Wednesday morning was no different.
One of the earliest seniors to book this year was none other than East Marshall's Nate Judge. His mom and I graduated together.... ummm... a couple of years ago... and evidently there was never a question as to where their session was gonna be.
With all that time to plan... surely nothing would trip them up, would it?
;)
Wednesday morning... 8:05 a.m... (so just a SMIDGE late... so I KNOW they've been scrambling a bit... in walks Nate, Mama Cari and Girlfriend Samantha.
We do our normal outfit "show-and-tell," and with another scorcher forecast on tap, I take one look at East Marshall's heavyweight wrestler and highly suggest that we get him in his jeans and long sleeve shirt and get THAT out of the way, ASAP.
Nate looks at Mom.... Mom looks at Nate... Mom says.... "it'll be alright... they're not THAT wet."
Wet?
Evidently the insane humidity that we've been experiencing didn't allow Nate's Rock Revival jeans to dry on the line from the night before and now i KNEW why Cari was still holding them in her hands.
"You'll be ok... you can just wear 'em.... It's not THAT big of a deal."
Except, I could tell... It was.
Rather than start off on a tension filled Mom vs. Son issue... I made an executive decision... Started in the shorts... and put our Black-and-Decker fan that we use to make girls' hair blow, directly on those damp jeans.
Crisis averted.
So, just like the day before with his football teammate, Josh Wilson... it was Operation Get The Outdoor Stuff Done Before We All Melt.
I had been worried about this one in particular in regards to the heat. We had two big guys trying to get this done. One, the photographer, usually looks like a train-wreck at the end of the session in heat like this... The other... didn't have the option of looking like that...
To my surprise... as I found myself squeegeeing sweat off my brow repeatedly... Nate kept saying, "I'm really not, too bad."
And you know what? He wasn't. No sweat... no perspiration coming thru the shirts. Dude was taking it all in stride.
It wasn't until I began to pull candids for his sports collage that I got it figured out. The big fella has dropped some serious poundage since last football season... and bottom line... he looked great.
The first hint of this came to me when Nate popped out his football jersey and something didn't seem right to me.
I asked, "why does that number just look wrong to me?... You haven't always been number forty-three have you?"
"Fifty-nine."
"Coach is moving me to tight end this year."
I've yet to meet Coach Farley, who's entering his first year of a rebuilding program at East Marshall. I've seen no less than six Mustang seniors in the last couple weeks... and to a man... they all have good things to say... and seem unified in their mission to get this thing turned around... and to do whatever it takes to regain respectability.
I asked Nate if there were any wins on the schedule this season.
"Yep."
How many?
"All of them."
That's buying in. And I like it.
Nate didn't plan on having an 0-9 season the year before... Nor did he plan on having an injury his junior season of wrestling... He didn't plan on the heat index getting to 110-degrees during his sesson... nor did he plan on his first outfit being derailed by humidity. But you know what? None of it phased him.
Why?
I couldn't tell you for sure... but if you take one look at the last image on this blog... You have all the answers you need.
Nate didn't plan on losing his best friend, either.
While I already let the cat out of the bag on this image a couple of nights ago, I would be remiss if I didn't give it the attention it's worthy of.
For the few that are taking the time to read this, that are not aware... We are just one week shy of the one year anniversary of the tragic loss of Nate's shoulder-to-shoulder teammate on the line... in the wrestling room... and in life... Mason Stephens.
The raw emotion that has spilled forth since that image was unveiled has told me one thing. It still hurts... East Marshall and our community still grieves... even a year later. This was to be Mason's senior year, too.
Nate wanted to honor his fallen friend with some ink on his right bicep, and despite his mother's understandable initial hesitancy, it was off to the state of Arkansas to get this done legally.
The cross adorned with a pair of angel's wings, Mason's initials and "Psalm 23:4" will now live on forever on Nate's arm... Naturally, he wouldn't let his senior session pass without letting his old buddy be a part of it.
My wheels started churning... and I immediately knew what I was gonna do.
We darkened the camera room... softened the strobes...
Click.
I glanced down at the back of my camera... felt the lump in my throat swelling... I looked up, voice quivering...
"Dude... that is really, really cool." my voice trailing off to almost a whisper.
I had to act like I was adjusting the settings on my main light behind my 4x6 softbox to keep everyone from seeing the tears in my eyes... But I have a feeling they knew, anyway... and that's ok... I'm on their team.
Sure... the session began with a couple hiccups... but after the life lessons this guy has learned this past year? You don't sweat the small stuff.
Literally, or figuratively.
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