Sessions
Late spring, the first year
7. Imagination runs wild.
I lowered the camera and surveyed my models. Four of them, loosely grouped, and I didn't like what I saw through the lens. It wasn't the models themselves. They were all fine. It was the lighting, something I was trying to learn to deal with. I told them to rest where they were and looked past them to the way the lights were set.
I set the camera down and walked around the tableau, trying to see what was wrong. I was paying these girls by the hour, and I could not afford to waste a second of time. I moved to a side light and frowned, then lowered it from hip level all the way down to the base. I picked up the camera again and looked through the viewfinder. Better. I called to the models that I was shooting as I snapped the shutter. I talked to them, asking one to arch her back more, another to move her leg, a third to let her thighs relax. The fourth was perfect. She always was. It was like she read my mind and moved to just the pose I needed.
Working with four models was terribly difficult.
The film ran through the camera as I snapped shot after shot before exhausting the roll. I was shooting in 2 ΒΌ inch format, and there were only twelve frames on each one. I called for the models to relax once again as I changed film. Number four broke from the others and came to ask if she could help.
"We are good," she said. I understood her even through her heavy accent. An international student from Slovakia, Yana has this habit of making statements that other people pose as questions. With her accent, she makes it charming. Her pronunciation is getting better, and I hardly have to ask her to repeat herself anymore.
"Yes, Yana, you are all very good. I am not happy with the lighting though." I could not afford really good lighting. Since I had plunged into this type of photography, every spare dime I had went into equipment, film and chemicals, and modeling fees. I paid the minimum, but it was still expensive because I was working toward multiple model sessions. Not sexual stuff. Erotic groupings. I may photograph a vulva, but I do not focus exclusively on it.
Yana turned and took in her fellow models. She was doing the session for free because she considered me her friend. She squinted, crinkling her nose and said, "Dake out all za lefbt side," she suggested.
I considered it. Taking out the left side lights would horribly over-expose the right side at the aperture I had been using. I wondered at the effect it would create, and finished loading the new roll before going to each of the left side keys and turning them off.
The effect was striking. I looked into the camera and immediately called for the models to resume their poses as Yana took her place again. I snapped the first shot, moved to my right and found myself smiling. It was like I suddenly had early morning sun from a north window. I asked the tallest one, second from left, to raise her hand to her hair and fluff it, let her do as directed a few times, and closed the shutter. It was hot in the house, especially with the lights on. I had stripped the spare bedroom to the wood floors to create a kind of studio for the day. Hot, I unbuttoned my shirt as I moved again, once more to my right. No good. I moved to my left again and looked through the viewfinder. Number two was blocking number four, Yana. I called for her to step back and was treated to a sensational view of the light spilling over Yana's fantastic chest. The way the light draped, her areola was almost set off in relief. I closed the shutter again, wound the film, and snapped another as she breathed. Goodness, that girl was gorgeous. Her chest alone was amazing. And the rest of her. Oooo la la.
I unbuttoned another button, perspiration rolling between my boobs as I squatted and made another image. I called for all of them to look at me, and four sets of eyes rolled in my direction. Number two and number one had to turn to look over their shoulders. I told them all to look at the door behind me instead of me, and once more their eyes swiveled. I closed the shutter.
I checked my watch quickly as I wound the film. Ten minutes before I would run over time and owe them for another hour. Eight shots.
I stepped three feet backwards and raised the camera again. They were all out of focus. Rather than adjust the lens, I opened the aperture and raised the f-stop. The depth of field dropped drastically, and I focused again, moving close, then closer, snapping off a frame every few feet. I was really warm now, slick with perspiration under my loose shirt; I could only imagine what the models must be feeling. With two frames left, I dropped low again, then lower, rolling onto my back and shot them upside down as I held the camera over my body and ran the viewfinder over them. I wound the film again, felt the snap of the last frame of film rolling through it and curled back onto my knees, breathing heavily.
"Thank you," I breathed. "That's all for today."
Two of the models scurried off to get dressed again. Tall, dark-haired, number two and Yana, number four, didn't.
I rolled over onto my back again as I saw Yana turning off the lights for me.
"Your boob is hanging out," she said softly as she passed by.
I raised my head, saw that my shirt had fallen away from my chest and my right breast was indeed exposed. I wasn't wearing anything under the shirt. I started to draw the material over my bare nipple when number two stopped me.
"Oh, don't," she said. "You look lovely."
I rolled back on my head and looked at her upside down. Not the shy type, it seemed. In no hurry to get back into her clothes even after two hours of strenuous work. She was the tall, like me, taller evenβfuller figured, perhaps, like Yana.
"Thank you," I said and drew my shirt over my chest anyway.
"So, what are you two doing now," she asked. She said it quickly, like she wanted to get it said before she chickened out. And she assumed Yana and I were going to be doing something together. I didn't think we had said anything to give her that idea. She just knew.
I rolled onto my feet, unloaded the camera and carefully set aside the film of today's shoot. I thought I had at least four good images of the 64 we'd made, maybe more. I picked up the envelopes containing the models fees and fanned myself with them as I waited for numbers one and three to finish dressing.