The daughter of a good friend of mine was really into superheros and her uncle does costume design for Broadway shows. I saw various shots of her in these cool costumes he'd made and instantly this scenario popped into my head. I had to make it happen.

I pitched my idea and everyone involved was psyched. As I had no budget to build props, buy costumes, or pay models, I had to pull the friendship card and beg for volunteers. Luckily, I have a few friends!

This incredible shoot was as involved as it looks. In order to get twelve or thirteen burglars to all show up for a photo shoot, at least 18 or 20 had to be secured. Safety people had to be located behind our star in case she took a header backwards, platforms for the burglars to lay on had to be built, money bags had to be hand made, 15 burglar costumes had to be made, a full genuine cop outfit had to be obtained, a talented hair and makeup artist had to be on board, a person to clean and sweep the whole set was a definite, and a killer location needed to be found and properly permitted. So far, so good.

After days of preparation and everything finally in place, Mother Nature needed to cooperate as it's an outdoor shoot open to the elements. Wouldn't you know it but a big storm was scheduled to hit right around shoot time. There's a certain short window of time after the sun sets that the sky turns an electric blue and according to the weather radar, a big green blob of pouring rain was scheduled to hit right at that magic moment.

As I was testing the lighting, rain started sprinkling. Not ready to have my entire lighting setup blow up, everyone frantically rushed to get the equipment under cover. After a few minutes or so, the shower stopped and it was GO TIME! It was now or never. Everything was quickly moved back into place and shooting began immediately, fast and furious.

I literally shot off no more than 12 frames when the shoot had to come to an end. My sky time window was gone and rain was emminant. The rain may have won the battle but with this final image, we won the war!

A very special thanks to everyone who made this shot possible. Our burglars: My father Clark, Bob, Joe, Todd, Kirk, Keith, Mike, Nick, Garrett, Danny, Seth, Donald, and Jeremy. Our police officer Dave. The superbly talented hair and makeup artist Erin Brown. Tim for spending countless hours making the burglar costumes. Marci at Trippi's Uniforms for securing the official cop uniform. And last but certainly not least, the star of the shoot, the brave, energetic, enthusiastic, talented, beautiful, Wonder Girl... Livvy. Oh ya, and roughly 7000 watts of lighting, numerous softboxes, octaboxes, beauty dishes, difussion panels, reflectors, gels, snoots, grids, generators, and 1 SB-900 speedlight.

Wonderful and worth it.

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