If you look up country in the dictionary... there just might be a picture of Emily right there.
This red-headed beauty and I go way back...
At the very LEAST... it goes back to June 12, 2002... We were photographing just our 13th digital senior of all time in older sis Sara Lyle... and a freckled little carrot top was along for the ride.
The funny thing was... our digital switch hadn't quite totally convinced older sis that it was the way to go as she had asked me if there was any way we could just go ahead and use our old Hasselblad film camera for her session.
We had just invested over $30,000 in digital photography, and we weren't about to go back.
Eight years plus have passed... and I'm guessing that it's been enough time to ensure that lil' sis was just FINE with what camera we were using this go around! ;-)
Truth is... even back then, the Lyle's saw the merit behind what we were trying to accomplish... and I guess the amazing thing to me is just how quickly time has passed as Emily has gone from runt to really grown up.
The day was dominated with a country flavor because that's what Em is. The reigning Central Iowa Fair queen, we tuned our XM radio to channel 16 The Highway, jammed to Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts and busted out the cowgirl hat, the boots, the plaid shirt and the FFA gear and some stuffed cows with crowns on their heads and all was missing was some dirt and an old Chevy truck.
So we took care of that problem, too.
At the end of the session I made the trek west and north of Laurel to the Lyle home to add a little more flavor to her session. We got an amazing image with Papa Mark's 1965 Chevy and I also spied a rusty orange truck that Mama Jana wished WASN'T there in the back yard... but somehow, by taking pictures by it... I gave Mark all the justification he ever needed to store the old girl right there under the tree north of the house. ;-)
We had to work in Maggie the farm dog for a few... as well as the old gate and barn... but the neatest part to me was the very end.
Em had wanted a shot by the corn that was still left in the field. Much of it had already been harvested.... but Mark hadn't quite got it all out yet... so we off roaded in the H3 and we got out in the field west of the homestead.
By the time we got there... the day was coming to an end.... literally as the sun was dropping like a rock. I told the Lyles I don't normally get the opportunity, as our schedule is set up, to get to shoot at sundown very often... But here we were... getting amazing warm and soft images against the October corn.
I thought I was finished for the night when our cowgirl stood up and walked into the harvested portion of the field where the H3 was parked and she turned and the setting sun was like a halo round the fair queen.
We hustled and got another handful of images as the sun was setting. Believe it or not... I had never done that before... and I think Mark and Jana would agree... there was something really special about watching their baby girl being photographed... at the place they call home... at the end of harvest season... at the end of a day she'll never forget.
I won't forget it any time soon, either.
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