if you’ve never been to the desert before, i have three words for you: PRICKLY – PEAR – CACTUS.  it was pretty obvious that neither me or my assistant had ever spent much time in desert-like conditions because within 30 seconds of getting to our location, we were covered with cactus needles.  big ones, small ones, heat-seeking ones…  holy moly.  the first one to REALLY get me was mr. prickly pear himself.  i felt a nice jab in my ankle and i looked down to see a happy little ball of death spikes hanging from my leg.  when i tried to pull it out, i got stabbed about 27 times in my fingers.  i walked around to find a pair of gloves and it just dangled from my ankle like some gothic christmas tree ornament.  when i got the gloves i tried to pull it slowly, but it just pulled my skin with it (like if you pinch your skin with your fingers and pull it).  so i snatched it out real quick-like, and the cute mace-like ball was replaced with a dull burning sensation pretty much all day.  that was the first round in a long, heated fight with the desert landscape.  later i was shooting and my assistant yelled “yowwwwwwww!!”  i looked over at him and he said with big eyes, “man, i just bent down and sat on a cactus.”

models:  rachel and ariel from S.I.M.

hair: kelly marie from S.I.M.

makeup: samantha from S.I.M.