Twin Supermodels in Perfect Light and I Was Out of Film

I broke my own rule, and there will never be a second chance.

One afternoon we were shooting for someone (designer jeans I believe) and were on a little street in Jersey along the Hudson River.

The models were fabulous (yeah, I shoot fashion so I can say ‘Fabulous’).

The client, being a client, wanted us to get Manhattan in the background while also showing off the stitching on the butt — or something.

Of course, that was not an easy task given the distance between us and the city, but we worked it out.

There were some storefronts with windows facing Manhattan and I was able to get the reflection of the city behind the models and the close-ups she wanted.

We got the shots, my freelance assistant ran to the subway to get the A bag of film to the lab that evening and drop off the remaining unshot film in the studio fridge. I held on to the B bag — we call the B-bag ‘insurance’.

My first assistant and I packed up the gear, said bye to the models, MUA, stylist, client, client assistant, art director, and third assistant, and grabbed a few beers. We sat in front of a little Deli and watched the sun go down on Manhattan.

The hour of the supermodels had unexpectedly arrived.

Twins, they were, and that evening they caught the last little bit of sun and were like two golden towers reaching for something just out of reach. The city was dark in the gloom of fog, but they were extending so far into the sky that the sun simply could not resist lighting them up. They reflected gold light across the Hudson and nearly up to where I sat with my Blue Moon. I sat mesmerized.

Perfection?

Possibly.

True supermodels, they had been shot by every living great shooter in NYC. Meisel, Kane, Turner, Elgort, Haas, Meyerowitz, McCurry. These models were so in demand.

And they were standing there ready for me to do my thing. Make my shot.

I wanted to take a photo so bad… but I was literally out of film in the F3, and we had packed the remaining unexposed rolls from the shoot when the exposed film headed for the lab for snips. I had a rule to always have a roll of K64 with me… and I didn’t.

That was in late August of 2000.

I didn’t realize there would be no more opportunities for a shot. That was the moment, and I had let it slip.

Within less than a minute the light was gone for the day.

And the light never came back.

I am a photographer, designer, and photo editor. You can find me at my self-named website or at Project 52 Pro System where I teach commercial photography online. This is our tenth year of teaching, and it is the most unique online class you will find anywhere.

You can find my books on Amazon, and I have taught two classes at CREATIVELIVE.