Carolynne and Taralyn’s Model Madness

This weekend one of my best friends and fellow model Taralyn was booked for the same shoot with me and the same Bacardi promo.

Saturday we were to promo model at X fest for Bacardi as Cuban looking models handing out tickets for next weeks Bacardi block party on Thursday, at Marquee.

Our uniform was supposed to look like a Latin dancer. I had an image in my head of black mini dresses, red belts with big red flowers, and red flowers in our hair with bright red lipstick.

I went to a mall just before Tara’s place and got the flowers no problem. However, I couldn’t find a red belt no matter where I looked. So I went back to Ardene’s where I got the flowers, and instead, I bought a pair of red thigh high stockings. I tied one around each of our waists, and secured them in place with the flower pins. We wore our hair in side ponytails with red flowers securing the twist.

Someone needs to videotape the two of us doing our own makeup. When our stylists are fully booked, we have to rely on the lessons they’ve taught us and hope we pull through. We did pull it off, but that was after an hour of loud cursing at our false eyelashes, eyeliner, red lipstick, you’d think we were a pair of drunk, sailor, drag queens.

X fest was like many modern rock festivals. The attitude of most attendees was poor but we turned it around.
The end result was well received by the crowd. We stood out from a mile away. Girls asked where we got our dresses and complimented the outfits. Here’s our behind the scenes:

And then today, we had a double feature photo shoot with our darling friend and colleague, photographer Randy Porter. As usual we were running late after our typical ‘curse at the mirror cause we suck at makeup’ fest, so we packed up the car and headed out.

Here’s us on our way to shoot!

We went to our secret oasis where I stripped first to get ready. My girl Taralyn was in no hurry to be in the freezing cold, stream fed water. I squeezed my size 8 ass into the size 6 wedding dress and we decided almost immediately to chop the top straps off. Unfortunately that made it much harder to pose, but I figured it out. We didn’t feel too bad butchering the dress, I got it for $40 at a goodwill store.

It was quite hard to walk and hold up the giant dress, but in retrospect this was the easiest part of the shoot.

Randy wanted me in the water. And in the water I got…
At first, I just walked into it. Then sat and leaned back against the small waterfall, then finally dumped my whole head and face into the water. Randy knows exactly how to work us, I got tough love in the cold water, but he helped me through it and we nailed the shots. I’m not going to lie. Once submersed each of the two times (half way and full way) I had to take 2-3mins to gather my nerves as my body was shaking severely. I had to pretend I was somewhere else. Thank god Taralyn said “just think of how warm your towel will be!” So I held that thought and pushed through. Near the end Randy was even nicer and said “we can get it in a couple shots if you need,” but I figured, fuck it, I’m already numb from the cold what’s another 5 minutes.

At the end, I was in the pond for at least 30-40mins. The dress easily weighed 10lbs when I got out of the pond from the water weight.

Here’s a behind the scenes shot of me half in the pond.

I ran to my car to commence dressing like an Eskimo in August and allowed Taralyn to get ready for her set.

Then my girl stepped up to the plate. Taralyn nailed her shots in no time (the girls flawless ) and Randy even made her stand in the water, but she didn’t have to dunk her head! Lucky little biatch. She was only in for 5-10 mins tops. Still. It was freezing.