Z Photo Studio
by mandezulu
Warning: Raceplay, Taboo, Voyeurism.
My first job out of college was as a nature photographer up in Door County, Wisconsin. The terrain up there in northern Wisconsin is wild, rocky and pine trees are everywhere. You won't see much variety beyond that, unless you count the deep waters to the left and right of the County, eventually the land runs out in front of you. If you look at a map of Wisconsin, Door County is the "finger" on the right-hand side of the state, running north and off to the side towards Michigan. The majority of the Door County area is a unique series of small towns, no McDonalds or Walmarts, almost a retro vintage sort of place. Today, minus people doing the zombie walk with their phones up to their noses you might think it was 1990. If you wanted a decent coffee you had to visit an actual coffee shop, not a Starbucks.
My studio is small but the location is stellar; at the edge of a huge cliff surrounded left and right by stands of pine trees. There still are a lot of wild places, huge tracts of State-owned land, National Forests, and hundreds of miles of shoreline scattered with driftwood and clear blue water. My studio, Zee Photo, is next to a major highway which runs north until you run out of road and hit the Great Lakes, it is about 25 miles away from the end of the "finger." I was born down south in Iowa, moved to Wisconsin for college and then got offered a job in Photography up in Great Eagle, the name of the town I currently reside. Small town vibes everywhere, some places could fit right into the 1950s with drive-in movie theaters and commercialism in the form of gift shops, t-shirt vendors, bear skin rug and knife shops made to look like Gold Rush-era general good shops, fudge confectioneries, and healing crystal bullshit shops.
I was pretty much right out of college and was amazed I could get a decent paying job that involved some of a my useless photography and pottery degrees. Originally the guy who hired me, Zeke Vanderhoof, put me on simple jobs, shooting background scenes that would be used as backdrops in portrait photos, via the use of Photoshop. I was good at the job and Z, as he was known to all the locals as, even helped me find my current apartment, in the same town, not even all that far from the studio. Getting set up like that I had it so good and business wasn't booming but it wasn't as bad as it is now. Nowadays it's different, any fool with a smart phone can take pics and overlap them, mask out an area and insert another picture pretty damn seamlessly. I moved up here about 13 years ago and now I own the business, Z passed away in 2009 from a hunting accident.
I have two staff people, a secretary who is my wife, Sherry, and a young female named Jasmine. Jasmine had a very hard time finding work, as she stands out like a sore thumb up here in these parts, she's a dark shade of ebony. But Jasmine is a good worker, unlike my wife who pretty much shows up when she feels like it and puts in a half-assed effort. Sherry is my second wife, and I am her second husband. Her old man was a biker and got drunk and high one night and decided it was a good idea to ride his bike at night without headlights or a helmet. Bob was a hardcore biker type, was in a gang and I was this white college boy with pockets filled with cash. I met Sherry at a bookstore where she was browsing the Adult magazines and I was getting some blank sketch books. They say opposites attract which I think is horseshit, but Sherry was down to earth, humble, and drop dead gorgeous. She later shared stories of being an "old lady" in the biker gang and she willingly passed herself around to the other members and leader.
Sherry was 5-3", blonde, tanned skin, and most noticeably had huge beach ball tits, implants. She was 42 now, I was 39, but she still dressed like the highschool cheerleader slut she grew up as. Why did I marry her? Lust honestly, but after that sheen wore off she was back to her old ways, riding on the back of her dead husband's friends motorcycles, drinking at bars, and just up to no good. I was 99% sure she was screwing some of her old leather-clad friends, but I wasn't the type to break up a relationship. I was the nerd, the goody two shoes guy, Mr. show up early, leave late and work hard guy. Sherry could give less of a shit. She wanted me to get a Harley, wear a leather jacket and just be more out-going, more take-charge but that wasn't me. I thought I could change her. Make her dress nicer, no more ripped jeans and an old Hooters t-shirt and black bra underneath. She was who she was, and I wasn't about to drop her off and start all over with a new girlfriend, make her a wife, etc. Everyone in town knew each other and they would talk. More than they did now, as nice as a small town was, there are downsides.