The Photographer - h.s

Vic

Vic

I've been working all week on finishing up the final touches on the shoot I worked on last week for a small concert for a small band called 'Lydia' that came through LA for a show. I took nearly 300 photos from their set and I have narrowed it down to the best 75 and have been working tirelessly on fixing, editing, and finalizing the set. It's been the only thing I've been able to think about for days, until a nervous, beautiful, curly haired man stopped me last week when I was leaving Beachwood cafe and returning to the studio for the day to hopefully get these last few pictures done so I can send the file to the bands' management and publicity team.

I walked into the brick building and jogged up the stairs to the second floor with the echo of each step bouncing through the stairway. I pushed open the heavy metal door and revealed a large open room with a hard wood floor decorated with colorful rugs, with desk clumps huddled together, each with a large set up of multiple computers and a printer. There were large paintings and photos hanging through out the room, each one providing more color and personalization to the surroundings. Off to the right we had closed studios with large light fixtures and cameras staring at back drops for our in studio client shoots.

I walked through the studio offering friendly glances at others as I pass them, I set my bag down beside my desk and took a seat, setting my laptop up in front of me and waking up the monitor on one of my computers that sat on the desk.

"Vic! What's up?" I heard her cheery voice call out as I look up and see my best friend approaching.

"Ugh, Soph, this shoot I'm working on is so SO close to finally being done." I stated and I started typing in the passcodes to my computer and laptop and opening up to my preferred editing program and starting to transfer the pictures from my laptop to the desktop.

"The 'Lydia' shoot? Let me see." She said and leaned over to peek at my screens. I clicked through the pictures I took of their performance and showed her which few were my top favorites and showed her the photo I was going to keep a copy of for my portfolio. "They look amazing, I can't wait to see them all finished." She stated and pulled up one of the computer chairs from the desk across from mine.

Sophia made small talk with me every now and again for about an hour as I messed around with the exposure and shadows on my last photos before I finished the file and exhaled with relief. I finished moving the photos over to the desktop and saved them to an external drive before I sent the album over to the band, leaving the future of those pictures up to them. I'm just happy they're no longer mine to worry about. I opened my server and logged on to the employee portal to look for my pending requests for the next client. There were about 5 pending clients but none of them time sensitive, what's putting them off for a few hours to finish up some paperwork really going to change?

I finished filling out the closing paperwork for the 'Lydia' shoot and on my way out, put it in the 'submitted' file for my boss to handle the finalization of whatever he does on his end. I opened the door and jogged down the familiar stairs and opened the door, getting hit with scent of January in LA. I walked down the street to the cafe a block away to get the coffee I've been thinking about all day. The cafe was small and lowkey and sat on the corner of a small, busy town. The building was a light blue color with a wooden sign that read 'Beachwood cafe' with flowers in pots decorating the outside. I walked in and the strong scent of coffee hit me, I walked in and got in line waiting my turn to order. When it was my turn, I walked to the counter and smiled at the man at the register as he asked for my order.

"I'm just gonna do a medium iced mocha, 2 creams and 3 sugars please." I asked lightly, he punched it into the screen and asked for my name. "It's for Vic." I said sweetly and he displayed my total in front of me, I handed him my car and he swiped it and handed it back. I walked off to the side and waited under the pick up sign for my order.

I took my seat at the window with my coffee in one hand and my phone in the other as I scrolled through Instagram.

"Victoria Townes, what a surprise seeing you here." His familiar accent rung out behind me bringing a smile to my face as I turned around.

"Harry Styles... didn't think I'd be seeing you here." I joked back and he gave me a toothy smile.

"Is this seat taken?" He asked and motioned to the stool beside mine, I shook my hand and waved him to sit. He slid onto the tall stool and put his cup down on the wooden bar top. "So, what brings you to Beachwood at....1:35 every Thursday?" I asked him while checking the time on my phone and looking back to him as he took a sip of his drink.

"Well, I work near by so, I stop here everyday before I go to the studio." He told me and I nodded. The studio. I mean, I know he's this big pop star and everything, but for a split second, I forgot and when he said studio it threw me off kilt.

"So, what is solo Harry Styles working on in this studio that you speak of?" I asked and took a sip of my coffee as a small smile took its place on his defined face.

"It's a secret, I guess you'll have to find out with everyone else." He said and had a cocky grin displayed as he shrugged his shoulders. "What what are you, Victoria Townes, doing here on a Thursday at around 1:30 every week?" He asked me with the same curiosity in his tone.

"I work down the street, so on my lunch breaks I come here before I head back to my apartment." I told him truthfully and he nodded.

"What do you do for work?" He fired back and turned fully sideways now to give me his attention, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting it to feel so... intimidating.

"I'm an event photographer. So I do concerts, weddings, carnivals and festivals, private events too. If it's an event in my file of clients, I'll be there." I told him and he smirked and nodded.

"Do you have any with you? Any of your work?" He asked me with a hopeful smile and it made me feel warm. He wants to see my work? He's interested in what I do? I nodded and pulled my laptop from its sleeve and opened it. I logged in and opened my gallery and showed him my portfolio.

"I take one picture from each shoot that I liked most and put them here." I told him and turned my laptop to face him, he began scrolling and clicking through my photos for a minute before looking up at me.

"These are...really good, Vic." Hearing my name come from his mouth never ceases to spiral me into a nervous wreck. "But...I wanna see your pictures that you take just for you. You know, not the pictures of your clients or what they asked for, but pictures you took because you felt it was worth saving." He told me and I was a little surprised. No one really asks to see my personal pictures, no one really cares for my personal pictures anymore.

"I....uh....yeah yeah, hold on." I stuttered out and he turned the laptop back to face me. I closed my portfolio file and opened a new one and turned it to him. These pictures are of everything. Flowers, strangers on the street, friends, birds, nature, everything I ever felt was worth being captured. He clocked through them in silence for what felt like a lifetime but was nearly 2 minutes.

"These are....these are really good. I like them better than your event stuff." He said while still scrolling through the file. He had a small smile playing on his lips and his eyes just slightly squinting at my screen as we scanned through more pictures before looking up at me and sliding my laptop back my way. "Are those pictures you took of a cat...your cat?" He asked and I giggled and shook my head.

"No no, he's a stray that comes around a lot. I leave food and water out for him along with a little make shift shelter I made him. I haven't gotten close enough to pet him yet, but I'm determined." I told him and he smiled brightly me, it felt warm and comforting.

"Well, Miss Victoria Townes, I have to be going to the studio to finish up a- to finish up a super secret project that you'll hear about soon enough." He said and slid off his seat before taking a shaky breath and looking back to me for a moment. Before he said anything more I grabbed a napkin from the table and a pen from my bag and wrote my number on it with smiley face and slid it over to him.

"I look forward to hearing about your super secret studio project when it's done. See you around Harry Styles." I said and he took the napkin off the table and smiled before knocking his knuckles on the bar and walking away.