Camille Goldsborough // Las Vegas, NV
November 20, 2014: I was visiting Las Vegas to cheer on a friend who had been nominated for a Latin Grammy (on an album I happened to have photographed the cover artwork). Alas, he didn’t win, but since he already has five (5), I was only partially heartbroken. Since I had been gifted two Grammy tickets, I thought to invite my brother who lives in San Francisco, to join me for a few nights in Vegas.
The morning after the Grammys, my brother and I decide to walk The Strip, from the Luxor at the south end to the north side, past The Strat. About at the point where we turned around to head back, we almost literally stumbled into this empty pool. Seeing no one around, and no locks to break - we mischievously decide to take a few pictures inside the pool, and promptly get chased away by property security.
November 21, 2014
Fast-forward to November 21, 2021, and I’m reminded of this trip via my social media aggregator, TimeHop. ‘What a cool and random locale this would be to photograph a ballerina in’, I thought. That’s how a shoot can be birthed, just a spark of an idea.
I had been connected with Camille via a mutual photographer friend a few weeks earlier at the beginning of October, and I was considering a brief day trip out to Los Angeles to photograph at Joshua Tree. Camille (rightfully) expressed hesitancy to drive 3 hours from LAX to Joshua Tree with a photographer she had never met before; since she’s not based out of LA, Camille had left her car back home in Florida. Well that didn’t work out, no harm no foul. My ideas are always crazy, and I didn’t blame Camille one bit.
Fast-forward once more to November 21, 2021, and I thought ‘Who can I find to photograph in this pool? I wonder if this pool still exists. Maybe I should do some recon before I consider a trip out there.’ So I reach out once more to Camille, asking her if she has ever been to Vegas, and if she’d be up for my crazy adventure, in the hopes that the pool even still existed seven years later. Surprisingly enough - after some friendly, well-timed, trust-worthy referrals - she agreed to meet me out in Vegas, and see a man about a pool.
The morning of the shoot arrives, and I’m as nervous as I can possibly be. Without a guaranteed location, and this relatively large investment already made, had I embarked on a foolish mistake? Well lo and behold, we arrive, and the pool existed… locked behind an un-jumpable wall.
I didn’t come all this way just to be stopped by a rusty lock. And I also am not a crook, so trespassing wasn’t on my agenda either. Thankfully Manny, the property manager walked by just at the right moment, and asked if us suspicious folks needed any help. I explain my plight, and sadly he was unwilling to give us permission, but suggested we wait eight (8) minutes until the owner arrived, to plead our case with him.
Turns out our fate was in the hands of this owner, and was decided upon by my charming smile and devilishly good looks - according to the owner. “Ok, I’ll let it happen… because you’re good looking. But I want a picture with the ballerina, not you.” As surely as the sun shone that day, fate smiled down upon us. As the owner was unlocking the gate, he told us that on his to-do list for later that month was to demolish the pool, as it was never being used. As a ballerina binds her pointe shoes with ribbons, these locks that tied the gate shut were undone, and the pool was ours.
Just like that, everything fell perfectly into place. The 12 frames were executed without any further ado, and success was ours. I order an Uber back to our hotels, and eagerly await the development process. Fabian arrived in his white Fiat 500 XL, and off we went. Since the trip began with so many questions, it was only fitting that to end the trip, Fabian, our Uber driver-turned-wedding-officiant asked if we were married, and if we would like to go to a drive-through chapel to be wed.
January 10, 2022
