An American Braviour's Fantasy

Part 4 : Melkweg ~ The Touchy-Feely Photographer

After running her routine flash and distance tests, Rashelle checks her light meter for the final time and took a deep breath.

"Okay, B-Brave, I'm ready for you!" she called after them and took a few steps towards them and started snapping pictures, camera in her hand in front of her chest, the adjustable back screen pointed up so she could take stealth pictures. One after the other, they all looked over and stood up and picked up their water bottles and walked up to meet her halfway. Here we go! Rashelle thought and tried to think professional thoughts!

"Los Angeles!" One of them said, then, "Cali-girl!" said another and a couple of them said, "Wow!" and and a finally a, "Hey! Are you sure you're ready for us, Angel?" asked Dioni. "Are you really ready?" he asked with his eyebrows moving up and down. Wow! Alright, bring it on, Dioni!

"I am. I am klaar voor je body!" she told him in Dutch which was also the name of one of their songs. She was sure her accent was terrible but she thought it would be funny and luckily Dioni chuckled and the others' faces lit up at hearing her speak Dutch. At least they knew she had a sense of humor! She thought. That was always an ice breaker.

"My name is Rashelle Rangel and I'll be your photographer for this evening so please take your seats, place your dining trays in the upright position and strap on your seat belts cuz we're in for a bumpy ride." she said being silly. The guys just stared at her with grins on their faces, then looked at each other and then back at her. They didn't know what to make of her. Rashelle couldn't help but chuckle.

"So, here's the plan... First, I'd like to get some group shots and then I told Mr. Shenk that I'd get some with you and your awesome new Gold Records!" she said, making her voice high and her excitement showed. "Congratulations!!" she told them, complimenting their achievement. They all said "thank you" and "dank je wel" and "bedankt" then whooped and hollered and pumped their arms and grabbed each other's shoulders and just were suddenly overflowing with positive energy that their faces just glowed! Rashelle barely even bothered to take her finger off of her camera's trigger.

"Well deserved. Very well deserved! You've worked so hard. You have certainly earned it. Really." Rashelle told them sincerely and then walked over to where she wanted the guys to stand and started pointing and telling each of them where to go and general descriptions of how to pose and she went from one to the other straightening collars, fixing stray hairs, tipping chins one way or the other, adjusting fingers and pockets and the directions their toes were pointing. After the first few invasions of personal space, Rashelle gave them her usual disclaimer, never pausing in what she was doing.

"So, I apologize ahead of time, I'm a very touchy-feely photographer. I prefer the hands-on approach during photo shoots. Some photographers refuse to actually touch their subjects, but I find that if I'm able to help out in tiny little ways - like I'm doing right now - it's less work for all of you, the whole process is much, much shorter and your pictures will look better, so, unless any of you are completely offended by my ministrations, I'm just going to assume that you trust me to be professional. That being said, of course, if I do anything that bothers you, please let me know. I don't offend easily so don't worry about hurting my feelings. It's really important to me that you are all comfortable even though I'm gonna be all up in your grills." She told them, ending with a joking tone. She got a few chuckles and bewildered smiles all around. Good, she thought. Right where she wanted them.

"I'm bothered!" Dioni said loudly and raised his hand up. Rashelle stopped what she was doing and froze in place, looked him dead in the eyes and realized that he was messing with her. She feigned professionalism but couldn't help raising an eyebrow at him.