I was heading back to the car, done for the afternoon. Or so I thought. I walked by Cafe Clasico and its west wall, vine covered. Several tiny alcoves hold a round table and two chairs. I nearly had a double take as I passed one alcove with Amanda seated, with a man standing in front speaking. The light was so nice on her hair that I waited several yards away. I think that by telepathy I willed the guy away. When she was along, I wasted no time trying to recruit her.
After a few moments of hesitancy, she was fine with being photographed. Immediately the lip gloss came out and she began preening. I assured her that I wanted her to look natural and did not make women look like porcelain dolls with Photoshop. She understood, and agreed. Sort of. Amanda indicated that a little shin improvement in Photoshop was OK with her. Sigh...
Then I tried to get her to remove the sunglasses. She realized that I wanted to see her eyes, but, “The sunglasses are ME!” So we compromised with sunglasses being on her person, but not covering her eyes. Later I saw a couple of portraits on her website, and no sunglasses were in sight.
