BOWLED OVER by D.J.K.

No, not THAT DJK. :)

The Marshalltown, one. The one that bowls... the one that drives a Ford Mustang... the one that plays drums... and the fan of the World Champion Packers.

I had photographed D.J. Koger's sister, Whitney for her senior pictures a few years back as a member of Marshalltown's Class of 2005. So Mama Mandy and her son had decided on going back to the scene of the crime for round two.

But the photographer had other ideas.

It was mentioned that D.J. was an accomplished Bobcat bowler, and that he'd like to incorporate drums, piano and his car. So, while Mandy was wondering aloud how we could get all this stuff to Montour... I suggested that perhaps I come to the stuff... rather than the stuff coming to me.

The first order of business was convincing D.J. that senior pictures was a worthwhile endeavor at 8 a.m. on a Friday morning. Once that was accomplished... we had to convince Totem Bowl manager Roger Taylor, Sr. of the same. :)

While the early start didn't exactly appeal to either guy... I'm tickled with what we came up with. Special thanks to Roger for letting us have the run of the place for 90 minutes off regular hours. I had a blast.

And a bruise.

Let me explain...

Take one look at the first image on this blog and take one second to figure out where the dummy photographer was for that angle.

That's right... laying in the middle of the lane.

D.J. was like... "are you SURE!?!?... just... umm.... roll it like I would normally? THAT hard?"

I assured D.J. that that's EXACTLY what I wanted him to do... and that I would get the image and then roll myself out of harms way.

As you can see by D.J.'s full extension, he held nothing back... and that sixteen pound sphere was sliding toward me at a high rate of speed.

No problem, of course... I'd like to think I'm a fairly nimble cat. I'll just roll over to the gutter quickly and being the outstanding bowler that D.J. is... he'll be right down the middle-ish and driving home another strike, right?

Wrong.

What the photographer failed to realize, is that unlike himself, who couldn't throw a hook to save his life, D.J. is actually a GOOD bowler and doesn't just throw a straight ball right down the middle like the owner of Stewart Photography does... and that ball indeed was gonna hook out towards the gutter I was rolling towards before curving back in.

Ruh roh.

Ball meet elbow.

Not gonna lie... it left a mark... and I felt pretty stupid. But, lesson learned... and the remainder of his frames that we shot... i deftly rolled to my RIGHT, instead of LEFT... and it was smooth sailin!

After saying goodbye to Roger and Totem... we went to D.J.'s home to get his drum set and piano knocked off... and while that was a challenge in tight quarters... we got some sweet stuff. Finally as we got back to the studio, I realized... dang... we're about 3 1/2 hours in and we have no "regular" stuff yet. So, after shooting his sweet Mustang, we did finally get some poses that could hang on the wall for the next 50 years. :)

There WAS one more item of business to take care of however...

The Green Bay Packers issue.

D.J. brought in his Aaron Rodgers #12 jersey... and he doesn't know it yet... but I held back.

Oh, I didn't pull any punches with what I shot or designed for our Packer-backer senior. His, green and gold collage is pretty sweet, if I may say so.

What I DIDN'T tell D.J.... or his mom... was who I rooted for.

:)

In order to avoid ridicule and public taunting and further embarrassment... I withheld the fact that I'm a HUGE Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Most of you are aware that the Packers defeated the Steelers 31-26 last February... so I decided, until now, to just fly under the radar on this topic... because when dude's got scoreboard.... dude's got scoreboard. And while it PAINED ME to have to add that "2010" to the list of 13 world titles the Packers have... no one can doubt my professionalism (or perhaps doing nearly ANYTHING for a buck). :)

So either they were aware I'm a fan of the team from the Steel City and were just gracious... or they weren't and I dodged the smack talk... either way, to the victor goes the spoils... I'm just glad my Packer Fanatic secretary Allie Wills, wasn't around in the morning to blow my cover.