Anacortes

Spent two days this week in Anacortes, working on a photo shoot to showcase our Fall 12 collection. But it wasn't all work -- I also managed to have a gorgeous run. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little.

Went to a kick-ass workout on Wednesday morning with Kerry at boot camp. How she manages to keep it fresh and fierce week after week I don't know. Then home for a quick shower, and then the drive up to Anacortes. No traffic to speak of, so I arrived a tiny bit early -- and got to meet the neighbors:

Asa and friend

Tanner the donkey

Also met Mustafa, the photographer, his wife Rosemary, and Rian the stylist. Soon after, Simon, our model for day one, arrived. We got set up and started shooting. We only had eight looks to capture on day one. The team was great -- everything went absurdly smoothly. We had a leisurely lunch on the patio in the sunshine and watched some barn swallows fledge -- Mustafa looked like a very proud papa watching the babies fly!

I always have this idea that I'll get loads of work done on a shoot -- I'll have all this quiet time to get little things done in-between shots. Nope. There's always lots to do! And, as I used to remind myself in my TMO days, we were paying a lot of money for the photo shoot, so it's important for me to focus my attention on getting great shots.

Of course, it's not glamorous. There's a lot of standing around and wondering if jackets should be zipped or open, how the model should place his feet, his hands, etc. Here's what it looks like when we're working:

Mustafa examining the lighting on a test shot, Simon wearing Brooks "Brite Orange"

Mustafa shooting another test shot while Simon relaxes

Rian the stylist adjusting Simon's jacket; one of our selects is visible on the monitor

With only eight shots to capture, we wrapped pretty early. I gave Simon his choice of product -- a couple of pairs of shoes, some clothes. I always feel it's nice to leave the models with a really nice feeling -- and it's also nice to have good looking folks running in our products! Plus, I simply wasn't going to try to get the clothes folded up and back in their plastic bags...

After we wrapped, Rian prepped all the clothes for the second day of shooting while I went through and narrowed down the shots to a few selects for each outfit. I would take those back with me to pick the final set later.

Rosemary made dinner reservations for the four of us at Anthony's at 6, which still gave me time to go to the hotel (the fabulous Holiday Inn Express Burlington...), stop in at a running store to find a place to run on Thursday morning, and have a little wander around Anacortes.

Anacortes marina

boat launch

gorgeous!

We had a nice dinner -- and spent a lot of time talking about all of our cats! -- at Anthony's, but then I needed to go back to the hotel to try and get some work done. I did work for about an hour, but was feeling strangely tired so I just decided to have a hot back and was in bed by 10.

Up early on Thursday to go for a run on the Tommy Thompson Trail, a super cute little route that follows an old railway line. I joined at the "34th Street Station" (perhaps there was once actually a station of the narrow gauge there?) and headed out.

Lovely, flat, nicely paved -- it went past a couple of warehouses / buildings before simply following the edge of the bay. The morning was GORGEOUS -- a bit cloudy, with some great morning light. The water was calm and had that thick, syrupy look I love. 

The woman at the running store told me "you run towards the refinery" which didn't seem particularly scenic, but it actually was.

After a little while, the trail ran through an RV park -- seemed like a fantastic spot to camp! Not a lot of people were up and about, so I felt a little funny running past the sleeping campers.

Then I ran out across a spit of land -- which I assumed at first was the railway trestle? Nope.

This, my friends, is a railway trestle:

Apparently they had a terrible fire on the trestle a few years back -- but through a huge community fundraising effort, they were able to repair/rebuild the trestle. And it was worth it -- it's a lovely, lovely trail!

I reached the end of the trail -- which really just stops with a sign noting that the road is narrow and frequented by large vehicles (tankers from the refinery, I'm assuming). But I also reached the halfway point on my run, so it was the perfect time to turn back.

The morning was getting brighter, and the views kept getting prettier -- even if I was just quickly snapping pictures as I ran.

Finally, I finished the 30 minutes -- yay me! -- and snapped this shot back towards the refinery. Lovely. Whenever I run on a pretty trail like that I imagine what it would be like to live nearby and have that as my local run. Of course, we're spoiled here with Green Lake and the Burke-Gilman Trail being so close -- but I can easily imagine running the TTT every couple of days if I lived in Anacortes.

After finishing my run, I went back to the hotel, showered, had a bit of breakfast (though I didn't want to wait in the queue for the "pancake printer"...) and then headed to the studio for day two. We had 10 shots to do, and a slightly sleepy model, so the day was longer. But in the end we got some great shots, and I'm excited about seeing them on BR.com. All in all a great little trip!