I’ve got a friend who moonlights as some sort of government worker, but her true calling is creating amazing photographs. Alicyn Drew is a part-time photographer who composites images and her love of Mini Coopers, combined with her artistic eye and acerbic wit made my first day at the MOTD super exciting! When Ali asked if I would be interested in being her assistant I jumped at the chance!

Helping Alicyn set up the studio at MOTD13

It was a bit intimidating after I’d heard so much about what a great job Craig had done the day before. “Craig anticipate my every need,” Craig knew what I needed before I did,” “Craig almost died when he threw himself in front of the tent to keep Celia from hitting the tent pole as she backed in!” He was like the Marsha Brady of photographers assistants!

Craig Baron really is the best assistant! He almost got run over. Twice!

I’m a bit competitive, so I worked really hard to try to top Craig. I whipped out the Chapstick when Alicyn looked chapped, I wore one of my evening tiaras to lure new clients into the tent with the sparkle, I peeled and sectioned an orange when she mentioned she might need a snack, and I was Johnny on the spot when it came to firing up the fog machine.

I was the fog machine whisperer all day long.

Alicyn had quite a few cars to shoot and I helped them to back into the tent by pointing out the pole they needed to not hit.

When she had a break, Ali kindly offered to shoot my car. I added a boa and some sunglasses and Ali positioned the lights directly ahead of My Precious.

Bright like the sun!

I’m still not sure what background she’ll composite me on to, but I’m certain it will be glam!

Me and My Precious driving off into the sunset!

The best part about assisting Ali in the tent, besides watching her work, was seeing the Minis that came in for a shoot. My favorite was the black widow, maybe because they decided to use the sword to literally slay the dragon…

Can you see the exterminators they’ve already taken out? I really believe it is the attention to detail that separates us from the animals!

After work we hooked up with a few of our DC Metro Mini friends to ride to Tapoco Lodge for dinner. Haemish knew a back road that was full of twisties and since his car was being repaired and he was riding with me, it meant I got to lead the run! The road was rough and much too short but we made it there safe and sound.

DCMM at the Tapoco Lodge. We felt very welcome.

The food was good and Haemish got a pizza at least four times the size of his head!

Enough pizza for dinner. And breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. And breakfast…

After dinner we took more pictures of our cars, of course…

This is a beautiful sight.

And then we headed back to Fontana Village for bingo. The bingo caller was hysterically funny but all of my cards were broken.

These cards were all defective!

I saved one of my extra cards for the final round because the grand prize was a Mini bike. They fold up and Melissa even offered to transport it home in her giant Countryman. She is super helpful! Sadly, I waited round after round but they never called my number.

I could have been a contender!