Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Photo Shoot (Good Title for a Mystery)

Riddle:  Instead of a riddle, here’s what is alleged to be the world’s toughest tongue-twister: Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.  It’s gibberish, put together by language researchers at MIT, who did brain scans and other high-level testing to come up with it.  I haven’t tried saying it ten times fast, but apparently no one can.  It’s tougher than She sell seashells by the sea shore, they say, though just reading that one, my tongue stumbles.  Tougher than Clean clams crammed in clean cans, or Rubber baby buggy bumpers.  Here’s the article about it: http://theweek.com/article/index/253872/this-is-the-twistiest-tongue-twister-ever-says-science.

Had an interesting adventure on Friday.  The story actually starts a few weeks ago when I took my sister-in-law to a big AKC dog show.  There is something weird about seeing this odd-looking dog coming down an aisle and a few minutes later seeing a parade of them in a show ring, looking as identical as a set of clones.  But that’s peripheral.  I passed a vendor’s booth that had been rented by a photography company.  Their catalog of photos were as gorgeous and inventive as ads you see in a magazine.  Moody, funny, beautiful, strange, charming – there was something for everyone.  They did adults, children, animals.  And they were offering a special: fifty dollars for a shoot.  I walked away, but talked to my sister-in-law, who persuaded me to go back and sign up.  I haven’t been satisfied with a picture of myself in years – and Ellen and I don’t have a current picture of the two of us.

They called to make an appointment and Ellen and I went over to their shop in Edina on Friday at one.  It was then I noticed they also have locations in London, Edinbrough, New York and Los Angeles.  They told us to bring props (including our cats, but our cats don’t like adventures that take them away from home), so I brought hats and Ellen brought one hat and her laptop, and we brought some of our books.  We were introduced to our photographer, who is young and energetic, and taken to a room completely bare and painted entirely white.  There were lights, bare and filtered.  Our photographer had a very fancy 35 mm camera with an enormous lens.  Then started out fast-moving and exciting adventure.  We sat side by side on stools and pushed against one another, we made faces, we laughed and were solemn, we posed alone, we relaxed, and all the while the photographer, talking and urging and praising, snapping dozens and dozens of pictures.  It was not unlike what you’ve seen in movies or on television of a photographer taking pictures of a model.  We tried on hats, we read from our books, Ellen looked big-eyed over the top of her laptop, I put on my raincoat and fedora and looked grim.

Then came the bad news.  My fifty-dollar fee entitles us to one picture, matted and framed.  For our choice of ten photos put on a computer stick, one thousand dollars.  For a gorgeous artistic arrangement of eight pictures suitable to hang on a wall, three thousand dollars.  We are going back in a week for a presentation, on video, of the photos taken.  Doubtless picking just one is going to be extremely difficult.  On the other hand, one thousand dollars.

I finally got a photo – not a good one (sigh) – of the angels suspended over my shepherds in their field by night.  There are twenty-two of them.

3 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

Wow, that really is a tongue-twister, Monica. I've been dealing with different kinds of photo shoots, too, over the past couple of weeks. Wish I were photogenic! And what breed of dog were you viewing?

Katreader said...

Ouch-that's a pricy group of photos! I actually don't think the most difficult tongue twister is that difficult-I find the others to be harder!

Monica Ferris said...

Once in a very great while I see a photo of myself that satisfies me - but most make me wince.

I don't remember the breed, but it was big and had an extremely fluffy coat of straight, honey-blond fur. Not a breed I had ever heard of.

And I agree with you, Katreader, that tongue twister didn't seem all that difficult. That's what happens when you let "science" overrule experience. LOL