She stuffed her camera back in her bag, carefully placed her lenses in the specially made compartments. "Thanks again, Y/N," the client came up to her to shake her hand, "We will get the final results next week right." "Yes, I'll send you a selection tomorrow morning so you can choose which one's you want," she zipped up her camera bag and flung it over her shoulder. "Goodbye," she greeted her customer and made her way back to her car. She couldn't wait to get back to her studio. She flung her bag in the passenger seat and drove off. Sandra and Jane would take care of the lights and other equipment. After last year's Adidas campaign her photography career took a dramatic lift off. She was now under a photographers management agency which managed her bookings and Sandra and Jane were now her full-time assistants. Life was good, worry-free, and she liked it. She took the final turn into the street where her studio was. Today was the last time she would shoot in this studio. She had rented this place ever since she started studying at the Photography Academy, but as of late, it was getting too small for the big teams she worked with and she needed a place for Sandra and Jane as well, to work on the post-processing of the images. Her agency arranged a space for her in the city centre of LA. It was a house with big, spacious rooms with high ceilings. Next week she would get the keys to the place, when it would be fully renovated and painted. But tonight she had one more idea she wanted to work on and she needed the old studio for that. She didn't have as much time to work on unassigned projects as much as she did before, so she chose her projects carefully, planning them out to perfection. She was over the moon when Louis agreed to be her model for this project. They had worked together a multitude of times, many of their photo's got published in magazines and she had various pictures hung in exhibitions. However, they hadn't been able to work together for a while as both their schedules were quite busy. She set her camera bag down at the desk and went over to the window to open the blinds slightly. The light shone into the room perfectly. She saw Louis pull up outside and she quickly went to get the door. "Y/N!" He skipped to her excitedly and pulled her into his arms to press a soft kiss to her cheek. "Have you changed your hair? You look so good, love," he held her at arm's length to look at her. "Hi, babe," they had started using the affectionate nicknames a while ago, "Come quick, the light is perfect right now." Today she was using only natural lighting. At this time of day, the sun was just low enough to shine directly into her studio. She was lucky today, as the setting sun filled the room with an orangey pink glow. The light was broken up by the blinds, forming soft stripes against the white wall of the studio. "Wow, yes, ok, let's get straight to it then," Louis set down his backpack next to hers near the desk and lit his cigarette. She grabbed her camera and fumbled around a bit with the settings. "Ok, lean with your shoulder against the wall, right," she took a quick test shot. "Ok, it's very important that you don't blow out too fast, just let it slip from your lips," he nodded. He took his first drag and leaned against the wall. She got her camera ready, "Ok, go." He slowly released the smoke from his mouth while she took a few high speed shots. "Let's have look," she walked over to him and pulled up the previews on her screen. It looked quite good for a first go. "Let's try some with eyes closed," he suggested. She got back to her original place a few steps back and he took another drag. Just when she got ready to shoot another quick series a big cloud moved in front of the sun and the room suddenly turned dark grey. "Faaaack," she cursed. Louis puffed out the smoke with a laugh, "that sucks." She got up pulling open the closet where she kept her lights. Thank god there was still an old dusty Elinchrom light left. All the other lamps had been taken to the shoot this morning. She grabbed the light and a tripod, "I'll be right back." She slipped outside and set up the tripod a few steps away from the window. She darted back to the window, motioning for Louis to open it. "Here," she handed him the plug, "can you give me the blue folder lying on the desk and some tape." He handed her the folder and she pulled out a red and a yellow filter sheet and stuck it to the light head. When she flicked on the switch, the room lit up again in a mix of red, orange and yellow, "perfect." She ran back inside, "let's do some more." He leaned back on his original spot, taking a final drag of the stub of cigarette still left between his fingers. Softly blowing out the smoke, she took a few more photo's. She looked at the preview on her screen, her heart fluttered at the image. "Ok, were done," she smiled triumphantly, holding out the camera for Louis to see.
"Can we try something else," he sat on the couch, sipping his tea as she gave the photo a quick edit in Lightroom for him to see. "Hmm, like what," she mumbled, not lifting her gaze of the screen as she slid the saturation and colour sliders up and down to see what worked best. "Look," he had gotten up and put his phone down on the desk in front of her. She looked at the photo, zooming in on various parts of it, "Yeah, I guess we could. I mean, we only have one studio light right now, but I think it will work." "Great! Because I really need a new profile photo on Instagram and Twitter." She snorted, "yes, a photo of your back is a great profile picture." "What?!" he dramatically clutched his heart, pretending to be hurt. "I started working out a bit more, you know," he flexed his arm muscles, "it will look good." "Sure, alright," she got up from her chair, "let's do it then." She set up the old Elinchrom light again, a white paper taped to the front to diffuse the light a bit more. Louis took his spot under the light, stripping himself from his shirt. He was right, he looked a lot more muscular than he used to, faint lines of a six pack showing on his stomach and the muscles of his shoulder and upper arms more defined. "Alright, turn around," she changed some settings in her camera, "look a bit to the side, right, and now tilt your head a bit towards the wall." She took a quick test shot. Examining the preview on her screen, she wasn't quite happy. The photo looked a bit dull. "I think we need to oil you up a bit," she winked jokingly at him as she pulled out a bottle of baby oil from a basket in the closet. She kept an arsenal of body products: lotions, sprays, oils. Dry skin could really ruin a photo and models had the habit of not hydrating well. "You'd have to do my back though," he looked at her intently. "Fine, I'll do it," she said with mock annoyance in her voice. She poured a little oil into the palm of her hand. She didn't mind putting her hands on his precious body. There was something about him, something about his presence that made her feel at home, happy, and loved. She rubbed the oil into his skin lightly, careful to not make him look like one of those oil wrestlers. She needed just a subtle sheen. She noticed goose bumps running down his spine as she traced his shoulders with her fingers, "are you cold? Should I crank up the heater a bit?" "N-no, it's alright," he stuttered, "just... tickles." "Alright, all done," she wiped her hands at her jeans, getting back to her camera. "Face a bit to the side again, yes, perfect!"
She scooted aside a bit, tapping the other half of the chair, motioning for him to sit down. They squeezed together, both sitting on one butt cheek on the same chair, as the photo's loaded into Lightroom. "This just doesn't-," Louis groaned, grabbing her waist and pulling her onto his lap. She squealed, but did not protest. His lap was a lot more comfortable than squishing together in the chair. He rested his chin on her shoulder as she scrolled through the pictures they just took. Warmth spread through her body as his chest pressed to her back while he pointed out the ones he liked. She picked her favourite and loaded it into Photoshop. She felt his thumbs slowly rubbing circles on her waist, distracting her from the photo she was editing. His hands slowly slid around her waist, holding her close to his chest. Her stomach clenched, heart skipped a beat, as one hand slid under the hem of her sweater, making contact with the naked skin of her waist. Next she felt a hot breath tickle her neck and a soft nibble startled her a bit. "Louis, what are you doing?" Out of shock he withdrew his hands, "I'm so sorry." She shifted around in his lap to look at him. "I don't- I didn't mean to, I-," he stuttered, pupils blown wide, "Sorry, sorry, sorry, I-" "Oh just shut up already," she interrupted him as she slammed her lips down onto his.
