Stereotyping? For sure. There's clearly exceptions both ways. Girls that actually dread it... guys that cannot get enough.
Clay Geiter could not get enough.
It makes me smile looking back now at Clay's session and the original booking when Mama Kari THOUGHT she was gonna be able to get by with our three outfit basic session. He's "just" a guy, right?
WRONG.
Most guys when I ask them if there's anything special they are wanting for their session, they'll just shrug and say, "naahh." Instead, leaving the explaining part to mom. Or... at MOST, we'll find out that their MIGHT be one thing they care a little about... their car... their sports... their dog.
Mr. Geiter, on the other hand... had a list. A LONG list.
With no fewer than 25 "have-to's" on this half sheet of paper, Clay had it broken down by the outfit... what the location was... and the type of pose in some cases.
Dude wasn't messin' around!
So my marching orders were... well... in order... and Clay and I were off to try to and knock 'em all off.
Starting off at the studio was VERY interesting as you know how it is when someone talks and the sound that comes out doesn't match what you THINK it's gonna be? Well... maybe I'm the only one, but he began to talk and I couldn't help but think... Scotty McCreary.
Maybe, it's the fact I KNEW he was a country boy... maybe it was more stereotyping on my part... but that deep slow draw kept me entertained the entire day.
We jumped into the camera room and I, having some prior knowledge, thought I would surprise Mr. Geiter. He had his suit on... and I used the moment to secretly drop in a line that I KNEW he liked to use. In fact, I'm pretty sure he came up with it and uses it regularly.
You'll have to ask HIM what it is, but what I can say is that it's a useful line to describe how hot it is... and it has something to do with how warm people can be in airports... So... I casually mentioned this line in reference to how hot Clay must have felt while wearing his three-piece suit.
*silence*
I peered around from behind the softbox where I was adjusting a strobe and Clay was looking at me astonished.
I smiled. "Your assistant baseball coach told me about that one."
He's been mentioned at least one other time in the spaces of this crazy blog this senior season... and once again, friend of Stewart Photography, Grundy Center assistant coach, and my partner in #twittercrime, Taylor Johnson, had given me the down-low.
Clay was SOOO relieved. After realizing that I was merely stealing his zinger one liner and not merely reciting a old phrase that everyone uses, he said, "I was gonna SAY! I thought I came up with THAT one!"
It didn't take Clay long to figure out that he was dealing with someone just as ornery as he was. ;)
So we banged out the suit and then his snowmobile gear and tenor drums... and then it was time to head to the stompin' grounds.
Grundy Center.
Clay has aspirations of one day playing in the Iowa State University drum line... so I knew it was important to him. That meant a trip to the football field where the Spartans do work on Friday nights. After an hour there, we suddenly realized that it was no longer summer... the days were getting much shorter.. and our collective backs were up against the wall as we had maybe an hour and a half left before the sun was to set... and Clay's LIST was not NEARLY completed.
So we were off on gravel then to the Geiter farmstead where I finally got to meet Mama Kari. She let the boys keep doin' their thang however as she knew we were pressed for time... so we were hittin' every barn, shed, outbuilding, grain bin, and tree stand and if that wasn't enough... we had to shoot his Chevy pickup from multiple angles.
After our last shot of the truck... and then his bow and tree stand... it was after 7 p.m.... and the sun had set at 6:50 p.m. I asked if he had gotten all he wanted because the light was nearly gone.
His Spartan spirit wasn't quite ready to call it a day, however, and he asked... "can we still make it to the farm equipment?"
His dad was in the middle of harvest, and we had really ran out of time... but I figured... well... we can give it a shot. So we both jumped into our vehicles and tore out of there.
What I didn't know was that the combine was at minimum five mile away on gravel... but I followed anyway... and drove out into the field... and there it was... Big Green Tractor... combine... semi... all resting from a long day of harvest. The images probably don't accurately show how DARK it really was at that point (thank you very much Nikon D3 sensor!), but I knew Clay would have always regretted it if we didn't get those images.
With those shots in our hip pocket, the list was finally exhausted, and not surprisingly... I was too. The long trip back to Montour in the dark left me smiling because I knew I made another client's day memorable... and that's what it's all about.
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