The moment felt perfect. The lights had gone down. The drive had been fabulous. There was this electricity in the air. Feelings were moving but they weren’t being shared. There was this secret code that was being processed, no one wanted to speak of it, less the very nature of speaking them would banish them from existence.
He had proposed a photo shoot. It was semi impromptu. She had agreed. She was needing the distractions from the hurt and pain going on in her life that she feared to share with him. He had his own things going on and while he insisted that she was not a drain, her mind kept wondering if she was taking away from his fun.
They had arrived to the spot. But, what spot. It was pitch black out. No street light close enough. She knew the place. She’d been there many times. How did he know the place, he was not a local nor visited often.
It was The Ledge. The place lovers often met to have some quiet time to pet, the spot the hookah specialist were settling into as their safe hangout. Cops rarely drove by and checked. Residence felt it would be the home of some gruesome event, as anyone could get away with anything there.
The Ledge Story
The light test was to help him get his skills up in photography. How would you improve your skills by taking photos in near total darkness made no sense to her. She understood some of the science of photography, but she trusted him. He took good pics. He was fun to hang out with. He was safe, a gentleman, a kind soul, a friend who cared.
Announcing his gear ready, she took her spot. He had to lead her, as the only light they had came from the headlights from his car parked some way away in the street. Speaking of the street, there was no curb side parking, he had set up his car to look like it was broken down… to buy them some time.
Once settled by the ledge, he started snapping away. The bright explosions of lights could blind anyone not prepared. Pulses of light, nearly strobe like intense. It was fun. It was different. And the images coming from the view screen suggested the man knew what he was doing. She was looking especially chill.
She loved how he made her feel. She was a queen for the moment. Stress free. Care free. No worries. No games. Just the delightful lightness of being beautiful.
Then he asked her to sit on the ledge. That was more than she had planned on. The other side was a steep wooded drop. Anyone who fell wouldn’t be discovered for hours in daylight. Forget getting rescue to come down in a timely fashion. This was the dead of night.
He asked her to trust him. It was pitch black. Total dark. Only the perpendicularly casted dim lighting from his distant car’s headlights. Did she trust him?
His reassuring touch of her shoulder melted all the anxieties away. She would do this just for him. He never asked the impossible. This must not be the exception to the rule.
Sensing her hesitation, he jumped up on the ledge and asked her to use the moon light to see the pose he had in mind. Using the limited light from her phone, this was before the days of smart phones with their bright screens, she saw his pose. It looked smooth, confident, hot. He wanted her to look hot.
Knowing how much he feared and hated heights, she dared not tell him how many hundreds of feet awaited him if he slipped off the ledge. She heard the clicking of a piece of rock falling, falling, falling.
He jumped off the ledge. He realized, he was very very high up. He told her not to worry about doing the edgy stuff, he had done enough to understand the light.
Smiling, hoping he didn’t catch her blushing, she had to do this for him. She had to step up like he had. Even if he’d never realize why and how much. But she knew. And that was enough.
With his assistance, she jumped up on the ledge. His strong hands securing her so she didn’t slip back, he calmed her. She relaxed. Got into position and let him direct the shoot.
Time flew. It was all good. It was over way too fast. She had time to get things off her chest. Laugh. Smile. Feel free. He understood. He was like a best friend who had no idea he was like a best friend. She couldn’t risk him knowing, then he’d discover she’d intentionally placed him in the friend zone. It had to be. They were just friends. His heart belonged to another. Her heart belonged to another.
He knew what she was thinking. He respected her worries and left her space to sort it out. He liked her company. He felt comfortable with her. He could pour out his soul to her, but he did not. It just wouldn’t be fair to her to have that much a connection without having any sense of commitment. Especially when her man would never understand. His lady barely did, and they said women understood way more. But who are those they anyway?
The shoot over, they made their way to the car. The lights were low. The battery was weak. The cops was coming by and flashing their lights. Who were those two young lover-looking people and how did he have all that camera gear in the middle of the night at lover’s ledge?
The sample photos they saw made it clear. This was a professional session in the middle of the night. That team had skills, enough to skip a ticket. Assuming they could start their car.
Good thing for stick shifts and a slight incline in the road, as a bump start was all she needed to roar to life and go.
The ledge story would stay quiet for years and years, as it was not the time to share with the world the secrets of the ledge. The secret being… a guy found out how his infrared auto-focus system worked to get the perfect shot in any light, or the lack thereof.
These two friends will forever have this memory perfectly set in eternity because they never crossed a line that would have dropped them over the edge into a miserable complicated abyss of heartache and feelings amiss. Respect. Honor. Fidelity. Trust. The virtues that allowed two hearts to get close while learning how to do photos, without ever getting burned or crossing over a berm.
The Ledge holds this story as sacred. The city had to make changes. Too many bad things happened ever since then. The good old days now only a digital memory on some server with the title…. The Ledge Story
p.s. the photo set, for those who want to see the whole set, lives here… The Ledge
The Ledge Story - When taking photos on a ledge, just be sure to keep a model safe
The fictional recounting of actual events during a photo shoot
The Ledge - Night time photography can be a load of fun. This is the gallery from the photo session with Lady 10
Playfully Edged Poetry - Poetically, even musically... the photog guided Lady 10 ever so close to the edge.
Trust kept them calm... as their friendship grew on respect.
The words of poetry... lifted from social... shared on the blog...a reminder of how trust... looks beautiful
Editorial Note: This story was originally shared on September 14, 2017 on the portfolio section of the blog. As part of a blog audit, it is being moved to the main blog.
There will be a page that hosts all the stories and photos done by the model Lady 10 coming below.
The Tinted Ledge
There is a dark corner… where a ledge waits to swallow up unsuspecting relaxing tourists
A model, Lady 10, and her photographer flirt with disaster to grab a few photos
Their story and gallery lives here… the homepage of The Ledge
Shallows of the Deep 