Photographing Emma
I have been an amateur photographer for some time specialising in landscape photography but more recently I have been practicing portrait photography, more for the fun of it than trying to make a living out of it. Anyway, I'm in my early 50's and a friend of mine asked me if I would be willing to take some pictures of her daughter Emma for her new dance studio. Now Emma is in her early to mid-20's, 5' 11, long blonde hair and piercing blue/green eyes and had been dancing since she was a child to competition standard winning awards at national level and now was going to pass on that to the next generation of dancers. I explained I'm not a professional but if she wanted, sure, I would do them for her, a date and time was agreed.
Shoot day 1
I arrived at the dance studio at 10 am and was greeted by Emma and her old dance partner and set up for the first part of the shoot which would be with him in various poses and some actual dance shots, these had to be done in the first hour as that's all the time he had free. We broke it up into three sessions as Emma needed to change dresses in between so that the photographs wouldn't look all the same. While she was changing, I would move lights around and set exposures using her dance partner Andrew.
On her third and final dress change she shouted for him to help her as she was struggling with a zip. They both quickly came back and we just about managed to get the shots she wanted before he had to leave. Emma went back to change yet again but within minutes she was shouting for me to go help her, the zip that she'd had problems getting zipped up was now refusing to come down. After a little struggle, the zip came loose and I lowered it down to its end just above her bum. Holding the dress in place Emma looked over her shoulder, smiled and said thank you with a look that said it was time for me to leave.
She came back out in jeans and a t shirt all relaxed and we looked through the mornings photos. She was pleased with what had been done, we had another session later that day with some of her students whose parents, for those that needed parental consent and had signed the model releases and the older ones who had signed them for themselves. I already had them for Andrew and Emma herself as all though the photographs were for her business I wanted to be able to include some of them in my own portfolio.
There were a few hours before those were to be taken, I put the batteries for the lighting on charge, packed the cameras in to their case and suggested to Emma we go down the street and get some lunch before I set up for the afternoon shoot. As we chatted away about what photographs she wanted taken that afternoon I said to her, "I missed the best photo of the day earlier."
"How come?" she replied.
"I didn't have my camera with me at the time." I said laughing.
"What you laughing about?
"Never mind."
"Come on tell me."
"It was that look over your shoulder as you hung on to the dress telling me to leave." I eventually told her as I burst into laughter again.
"Well I wasn't going to let you see me in just my knickers now."
"Thought you were wearing a thong to be honest."
"And just why did you think that?"
"I couldn't see any lines."
"Well I am."
"Good for you." I said still trying not laugh to loudly as to draw attention.
I took a drink of my tea and tucked into the rest of my sandwich as Emma did with her coffee and I thought that was the end of it. We finished lunch, paid the bill and went back to the dance studio. While she pottered around I set up an area for portraits, checked the lighting for the main floor as unlike the pictures I took with her and Andrew I would be doing more action shots as the class was actually running.
Emma had disappeared at some point, I didn't know where she had gone but I wasn't concerned, the outer doors were locked and we weren't expecting anyone for at least an hour.
"Emma." I called out when everything was set up.
No reply, "Emma, can you do me a favour?" I called out again.
"Yes." Said a voice from behind me.
I turned to see her in the dress she had struggled to get out of earlier. I smiled/laughed and directed her to where I had set up for portraits and checked the lighting.
"Now give me that look."
Try as she did it wasn't there. I had an idea that was sure to get that look back and said to her, "Just lower the dress a little so I can see the top of your knickers." There was the look and the photograph taken.
After I took it, I burst into laughter, I couldn't help myself. I took the card from my camera and loaded the photos into my laptop so we could see them better than we would have on the back of the camera, when she saw the last two after I told her to lower the dress, she saw that look and why it made the photo.
"I see what you meant now."
"It's good isn't it?"
"Far better than me just looking back at you."
"Ok we've got that one, I'll let you go get changed."
"What you don't want the one of me showing the top of my knickers?"
I laughed, "Sure, let's try it."
She got back into position and with her back to me lowered the dress, so it exposed the top inch of her knickers at the back. I told her to look directly at the lens of the camera, which she did and took a couple more photos before uploading them ready for her to take a look. The smile on her face told me she liked them. "Right then, you done?" I said.
"Yes, unless you have any other ideas?"
"I have but you may not like them so feel free to say no."
"Ok, let's hear them."
I told her of a couple of photos I thought would look good. The first one with her back to me and the dress round her feet but still in her heels. One with her in the same pose but with her looking back straight into the lens. The next idea was to have her posing as if she was walking away with the dress over her shoulder still with her heels on and the last with the dress over the shoulder but carrying the heels in her hand walking away.
She thought for a while and I was certainly thinking she wasn't going to go for it when she smiled and said, "Ok let's go for it, though we'll have to be quick we only have about 45 minutes before I will have to open up.."
"Ok go stand where you were for the last shot and just let the dress fall."
She did as I said, I told her I was going to walk behind her to get a light reading and move the dress a little so her shoes would be showing better. She turned her head to watch me and I did my best not to position myself were I would be able to see her naked breasts. I took four shots, two with her looking back at the camera and two with her looking straight ahead of her. We quickly took the others.
I had one more idea for a silhouette but that would mean me placing a light directly in front of her. I told her and then handed her my jacked to cover up, set the light, did a test shot and then asked her to give me the jacket. I took three quick shots slightly different angles and told her we were done. She quickly left and got changed. I took out the memory card from the camera, labelled it and put it away in the camera case and put a new one in the camera. I cleared the screen on my laptop ready for the portraits and set the photo list on the table ready to record whose photographs were which.
The next few hours were spent taking all the photographs that she'd asked me to take, by the time that was done and the dancers gone it was 8pm and I started to pack everything away ready to get off home, editing could wait till tomorrow, though I knew I wouldn't be able to resist looking at the ones of Emma as soon as I got home and up loaded them.