Randy Houser BTS 'we went' pictures

So I spent the day hiking in the nearby mountains; and got in a little picture taking along the way. I usually bring along a folding 120 camera, this time it was the Ziess Ikon Ikonta, a cheap 6×6 that my dad bought brand new in 1953. I’m driving down the mountain heading home when I see all these cars and huge buses parked at a pull out called windy point. It’s here I usually stop and take some late afternoon and sunset pictures before it gets dark, and where this comparison was made. This time it’s definitely packed with cars and people, plus some portable generators running and what sounds like some huge speakers blasting music on the west edge of the cliff.

Apparently I was about the only one there that wasn’t’ associated with the video shoot, so I just walked around a bit and decided to take a couple of snaps with my phone, however, before I could do that, the Forest Ranger in charge of the event did not like what I was doing and told me to go back and stand behind a ‘rock’ over there as she pointed her finger to the east, (not to be confused with ‘go crawl under a rock’) and that I was not allowed to take pictures and video period! At that point, I whipped out my 60 year old film camera and explained the device wasn’t able to take video, or upload to social networking sites; at which point she turns around and walks away… So I moseyed around the perimeter taking a few snaps here and there while being sure not to disturb the production. The picture gallery shows some decent shots of the Randy Houser band. Randy shows up in the washed out shot with the sun in it.

I had a random chat with one of the production people or band assistants and it was then I learned it was Country Music artist Randy Houser; until that point I had never heard of him. Here’s a link to the video shoot; the song was called ‘We went‘ and it was being played over and over again as they faked playing their instruments, check out the guy smoking a pipe, and wearing a feather in a top hat. I actually like the song and video, although the plot seems a bit dubious. This video shoot took place on June 2nd, 2015 at ‘Windy Point’ in the Santa Catalina Mountains (part of the Coronado Nat’l forest) near Tucson AZ.

Finally, they fired up a drone for some nice late afternoon overhead shots, and the Ranger tells me to leave the area so I don’t show up in the video; but that’s ok as I only had seven shots left of film when I arrived, and now I’ve run out.

I think a lot of people are really ignorant when it comes to film, that’s probably why they let me walk around and take pictures, I guess they were thinking the quality will be so bad that you won’t have enough resolution to identify band members etc. And another good reason to take a film camera with you on hikes and vacations, you just never know!

Below are some rather unremarkable samples from a cheap folder with a sticky shutter, (since repaired to factory specs) most were taken with Kodak Portra 400 film B&H photo, Amazon, eBay.