Photo Finish - Crystal Lowrey

This evening I shot with NPC San Diego overall winner and NPC LA short class winner, Crystal Lowrey. Crystal is a couple days out from the USAs, where she'll be stepping on a national stage for the first time. She's built up a good amount of momentum in Southern California, blowing away the competition in her class, so it will be interesting to see how she stacks up against a higher caliber of competitor in Las Vegas.

We shot at a somewhat secret spot I know of nearby, and although it was a little chilly and cloudy, I told Crystal to enjoy it while she could because the forecasts for Vegas this weekend is — no joke — 107 degrees with thunderstorms.

Which brings me to a personal conundrum. I have about 20 people that want to shoot with me during the USAs, but in those pore-melting conditions, there are really only two times I can shoot — sunrise and sunset. Anything else would be unbearable, for myself and the competitor. So it's established that my window to shoot is small, then let me also add that the only real day competitors can shoot is Sunday. So that means I have two 2-hour slots available for 20 people.

wtf..

Also, for the first time ever, I'm actually more looking forward to going on the trip to support a friend thats vying for a pro card, not really just to shoot. However, I almost feel like I'm obligated to drag all my equipment with me to shoot, just because I am who I am and I do what I do. And now I have to pick a handful of girls to shoot with, alienating all the others in the process because they "weren't good enough".

So, that being said, I still have no idea what I'm doing for the USAs. I'm gonna figure it out tomorrow though, because time is running out. I just hate saying "no" to people, and I know I'm going to have to do that to ALOT of folks for this competition. Maybe I'll just pick names out of a hat or something, I dunno. Ah well, you've gotta be the bad guy every once in awhile..