be explored at 5pm or 6pm. The grandeur of the place is intoxicating - it
is an artist’s dream and it pays to take one’s time.
Access to this particular look out
point on the Utah side required consent from the Navajo Indians, but the red
tape is worth it because it offers the quintessential Wild West view. We were
shooting right on the edge of the cliff - have a look at the behind the scenes
video we produced for the shoot.
There were easy parts to getting
this image - the light we knew would be at its most dramatic around 5.30pm and
getting the Chevy in place just required a good off road driver - anyone really
other than me.
The hard part was to capture any
brief moments of true interaction between Josie Canseco and the wolf. I have
worked with this wolf - Crocket - before and he can be quite chilled, but
getting them to face each other - as if in a deep and intense conversation was
a tough brief for Crocket’s handler. Then again all we needed for the killer
vignette was one second of luck and eventually, as the light started to fade,
we got it.
Josie is a world class Victoria’s Secret model and it
shows. To play that role next to a wolf in the front seats of a car with a 2000
feet drop behind you is not a normal day’s work. Luckily neither Josie nor the
wolf put the car into reverse.