Photography duo and viral creators Jada and David are accustomed to building their own worlds – after all, they once built 100 different photography sets in 100 days. But the duo’s latest challenge blends a warped, imaginary world with the American landscape.
Using a set that fits entirely into the back of a small truck, the couple is traveling over 7,000 miles across a dozen US states to capture a series of warped, whimsical photographs that blend an imaginary world – with America as the backdrop.
Jada and David Parrish – better known simply as Jada and David (@jadanaddavid) – are an award-winning husband-and-wife team known for their photos featuring custom sets, bold designs and dramatic colors.
The couple is in the process of moving across the country from Virginia to California – but when all their plans for moving began to fall apart, the photographers decided to turn what should be a four-day trip into a thirty-plus-day, cross-country creative trek.
The trip mixes the couple’s usual iconic sets and style with something entirely different: using America as the backdrop.
I chatted with the couple around 3,000 miles into their journey while in South Dakota about the creative project – and the challenge of building and shooting with a moving set.
A project created from unraveled plans
The duo explained that the idea for taking their studio sets outdoors has been lingering since completing a 100-set challenge, but the opportunity never felt right.
While planning a cross-country move, though, their initial plans began falling apart. When they realized they would need to drive, in order to take their dog from their old home to the new, the idea came off the back burner.
When the couple pitched the idea and ended up with sponsorship support from Adorama for camera gear and OWC for hard drives, that was the confirmation the couple needed that the idea was an adventure worth sharing.
“I was overwhelmed with the concept of moving – I made a bigger concept for myself. I don’t feel like I’m moving… I think I distracted myself,” said David.
Embarking on a creative cross-country trek at the same time as moving has added to the challenge of determining what to pack, all while a custom-made plywood set fills up the entire back of the couple’s Toyota Tacoma.
An entire set that fits in a 5.5-foot truck bed
After the couple’s moving plans fell apart and shifted to a month-long photography drive, the entire project needed to be planned in less than two months. That started with building a custom set that fits into the back of a truck.
Jada and David wanted to build a set that could be photographed in more than one way.
The set’s layers look almost like a wormhole when shot from inside the truck out the back window – often with the dog in David’s lap as he shoots. Shooting from the top of the truck, meanwhile, it looks more like a colorful staircase.
To be able to shoot through the set, the tailgate had to come off the truck – but also needed to make the move to California, so David took the tailgate off first, stashed it in the truck bed, and built the plywood set around it.
Building took around eight full days. While wood is the duo’s usual choice for sets, the concept added to the challenge, requiring a set that was also aerodynamic and a route that met the set’s eight-foot clearance.
In order to keep the lighting setup similar across the different locations, the team fixed a wall-mounted light rack to the top of the trop cab, positioning a Flashpoint Xplor 300 Pro and Xplor 600 provided by Adorama on the top of the truck.
A softbox is built into the sides of the set using corrugated plastic sheets in order to create soft light inside the wormhole-like set.
A warped world combining the imagined with the real world
The series takes what the couple is known for – bold, unique sets – but changes the background to different iconic American landscapes.
“The initial concept is that this character is bouncing between locations, coming out of this forced perspective portal into these landscapes; she’s not sure where she is, she’s looking for something,” Jada explained.
“The initial idea is to keep the framing exactly the same and build on that repetition to tell the story, but as we’ve been going to these different locations, the framing has been changing up a bit.”
Mixing an imaginary world with the real world has introduced new challenges to solve. Backing up the truck to line the set up with the background landscape has proven to be more challenging than expected, often taking several attempts.
To exaggerate the whimsical, warped look that the geometric, wormhole set is going for, the go-to lens on the shoot is the Canon RF 10-20mm f/4 IS L STM, often shot at 10mm, mounted on the Canon EOS R5.
A 24-105mm zoom and the GoPro Mission 1 Pro also made the camera bag in the limited space for the trip to shoot behind-the-scenes video.
The shoot locations also had to be planned around scenic, iconic American landscapes – that didn’t have fences or guardrails in the way.
The route was planned with a mix of input from social media fans and using Google Gemini to help find locations with an unobstructed view in places the couple is seeing for the first time.
While AI played a role in planning, the photography is done entirely in-camera. “I think with everything, two things can exist. AI can be scary and bad, but also helpful, so we need to find the middle ground, like making the map,” David said.
“The visuals that I create, it’s all in-camera; that’s what we create, that’s our art. If someone uses AI with their art, it’s like the difference between watercolor and oil paint. I don’t want to judge anyone using AI, but for me and my art, it’s about trying to create the effect in camera.”
Intentionally creating problems to solve
The set must be in each shot, Jada and David said, even when shooting without it would be the easier option. While intentionally making something more challenging may seem unusual, putting specific limitations on a project often sparks creative problem-solving, the couple says.
“I enjoy putting parameters on myself because then it creates problems that I have to solve, which gives me new tools to use in the future on projects,” David said. “Having strict parameters really helps me to do that… you use tools in different ways than you would ever expect to.”
“The lines that you put yourself in force you to be more creative within those parameters,” Jada added. “We end up having more ideas than we would have had without those parameters.”
Prior to building their own sets for creative studio work, Jada and David worked as wedding photographers – an era of their career that involved making existing locations work, rather than creating their own worlds.
“There’s something magical about having 100% control over the environment that you are creating,” David said. “Start small with a chair that you like from the thrift store on a paper background and grow from there. Create these worlds that only exist in your imagination.”
“There are a lot of different ways to build sets,” Jada said. “David uses plywood; it’s a medium that he’s always been familiar with, and it works for us. But it doesn’t have to be plywood; you can use fabrics… even cardboard and plastic. You don’t have to have a woodworking background.”
While much of Jada and David’s work is client-centered builds, the trek across America serves as a reminder of the importance of personal creative projects.
“Doing creative projects just because you are curious about something is a really important practice for photographers,” Jada said. “It gives you a reason to try something new, push boundaries, and challenge yourself in different ways, and then take that personal project and bring it back into your profession.
“When you do a personal project, you never really know why you are doing it; you are just curious. But in following that curiosity, you end up discovering a really interesting skill set that adds to the whole.”
I spoke with Jada and David a bit before the halfway point in their 30+ day journey. Follow the creative All About the Journey project through the couple’s website and social media as it unfolds.
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