Chapter 10: Crystal Blue Photography

Everything had to happen at once. Starting a business proved to be exhausting, and most of it was all about ‘setting up’ and not about earning any money.

Crystal got brochures printed up, and then visited every wedding planner within a hundred miles that she could find. She did hotel event planners and concierges, and then every magazine that still published that she could find had a local presence. She hit the media outlets, too.

I think for at least a month I saw less of Crystal than before when she was a flight attendant and traveling about five days a week. The one slight benefit was that she was home just about every night and sleeping – exhausted – next to me. She’d be up at the crack of dawn and hurl herself at her new ‘job’ again.

Then she got a medium-size wedding to photograph and video. This produced a new kind of angst now dealing with performance in her new career.

From sources unknown there appeared a huge variety of cameras, stands, lenses, memory cards, portable laptops, lights, strobes, and more, all the equipment, and then some, for the event. She had these things hidden away at her house and they all came out of storage.

I became a temporary employee of Crystal Blue Photography, or as we’d shorted it around the house, to CBP. I patiently sat while Crystal tried to instill in me everything that she knew about taking great pictures at a wedding. Ultimately, she decided that I would do better as a videographer than taking the still photos that were her forte.

We went to the venue for the wedding – a country club – a week before the wedding. She already knew the layout for the arbor, the seating, and the reception. She’d have fixed video cameras on stands focused on some of the key points of action. She also was going to wire microphones into arbor to pick up the sounds of the wedding vows being said.

Sunday, we watched and critiqued five videos from other weddings that she’d managed to get from somewhere. I learned more and more about camera angles, close ups, wide views, and more, as a good cameraman. I admit to being totally intimidated when I learned that the video camera that I’d be using cost $6,000 used when Crystal splurged and bought it five years prior. I spent several hours learning the controls and settings on the camera, opting to use the simplest, fool-proof options when all was done. My vocabulary, especially of acronyms, increased dramatically. Before this, I just aimed my cellphone at a subject and took the picture.

We dressed in black for the wedding. Crystal assured me that this was appropriate, as we’d fade away and be relatively invisible to the small crowd of attendees. I thought of weddings that I’d been to, and that had seemed to be the standard dress code for ‘staff’.

We arrived about two hours before the actual service. Crystal took off with a camera to photograph the bride dressing and preparing for the service. I puttered around in the garden, actually sizing up shots. I did take a few stills and then some movies of the empty seats, the arbor, and the rest of the scenes as people prepared for the service and reception.

Crystal came and got me, and brought me to introduce to the bride. She was about Crystal’s age and very pretty. She seemed calm and cool. Her name was Ann, and she was marrying Martin, who I was to find and also photograph preparing along with the groomsmen.

I did find Martin. He and the groomsmen were passing around a joint in their assigned room at the club. They were overly relaxed. The groom was getting a ration of shit from his groomsmen about being off the circuit for the rest of his life, and so on. I chuckled, and thought that there were ways to have your cake and eat it, too.

I took stills and filmed. I wondered how public they wanted to be about their pot smoking. Nothing like remembering your wedding and the great high you were on.

The service went off without a hitch. The still cameras on tripods had been strategically placed, and functioned without a hitch. I shot continuously the whole service, catching the face of every attendee as they sat and watched the service, and then getting some unique views of the whole short service. I had also moved into position to capture their exit from the arbor down the aisle between the rows of seats as the newly united couple came towards me.

We shifted roles, and I captured everyone coming through the receiving line on video, as Crystal took pictures in the main seating area for the reception. She also did the traditional photos of the bride and groom with every possible combination of family members you could think of.

Eventually, after about four hours on the job, Crystal announced that we were through and could fold up. That took us another hour until my SUV was stuffed with camera gear again.

The first thing Crystal did at home was to back up every camera onto her Apple iMac that she used as her desktop computer. Once that was completed, I felt much of her anxiety drain away.

She announced, “Time for a skinny-dip and I need to pay you.”

“Pay me?” I said in surprise.

“With pussy, of course. Two fucks per wedding. I don’t have money – yet, so the only currency that I know you also value is pussy. Come on, it’s a variation on the barter system. I have a very needy one that you can plunder. I also know that I’ve been a little on edge for the past week or two, so now that this is over, I feel more relaxed about finishing their albums and the DVDs.”

I chuckled, “Only a week, you say? I think it’s been every day since you decided to quit the airline and start this business.”

“Have I been that bad?” She looked worried that I was really complaining about weeks instead of days.

“For better or worse, babe. That’s what I signed up for. We still have something to do to cement our engagement.” I kissed my erstwhile fiancée.

“Sex?”

I laughed. “No. I need to get you a ring. I was hoping, now that the wedding is out of the way, to take you shopping for one. I am not about to buy one for you sight unseen and expect you to wear it for the rest of time. You and I will pick it out together, and THEN you can wear it forever.” I hope she knew I was teasing a bit.

“I will, too. I love you. You were so wonderful today. I watched how you interacted with everyone. You were a natural. I was so nervous, this being my first real paying gig as a photographer and the boss of Crystal Blue Photography.”

Crystal had been removing her clothing as we talked. She got naked, and then so did I. We strolled through the house with towels over our shoulders, said hello to Ross and Trish who were also naked and talking in the kitchen, and then went outside, tossed the towels on a chaise, and dove into the pool. We floated around for a bit, and then got romantic towards the shallow end of the pool.

Crystal all but tackled me when I arrived home from my office where I usually worked. She must have been looking for me out the front window of the house, because she came flying out to see me. As usual around the house, she was barely dressed.

“I need to talk to you. I need advice. I haven’t said anything to Trish or Ross yet. I wanted to talk to you first.”

Crystal was highly agitated but I sensed she was also aroused. Her nipples were erect and poking through the thin material on her blouse. As usual, she was without bra. I indicated that she should tell me with a hand gesture.

“Well, you know in my marketing material I said I did all kinds of photography – pretty much whatever the customer wants. I also indicated that I did ‘glamor’ and ‘erotic’ photography. Most photographers whose websites I visited said something like that – glamor, exotic, adult, erotic, fashion, risqué, and other terms get used. I shoot people with clothes on, it can’t be that hard to shoot them without any.

“So, today I got a two calls. One was for another wedding. That’d make one every month for the past six – a good money maker, so I’ll need your help yet again in four months. The other call led to me meeting a woman down at Starbucks. She wants erotic glamor photography. She didn’t call it this, but she wants ‘pornography’ of herself. That was her word.”

“For herself?”

“Her husband, actually. She had on wedding rings, and I didn’t ask that question. But it was clear that she wanted this as a gift of some kind.”

“How will you know what you need to shoot without knowing her husband’s likes and dislikes?”

“You’re so smart. I’ll ask her. She said that she wanted some explicit photographs of her in various poses. She hinted that she might even bring ‘somebody else’ with her who’d also be in the pictures, but I don’t think she had anybody in mind or at the ready.”

“Man or woman?”

“Shit. I didn’t ask that either. I was so flummoxed by her request that my mind was going in another direction about what to charge her, how long it would take, what kind of computer processing I’d need to do, and stuff like that.”

“And you told her?”

“That I’d do the job in her home and her native surroundings. She liked that, and showed me a few photos of her place. It’s kind of like this house except it’s over on St. Aidan’s Key. She didn’t have photos of the bedroom, but she said it had nice decorating that wouldn’t draw attention away from the main subject – her and her sexual exploits. I’ll call her back right now.”

A few minutes later, Crystal came back to find me. By then, I’d changed into a bathing suit. I still needed a swim. This was one of my gym days on the way home, so I needed a rinse and dry.

“I talked to Molly Walters again This is going to be a really odd photo shoot. Her husband is fundamentally a cuckold, but she really loves him and wants to feed his erotic nature. He loves seeing her in all sorts of poses – lingerie or nude. But here’s the really gigantic issue – she decided that she wants me to bring a man to the shoot – a lover for her – somebody that can fuck her while I made a video. That way it’d be no one her husband knows, so he’d get off on this even further because she’s fucking a stranger. She apologized for not asking before, but said she was slightly embarrassed to be asking at all.”

“Movie or stills?”

“Both. I did ask that this time. The primary objective is that there’s a video and album that show her fucking another man – a full sexual encounter actually.”

“Who are you going to bring for her?” I thought I was sure of the answer, but I wanted her to make that answer explicit between us.

“You. You’d be perfect. She doesn’t know you and he sure doesn’t; you’re kind of buff, your cock is very photogenic, you like to fuck new pussy, and you’re my assistant, so can help set up the cameras and stuff. We’ll make money on this, too.”

“So, I’m a male prostitute? A gigolo?” I started to laugh.

“I suggested that your ‘fee’ might be around a thousand dollars, with multiple visits included if we wanted more video or photos.”

I nodded, “Is this woman as ugly as the town dump?” I puffed up my cheek to indicate obesity.

Crystal made a few swipes on her cellphone’s screen and thrust the unit into my hands. I was looking at a pretty brunette woman, about forty, wearing a sporty, short-sleeve top, and sipping on a cup of Starbuck’s coffee. She was pretty, apparently slightly busty, and also relatively trim. She had a nice smile for the camera.

I nodded, “Not bad. It’ll be tough work but I’ll help you out if the pay is right.”

Crystal laughed. She told me the schedule dates.

Two weeks later, right after lunch on a Wednesday, Crystal and I drove to St. Aidan’s Key, and I helped her unload the myriad of equipment and tripods. I also met Molly. She was ‘hot’ and I wondered just why her husband would get off seeing her with other men and not want to get involved. Then again, I was sort of in the same place with Crystal. I loved to see her get fucked by at least Ross, Mitch, or Greg. I was sure I’d feel the same if she were with other men. I just didn’t like the idea of humiliation that I thought went along with the cuckold thing.

We started the session with Molly according to a list of shots that Crystal had prepared ahead of time after doing some Internet research about such photo shoots. We also watched several hours of couples porn.

Thus, I sat in a comfortable chair in the bedroom as Crystal started filming Molly doing a seductive striptease for me. Many shots were over my shoulder as Molly danced seductively and looked longingly into my eyes. At least that was what was supposed to happen.

The filming got stopped about four minutes later. Crystal said, “STOP! Molly, you are stiff as a board. You’re supposed to be seducing your lover so he fucks the stuffing out of you. Your actions look mechanical and certainly not seductive. I’ve seen more emotion and expressions of lust from a blow-up sex doll. Go over to Dave, sit on his lap, make out with him until you feel comfortable to start over with more arousal, lust, desire, and sexual interest than you have right now.”

Molly gasped, but responded as instructed. Crystal turned and adjusted various cameras and lights as we made out. Molly came over to my lap in a tentative manner. I held my arms open to her and she settled in. We tentatively shared a first kiss. I told her, “If you decide this is not a good idea, just let us know. We’re not in the business of forcing anybody to do something awkward, embarrassing, or undesired, even if they’ve changed their minds on what it is that they want. On the other hand, I really like you and I think we’ll have fun.”