These are a few of my favorite things...

Call it a broken record if you will... I call it a blessing.

I've made many jokes this senior season about the amount of red-headed seniors we've had (nearly 15 times the national average).   And you'll never hear me complain about photographing seniors that are sports minded and willing to talk about it.  Especially if they are Hawkeye fans!

Get all of those attributes in one session?  While most would call it work... I call it playtime, and at the very least, and easy conversation starter!

South Tama's Tristan Beyer was the next in the never ending line of red-heads in this senior class v.2014.  (just a hint... he's not the last... so stay tuned!)   In addition, he and I talked plenty of STC pigskin and , not surprisingly, our beloved Hawkeyes were discussed like it was our job.

The funny thing is that on the surface, I wasn't ready to add Mr. Beyer on the massive ginger pile that we've seen this summer and fall... And that's when he opened the label... self-inflicted.

I kinda just thought he was brown haired... Maybe strawberry-blonde at most?

But no.

I asked our senior if he had any nicknames.

He looked down... chuckled a bit... the let it out... somewhat relunctantly.

"Tringer"

Come again?

"Tringer.... Like Tristan and ginger mixed together?"

Dude... I wasn't even gonna throw you in with hair-on-fire seniors like East Marshall's Drew Schossow or classmate Brittany Selvog, or even Marshalltown swimming sensation, Leah Barkema.   But if you're gonna add yourself to the 2014 Year of Red... who am I to stop this carrot top train?

So the running of the ginger gauntlet continued.   And while he might have been slightly more accepting to his STC given nickname than Mama Sarah was, either way it mattered little to me.   We had our laughs... and mixed in plenty of prep football discussion as well as talk about our Hawks and our bowl chances.

This fun-lovin' fella just seemed to be hitting his stride when the session was about to end.   Tristan was showtimin' and flexin' and I have a feeling that if we had another outfit or two, some international laws might have been broken.

Perhaps it was a good thing that things ended when they did.  In the meantime, I hope Tring... err.... Tristan and Mama Sarah got what they came for.

Thanks so much Team Beyer.