Day 169 - Project365

If your coming from flickr then jump to where you left off Here if not then just start reading. It gets interesting!!!

Today I was invited to meet two new princesses from Princess Enchantment and Jacky Brodhead. This is the same woman who played Snow White in Day 158. Today however, she was playing Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

The Princesses were participating in an event called "All Things Summer". Local businesses come out and setup a booth to showcase their services. Originally, I was only going to stop in and meet Princess Tiana and Snow White but after I was coerced into doing a little journalistic photography for TreasureCoastHappens.com, I figured since I'd have the gear setup I might as well get a shot for Day 169.

Jacky was happy to see me as she was apparently just talking about me to the other girls. I'm always flattered when people talk about me in a good way. Its great to have your work appreciated!

Now, what started out as a simple princess shoot turned into an idea to use the location to its maximum. We were in a shopping mall, with tons of stores. Why not use some of the stores as backdrops. Hell, whats the worst that can happen? The mall management runs me out for trespassing? I already knew that what I was thinking about doing doesn't fly with management 99.9% of the time. I also knew that if I were to have made an attempt to obtain permission I would have been shot down and wasted too much time. I was going gorilla! With Shawn as the trusty light holder, the three princesses' and myself, we huddled together at their booth and formulated a game plan. "ok, Shawn the girls will stand here, you will have light stand here. Power levels will be bumped up at 1 stop intervals on my command. Ladies, this is what I need from you… We will only have 6-10 shots and maybe 1 minute to grab the shot before getting caught!" We were ready!

We headed down to Victoria Secret. Three insanely recognizable fully costumed princesses, a giant light stand and softbox and a big camera was insanely conspicuous. There was no hiding what we were setting out to do. The looks on peoples faces was priceless as we marched like some fairytale gang. Little girls stopped and starred in awe. We arrive at Victoria Secret and quickly spring into action. I snapped several shots and decide to keep moving. Down to Couch we go. I quickly come up with a plan and we put it into action. We decide to head back and see what else we can get. The girls see an opportunity to go into Victoria Secret and use their princess power to make it happen. Now it's against rules to shoot in the mall, its against corporate policy to allow photography in Victoria Secret. This was a rare opportunity and I wasn't going to pass it up. We snap several shots and quickly move on. The princesses get stopped a few more times for pictures with little girls and…

Thats where trouble starts, I see a cop in the distance looking rather disturbed. "oh shit, here we go!" the girls go in Shrek 3 mode and get all ninja. "No problem, we got this". We decide to turn around and find another exit. We turn around only to see 5 mall security guards coming from the other direction. We’re quickly being cornered. We look to our left and see Old Navy. A sales clerk is waving us in and we waste no time to accept the invitation. The cop sees this and starts running. Once in Old Navy the sales clerk heads to the back hallway. We bust through the door and for a moment we feel we may have escaped disaster. Another sales clerk opens the door and says there’s 3 more cops coming this way. I take my memory card out of my camera and hand it to Shawn. "keep this in case we get caught. They can't confiscate photos that I don't have." Shawn and Princess Tiana go left, Princess Belle, Snow White and myself go right. I look back to see Shawn still holding the stand and vagabond. "Shawn, you'll never make it lugging that! Dump it, we'll get it later. He quickly hides the gear behind a clothing rack and continues to make his way down the hallway, He turns a corner and disappears. The princesses and I move fast in the other direction. Just then we here someone yell STOP! We look back and we see 2 cops who have just came through the Old Navy door. The back hallway is long and narrow with clothing racks scattered throughout. We knew we had no chance if we ran straight. We quickly dash through the first door we find. We end up in the back room of a plus sized ladies store. The sales associate that’s stocking looks confused. I don't know what to do now, I've already run, I look guilty, hell I am guilty but to warrant all this attention is crazy! I ask the shell shocked associate the best way to get out of the mall. She looks frightened and confused. She just points to the door to the outside mall. "we can't go out that way, is there another way?" She asks if were the reason for all the commotion. "yes, we just need to get out of here," She says there’s an exit out the back. Just then the door swings open and 2 cops barge through.

We don't waste any time and start running. We make our way out the door into the main store, Cops close on our trail. I knock over clothing racks in an attempt to slow them down. One cop trips and goes head first into a pile of jeans. Damn I thought, there’s assaulting an officer! The other cop jumps over and is still on our trail. Belle, is right behind me and she is looking fierce. Snow White looks as if pure adrenaline is running through her veins. We exit the store and turn right. I'm all out sprinting while the ladies are surprisingly keeping up, in 4 inch heels nonetheless. Cop 2 is still on our trail and Cop 1 seemed to recover and is back on our asses not too far behind. This is getting really ridiculous. I'm not one to give up and especially not one to go to jail. I find endurance that I didn't know I had. About 100 yards up just past the food court I see 3 mall rent a cops, a man in a cheap suit and 2 cops. Thinking fast, I grab Belle’s shoulder and pull her towards the entrance of Dillards Department store. I look back only to see Snow White on the ground, She had tripped and quickly had 2 cops on top of her. I felt horrible for getting her into this but she fell behind! I wasn't going down for this! Belle and I pushed on. Department stores are a sure fire way to get to the exit as these stores always have exits to the outside. We’re running towards the exit. It appears that we had lost our tail and may get away. The exit is in site, my energy is waning fast and Belle is yelling at me to hurry up.

We bust out of the door and the blinding south Florida sunlight hits us like a ton of bricks. Our vision comes back, were in the back parking lot, "What now?" I say while trying to catch my breath. In the distance we see a car speeding towards us. Its Shawn and Princess Tiana. They speed up and the door flies open. We jump in and Tiana in the driver seat speeds off. She's taking turns like a NASCAR driver. Belle and I are being thrown around the backseat. We round the curve only to see a cop car coming in our direction. Tiana screams to hold on as she jams the E-Break and we spin around. We hop over the curb and start speeding over a large area of grass. We make it around the cop and head for the exit. Tiana is surprisingly a great driver and as she fish tails it around the corner onto the main road. I look back and notice more trouble.

This is quickly becoming a top news story as 6 cop cars are speeding up. This is now a car chase and I'm really going to regret this. You'd have thought we robbed a bank with what was quickly becoming the most action this town has ever seen! Were speeding away, cops hot on our trail. This is Port Saint Lucie. This doesn't happen, This is crazy! Were hitting nearly 85mph on the main road, weaving in and out of traffic. A red light can be seen up ahead. Shawn yells at Tiana to run it. Belle says, stop I'm not dying for this shit. I say, hell, we've come this far. Run it. She jams the gas and we gun up to 100mph. We catapult through the intersection, I'm looking behind only to see two cars collide. "Oh my god! We’re going to jail!" I look up and see a News Chopper, "Guys, were going to be on the news!" Shawn turns on the radio and flips stations. I yell to him to put on an AM station. Sure enough were on the news. "a high speed car chase has ensued on US1 in Jensen Beach, FL. 3 women in princess costumes flee police heading south. The ladies are wanted for a string of jewelry store heists that have plagued south Florida in recent weeks" I turn off the stereo and just blow up on the girls! Just as I was really getting into it with them there is a loud bang and we skid to a stop. A tack strip had been laid. The cops quickly surround us and we all know right then, we’re screwed.

A loud voice is heard, "Stop where you are, exit the car with your hands up" 8 cop cars surround us. Guns drawn, each cop looking for a reason to pull that trigger. I wasn't about to give them that reason. This oddly being the second time I’ve been held at gunpoint for the sake of art! It had looked as if something had snapped in Belle! Rage is all I can use to describe what I saw on her face. A cop on a bull horn tells us to slowly get on our knees with our hands on top of our heads. We comply as at this point, we are freaking out. Loud repeated expletives come out of Shawn's mouth. Tiana is now eerily silent, Belle is just breathing heavy like she is going to explode and I just sigh and say I'm really sorry.

WIth face on the ground, Belle looks up at me and says is this really happening? I just nod and say. "I'm sorry for getting you into this." She looks at me with crazy eyes "it's ok, it will make a great story! All it needs is a great ending," just then she puts both hands down on the ground, looks up with a fierce look of determination. The last thing she mutters is "who needs a fucking Prince Charming". She looks over at Tiana and they both nod. Both princesses slowly rises up as if floating. Cops screaming to get down. They both lift up their dresses. Tiana pulls out an AK-47 and Bell pulls out two double barrel shots guns and screams "you screwed with the wrong princess today!" The last thing I hear is a storm of gun fire. I have never been more impressed as I watch 2 princesses in a fluffy dresses wielding guns. It was magical!

And then I snapped out of it! Truth be told we didn't get any issues for shooting in the mall or in the stores. The ladies and I parted ways. I met back up with Shawn, Rylan and Jacky and we made our way to Toys R us where we played with every toy we could. I sit here now, with a slight buzz off from the adrenaline I got from just writing the story. I love my imagination! Hope you enjoyed - Michael

Lighting:

AB800 Med Softbox 8:00 1/2 power Triggered via Cyber Sycs.