Chapter 2

The day of the shoot had arrived. The weather didn’t look ideal to the untrained eye, but the wonderful cloud cover made the light not harsh. This would be awesome as the couple were dressed in contrasting colors and their skin tone was quite different. Had the sun been blazing near it’s zenith, as it would have been any other day, the ability to have them both show well in the photo was going to be a little outside the reaches of the photog’s editing capabilities.

With a few pleasantries, the walk to the ideal spot in the park took place. During the setup, questions were answered, small talk made, and the photog was reminded of the importance of keeping the photo shoot short. This didn’t surprise the photog at all, after all, most non-models and non-fashion interested fellas just want to get the photos over with quickly, to the chagrin of most women who wanted a perfect engagement set of photos.

After explaining the photos of the day, work soon began in earnest. A few poses the way the bride to be wanted, a few classic poses that appealed to the groom, a few creative poses to loosen the couple up and get them to interact. After all, the idea was to capture a moment that represented their love. They wanted a series of pictures that would tell the story.

At one point, a change in scenes was needed. Regrouping the gear and reseting up, the inevitable questions came up. Can we see the photos so far and are we done yet. To the first, they couple was pretty happy. Considering these were raw unedited copies, the comfort they had in the photos proved encouraging. The experimental poses was not a hit, nor were they intended to be. It did get then laughing and joking about, the perfect recipe for the ideal moment to come to light.

Now, applying all the skills he had, the photog started to walk the couple through the various poses that should create that spark of a moment. They followed the lead and did all they were told, however, it was not coming together perfectly. The chemistry started to fade some. The words didn’t tell the story, but the discrete looks at the watch suggested the gentleman was growing bored. The lady caught on nicely and tried to walk her love through the process, as she’d done plenty of modeling with and without the photog.

That was it. The back and forth chatter between poses. That was the moments needed. So, the photog grew very quiet and moved back to let the conversation grow. As it grew in intensity, it shifted from the shoot to some random topic. That’s when their chemistry flew into high gear. Whatever they were talking about must have been juicy, as the smiles started to radiate, the postures started to move towards more private intimacy.

The perfect moment arrived. They were talking together and he leaned in for a kiss. She slid comfortably into his arms and smiled up at him. This was it. The sun just peaked out from the clouds creating the perfect halo for them. And then, just when they were about to kiss, the camera hesitated, paused, and stalled

Without notice, without warning, the camera died.

The shot was lost.

The moment gone.

Somehow they sensed something was not right. They looked at their photog inquisitively. It was over. The camera had called it quits.