Chapter 3

I got home without a plan for the next day. I wondered if the rest of my life would be like that. Floating from one boring thing to the next. It was a more than a little depressing prospect. When I pulled into my driveway, I shook my head to clear it.

I entered through he back door passing my clothes line. My clothes looked dry, so I unpinned them and carried them in. I thought I could get them in one trip, but I couldn’t do it alone, I tossed the first load on the living room floor, then went back for a second trip. So the empty living room did serve a purpose now and then.

I needed to sit down and work out my plan for the future, so I poured myself a jug of lemonade. After that I went back to sit in front of my computer screen. I drank the lemonade expecting something to just jump out at me, unfortunately nothing did.

I had arranged my finances so that I could make it on my pension, but I couldn’t do anything without a second source of income. It didn’t have to be much, just pocket money. I mixed a little Jim Bean Bourbon with my lemonade, to help me thin, right. I decided after three or four drinks, that I just had to be patient. A minute later, I decided that I needed to do something to make things happen. I went to bed just a little drunk and a lot confused.

When I got my first idea, it was Saturday of my second unemployed weekend. I found a bridal portrait on my computer, which I had take two years before. The bride was the daughter of a cops on my shift. I didn’t do the wedding, but I made her portrait for the newspaper. I caught a break because she was a gorgeous bride. She also had a gorgeous dress, so of course the portrait was gorgeous. I took the large file, and had a large sepia print made from it. When finished the image had my name and phone number on it.

I figured I needed a grand a month in addition to my pension to live comfortably. My sepia print was lovely. I had it printed in the new business section of the local businesses web page. It meant I had to accept their continuous efforts to sell me more advertising. I resisted the urge to advertise.

I used Marcy’s artistic shot with the law book on her desk in an online advertisement as well. It was lit by the light from the bankers green desk light. It was also absolutely beautiful. Deacon even bought a copy of it. So did Marcy’s part time lover Ash.

I even convinced Ash to let me make a portrait of her. I promised her an 11x14 of it free. I invited her to bring an object. Something she though symbolized her life at the present time. Ash showed up with a doll. I real kid’s doll. I didn’t ask for an explanation, I just set about making Ash’s portrait.

The portrait of a forty year old woman with a child’s doll was a hell of a challenge. I shot her sitting on a straight wooden chair with the doll. I placed the doll in all kinds of places in the shot. I was about to give up, when I had an insight. The portrait shouldn’t be about the doll at all. The doll didn’t even have to be in the picture. I was about how Ash interacted with the doll. I started again from square one.

I just allowed Ash to be Ash. I felt like, after an hour, she was on the verge of tears. She had the doll setting haphazardly in her lap when she looked up at me with glassy eyes and a smile. I made three quick shots of her face. She had a very intense look on her face, so I concentrated on her face only.

She viewed that screen and picked out an image that I didn’t especially like, but I just marked it for her. I sent it to my printer after I did the tiniest change possible. I gave the printer her address as the one to be used for the delivery.

I also printed the full intensity, full face portrait of Ash in sepia. I used it in my advertisement on the free online bulletin boards.

Out of absolutely nowhere the idea came to me. I could make a poster like the old circus posters. Four or five pictures printed on a laser printer. I used two of my old bridal portraits. The other I made since retirement. The newer portraits including three kid’s. They were kids I had run across with their parents. I got the parent to agree to have me shoot their kid, and use the image. I guaranteed in the release they signed, that I would not alter the image before use. Only after their parent signed the release did I take their pictures. Then I posted them to my free web page. On that web page I offered to send them to their parent’s email free. In exchange I required that they allow me to use the unaltered image of their child in my advertising.

It took the whole month of December to get the posters completed. When they were finished I went to every hair dresser and bridal shop in the area. I explained that if they sent me a customer, I would hand deliver a fifty dollar finder’s fee. The fee was payable in cash, after the final payment by the bride. My wedding packages ranged from $700 to $1,000 depending on the package. That price covered only images shot on the day of the wedding.

It was Valentines day when I started to book jobs for real. After the middle of February I began balancing my books. It was also the month Deacon called in his favor. Marcy had a customer who she did work for. The customer needed dirt on his wife, so he wanted her followed for no more than a week.

“Ordinarily I work with Ash on these things, but she has moved to New York city,” Deacon explained. “The client is going to provide us with the times he wants her followed. He wants images of anything out of the ordinary.”

“Okay, I can do that,” I said.

“I’ll pay you thirty bucks and hour plus expenses,” Deacon explained. “Most of the times we need to follow her, I can handle.”

“That’s fine with me. If I am not working at the time, I’ll be glad to sit in the car watching somebody,” I agreed.

Since the conversation and the offer took place during our regular Friday breakfast, I didn’t put much stock in it. I continued on with my usual life. Which at the time included a number of low cost photo projects. I shot pictures of fishermen at the Grenada Lake, old farms landscapes, and just things that interested me. Those ended up as still life images. Usually it was old things that interested me, so they were a natural for grown up custom greeting cards. I tried so set up displays and sell them at public events.

I didn’t sell many, but I did meet people, and I booked a wedding or portrait shoot once in a while. I was the local photographer who went out to find my clients. Not the one who sat at home waiting for them to come to me. It was a totally new concept for that area. It probably wouldn’t have worked, had I not been in the price range of the small time photographers. The other guys had more experience in wedding photography, but I had more experience than any of them in pure photography. I went back to the days of film, which very few of the others did. I only shot film for a couple of years, but I was there during Kodak’s death throws.

Mostly it was my willingness to sit around all day meeting and greeting people which set me apart from them. It was what I referred to as my ‘show and tell dates’. I tried to schedule one of those a month. I just followed the festival circuits. I also did sidewalk shows in the parking lots of businessmen, if they didn’t mind. I drummed up just a little business that way. I had to have a product to discuss with people who walked by, so I had a rack of my custom greeting cards, a rack of still life prints for the wall, and my circus type wedding poster. I sat there with my Greek fisherman’s hat on my head and pretended to be an artist. Yes I played up my years as a police photographer as well. Everything I said or did was thought out carefully. If something didn’t work, I had no problem exchanging it for something else.

I had lots of downtime since I had my pension to pay the bills. Actually I had stopped bleeding money. I probably could have lived on my pension, but I loved not having to worry about money. I also enjoyed meeting people. I could easily have ended up a hermit without the show and tell projects.

The weather was getting better, so the shows were getting more foot traffic. That was a good thing, since most of my weddings were on Saturday. I still saw as many people as ever, but they were mostly on Sundays. I was also getting a few referrals from hairstylist and nail salons. I treated all the referrers with respect. Usually my fifty dollar referral fee was accompanied by a dozen cup cakes for the other employees. It was all part of the personal touch.

Deacon’s first gig was a four hour surveillance. “So Les, this dud thinks his wife is stepping out on him. He wants Marcy to arrange to catch her. I just need you to watch her from 8PM until midnight.

I followed her from her house to another house not too far away. She stayed there just over two hours. She left that house at 10:30pm. She drove straight home and stayed there until midnight. At midnight the clients time ran out, and so did I. It was a nice change from the ordinary.

When I got home I wrote a report and emailed it to Deacon. I included images I had shot with the better Lumix. I wanted to prove I was there and that I was watching the right woman. You should do a adress verification on the house she visited, I wrote.

“If we are going to follow her again I suggest a GPS tracker on the car,” I said to Deacon on the phone the next day. The truth was it was like the police lab. There was seldom any resolution to a case. At least no one told us, if there was. Deacon didn’t even bother to answer, which didn’t surprise me. He was a man of few words.

The next day was Saturday and I had a wedding to shoot. It was held in a country church several miles outside of Greenwood Ms. Once I arrived I set thing up. Part of that set was to attach a strobe light with a thirty foot range to the camera. Most wedding photographers depended on available light, then spent hours with Photoshop. I shot images with pure white light which I brought with me. I did all I could to eliminate the need for complicated editing of images. Frankly it made my job easier.

That particular bride had purchased a four hour package shoot. It included a four hour clock that began when I fired my first shot and ended four hours later. It also included one dozen hard prints and an inexpensive album. The cd of all images was not include. The bride could chose the images from a thumbnail size image on one of my websites. She had sixty days to view them before they were automatically deleted.

The Saturday wedding was my base $700 dollar wedding. Since hers was a direct contact, the only cost were the dozen 8x10 prints and the economical wedding album. A total of less than $100 was the amount of overhead for that job. Even people with limited math skills could figure out I needed two of those for my $1000 dollar a month supplemental income target.

I had all kinds of time, and even a little money, to play with. I just couldn’t find anything interesting to do with it. I needed something a little more interesting for sure. Which was probably why I even considered the Deacon’s next proposition.

“So are you bored with the middle class house wives and their middle class children yet?” Deacon asked over our next Friday breakfast.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked instead of answering his question.

“I mean, you are spending all this time picking up nickles and dimes working third class jobs for middle class clients,” he said. “I know you have to be bored with the whole thing.”

“You might be, but I’m not bored at all,” I lied.

“Horse shit,” Deacon said. “Then you wouldn’t be interested in making a new friend, and some adult art pictures?”

“Well, you at least have my attention,” I said keeping my voice as low as his had been during his last statement.

“I have a friend. She is looking to update the portraits on her web page,” Deacon suggested.

“She could get those made anywhere,” I said. “I would think there were plenty of people with digital camera’s who would love to do it.”

“She wants a higher quality image than most people can make,” he suggested.

“It has been my experience that most people viewing those types images don’t give a crap about image quality. Just as long as they can see the subject of the image.” I stated it flatly.

“Not true anymore. The market has been flooded by Photo shopped images and implant and Botox for age trickery. My friend just wants a quality product to show off her associates,” Deacon explained.

“So your friend is a madam?” I asked.

“Nobody says that anymore. She is just a business person like you. She deals in grownup women, who are house wives and single working students, Yes it’s organized for safety and maximum profit,” he explained. “A lot like a passenger airline.”

“Yeah, come fly me,” I said. “have her call me. Im sure we can work something out, but tell her I don’t barter.”

“Are you sure about that?” Deacon asked.

“Very sure,” I said. “I think I’ll have the special with a side of hash brown instead of grits.’

When I got her call, I was on my way to the caboose at the local museum to make a portrait.

“Mr Martin?” the female voice asked.

“Yes ma’am, what can I do for you?” I asked.

“I got your name and number from Deacon Burke. I’m hoping we can help each other.” she said.

“I see, I’m on my way to a photo shoot right now. Would you like to stop by the office one day this week. We can set up a shoot for you,” I suggested.

“That would be nice, but I’d really like to get started as soon as possible. Can we arrange something for this afternoon?” she asked.

“Well, if you can make it to my place at five, we can probably work out the details for your job,” I suggested.