The Photo Shoot One Last Time (Part III)
I had to totally blur out both photos. It came to my attention that my sister-in-law is now a blogger. Since she works closely with the one of the sisters and she should see this post--this could be a huge problem. I know she will come to me first and I guess I will have to explain all of this then. In the meantime, the post stays. I wanted to totally remove the story but these posts have been read already so fuck it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ So we arrive at the house and I go to the door and ring the bell. The door opened and I said, "Serena?" She answered the door with a pleasant "that's me" and a very anxious, "lets get started"! I thought great. However she looked over my shoulder and could see I was not alone and gave me an odd look. I asked her if everything was alright and she said, "I thought you were coming alone?" I said, "no, I said I would be bringing my assistant?" She said, "Oh, I guess I forgot." I thought no biggy lets move on and get on with some picture taking. So we unloaded the truck and brought everything in. Serena, had motioned us as to where we would be taking pictures and where we could set our stuff down. It was as she said on the phone, plenty of room, high ceilings, and room to move around. I usually set up in the living room since it is typically the most spacious room in the house. We made some adjustments to the furniture and some tables so as to create an open space for us. We set up the back drop of which we brought a black one since it was going to work well with what we were going for. We were going to be doing shots from the chest and shoulders up. Since the pictures we decided were to be her and sister sitting close together, I had brought a small bench so that they could sit on. Now at this time the sister, who I didn't even think to ask her name from our phone call, had not shown up yet to the photo shoot. So just about as my wife and I were done setting up backdrops and lighting and making adjustments, I thought to ask, "so where is your sister?" Serena says, "she's coming." So of course Im thinking no problem she will be here any minute. At this time I am doing some test shots with my light meter and loading my camera with film. I brought about 15 rolls of film
which is normal--I usually shoot about 5 to 10 rolls of film just in one sitting. Then we try to pick the best ones and decide what will be "the one" we will use.
The phone rang and apparently it was Serena's sister. Serena's answered the phone but she was in the kitchen and we couldn't hear what was being said. Serena's came into the living room and told us that her sister would be here any minute. It was at this time I asked what her sister's name was. She said, "Randa." I thought okay I never met or knew a Randa before. The front door swung open and it was Randa. I thought okay I guess they look alike, I mean they are twins right. As it turned out they were only fraternal twins, they were not identical twins. Okay so we got right to it. They were both dressed in black outfits that were tight to the skin and their hair was done in a such a way that made them look more alike. I motioned for them to sit and immediately started to work my viewfinder. They sat back to back facing away from each other with their heads close together. The shot was going to be somewhat of a mirror concept of them from the shoulders or chest up. Now here is where it starts to get weird. Serena shouted to me that she didn't want to start until seven minutes after the hour. It was 12:55pm and I thought, is she serious? I figured what the hell, they were paying me and we had the time and it gave me time to speak to them to relax them a bit. Again, more weirdness, they didn't want to talk to me now. Serena said, "no talking until 1:07pm." I just said okay and looked at my wife with a what did we get ourselves into look. However at that time it wasn't really such a big deal. Okay so now 1:07pm arrives and I start shooting. Immediately the flash of my lights got them responding to my camera.
Now what I didn't know was that Serena was keeping count of the clicks or flashes of my camera. At the seventh click or flash she shouted to me and said that the shot just taken is the one we were going to use. Now I had already explained to her from our first phone call how I take several rolls of film and use the best one. Apparently she just "yessed" me at that time. Now I was concerned since I could tell that the lighting wasn't right and I know from experience that the first roll of film is a bust and its just time I use to make adjustments. My first roll is to get an idea of how my subject is acting or reacting and if I should change something.
The first picture of the twins in this story I was reluctant to use since it is not a great picture--and its a record of what wasn't my best work but I decided to put it here anyway since it is key to the story. Since it also the actual picture Serena insisted on using. For security and anonymity reasons I had to blur out their faces as well. I maintain the copyrights on all my photos however I still had to at least hide their identities.
So now as per our phone conversation Serena wanted some "serious" shots. The whole time they had been taking smiling, laughing, and playful types poses. Now this is where black & white photos are at their best. We were going for drama and intensity and I needed my subjects to be serious, no laughing, no joking around, no cracking a smile or grin. Well we weren't having any luck since every time I tried take a picture they would start to laugh. So I as a back up, I usually say to my subject, "think of something tragic." These two started laughing and wouldn't stop laughing. My wife and I thought this was weird. So I told them just pretend you got some bad news about your mom. Now that shut them up and I mean shut them up. They silenced at the exact same moment together and remained motionless, almost in a catatonic state. I almost thought they were playing with me. These two remained still and never moved a muscle and never said a word for seven minutes. Seven minutes--I kept trying to get their attention and ask them questions and even apologized for saying what I said. After watching them do this not moving thing for seven minutes, they started talking again as if NOTHING happened. Now my wife and I just spent time in the twilight zone for seven minutes and these two acted as if nothing happened. GETS WEIRDERRRRR.....During the time we were waiting for them to come out of their catatonia, a picture was taken. No, it wasn't me nor my wife who clicked that camera, we weren't even near the camera when it happened. For whatever reason the camera took a picture.
The second picture in the above is that actual picture that was taken by......................During that seven minutes--again I had to do some blurring but I wanted to at least maintain the integrity of the state they were in so you could see what I was talking about.
However we really didn't pay too much attention to it--I attributed the picture being taken on its own by some electrical charge or something. Now our photo shoot is over, no, not because I said it was over but apparently Serena had been looking at the clock and noticed it was 4:07pm. I didn't think much of it since after taking so many pictures, my eyes, so I thought started to play tricks on me and I thought I was tired and it was time to leave. Well after we packed up everything it came time for me to get paid. Serena asked me to come into the kitchen and took out her check book. I told her what it would be but she insisted on making the total 1,077.00 dollars. It was only suppose to be 1,000.00. Who was I to argue. Then I looked at the check an noticed the 77 7th St. on the street address. So then it hit me and I asked her, "are you superstitious?" she actually said yes. We started talking about the number 7 in great detail. Apparently, the twins were born 7 minutes apart, they wear a size 7 shoe, they were born on July 7th 1977, which may have been the beginning of their obsession with the number 7. There are a thousand things of which they are obsessed with concerning the number 7. So I figured we spent some time talking and I was comfortable enough to ask about why they zoned out on us. Apparently they have been in some therapy for it as well--the mom in which these pictures are for is dead. She died July 7th 1977, yes, the mother died giving birth to them. The twins feel guilty about this so ever since they've taken pictures every year and bring them to the cemetery for their mother to "see." It explained the pictures of the very young woman they would look at in reverence and never once mentioning it was their mother. I actually thought it was an older sibling that had passed since the nature of their display indicated to me that person may have died and of course I couldn't get away from the resemblance.
I was totally blown away by all this of course and figured my job was done and it was time to leave....................Until I saw Randa do something that I normally see other guys do. With her right hand she reached down towards her crotch and did the half-hearted squat and pull as if she had a set of balls. Yes, I said balls. Then Randa walked past me to go into the bathroom shutting the door behind her. I could immediately hear the rush of piss pouring into the toilet. Randa had not closed the door securely and the door started creeping open ever so slowly (Serena saw this and remained frozen solid with part of her mouth open since it was too late to do anything at that point)--Randa had been standing like a man over the toilet taking a piss like a man. I was in denial, I felt she managed to push a nice stream of piss from her female "johnson" until I saw her do this hunching tucking in thing. All of this had taken place in a matter of seconds from the time Serena and I finished our conversation about the number. My wife is only a few feet away from me just taking it all in and keeping her mouth shut. Serena just looked at us and said, "Randa is actually my brother Randy." I didn't even know what to say. I was speechless for all of three seconds. The only thing I could muster was a, "hey that's cool." Now let me tell you, when I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, I thought I saw "something" down below. I had to attribute that to some "heavy flow protection"--Im sure the ladies know what I mean. Aside from that though she was all woman. She had boobs and beauty and fooled me completely. We said our good-byes to the both of them, got in the car and drove away. Of course, my wife and I immediately started talking about every little detail we witnessed during that entire shoot but Randy's "johnson" (excuse me if your last name is Johnson) was the main topic of discussion all the way home.
One more thing Serena insisted that the picture that was taken during their catatonia was the second picture they wanted to use for the Mothers Day photo since they felt that their mom was the one that clicked the camera at that exact moment. By the way, Serena is on the left and Randy is the one on the right.
We never told my sister-in-law about the weirdness we witnessed that day or what I thought was the weirdest photo shoot I have ever been through.
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