Faith

2

"Stay still, please-" Valentine sweetly mumbled to the little girl, known as Aggie, as she snapped the photo. The flash made the three year old giggle. A bright smile gracing her round face.

She was so good with kids. Kids made her happy. Not a care in the world could pass by them, dependent and loveable. Naive to mistakes.

Valentine turned back to the grinning mother behind her, Christine, taking note of the pure happiness in the womans eyes when she looked to her daughter.

"That should do it, got plenty of takes-" Valentine said, standing from the previous criss cross position on the floor and flipping through the photos on her camera.

The little girl, who had waved locks and the biggest blue eyes valentine had ever seen, was one of her easiest clients to capture.

The light hit the child's face perfectly, her bright blue eyes were photographed in all their pigment glory and the happiness from her grin could jump out through the photo itself, it was infectious.

"She's very photogenic-" Valentine mustered a laugh as she continued to flip through the takes, a good amount of the photos came out blurry, but over all decent. "Beautiful. Hard to keep still though. "

The mother clasped her hands and nodded, when Valentine looked to her, she could recognize the shared features passed to the child.  Chestnut hair and vivid blue eyes, dimples imprinted on the ends of their grins, button nose and thin lips.

"Yes-" The mother began with a chuckle. "She's quite energetic. "

Silence passed between them for a few minutes, filled with the giggles of the child, who found a toy from her mother's purse.

"Well it'll be 45 for a set of six. I'll send the photos over, via email and print the ones you want to pick out-" She nodded as she informed the woman.

"Sounds good. "

The woman began gathering her things to leave and picked up her child before muttering a 'thank you' to Valentine.

Valentine didn't bother locking the door after the woman left, since Valentine worked from home she was still expecting Gina to show up.

She checked her watch.

The time was well into the afternoon, but if Gina had alcohol with the stranger she went home with, the hangover was definitely keeping her late.

At this point she questioned why she still worried over Gina.

A breathy sigh escaped her lips as she sat down to continue the rest of her photography work on her laptop.

The apartment was a bit dingy, the only nice looking bit was the photography set up.

She did mostly portraits, one or two weddings. Both Gina and Valentine were barely making it by.

Gina was living off a waitress salary, dropped out of college (which was where she met Valentine.)

Although Valentine graduated with a photography degree, she was getting nowhere with a career. It infuriated her.

Valentine wanted nothing more than to be taken seriously as a photographer, she knew she could do great work. If only given the chance.

The only clients that ever came her way were mothers with last minute Christmas card photos or she was refered to being a stand in when a higher end photographer didn't show up to their gigs.

Other than that, no one really hired her. She was beginning to think about picking up a second job.

Valentine wanted to capture beautiful moments with her camera, maybe even work in the film industry; a "behind the scenes" Kind of ordeal or anything artistic, but artistic didn't always pay.