The first two episodes of Photo Kano come across as mostly light fluff, with an occasional serious moment. The main relationship was very clear, and the level of fan service was surprisingly low, given the nature of the story-line. The next three episodes both raise and lower the bar in various ways.
Episode three is primarily an exercise in harem building, with our milquetoast lead interacting with as many of the young ladies at his school as possible, frequently in ways that involve accidental contact with portions of their anatomy that are generally not touched by young men. It starts with a particularly trite cliche: the accidental kiss. The recipient of this mistaken lip action, or perhaps the deliverer of said 
action, is none other than Nonoka, Kazuya's softball playing buddy. She is in a hurry and leaps down the stairs, vaulting over the handrail, and lands, lips first, on Kazuya. To the show's credit, it does preset it as a painful meeting, and they both kind of shrug it off as nothing big, but Nonoka does comment that she's glad it was him, as it could have been someone she didn't like that she ran into and got her “first kiss” from.
Next we have the accidental boob grab, with bustiest of our heroins, Rina. This also involves the photography club boys, and highlights one of the major themes of the next few episodes, which is Kazuya actively trying to thwart the perverts in his club. This is one of the most positive aspects of the story, which reveals more about our protagonist's character, and his personal feelings for a certain tennis player, than any other aspect of the story.
And so on and so forth, continuing to hit each of the heroines for at least one scene. The meat of the episode is the payoff from the convenient blackmail material that was collected last week. Kazuya uses his leverage on Aki to get her to pose for him in her swimsuit after she finishes practicing on the high dive. It appears that she used to be on the swim team, but quit because of her student body president duties. She, at least, appears to be having fun, but it is still a low point for our protagonist.
In an obvious set-up for later, the guys in his photography club give him some porn magazines so he can “study the photography”. That is a new one! Usually you just say you read them for the articles…
There is a bit more development with Haruka in this episode, with the photography club starting up “Operation Nimi Haruka” and using Kazuya to lure her into spots where they can get pictures of her. In particular, they give the hallway outside their room a super shine, in order to take reflection shots of her panties I presume. When he figures out what is going on, he tries to stop it and ends up slipping on the freshly polished floor and, of course, sliding right underneath Haruka's skirt. It is laughable, but almost genuinely funny. The end result is that the individuals in the club are ordered to work on their own, making it even harder for Kazuya to “protect Haruka Nimi's panties.” Yes… it actually says that!
On to episode 4, which starts with another example of Kazuya not having a siscon. Spooked by a wasp or something, she rushes to him, dripping with pool water and jumps on him for protection. Is it sad that I am pleased by the fact that he doesn't seem to get exited by his little sister jumping on him in her swimsuit?
Once again, Kazuya uses his blackmail material against Aki, but this time it is to help his sister and Nonoka, who were playing baseball in the hallway. Later in the episode he uses it again to make Aki do some of his homework so he can dedicate himself to photography, and protecting Haruka from perverts, until the school festival and the big photo exhibit. There is a brief side plot about the photography club taking a trip to a local convention to take pictures of cosplayers. It features the reality version of the dream sequence that started the first episode, which is a bit odd.
The set-up with the porn mags pays off twice in the episode. He decided that he needed to leave them in his locker, since he didn't want to risk getting caught with them in his bag. But then, when he is getting them out to return them, Haruka shows up. He quickly shoves them back in his locker. Later, he is getting them out again and they are stuck. (The concept of porn magazines being stuck to his shoe locker is a topic I'd just as soon forget…) Mai startles him for some reason and they go flying. Mai then picks them up and says she'll have to tell her team president about it, since it is decidedly “dodgy 
behavior” to have porn mags in your shoe locker. He convinces her to give him another chance, since he wouldn't be able to help her out by taking pictures so she could see how her form looks, which is one of the reasons she gave for being happy that he was taking pictures. She relents, but keeps the magazines, thus having “dirty laundry” on him. He wonders if it is karma for his blackmailing Aki.
The Haruka plot development this time is fairly funny, and a bit touching. It starts with him merely meeting her in the hall, and realizing that one of the perverts is lurking. He proceeds to spend the rest of the day attempting to block their shots of her. Some of the scenes are pretty humorous. The later part of it involves him inviting her to walk home with him, which she accepts with great joy. (Really, when a girl is that 
happy about just walking home with you, you really need to get a clue!) There is a bit of back story about how they used to play soccer together when they were kids, and a fairly well done scene about what he loves about photography. It is clear that, from Haruka's perspective, photography has changed Kazuya for the better. He seems more alive and engaged with the world, not to mention spends more time with her.
The episode does take a brief step into the creepy side, with a scene where his sister wants him to look at her upper thigh/butt to see if there is a bruise. (She evidently fell on her butt in gym class.) After trying to hike her skirt up farther, since he said he couldn't see anything, and freaking him out because he almost saw her panties, she has him take a picture of it. To the show's credit, the look on his face is priceless as he says, “Are 
you serious?”. When he shows her the picture, she starts scrolling through the other pics on his camera and finds the swimsuit pictures of Aki, causing her to have a bit of a fit of jealousy, calling him a cheater. He tells her not to say weird things people could misinterpret, but none the less, it was a bit of a disappointment, as I had hopes that they weren't going to enter the whole brocon/siscon territory in this show. Oh well…
The end of the episode is almost surreal, and likely signals the end of the “harem building” portion of the show. The entire cast of girls he has been flirting with and taking pictures of over the past couple of episodes are gathered together in the gym doing flexibility training. The rationale for this is that the president of the photo club used to be a volley ball player, but had to “retire” from the sport due to an injury. She has gotten all of her friends together to train so they won't meet the same fate as she did. Kazuya wanders in and wonders what is going on. After explaining it to him, she then tells him to start taking picture! “We may be in different clubs, but I can still give you some pointers on photography.” It then has a little voice over monologue about the different “paths” you may walk down and how a slight change could change everything. In a sense, it is a nod to the visual novel origins of the story. It does give the impression that, from here on out, we'll be focusing on individual girls, not on the whole harem.
That impression seems to be right in episode 5, as it is almost entirely centered on Haruka. It starts a kind of strange fan service image, with Haruka in her tennis uniform with the bloomers that are designed to be seen. It is the closest the show has come to an actual panty shot so far, however. Considering that the manga of the Haruka arc had at least one per chapter, I have been very surprised at the reserved fan service in the 
show. Next, Kazuya finds Haruka collapsed in the hallway. It appears she is having some sort of chest pain and she says that it happens sometimes, but usually goes away. He offers to help her to the nurses office, but when he tries to help her up he accidentally touches her breast, causing them 
both embarrassment. He carries her there on his back instead. It brings back memories from their childhood, when he hit her in the chest with the ball while playing soccer and did the same thing trying to help her up. It was the when he started thinking about her as a girl and not as a playmate. When he walks her 
home after school, she tells him how much she enjoyed the day because he was with her. On his way home, he admits that he is happy that she feels that way, but he lacks the confidence to really do anything about her feelings.
As the episode goes on, he overhears some girls talking about how much time he and Haruka are spending together, noting that they really are mismatched and she could do sooooo much better. We learn that this has happened before. When they were in middle school they started to get close and people teased him and said he isn't good enough for her. Now it is happening again in high school.
He then overhears the ace of the soccer team asking her to go out with him. Worse, he actually mentions that he heard she has a childhood friend that she is with all the time and suggests she should, basically, “drop that loser and go out with me”. To make matters worse, Haruka 
finds that he is right around the corner after the guy leaves. She starts telling Kazuya that there is nothing between them, but he replies with the worst possible thing he could have said: “Why don't you go for it? He'd be good for you. As far as others are concerned, he's a far better catch than I am.” This really upsets Haruka. 
She can't tell what his true feelings are, and now he's telling her to date somebody else? He is obviously rather upset too, as there is a scene of his room entirely trashed, as if he took out his frustration by throwing things around at random. Haruka, on the other hand, goes into a bit of a state of depression over it.
The interesting twist that makes this rather trite, thinly written romantic drama worthwhile is the fact that in every case, there are members of the photography club there, hidden, witnessing it all. It is very clear that they are concerned about their friend. Indeed, when Kanon comes to his club room looking for him because Haruka has not come to practice and isn't answering her phone, they spring into action. Fearing that she may have had another attack, Kazuya runs off to look for her. The club president sends out an urgent text message to all members of both the photography club and the photo club asking them to help him and ensure that Haruka is safe.
Kazuya goes to the playground that they used to play at as kids, thinking she might be there. (She was there earlier, showing that his instinct wasn't far off.) He then remembers more about when they were kids. He elbowed her in the chest while playing soccer, then when he told her they shouldn't play soccer together anymore, she got mad and hid under the big bear at the playground. Thinking of this, he puts all the pieces of the 
puzzle together and figures out that she had been trying to tell him that she loves him for a long time. “I want you to take my picture.”“I want you to look at me.”“You're the only 
person I'd do this for.” Over and over she told him how she felt, just without actually putting the words together in a way he could grasp. He also realizes he was denying his own feelings.
Eventually he goes by her house and sees that she is home, but when she 
comes to the window, looking sad, and closes the drapes, he gets upset and screams before running home.
The next day, it is obvious to all involved that the two of them are very down. Once again, it is a photography club member, the stealth photographer girl, who starts the ball rolling. She slips across the partition and whispers something to the president of the photo club, who then proceeds to buy Haruka a drink and give her a bit of a talking to 
about Kazuya, letting her know that she isn't the only one who can't express her feelings and that someone has been working himself to death trying to prevent his club members from taking naughty pictures of her. 
This starts a litany of girls who are both Haruka and Kazuya's friends, meeting or texting Haruaka, telling her the same basic thing: Trust him. He's a good guy. He really cares for you and will do the right thing. This is where the harem aspect of the story actually makes sense. These are all girls who have gotten to know Kazuya. Some of them clearly have a crush 
on him, too. But they all are going to bat for him, because they are not only Haruka's friend, but his friend too. Without the harem trappings, it wouldn't be as believable.
In the end, the text she gets is from Kazuya. He says, “I'll be waiting at our special place. Please give me another chance.” The episode ends with him at the playground, in front of the big bear.
