If you're always giving 100 percent... how do you give more?
You dig deeper.
And if you're already pushed so far that you're standing at the ledge, what's next?
You jump.
And when one of your very best friends brings their last baby to you for senior pictures after you've both watched them grow up in the community we call home... how does one possibly find a way to make images that do that friendship justice?
You reinvent the wheel.
I don't think anyone will argue that I make great sacrifices in time, commitment and dedication to all my clients. Which then puts me in a tough spot then when someone very special to me is standing on deck. Sure they don't expect to be treated any differently than any of my other clients. They KNOW I'm gonna do all I can for them.
So where does the pressure to go past 100 percent come from then?
From within.
To sit here and say that I hadn't circled the date on the calendar where Miss Abigail Nuese was scheduled would be a flat out lie... and anyone that knows me is aware that I'll just tell ya how it is... so this blog won't be any different.
The session had to better than our daily-dose-of-crazy-good... and I told my good friend and mother-of-our-subject, Tracy, that from the beginning of this senior season I was pressuring MYSELF to make images that I felt were worthy of this young lady.
I was reassured that they had no worries, but the perfectionist in me wanted more.
So when the session rolled around a week and a half ago... it was time to roll up our sleeves and take a country girl into the city.
The Capitol City.
I had never photographed a senior session there, and despite perhaps the hottest couple of days in a summer that's seen more than it's fair share of sizzle, Tracy, Abby and sister Amanda were off to Des Moines to master the metro.
There are so many little stories about this session that I could author here. From laying flat on my stomach in the middle of 7th street in downtown Des Moines, to trespassing in a water fountain at West Glen to trying to spell out "Abby" with LED lights at 12:30 a.m. behind the Target store by Jordan Creek... the session was an adventure to be sure.
Overboard? No doubt about that. But that's what you do for friends.
Truth is, I owed the girl.
What the public sees is a brash, ultra competitive ball player that, on occasion, lets her emotions get the best of her. We've all been there. And anyone who's been to an East Marshall basketball game and heard the unmistakable high pitched "Come ON!!!" from Abby's mom come reigning down from the top row of the bleachers... or have seen mild mannered former EM head coach Bob Berggren trying to keep his longtime assistant (also known as Abby's dad) from getting more technical fouls in one game than he collected in a 35+ year CAREER... you're not surprised as to where she gets it from.
That being said. Anyone that's taken the time to actually get to know the girl, knows she's someone very different off the court, than on.
What you DON'T see... is a girl that never hesitates to step up and take nursery duty at our little church in Ferguson when the scheduled worker couldn't fill the spot.
What you DON'T see... is a girl that without being prompted a couple years back... saw I was without help while trying to photograph the EM track team... and was struggling to juggle the shooting and the paperwork and questions from the "really-cool-and-different-all-for-a-$5 button" crowd all by myself... and stepped in to help despite not really knowing what to do. She just did it... because it was the right thing to do.
What you DON'T see is a girl that is actually very humble, and is probably extremely embarrassed by everything I'm writing here.
But that's ok... and here's why.
We all learned a very difficult lesson last week.
Life is short.
Near the end of Abby's Amazing Adventure... she was in changing clothes, and, not surprisingly... I was checking my Blackberry.
The girls came back out...
"Guys... I can't be for sure... but I think something very bad has happened to Mason Stephens."
In a community this small, we all know each other... probably better than we should, really. So when a tragedy like what happened to Team Stephens hits like it did that Monday morning, each and every one of us felt like we had just taken a kick to the stomach.
Suddenly senior pictures, and workload, and everything else that seemed to be more important than anything else in the world... was no longer relevant.
We tried to maintain our focus, but it wasn't the same. Both the Nueses and the Stewarts, just like the Stephens family, have three wonderful children. I cannot fathom the idea of waking up tomorrow with one of the three gone.
What we learned was, to be more kind to one another... live every day that God gives you as if it may be your last, and never hesitate to tell someone that you love them.
All the extra effort is my gift to you, my friends. I adore you guys for being there for me... Always having my back... and most of all... for being my friend... in good times and in bad.
<3 Bryan
No comments:
Post a Comment