Not good at all.
The night before the weather man had told me it would rain all morning. Mother of Molly, Amy Pieper, had talked to me the day before, as nervous moms will do, and we planned on getting the indoor images done FOR SURE... and then crossing the rescheduling bridge, if we had to on the outdoor portion.
Somehow, I hadn't put 2 and 2 together, but when Team Pieper walked in on the wet and gloomy day at 8 a.m... I instantly remembered.
I KNOW Molly's mom!
Turns out that Mrs. Pieper and I both worked under the same roof twenty years ago at the Marshalltown Times-Republican. Amy in the advertising/design department, while I was over in sports.
It was certainly a nice surprise to get to catch up with Amy. A lot happens in two decades time, so we hit the highlights on both sides of the fence... but one thing that hasn't changed is that Amy is still one of the nicest people you'll ever bump into. One thing I did learn was that there were two other Pieper offspring... and UNFORTUNATELY, the other two have ALREADY graduated.
Translation: they went somewhere ELSE for senior portraits.
While she didn't need to, Amy felt compelled to explain... and she said that they let each girl choose where they wanted to go... and honestly... it probably SHOULD be that way, anyway. And regardless, I got to catch up with a old friend on the third go-around.
Fortunately for me in the end, Molly chose Stewart Photography.
And that's where the NEW friend comes in.
I have little doubt that one of Molly's very best friends had a big hand in helping her make her final decision on where to go for senior pictures.
I was pleasantly surprised that along with Molly and her mother, a fellow BCLUW senior and now Stewart Photography "alum" Mackenzie Schleisman came in the door that Thursday morning. Probably against her folks' wishes, getting out of school to hang with her BFF for HER senior session became a priority for Miss Schleisman, and at least early on when Molly was trying to shake out the morning cobwebs... I wasn't so sure that Mackenzie wasn't MORE excited to be there than her buddy!
Mack made it clear that SHE was the driving force behind making this session happen, so I'll have to take her word for it that without her, I may have went 0-for-3 with the Pieper daughters!
Regardless, Molly & Co. were in the house... and just when we were starting to look ahead a bit at the schedule on when we might bring the gang back, a wonderful thing happened.
It stopped raining.
I was informed that Molly's 18th birthday would be the very next day, and just went my wheels were churning as to how cool it would be to start her session as a 17 year old and then finish it the next day with a new minted 18 year old... the skies dried up.
In the end, I think everyone was ok with that... although I'm not entirely sure that the girls didn't have a SMALL part of them that weren't at least a little bit intrigued with the idea of skipping school two days in a row! :)
So we were off and running and the session was so fun... a TON of outfits... a road trip... my entire life story... it was good times.
Mackenzie was razzing Molly about her smile being fake (take a look gang... it's a BIG smile... it's just one step short of showing as much teeth at Haddie Vawter... but toothy to be sure!) ;) How did Mack get her friend to bust out a genuine grin then? Well... I'm gonna find out next Saturday when I photograph the Schleisman family portraits, but evidently both girls are keenly aware of Mack's little sister Sydney being, well.... umm.... let just say she's an ornery eight-year old girl.
Those are my words.
Mack's words? "Mol... Think of what a bad kid my sister is."
Bingo.
A great smile every time.
Now why Mr. and Mrs. Schleisman may not appreciate their eldest daughter's approach, and perhaps my trumpeting it to the world wide web, either... sometimes you do whatcha gotta do!
Mack's help didn't end there.. as I received some creative guidance on the lead image of the blog here. Molly's trademark sweet kicks place in the shape of an "M" and the high angle approach was my idea... but the placement of Molly and her feet were indeed Miss Mackenzie's... so credit where credit is due. In addition, perhaps my favorite image can be found at the very bottom of this blog.
Being the senior picture veteran that she was, Molly's BFF stepped in one more time when I found the perfect set of stairs on our roadtrip to use for a pose that is similar to one that now hangs as a 16x20 at Mack's home.
I was trying, probably in pathetic fashion, to show Molly what it should look like... and of course, the gal that had already been through the process decided to step and and show her (and me) how it's done.
The result is the priceless image you see at the bottom here. I found an appropriate quotation to adorn the image with... and ironically... it's something that not only Mackenzie did by talking Molly into coming to me... and by helping her smile and pose... but it's something I try to do every day...
In a nutshell, if you are blessed with riches in any form... share them with others so that their best may be revealed to them as well. We would all be better served to never forget that.
Thanks Team Molly... it was an amazing day... and somehow, it felt like so much more than just senior pictures.
I hope you felt the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment