Domaining has its perks.
This past weekend I took a quick trip to Los Angeles, with a very strange task in hand: to photograph apparel for the upcoming NamesCon domain conference that takes place in Las Vegas in January.
I was both excited and nervous, as two young models were to be involved in the photo shoot.
Both were simply stunning.
Lisa, a 22 year old aspiring actress, with long blonde hair and green eyes, has the perfect body for modeling clothes; Freeda, a brunette rock band guitarist, who moonlights as a model to make the most of her 21 year old good looks, sports a suicide girl attitude and the tattoos to match it.
The weather was perfect, typical for LA, with lots of glorious sunshine and not a chance for any rain. We first had coffee downtown, or at least I did. The girls had tall milkshakes and a couple of strawberry croissants. Each!
“Where do you put all that,” I asked playfully, insinuating that their figure did not reflect any of their appetite. It was definitely awkward; young women don’t need to be reminded of what they eat.
Freeda smiled wryly, and briefly showed me her tongue, perfectly pink from the strawberries. “A girl needs to eat, ya know?” she quipped.
Meanwhile, Lisa was stretching like a cat under the fine LA sunshine, her long legs astonishingly white in the blue denim shorts she was wearing. “Are we starting soon?” she asked.
I sighed, then smiled to hide my nervousness as I tried to avoid focusing on their youthful abandon; the photographer inside me revolted.
“We’ve already started!” I exclaimed, and my reliable Canon EOS 5D II announced its presence with quick, gratifying clicks.
This wasn’t going to be a studio session; we took it to the streets, I needed those girls to be in their natural element, soaking up the sunshine, bathing in solar rays – not some sterile studio with strobe lights and a white curved wall to hide the perspective.
Lisa was a natural.
In the 70’s and 80’s she would have been a Hollywood sweetheart, a girl whose fine, borderline pale skin tone would at least guarantee her several commercials. These days, competition is a bitch, and for the collective world of media, she’s a dime a dozen. But not for me.
Freeda, despite being a brunette, she held back a stance that made her appear distant, cold almost; casting a royal elegance that’d otherwise set her into a long gown and glittering diamonds – if it weren’t for the ink she’s covered with.
A wildcat wearing a pussycat’s fur.
I clicked with sweet abandon, letting my camera capture the essence of their youth; a voyeuring participant of their bodily transformations under the sunshine. The buildings, the busy street, the traffic – it all seemed to move aside, letting the girls project life onto objects, the NamesCon 2015 logo on the apparel becoming a part of their anatomy.
It was early afternoon when we were finished, and there was still enough sunlight out to get a tan. The girls showed no trace of being tired, and I felt gloomy thinking about my trip back home; sunshine isn’t the same when soaked in daily Floridian rain.
I thanked the girls and knelt down, started packing my gear. Freeda lit a vapor, quite appropriate for her demeanor and attitude. Lisa was texting like she was on a typewriter speed competition during the 50’s.
“Wanna go to a party?” asked Freeda with a wink.
I felt a sudden rush and it wasn’t due to standing up too fast. The two girls were smiling at me, Freeda through her vapors and Lisa had stopped texting and was playing with her long, blonde hair.
There’s a point in time when words don’t have any use whatsoever, and I took both girls by the waist, the heavy backpack full of gear over my shoulder feeling light as a feather. Freeda’s eyes were a mix of hazel and gassy blue vapor, and Lisa’s long, blonde hair tickled my arm sending goosebumps up and down my spine.
We walked down the sidewalk, not saying a word, arms around the small of our backs; just three kids swimming in the ethereal cast of LA sunlight, and the promise of a night that would be remembered for a long time to come.
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Looks like you spent the weekend in Photoshop. 😛
David – Only took an hour to post-process the photos. I am still jet-lagged though.