Always chocked full of ideas that involve animals, sports, travel and a healthy dose of Iowa countryside flavor, there's never a dull moment from the minute Team Groth walks in the door.
With sister Lindsey (GMG-2010) and brother Austin (GMG-2012) already conquered, it was time for the 2014 Wolverine installment from the Groths, and it came in the form of country girl, Codi.
There was no doubt that she was Lindsey's sister as I kept having deja vu moments every time I looked through the view finder. Add in the fact that they, not surprisingly, had similar interests, I wasn't shocked at all when I was informed that horses were going to be a big part of our day.
Oh sure, Codi rocked the boots, jeans, little country dress and even found time to mix in a little GMG hoop action, but her passion laid in the same place her sister's did... with her horses.
Lindsey brought in three horses to photograph back in 2009, and if Codi would have had things her way, I would have been the same.
It hadn't been brought up prior to the point of arriving at the location several miles north of Toledo where the Groth horses are housed, but once there... Mama Lee let me in on a secret.
Codi's very first horse that she did all the work on... the training.... her beloved Shortie... went to horse heaven way too early. Last February 3, while the rest of the world was paying attention to the Baltimore Ravens defeating the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl, the Groths were at the vet in Ames hoping that Shortie could pull through.
Unfortunately, Shortie didn't.
Lee told me they still aren't sure what happened to Codi's horse, but she wondered if I couldn't take a few images of of her barreling horse and combine it with something we did of her current horses, Maggie and Wussie.
We were almost done with the horses and ready to head out when Lee looked at me and said... "hey... did you do that one thing yet?"
My heart jumped a bit because I realized that Lee had just bailed me out. I told her no... and then began crafting the image I had in mind.
I told Codi to not look at me... and just to lift her chin skyward. She looked at me funny and said... "what the HECK??!?"
The first image of this blog shows you the result. Codi holding her two horses, with images of Shortie up in the sky.
I love surprises!
I forgot to mention that our "escort" for the entire session was none other than Winchester the dog. Winchester was showtime in the camera room before we left for the horse portion of the session where the black pup guarded the area while we ran around and photographed the horses. What a great dog.
We had one more request to fulfill before the session was complete as Codi had wondered aloud if there were a fountain anywhere nearby that I could photograph her in.
Aside from finding a mall somewhere, there was only one I could think of (hey... we're hardly Kansas City around here) so we made our way there... and it was all guts and glory at that point for our Tama-Toledo Family Aquatic Center lifeguard.
I had no idea how deep the pond was that was home to the fountain... but Codi had no fear. She made her way out to the center... getting deeper all the way and finally... she got close to the jets and we were set.
It amazes me at the creativity or brazen willingness of my seniors that will do anything to try something I haven't seen after 20 years of shooting... and yet... there we were... in the middle of Marshalltown... cars buzzing by... and a senior girl submerged in a public pond.
My job rocks.
Even after well over 3000 seniors and 2 others from her own family, Codi was ecstatic about the unique images we created. Her tweet minutes after the session told me so. Without even seeing an image, Codi knew we had images that no one had ever done before, and to me... that's what it's all about.
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