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.