I set up this photo at my neighbor’s property that not only has a cave on it....but a cave that has pond and a creek inside it. To get electricity to the neon sign, I had to run 400’ of electrical cords to the mouth of the cave (in the rain). On either side of the frame is a light stand with a gelled blue light on the top. Connecting the two light stands is a bar that I hung the sign from (you can see the wires in the shot that are holding the sign). The neon is mounted to a clear acrylic back so that the text would appear to be floating. 

 In the other room of the cave is a remote-controlled light that I gelled pink. I had to shoot the photo while standing in the freezing cold cave water to get the perspective that I wanted. I stripped down to my underwear (in February) and climbed in and started setting everything up. I thought the water was only a foot deep, but it turns out it’s 3’ of soft mud with razor sharp rocks on the bottom. Thankfully I couldn’t feel my legs by this time, so I didn’t really notice the rocks slicing up my feet till I finished shooting and saw the blood pooling around the bottom of my feet.

 When it was time to shoot, I had to plug the sign into the live extension cord while standing waist deep in the water. I didn’t tell anyone where I was or what I was doing, and this whole shoot could have gone three different types of sideways (hypothermia, electrocution, or some weird cave bacteria).