I was in the middle of a flower bed in the city park near my home, doing a little macrophotography. I had been shooting flowers and the occasional bumblebee for about a half-hour. The park is home to a soccer pitch, a baseball diamond, and various play structures, since it was mainly intended for the local children. The city had installed a couple of flower beds around the perimeter, surrounded by low stone walls, and the summer's weather had been good to the flowers, and the fat bees.
I looked up at one point, and noticed her watching me from a corner of the flower bed. She was one of my neighbours, a cute little blonde who had obviously just dropped one of her kids off at the soccer practice that was underway across the park. She must have picked him up right after work, as she was still in a dress and heels, rather than jeans or shorts like most of the other soccer moms. I rocked back from my knees, and looked at her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Please don't let me disturb you. I saw you from across the park and was just wondering what you were doing in the middle of the flower bed. I'll leave you alone."
She started to turn away, and something made me call out to her. "No, don't go. I was about to wrap up anyway, so you're not disturbing me at all." To prove it, I stood up and lifted my camera and tripod out of the dirt, and started navigating my way through the flowers to the edge of the stones, where I had left my gadget bag. She turned back, and slowly wandered over to where I was, sitting down on the stone wall, hands clasping her knees.
As I started rummaging in my gadget bag, she looked at my equipment, and said, "You certainly seem to have some professional gear. Do you make money at this, or is it only a hobby?"
"Well, it's mainly a hobby that I can't really afford, so I do some work that I get paid for, and that keeps me in equipment." As I picked up a second camera from my bag, I turned to look at her, and was caught by the way the sun was striking her face, glowing through her hair. She had let it down from the ponytail it was originally in, and it fanned around her face and over her shoulders, the light breeze moving wisps of it across her face.
I immediately brought the camera to my eye and started shooting, framing her head and shoulders with the zoom lens, then moving in for the head shot. I leaned at different angles, and kept shooting as she moved her head to look at me.
"What are you doing? Don't take my picture. I really don't like to be photographed."
I ignored her complaints, as the camera loved this woman. I started directing her to turn her head, bring her chin down a little, put a hand to her face, and run her fingers through her hair. She actually stopped complaining with my first posing direction, so I kept shooting, and kept talking to her. I paused after a moment, and asked, "Why don't you like having your picture taken?"
"Because I never look good in pictures. I'm not very photogenic."
"You haven't been photographed correctly. Take a look, you look great in the photos." I showed her some of the shots I had taken, using the preview screen on the back of my camera.
She got very quiet as she viewed them, then in a soft voice, said, "You're very good. Those are fantastic photos. I've never looked like that."
"Would you like to do some more? You're quite a good portrait subject. Do you have time to pose?"
"Well, my son will be at soccer practice for a while longer, so all right."
"Okay, let's see what we've got." I moved to one side of her, and looked over her body. "Sit up straight. Look out toward the edge of the park. I took a few profile shots, noting her excellent facial features, and what appeared to be large breasts.
"Lean over, wrap your arms around your knees then rest your head on your knees. Turn your face toward me. Don't smile; look wistful." I took a couple of more shots, moving from one side to directly in front of her, and then came back to the side.
"Are you wearing pantyhose, or stockings?"
"What? Why is that important?"
"I want to see a bit more of your leg from the side, with your face on your knees the way you were. If you're wearing stockings, they probably have a pretty lace top. If there's part of that visible under the hem of your dress, it adds an element of sexiness and mystery to the photo. If you're wearing pantyhose, then they won't be pretty, and we'll keep that air of mystery out of things."
"We-e-ell, okay. They're stockings."
"Great." As I crouched to one side, I said, "Pull your dress back a little, so the top of your stockings start to show. You may need to lift a bit to pull it out from under you, and let it bunch a little at your waist, rather than lower down."
She looked around, and seeing that there was no one anywhere near us, she lifted up a few inches, then pulled at the waist of her dress, and the tops of her stockings came into view.
"Okay, that's enough for now. Let's try that." I coached her back into position, and took a few more shots. I liked the result, but thought I could get slightly more eroticism into the shot. "Can you pull your dress back a little further? I want to get a hint of thigh above the lace top."
She looked at me for a second, debating, then lifted and once again pulled her dress up before sitting back down. I took a few more shots, and looked at the results. "Okay, that's a problem."
"What is?"