A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words - Tawny Weber

Remember Glamour Shots? Back in my teens, those intriguing mall photostores that an average, every day woman could walk into and be tousled, teased and photographed into looking like a sexy cover model? I remember when they were all the rage to give a significant other a boudoir photo for special occassions. And, if I recall, photo retouching was a part of the package.

Then, photo retouching was 'rare'. Nowadays? Well, who with a computer and digital camera doesn't own a photo editing program? And have you seen the cover of a Cosmo, Glamour or Elle lately? The stars gracing those covers are so smooth and blemish free, its almost surreal. In a way, they're selling a fantasy - a really well edited one *g*

This whole photo editing phenomena inspired the plot of my May Blaze, Going Down Hard. The heroine is being stalked via photographs. The photos are obviously edited, at first very poorly (she comments at one point that the stalker can't even get her head facing the same direction as the kinkily posed body he's pasted it on to). But over the course of the story, the stalker gets more proficient with his editing, and the pictures get more nerve-wracking.

Sierra, my photoshopped heroine, ends up having to agree to a bodyguard so her company won't lose a key client. I had a lot of fun writing this story, but always in the back of my head was the whole 'would I want to be photo edited or not' question.

Oh, definitely not in the 'orgy with chocolate' way that Sierra was. But maybe in more of a magazine cover, the same but improved version of myself. I still haven't decided *g*

So I'm tossing the question to you - if you were asked to do a photo shoot. It could be for an interview, an award or to sell a product, would you want your picture altered? Or not? And why? Let me know, and I'll pick one commenter to win a copy of my May Harlequin Blaze, GOING DOWN HARD.