the Night She Got Lucky (2010) by Donovan Susan

Author:Donovan, Susan [Susan, Donovan,]
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Published: 2011-01-14T19:18:24.281000+00:00

CHAPTER 11

“Please, help yourself. Take anything that you think you might need.” Piers picked his way through his crowded spare bedroom, eventually reaching the doors of the walk-in closet, which turned out to be stockpiled with even more lock stands, reflectors, light meters, old camera bodies, lenses, teleconverters, ball heads, filters, shipping containers, some of it remnants of a predigital age.

Lucio examined the contents of the shelves, then studied the room, piled to the ceiling in some places with photo equipment and accessories. “Have you never sold anything, Piers? Not given anything away? Do you still have every piece of equipment you’ve ever owned?”

Piers chuckled. “Well, you know, Sylvie and I have been in this apartment for ten years now. It’s easy to become a packrat when you keep the same home base.” Piers picked up an old handheld eight-millimeter camera and smiled sadly, turning it over in his hand. “Some of this stuff is Sylvie’s, you know.” He set it back down. “Like I said, help yourself.”

“I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it, Piers.” Lucio examined a large aluminum reflector that was folded down in a corner. “I am going to take pictures outside whenever possible, but I know I’ll end up doing some studio work.” He poked through the shelves, finding a few other things that might come in handy. “I will have to buy a decent high-key backdrop.”

“I used to own one, but it’s at Sylvie’s parents’ house in Devon.”

“Ah, well. Like I said, I will have to invest in one.” Lucio stopped his perusal of shelves when a huge padded shipping envelope caught his eye. It was addressed to Piers, in Piers’s own handwriting, and the postal stamp was from January. It had to have been Piers’s submission for the Erskine Prize, Lucio knew. The committee would review an entry and send it back when it did not place. Lucio knew all about the process. He’d lost fourteen years in a row before he ever won.

“May I look?” Lucio asked, tapping the package. It was a request he wouldn’t have dared make with most other colleagues. Photographers could be a competitive bunch, and many would not be comfortable showing their contest portfolio to someone who took the same kind of pictures. But he and Piers had never had that barrier between them.

“Of course you can see it,” Piers said.

Lucio pulled the leather-bound case from the envelope and opened it. Like his own portfolio, Piers’s submission would have had to include ten pictures, one per category, representing at least ten of the fifteen categories determined by the board. The Erskine Prize was designed to show a photographer’s range—from wide-angle views of an entire ecosystem to close-ups of plants, animals, and miniature landscapes as seen through a macro lens.

His friend’s work was elegant and inventive. Lucio took a moment to carefully study Piers’s submission in the category for naturally occurring texture, pattern, color, or form. “This is outstanding,” Lucio said, admiring the complexities of the Gobi Desert at sunset.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.