The Wade Mackie Agency

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She might look like a complete idiot, but at least she was doing something to get a career going. Besides, even if this didn’t work ―it wouldn’t― at least it was good practice for when she got in front of a real photographer. She swayed left, then right, loosening up enough to shift from straight-on smiles to head-tilted-serious-looks to over-the-shoulder glam as Julie clicked away, attempting to capture it all.

After about twenty minutes, she slumped down on the bed. “That’s enough. I quit. Oh, wait— one more.” She pulled Julie down beside her, grabbed the camera and held it in arm’s length in front of them, tilting her head until their temples touched. “Cheese!” She pressed the button and the shutter clicked. “There. At least we’ll have one that’s worth keeping.”

“They’re all going to be perfect,” Julie predicted brightly. “You’ll see.” She crossed to her computer, plugged in the memory card and pulled up the images, running through them one at a time.

Amateur. There was no other word for it. The lighting was way off: too bright on her right side and shadowed on her left. Plus, her makeup wasn’t as well blended as they’d thought. Her blush was all streaky and her mascara looked like spiky black globs. Then there was the background. The window with the blue-and-yellow daisy curtains Julie had had since first grade, her corny poster of the couple sucking face in front of the Eiffel Tower, the shelf crammed with hockey trophies. Somehow all that junk set a racy mood in the Hilfiger ad; in these shots it just looked sloppy. Exactly as Tess had predicted.

“Some of these aren’t too bad,” Julie finally managed. “I can photoshop the background a bit and—”

“Hmmm.”

“You hate them.”

“No! Jules, I didn’t say that. They’re good. They’re really good. It’s just… if I want a New York agency to sign me, I’ve got to send in something more professional.”

“Fine. We’ll do it over tomorrow. These were just practice shots, anyway.”

“We could, but… let me show you something.” Now it was her turn. With a surge of excitement, Tess slid the keyboard toward her and punched up a photographer’s website. Wade Mackie Images. “This guy’s in Albany, only an hour away.” The screen filled with glamorous images of male and female models. Slick and professional. No comparison to the cheesy, awkward shots Julie had just taken. “I already checked him out. He works with all the best agencies in the city, and he only charges three hundred an hour—”

“Three hundred—”

“Plus you have to pay for each photograph separately. His website says to
expect a fee of about fifteen hundred for an initial sitting. But that covers everything,” she rushed on, “hair, makeup, wardrobe, everything.”

“Fifteen hundred? Are you serious? There’s no way your parents are going to pay for that.”

“Obviously. But if I pay for it, they’ll see how serious I am about the whole thing. I mean, they’re not going to stop me if I pay for everything myself, right?”

“Well, maybe. But how are you—”

“Simple. We’ll both get jobs.”