Save a Horse with Marie Love (Patreon)

This set was shot out on the Apache Trail, and it was way colder than it looks.

That’s the funny part about desert shoots—people see warm tones and golden light and assume it’s hot, but once the sun starts dropping, it gets brutal fast. We were chasing that last bit of light while dealing with the wind and cold, which honestly makes a set like this hit even harder.

We kept everything super simple—no artificial light, just natural golden hour doing its thing. That low sun wrapping across the cliffs and skin tones is exactly why I wanted to shoot out here. You get that depth and color that you just can’t recreate anywhere else.

Marie handled it like it was nothing. Even with the temperature dropping, she stayed locked in and kept everything looking effortless. That’s the difference between someone who just poses and someone who actually knows how to work in an environment like this.

From a shooting standpoint, I leaned into the landscape a lot. Keeping her framed against the cliffs, letting the background breathe, and using a slightly lower angle to give everything more scale. It wasn’t about overcomplicating it—it was about letting the location and the light carry the set.