The Red Cloth

"So, yeah, the photo that James came up with for the contest was really good. The barbed wire was a great touch. It definitely made it WAY more deviant than Chris' photo."

We sat at Opal Divine's that morning discussing the bet between Chris and James. The aftermath was kind of hilarious. James with a resounding 11-to-1 win over Chris. Especially with all the smack Chris was throwing around.

"But, honestly, I think the photo I did of Morgan wearing the gas mask was definitely more deviant than James'."

She walked into the game room where we were sitting. "oh! Gas masks?"

My ears perked a moment and I turned around. She was cute. Spritely.

"Yeah. I recently took a photo of a friend wearing this gas mask she picked up."

"Photos? Are y'all photographers?"

I looked around at the other six guys at the table. "Yeah. We meet up here frequently to talk about photography and stuff."

"Cool! I love having my picture taken. I could model for y'all sometime!"

Everyone laughed. Sure, why not? I looked back at her and said half-jokingly, "Sure, give me your contact info and we'll set something up."

Funny. Some of the guys assumed that was meant for everyone. She laughed, took some of our drink orders and wandered off. We went back to discussing the photos and other random Strobist stuff.

About fifteen minutes later she came back in and walks up to me, a slip of paper in hand. "Here you go!"

It was her contact info. Heh. I turned to look at the guys and saw jaws drop. Yeah. Definitely funny. As I started to slip the paper in my pocket, one exclaimed, "But that's for all of us!"

"Yeah, sure." I laughed, "and you're more than welcome to ask her for the same ..."

A few weeks later, we had the shoot set up.

One thing I've learned in the last year is that if you don't have the balls to ask someone for something you'll never know if they'll do it. When an opportunity presents itself you'll do one of two things: take it or sit there kicking yourself for not opening your mouth. Be bold, live notoriously, whatever moniker you want to attach to this idea ... all it takes is opening your mouth and asking the question that hangs at the tip of your tongue.

This is Donica. She's a sweet girl. We had a lot of fun in the studio. This was one of the shots I was explicitly looking for that night. It's variation of something I picked out of a magazine last year, the main focus being a red cloth sweeping down across the back and just barely hiding a nude woman. We're definitely going to shoot again, though, next time I think she'll be in a mohawk. She's wild like that. Gotta love a woman who'll let you fuck up her hair for art.