Time for a little R & R...

Okay... perhaps that lead is ironic, or at the very least, maybe a bit misleading.

R & R normally suggests it's time to chill and treat oneself to rest and relaxation.   As our senior season Version 2015  is just ramping up, that's really the last thing that's on our mind.  Naturally then, the headline must mean something else, right?

Bingo.

East Marshall's Ryan Roberts has the market cornered on the R's in this case, and he got this year's male side of our always well represented Mustang contingent started.

After photographing a 6-foot-1 young lady in the previous session, we followed it up with arguably the tallest fella at East Marshall.  Standing at all of 6-3, Ryan and Mama Crystal made their entrance with orange authority Thursday morning.

Orange authority?

A quick glance at Ryan's images can tell even the casual observer what color is his favorite.   And not just orange... but BRIGHT orange.  Even mom got into the act, because her t-shirt was orange, too!   I asked her if we we're doing mother/son images.   I got the death stare.  :)

East Marshall's school colors don't include orange... but no matter... Mr. Roberts dons Air Jordan's that are are more vivid than a hunting vest to take care of that.

Hey... the dude, digs the color.  Go big or go home, right?

So, I plowed through nearly every background I could think of that complimented orange... We even took advantage of Montour's orange brick post office to add to the hue of the day theme.

What I knew about Ryan coming in was that he was the younger brother to sister, Danielle, who dazzled us a couple years back.   I also got very familiar watching Ryan's long floor game last winter as my freshman son was Ryan's primary backup at the 5 spot on Coach Bauder's East Marshall JV basketball team.

It should come as no surprise then that Ryan, Crystal and I spent a great deal of time talking Mustang athletics.  (I know... shocker).   But aside from that, I learned a few new things about Mr. Roberts.

Ryan works for Roger Vajgrt at Home Rental Center in Marshalltown, and is also logging hours as a host at Marshalltown's Neighborhood Bar and Grill... yep, you guessed it... Applebees.  He tells me he really loves both jobs.  :)

His future plans were to "get out of the house," which garnered a chuckle from his mom... but more accurately, Ryan told me he'd like to go to culinary school eventually.

A guy that can cook?   Sounds like a keeper, ladies!

Aside from future plans, Ryan enjoys playing pickup hoops and more recently has developed a knack for Frisbee golf.   When he's not getting attacked by a flock of angry birds, he's actually pretty tough at the sport.

Overall, it was a great morning.   We even broke into the school (ok.. we got the key from Coach Wheater) so we could do lockeroom images.  The annual resurfacing of the gym floor kept us off the court, but no matter... no one does sports images like we do... and Ryan's collage sets the bar high right out of the gate this year.

Thanks Team Roberts... great to see you again.

Addie Adds Up...

Adelaide Wilkinson is a gal to be looked up to.

Both figuratively and literally.

The West Marshall senior grabbed my attention on many level from the moment she walked in the door yesterday.

I had spied her on the front of the Marshalltown Times-Republican last week as she was a finalist for the annual State Center Rose Queen competition.  A quick glance at the picture told me one thing for sure... even though I had never met the young lady...

Miss Wilkinson was TALL.

Seemingly a good half foot taller than the rest of her queen candidate co-horts, Addie was hard to miss.   She told me that she was every bit of 6-foot-1 and while my license says that I'm also 6-1... I'm gonna hafta go with the idea that I'm continuing to shrink in my advancing years, because there was no doubt that my guest of honor was taller than I.

More importantly than her physical stature, I quickly learned more about Addie as the session continued.

When I asked her (other than the just completed Rose Festival) what her highlight to the summer was going to be, she didn't even hesitate.   As a member of the Marshalltown First Presbyterian Church, she's leaving in a month's time to take a mission trip.  South Dakota is the destination, and from the sounds of it, she and her group will be helping an Indian tribe in those parts.

Furthermore, when I probed about future education plans, it was clear, at least at this point, Addie is planning on making the state's regents happy as she will attend Iowa State a year from now to study kinesiology, with eventual post graduate studies at the University of Iowa.   Sounds like an awesome plan to me... but I pressed on...

"What do you want to do with that when you're all done, Addie?"

Her answer?   Hopefully team up with doctors in Africa to help the less fortunate there.

That gets a wow from this guy.

I shouldn't have been surprised as the pieces were all quickly coming together.   A gal with a heart as big as she was tall, Addie's twitter account speaks to her life mission when she quotes scripture from Philippians 2:3...

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves."

Very cool.

Sure, I only spent a few hours with Addie (and her Diet Mountain Dew spilling side-kick Esperanza... sorry, Espie... you knew I HAD to!), but it was clear to me that she had her compass pointed in the right direction, which made her seem even taller to me.

With the whirlwind that was the Rose Festival, Adelaide barely had time to regroup and prepare for her senior session just a couple of days after the festivities died down, but it was clear that, like most things, Addie took it all in stride.  Confident, conversational, unassuming, yet humble (did I mention she was having a great hair day, too?), Miss Wilkinson got our busy week off to a great start.

Commiting early...

 In the world of college athletic recruiting it's not uncommon to hear of prized players making their "verbal commitment" to a university before their senior year of high school.  Sometimes as a junior... sometimes as a sophomore even. 

It's not unheard of for colleges to start the recruiting process even as early as junior high.

While this isn't athletics, this one made her promise early on.

Very early on.

Like 5th Grade kinda early.

I had photographed Alexa and her brother a couple of times when they were young, and then suddenly, they started showing up on a rival's website.

While I've never been one to actively "recruit" or pressure clients one way or another, I couldn't help but be at least a little concerned.  I bumped into Alexa's folks all the time as she's my daughter's age... and her brother is in my oldest son's class at the same school.

Then came the explanation.

A business relationship with this rival afforded them a deal at the other studio that they couldn't refuse, but Alexa's mother, Megan assured me that her daughter had already made up her mind where she was going for senior pictures.

In fifth grade.  :)

I laughed and said I understood.   I appreciated the sentiments and figured a lot could change in six or seven years time.

Evidently her "verbal commitment" never wavered.

The photographic equivalent of signing her national letter of intent came a few months ago when Mama Megan called and took us up on our early bird special, and game day finally arrived this past Monday.

With all the competition that's out there nowadays, I certainly have a soft spot in my heart for Miss Alexa and her little girl dreams that turned into young lady realities this last week.

It wasn't without some anxious moments leading up to the event however.  I had just returned from my families' vacation a couple weeks back and I ran into Megan at the post office.

"Alexa has some ideas... but what about the REST of the images?  Do you just come up with those for us?"

I assured Megan that we would undoubtedly fill Alexa's preview book with so many images it would make her head spin... and in the end... I had much bigger problems than trying to make Alexa Boliver look good.

Monday rolled around and it didn't take long to figure out that Miss Alexa had very likely spent the lion's share of the last six years making plans for what she wanted out of this day.  Ok... maybe it was just the last year scouring over ideas on Pinterest... but you catch my drift.

Truth is, I valued her "homework" and it's always a fun challenge to take a senior's idea or vision and make it come to life for them.

The highlight of the day for Team Alexa (which included Megan, stepmom Nicki (also known as the Hair Czar) and I) was when Uncle Wade jumped into the fray by providing some elevation assistance for us.   We had just been out to Lake Wolken-Upah (also knows as the Quarry Lake just east of Ferguson) to capture some adorable water images on their pontoon and surrounding areas.  We even had to mix in an image with Grandpa Dan's combine.

But that's when the real fun began.

Alexa had a hope to get a shot in her East Marshall Cheerleading uniform on the field in LeGrand.  Normally not a big deal, and it's been done several times before... but we had a couple hurdles to clear.

Hurdle No. 1:  As many of you know the EM football complex is a little tore up right now as Construct, Inc. is turning over some serious dirt there in preparation of installing a new track.

Hurdle No. 2:  Miss Boliver wanted to be sitting UP ON THE GOALPOST.

Never fear... Uncle Wade (with a little help from little brother Blake) to the rescue.  Wade buzzed into LeGrand with a couple ladders to help get our fair maiden hoisted up on the crossbar.   Clinging to the upright for dear life with a look of near death on her face, Megan reminded her daughter that "this is what she wanted!"

Suddenly, it seemed Alexa wasn't so sure.

The crossbar sagged six-inches to a foot towards the back end of the endzone and even MY heart was racing a bit as I had visions of the entire structure crashing down. 

Alas, the images were captured and our Mustang Cheerleader was safely returned to ground level.

All that was left were a few images that highlighted her supercute red boots and a shot to show off her obsession with peacocks and the next thing you know... it seven hours had passed.

Seven years of preparation packed into seven hours of a whirlwind day full of laughs and memories.   Hopefully we made some new ones that she'll never forget.  Here's the payoff for your early commitment to my studio, Alexa.  Thanks so much for your choice. :)

Talbert Trifecta...

I've been able to set my watch to it for the past half decade.

June rolls around... senior season kicks off... and there's a Talbert brother to photograph almost right out of the gate.

Four years ago it was Andrew.   Two years ago it was Daniel.   And with the exception of the photographer's daughter, this year's first paying client was James Talbert.

There was a bit of a twist this year, as Mama Beth, who accompanied the older two brothers to their sessions was busy with work.

Fittingly as I post this on Father's Day, I got to meet and know Papa Alan Talbert this go around.  I told Alan how rare it is for me to have dad instead of mom as my right hand assistant for a few hours.  Don't kid yourself... I'm not particular... I don't mind which one I see, as long as I have an extra set of hands, I'm good.

So, there we were... three dudes marching all over the place to get James a little different look than his predecessors.   While he admitted that his own unique look was important to him, the true unique images REALLY began when we got back to the studio.

I've mentioned many times that senior guys almost always bring in ONE thing that they're really passionate about.  We see it all.  Sports, Music, Cars, Pets, Guns, Fishin' Poles, Four-wheelers and occasionally female friends.

In this case?   Computers.

Specifically... computer CODE in this case.

A future computer engineer, sometimes I feel like I'm in the presence of a senior that happens to be way smarter than me... and this was one of those times.

Just 16 years of age and now taking most of his classes at Iowa State University, James is a computer wiz with a real passion for writing Java Script code and other computer related activities.  It was my job then to create some unique images for young Mr. Talbert with his laptop and out of the box brain.

Once we were done with our budding mad scientist images (ok... maybe I was the one that requested the evil look in the first image with the green matrix feel to it), I knew we had my favorite stuff from the session in our hip pocket.  Sure, we had shirt and tie images left to do, but it was nearly all over at that point.

Or was it?

Perhaps the best part of the morning from my perspective was when the fellas were on their way out the door, and Alan, who had just probably finished his first and last voyage at Stewart Photography turned to me and said, "thanks, that was fun!"

Pretty cool coming from a Dad.

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there.

My Little Girl

We have lots of sessions at Stewart Photography...

The Entry.
The Basic.
The Supreme.
The Sportster.
The Ultimate.
The Elite
The Rockstar.

Each progressively BIGGER and perhaps BETTER as each family decides which is the best fit for them.

But I've found out this past week, a new category has been created.   After 20 years and well over 3500 senior sessions, somehow THIS one HAD to be different.   And once it was created and used once... it would be officially retired...

The Photographer's Only Daughter Session.

You'll have to forgive me as I've spent the large part of this evening crying my eyes out just thinking about writing this.   We've been back from the worst kept secret trip to Florida for the session to end all sessions for almost a week now.   And while I've been painstakingly working over the images nearly non-stop since, I feel like I've been dragging my feet a little somehow.

In denial... trying to hold back time... I was told this would happen.  And yet, when it hits you that it's here, it's still hard to believe.

I vividly remember photographing current East Marshall Baseball Coach, Justin Frost's senior session in 1997, just month after my daughter was born.  I was carrying her around in a baby carrier.   Mama Ann Frost told me.... "Don't blink... you'll be doing her seniors pictures before you know it."

Pffffff.   Whatever, I thought.   Class of 2015?   I'm only worried about the Class of 1998... and whether the '98 Cubs playoff team might FINALLY make the World Series!

Seventeen years have passed.   And while I'm still waiting on the Cubs to make a World Series in my lifetime, my only little girl, Breanna May, has grown up before my eyes.

A beautiful, confident and talented young lady that nearly everyone agrees is a spitting image of her stunningly gorgeous mother (see what I did there?, I could deny it no longer... it was time to plan Bre's senior images.

I knew they had to be something different, but for the most part, I just stayed out of the way... handed over my credit card and told my wife and my daughter to just tell me when and where.

The "when" was right out of the gate with the Class of 2015, and the where was beautiful St. Pete's Beach in sunny Florida.

Make no mistake... I stressed out plenty worrying about trying to supercede some of the things that I already thought (if I may say so myself) were pretty amazing.

How are we gonna get everything there?

Will I remember to take all I need?

How will I know where to go in Tampa/St. Pete?

What if the weather doesn't cooperate?

Those that know me are aware that I put a great deal of pressure on myself on EVERY session we photograph, but THIS one?

I worried for weeks.

I'd be lying if I said I found a way to truly relax on our trip to the Sunshine State.   I didn't want to disappoint the apple of my eye...

In the end.,  I had a pretty girl, plenty of blue skies, white sand, palm trees and scenery that one just doesn't see around these parts.   Pretty tough to screw that up, huh?

Nevertheless, I wanted to make her session all that she ever wanted and more.   Our third day in Florida was Breanna's 17th birthday (I did my fatherly duty and embarrassed her thoroughly by standing and making all the patrons join me in singing Happy Birthday at a Mexican Restaurant on Gulf Boulevard)

Like most vacations, it was over far too quickly... and just like Mrs. Frost warned me, so was Breanna's time under our roof.   Sure... she's got her whole senior year ahead of her, but I as I author this just one hour from my wife and I's 20th wedding anniversary, I think most parents that have been through what I'm experiencing for the first time can relate... it really does go too fast.

Far too fast.

I'm so proud of who you are Breanna May.   I hope you enjoy your images and how we created them together with our family.  

I love you.

~ Your Dad.