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Adrienne and Brandon Cassel, (ages 12 - twins) jumping into 52 degree water from a luxury houseboat, Lake Powell, AZ

Jump - Adrienne and Brandon Cassel, (ages 12 - twins) jumping into 52 degree water from a luxury houseboat, Lake Powell, AZ.

Jump
Adrienne and Brandon Cassel, (ages 12 - twins)
Lake Powell, AZ ~ 11:00 AM on 4.6.2007

Ronnie Weil, Photo editor at BusinessWeek called with an assignment about family's renting luxury houseboats at Lake Powell, so me and my assistant loaded up the truck full of gear and off we went for a 24 hour excursion. This is a pretty straight forward available light shot -- get into position and convince the kids to jump in the water, which was cold -- 52 degrees, which I was standing in for 40 minutes.

When I suggested the idea, at first the kids thought it was cool, but they wanted to wear their wet suits -- I said great, I was just happy they were agreeing to do the shot, and even though the water was cold, I told them "When you're 30, you'll look back and be glad you jumped."

So I go get in the water and I'm in for 35 minutes while the kids himmm and hawww -- now they don't want to jump, cause the water is too cold. Then they suggest "jumping from the landing at the back of the boat." I say "the shot will not have any impact unless they launch themselves into the air."

Meanwhile, I'm still standing in the 52 degree water up to my waist and my legs are getting numb. The parents are (nicely) yelling things like "you are wasting this nice mans' time" (if you are a parent you know -- actually if you were a kid you know too!) to get them to jump, but they don't want to jump, cause the water is very cold.

Finally they agree, and we gave them the count down and they jump... I look at the screen on my D70 and block the sun so I can see the shot. I say "it looks pretty good, I think we got it" (2 frames were shot). Their mom says "we'll have them jump again, they're already cold and wet." I say "It''s ok, really, I think I got it." "no they will jump again" she says. Of course the kids don't want to jump -- they went in the water over their heads.

5 minutes later they jump again and I got this shot -- it's better then the first and I'm so glad they agreed to jump the second time. We all dried off and I downloaded the files into the laptop for the family to view. Everyone was ecstatic -- and the Photo Editor loved the shot.

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