SO FAR: Divorcee Merrick Jamieson (35) visiting New York comes into contact with the moll of the mysterious Spiro. The spirited Kirsty Fallon has reason to fear if she so much looks at another man but after a brief association with Merrick, Kirsty (25) finds she has become attracted and follows the photo-journalist to his homeland and begins working with him. Merrick deals with a retriever sent to return Kirsty and goes to New York and wins her freedom from Spiro. The couple plan to marry in Los Angles in a couple of months which begins an exciting and eventful countdown.
*
Driving to the Auckland CBD in drizzle to collect his transparencies Merrick wished he and Kirsty were back in the south enjoying Queenstown's cool but fine alpine weather. The counter assistant read a note on the job bag and asked Merrick to see the manager.
"Hi Merrick," greeted Fred Sharpe, a former newspaper photographer. He'd often worked alongside Merrick, then a reporter, in 'the good old days'. They chatted and finally Fred revealed the reason for the meeting.
"As you know, our staff peruse every tranny and print passing through this place, looking for any foul-ups by us, any grossly unacceptable stuff such as porn or mutilation and, of course, for the pic of the day, week, month or decade. You must have had a boring time down in Queenstown mate. No porno on you films."
Merrick said, "Wouldn't say it was boring; there was this hot Austrian bird..."
"Seen her mate, she's on most of your exposures. Wouldn't mind getting a leg across myself. But the one I really would pay big money for the privileged for going camping with for a week was that six foot blonde with those magnificently shaped compact boobies. She was only in a few shots; who is she?"
"My fiancée."
"Oh gawd, mate. Sorry about what I said. I didn't know."
"Take it easy, Fred. She'd be really flattered by your interest. She likes to be admired and I know it sounds odd, but I rather feel proud when I see the look of admiration in the eyes of men and women."
"Women?"
"Yes, most guys don't appreciate even women like perving at a good looking or well constructed babe. But carry on; I guess you want one of my pix?"
"Yes - a shot of the jetboat roaring up Skipper's Canyon with those Jap tourists waving at you in the helicopter. You were flying so low that the blades must have been almost striking the canyon walls."
Fred flicked through a couple of pages of his jotter pad, "Here it is, film seven, frame twenty-one."
While Merrick dug through his packets of trannies for the Film Seven exposures, Fred pushed a button and a screen came down through an enclosure in the ceiling. Merrick found the appropriate strip and Fred said, "Give it here and I'll bring it up on the projector."
Shots of bright red, water splashing jetboats roaring up through Skippers Canyon near Queenstown are old hat because of sameness, but not like this shot. It was superb. The jetboat was on a lean, spray was flying everywhere, it was only inches away from the canyon wall and everyone was looking up waving at the heli-photographer, even on this one frame the skipper had obviously taken a quick glance and was waving.
"A classic shot, but so what?"
"Look at their faces," said Fred. "Obvious someone aboard thought your chopper was going to hit the canyon wall and they were warning him off. That's near terror on some of those faces."
"I see what you mean," Merrick grinned. "But we weren't as close that we sometimes were in the old days in search and rescues hovering between the masts of pitching ships and going into mountainous country to winch guys out of crevasses. My pilot here was Joe Mapper, ex-Army and ex-search and rescue. He's one of the country's best chopper pilots. I saw where we were and had no fear knowing he was the pilot."
But Fred had more to add. "Look, all of those guys in the jet are in suits and because of the lean of the boat they're all holding on with their right-hand and waving with their left hand; even the skipper is with his right hand hard down on the wheel turning away from the cliff face."
"That's quite remarkable," Merrick agreed.
"Yeah, and to cap it all off there's the incredible lighting – the sun is shining just at the right angle to penetrate fully into the canyon and to brighten the cliff face – look how it has brought out the colors, and there is even lighting bounce back on to the cliff from sunlight hitting the water. It's a stunner, Merrick. One of those one-in-a-decade shots, I feel."
"So, you want it for company promotion purposes. You can have it in return for you and Elle taking Kirsty and me out to dinner on the company tab."
"That's very generous of you mate, but I want to sell this shot and to destroy all five directly associated shots to make it a unique exposure."
"OK, it was just a shot I took as our target was the next boat up the canyon. Would a grand be asking too much?"
"Mate, this is a giant Japanese corporation, and these suits in the boat include the company's chairman, chief executive officer and their top agents from around the world. If asked to pay a grand they would suspect something wrong with the tranny."
Merrick cocked his head and suggested ten grand.
"A bit steep, but I could give it a go."
"Make it eight grand then, no eight grand, eight hundred and you take eight hundred as commission."
"That's pitched about right in my opinion. The director of corporate public affairs is coming in tomorrow for some other stuff we commissioned photographers to take for them at other resorts."
"Tell him it's eight and a half, take it or leave it."
"Oh he'll take it all right, I've already met him and he's a real pro. He'll see this shot on the cover of the company's most important publication of the year, and they'll send a publication on the New Zealand tour featuring this photograph to their suppliers and clients around the world."
As Merrick was leaving, Fed called, "We'll still have that dinner mate, I want to get a close-up of your honey-pot."
Merrick arrived home an hour later than estimated. That was ignored by Kirsty but she noticed his expression.
"So that's what the cat looks like when it's got the cream?"
The grin went even wider: "I may be paid eight grand less tax for a single exposure from Queenstown."
"What, one of my shots?"
"No, one of mine in Skipper's Canyon."
"Ah, yes. When you returned you were raving about the light in the canyon. It must be a pretty big spender to pay that amount for a single exposure."
"Yes, a multi-national Japanese corporation."
"Oh," Kirsty said, losing interest. "What do you fancy for lunch," she asked wickedly, cupping her right breast.
"Nothing I can think about for the moment," Merrick said, straight-faced.
After sex and lunch, he began the long task of looking at 697 exposures shot on the Queenstown trip. The original tally was 703, counting the five to be destroyed by Fred at the film processing studio and the one to be sold.
