Chapter 17: Fair Game

I STOPPED AT HOME and told Mom I was going to ride into Huntertown with Chris and have dinner before our Christmas vacation came to an end. She reminded me to be home by ten; it was a school night. Chris drove on this date and I wondered what the proper protocol was about getting out to open her door and how close to my own door or the center of the seat I should ride.

Chris was driving her family’s late model Plymouth Belvedere wagon. I was happy that I wasn’t the only one who drove around in the family’s station wagon. I liked the red color of her car better than the powder blue of ours. She patted the middle of the seat and I slid over next to her.

“Be close, but don’t distract me from driving or you’ll have to sit over there,” she instructed.

“I’ll be good,” I laughed.

We talked some more about the pictures and I said I had one more senior photo lined up on Saturday. She said she’d be happy to help. I think the biggest problem with this girl’s photo was that she really had a bad hair day and it looked lopsided. The photo quality wasn’t bad.

“I need more ideas of poses for the Attic Allure shots. I get that a lot of girls seem to like the bare shoulder look, but don’t necessarily want to go topless to get it. That was a brilliant idea with Linda to use the sheet. And the flower was all the prop she needed, but I need more things and ways to show off the women and my lighting style.”

“I wouldn’t be too surprised if you get a few who want to do lingerie photos. You can put one of mine in the gallery if you want. I thought they were really pretty cute. Just don’t show my nipples, please.”

“I’ve got some good ones that don’t over expose you,” I laughed.

“Also, a lot of your props are really old fashioned. Antiques. You could use more modern props that aren’t so dated,” she suggested. “You might even suggest a girl bring something of her own to be in a picture with. She might have a favorite doll, stuffed animal, keepsake, or even a photo of a sweetheart that she wants in her picture. Even your telephone is old fashioned. It would be cool if you had a Princess phone.”

“I don’t know where I’d get one of those, but it’s a good idea. I’ll ask Marlene to bring something with her on Saturday. Can you help with makeup and hair?”

“I’m so glad you asked. If I’m not modeling, I can still be involved and see you for these sessions. Um ... It’s probably best if I don’t help on the ones that decide to do a whole modeling session with you instead of just the yearbook and allure photos. Having a third person in the room might inhibit your model,” she said. “I know I’d have been inhibited if someone else was going to see me expose myself. I’m still a little embarrassed.”

“I don’t know what to say about that. I mean, I understand because I’d be embarrassed for anyone to see me naked. But on the other hand, it was such a precious gift you gave when you did it and the photo of you is so beautiful, I want you to feel great about having done it. Proud. You are really, really beautiful.”

“Thank you, Nate. That does make me feel good about it. I’ll get over the embarrassment eventually. I promise.” That last word was almost a whisper, like she was convincing herself and not me.

We went to Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner. It wasn’t much of a restaurant, but it was a break from hamburgers. And mostly, Christine and I just wanted to be with each other and talk.

She drove me home and parked at the side of my house rather than on the street. We just sat there holding hands for a minute.

“I’m more nervous tonight than I was Saturday night,” she said. “I was so brazen.”

“I ... um ... Well, I have to tell you. I know you said that was your first date and a kiss on your first date. You know it wasn’t my first date. But it was my very first kiss. I felt like I was walking on air and fell asleep when I got home just thinking of your lips on mine. But I don’t, like, know anything about this. I’m afraid I’ll really disappoint you,” I said.

Christine didn’t answer. She just put her hand on my face and turned it toward her so she could plant her lips on mine. We shifted a little and our lips moved over each other’s. I put my arm around her and she slid hers under my parka. Eventually, we pulled back and just looked at each other as we tried to catch our breath.

“I think we just need practice,” she said.

I closed the distance and captured her lips again with my own. They were so tender and moist against my lips. I pulled back a little again.

“But maybe not too much practice all at once,” she continued. “Go home and review this lesson as you fall asleep tonight. That’s what I’ll be doing.” She darted in for one more quick peck on the lips and pushed me toward the door.

“See you in class tomorrow,” I said as I got out of the car. “Sleep well.”

“Oh, I will!”

There wasn’t much time between when Anna and I broke up and when school let out for Christmas break. And we’d been working together on photos for the yearbook, so we’d still been seen together quite a bit. But after the break, it suddenly seemed like people became aware that Anna and I were no longer a couple. That might have been because Anna accepted a date from Ben Fisher, who happened also to be a member of her church. As soon as school was back in session, Anna appeared sitting at lunch with Ben.

“You can invite Chris to sit with us,” Karen said at lunch.

“Does it take a special invitation?” I asked. “I mean, I think Chris has a bunch of friends she usually has lunch with. You could ask her.”

“What’s this?” Pris asked, eager for gossip. “Are you going with Chris now?”

“Um ... No. Not exactly. We went out together over the break. Might probably do so again. She’s been helping me with some of the photography I’ve been doing. You know a lot of seniors are apparently upset with their senior photos and are asking me to retake them,” I explained. “I like Chris. We’ll probably go out again, but we aren’t going steady or anything.”

“Ohhh,” Pris said, drawing the syllable out as if it were the dawning of great understanding.

I hoped I’d handled that correctly. Chris and I had agreed to not try to go together right now. No one knew we’d been out a second time. Actually, I’d have been fine with going together. I didn’t really have a list of people I wanted to date.

I soon discovered that several senior girls had come back to school with engagement rings given to them by senior boys or grads. I guess as juniors, we were still supposed to be shopping.

I posted the picture of Principal Richmond with a freshman girl on his knee when he was playing Santa Claus on the bulletin board. Anna had set the photo up and I thought it was pretty cute. Miss Sullivan removed the picture and said it would be more appropriate if the child was an elementary school kid instead of a high school girl.

I guess my brief experience playing Santa Claus for Christine made that understandable, though I didn’t think anything inappropriate was going on in the photo.

I had four more girls waiting for me in Miss Sullivan’s classroom after school. Only two of them were seniors. Pris, who had been at the same lunch table with me since the beginning of school, and Debbie, who was another classmate, sat in on my presentation. I showed samples of what I meant by a yearbook photo and what I meant by an Attic Allure photo. I gave them a pricing sheet and the two seniors signed up immediately. I could do senior retakes in about an hour, even with the Attic Allure photo. I put Mona Anderson down for Friday after school and Leslie Weirich for next Tuesday after school.

I turned to my two classmates.

“Pris? Debbie? What kind of photo are you interested in?”

Debbie nudged Pris.

“Well, obviously, we don’t need senior photos. We’ve seen some of the Attic Allure photos, though. That’s, like...”

“Can you make us look like that?” Debbie broke in. I laughed.

“Well, every person is different. The same photo won’t look the same for every person. Was there one in particular that you are thinking of?”

“Um ... Not exactly,” Pris said, scowling at Debbie. “We talked with Judy and Janice. They told us to talk to Patricia. Patricia said to talk to Chris. And Chris suggested we talk to Lori because she knew how far things could go. We want to know if you can use new models.”

“We’d be willing to do a shoot with you and have you call on us anytime you have something you want to try, like you did with Janice,” Debbie said. Then she dropped her voice to a whisper. “Um ... My boobs are kind of floppy. Not like Lori’s. She’s carrying around a photo you took of her that looks like she just stepped off a professional modeling gig. It’s gorgeous. But I’ve got a nice ass. You could take pictures of that.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said. “Some models get a little carried away with the way they pose and how much they expose. But I don’t do porn. If I shot any photos of you that were partially or fully nude, I’d try to make them as artful as possible. That means not every image is even close to perfect. The picture of Lori is one of the best I’ve ever taken. But more than that, I can’t actually use any photo that exposes you until you’re eighteen. I don’t think either one of you are yet, right?”

They nodded.

“We weren’t exactly volunteering to pose nude,” Pris said. “But as long as nothing is displayed that shows our bits, we could work with you. I really want to know if there’s something worthwhile in me that you can capture in a photo.”

I had to consider this a little. On one hand, I could really use a couple more malleable models that I could call, just to experiment with. Like I had with Chris on Saturday. On the other hand, I didn’t really want a reputation of taking every girl in my class to the studio and undressing her. Still, if she was willing, I guess I’d suffer through it.

“Okay. Here’s the deal. I have a model release that you’ll sign. It gives me the right to print, distribute, sell, or publish any picture I take of you. My uncle gave me a lecture about some of this and he says that sixteen is the age of consent, so you can pose nude—if we ever get to that—and I can take photos of you legally. But if I attempt to sell or distribute them, I could get in trouble. So, you’ve got a free pass to experiment until you’re eighteen. After that, anything I take could be exhibited somewhere. Out of any set, you can have a free 8x10 photo. If you want to buy more than that, I sell them to my models at half the price of things like my senior retakes. And you can use any of those photos for your own purposes, like a resume or advertisement or brochure or something. I don’t pay for just having you come in and shoot some artistic shots on speculation that I might be able to use them someday. But if I have a specific job that I need a specific model for—like the new calendar picture of Janice that’s hanging in Henry’s garage—then I’ll give you a fee for the work and you can decide if you want to take it. Does that all make sense?”

“Yeah. Seems fair enough,” Debbie said.

“Then why don’t we do this.” I looked at my calendar. “I have Sunday afternoon open this weekend. Why don’t you come to the studio if you want to try this out and we’ll do a roll or two of test shots. I’ve got a new camera and I’m still experimenting on how to get the best possible photos from it. There’s no requirement to get naked for this. We’ll use some props and experiment with lighting and settings to see what we like and whether we can work together. Like I said, you can have an 8x10 of any one shot from this batch that you want, but then we’ll decide if you want to do more shoots or if you just want to be on call for specific modeling gigs, or if you never want to see me again.”

“What time?”

“Let’s plan to start at 2:00. You can either come together or separately if you want. Sometimes company makes a person more comfortable and sometimes they get embarrassed to think that someone else might see them. I’ll work with you either way.” I stood up and closed my portfolio and handed them each a copy of the model release form. Then I headed out. I had a lot of getting ready to do.

I went through the storage area and pulled out anything that looked wintry that wasn’t Christmas. Giant snowflakes I could hang from the ceiling, an old sled, a nice plaid scarf, and a set of cutout birch trees with no leaves. I kept hunting and found a stocking hat and mittens, big mugs for hot cocoa, and a heating coil I could place in a cup of water and bring it to a boil. I could see the possibility of steam coming out of a cup as it’s raised to thirsty lips.

At the antique store, I found a portable phonograph with a stack of 45s, a cool chess set, and a small table with two chairs. I really had no idea what I’d be using next, but I had four photo shoots in five days coming up, including one that was just to experiment with how the girls modeled and posed. I’d still be using the 35 for the yearbook retakes, but I’d be using the new Hasselblad for the experiments with Debbie and Pris on Sunday.

I also went through the process of cleaning everything in the studio. I scrubbed the floor, made sure the furniture was dust free, and even cleaned the toilet and sink in the bathroom. I currently had nothing drying in the racks, so I took them off the door and put them in the darkroom. I made sure all my lights were working and on Thursday went to the post office to pick up my shipment from Camera Warehouse. I’d ordered two umbrella reflectors with stands and 6000k light bulbs and two three-inch Fresnel theatre lights with stands and cords. I had to get Mr. Barkley to show me the fuse box and track down the circuits for the fourth floor so I was sure I wasn’t overloading anything. I found there were actually two circuits for the outlets up there and by running an extension cord from the back of the room for part of my lights, I’d have plenty of power to run the lights I was using.

I knew Levi was giving me a great deal. I was sure the list prices on that equipment totaled more than the check I sent him. And with the lights, I got a box of film. When I opened it, I discovered a gross of 120 film spools. They were individually boxed and I saw that he’d sent me a mix of different ASA ratings on the film. That much film—nearly 1800 exposures—would last me a long time. I thought.

My weekend started with Mona Anderson in the studio at three o’clock on Friday. I was happy to have Chris there to work with Mona on her makeup and hair. The portrait went smoothly and I was sure we got something that would be a big improvement on the shots the other photographer had provided.

Mona had brought a picture of her boyfriend, who graduated a year ago and was in a college ROTC program. He looked pretty sharp in his uniform. We arranged the photo on a small table with a radio, as if she was listening to music while looking at his picture. Then she showed us the engagement ring he’d given her for Christmas. She wore a nice, fairly low-cut blouse and I switched to the black backdrop. With the lights I had now, I was able to really isolate the little tableau against a void backdrop. I was also learning the value of a little backlight to set her off even more.

It was a pretty simple scene. She sat at the table with his picture and the radio. She had her arms folded on the table with the diamond ring clearly visible. She had a kind of dreamy look on her face and I loved the way we captured it.

It took closer to two hours than the hour I initially scheduled, but I was sure I had great shots.

“That was fun,” Christine said as she was packing up her kit to leave. “I suppose you will work this evening processing it, won’t you?”

“That was my plan. Do you have a better alternative?” I asked.

“I think it’s too late to catch the bus to the game. So, I’ll probably just watch TV and go to bed.”

“You could join me for dinner first,” I said casually. “Nothing fancy. I think Mom has meatloaf planned for tonight.”

“You’d really invite me to dinner with your family?” she asked.

“Really, Christine.”

“You don’t have a phone here. Can I call home from your house?”

“Sure.”

“Then I guess I’m going to meet your family. Ready or not.”

It was low-key. I ran inside before I invited Chris in to make sure it was okay with Mom and she was happy to have Chris join us. Kat was a little in awe of the pretty high school girl her dorky brother brought home. Thanks, kid. But I think Kat also provided most of the conversation at the dinner table, so things never got awkward with parents grilling my date or anything.

After dinner, I walked Christine home and we practiced our kissing on her front porch before she went in. Well, we didn’t practice very much. We just had a nice little kiss and then said goodnight. I headed for the studio. I’d need to keep ahead of all the processing and proof printing this week.

Saturday at two, Marlene Dickson came for her photo. She’d been to a hairdresser that morning and had her hair and makeup done. It was a world different from the photo taken earlier. Chris had come over in case she was needed, but when she saw that Marlene had a professional job done, she said goodbye and left me to my work. We agreed we’d see each other at school Monday.

I missed her presence, but Marlene took direction well. She was a studious girl, I guess, and wore glasses that we removed for the Attic Allure photo. She set them on an open book with a tea cup beside her. She was wearing an off the shoulder cowl-neck sweater and it was kind of refreshing to see just the top of her shoulders and not all the way down her boobs. I got the lighting right and took the pictures. It took a lot less time to wrap it up and start processing the film than it had the day before.

Pris Anson and Debbie Faulkner arrived Sunday afternoon and just stood inside the door in their coats and boots as they looked around. I think they were assessing whether it was safe.

“I’d appreciate it if you leave your boots by the door and you can hang your coats on the rack over there,” I said. “Relax and look around. I’m just in the process of loading my camera. Take a look at the display wall over here and you’ll get a good idea of what I’m doing up here.”

The girls slowly complied and left their little cases by the clothing rack as they went to look at the photos. I finished up with the camera and mounted it on the tripod. Then I turned to them.