As I've mentioned many times recently, I feel like we've made some serious inroads with the school district that our studio sits in in Tama County. It's been a tough nut to crack considering we're the only full time photography studio in the district, but sometimes persistence pays off... and I think this is one of those instances.
How does all of this have anything to do with photographing South Tama's Shelby Bradley's senior pictures?
Stay with me here.
A year ago... Shelby's older sister, Kendra, along with Stewart Photography alums Madison Baier and Kourtne Smith made a big push to Girls' Basketball Coach, Nate Roberts to get me to do their team pictures for the first time.
That ended up happening. As a result.. so did wrestling and basketball cheerleading... and girls track... Tack on another year of prom, and the 2011-12 school year was undoubtedly our best year at STC in studio history.
Coach Roberts stepped down at the end of last season, and my fear was that any progress that we made a year ago as a studio in Trojan Country might be short lived... but it didn't take long for my nerves to be calmed.
Why is this?
Sometime in mid-summer, I got a call from Shelby's mother, Michelle. Who, just so happens to be the varsity volleyball coach at STC.
See where this is going?
The fallout from that one basketball job was that we ended up getting volleyball this year, and after using a different studio last year, Coach Michelle and her senior setter decided to give their volleyball photographer a shot at doing Shelby's senior session as well.
#winning.
I had to wait 'till late October to finally get a shot at doing this session, and when the day came, it didn't look very promising. The forecast was for rain all morning... and it was pouring when the Bradleys pulled up. But just like our fortunes have turned around recently at STC, mother nature cooperated shortly after Shelby's session began.
Sure it was damp and chilly, but we had just the opening we needed... and like the gamers they are, the Bradleys took full advantage. After a senior season that was stymied with an ankle injury, Shelby has learned to make the best of less-than-perfect situations, and this would be no different.
She was the last person in the world I wanted to let down after insisting on our studio... and probably having a hand in getting us there for volleyball pictures, so we were busting it all over Tama and Marshall County to get just the right spots for each outfit. I was surprised to find a little fall color left here and there, and I knew we'd be killin' the urban stuff regardless. My biggest surprise of the day, however, came when Shelby asked to bust out her bow to get that hunting image for her father. Setter, hoopster... and deer slayer... This girl does it all. ;)
As we finished with Shelby's passion for sports, she did have one more request. It was just two days from the 18th birthday of one of her best friends. The only problem was, this best friend wasn't around to celebrate it... again. For you see, Shelby's friend Lisa Diane Darling was taken from us far too early in 2009. This community has seen far too much of this kind of heartache in recent times, and while I don't enjoy having to make these types of tributes because of the pain that I can still see in my client's eyes, I do try my best to bring honor to their memory in a way that all who knew them can appreciate, and remember what made that person special to those whose lives they touched.
The last image of this blog is Shelby's tribute to Lisa, and it's emblazoned with her initials... the slogan that her passing brought forth to her former teammates.. and the emotional lyrics to Alan Jackson's "Sissy's Song."
I didn't know Lisa personally. But I wish I did.
Thanks Team Bradley for all that you've done for my business this year. I could not appreciate it more.
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