I
I found the perfect remedy for a dark stormy Friday morning.
I half expected a panicked phone call from Chris Schildroth at about 6 or 7 a.m. before she and her daughter, Jenny, shoved off from Reinbeck. But evidently they KNEW they were gonna turn around the rainy morning with their mere presence.
Perhaps the fact that the ladies pulled up to the door in a sweet Hummer H3 shoulda been my first karma clue as to how this day was to turn a 180, but I still had much to watch unfold first.
Miss Schildroth hopped over puddles with an umbrella over her head on the way into the studio, but it didn't take long for our photographic fortunes to improve dramatically.
A quick peek at the radar and both Chris and I agreed, we were gonna get this session in for Jen, we just needed the last of the showers to pass.
In the meantime, I began my several-hours-long interrogation trying to get to the bottom of this Jenny character. I learned that she's pretty much locked into the idea of attending Buena Vista up in Storm Lake next fall. While that wasn't the "correct" answer (either Central College in Pella... or the University of Iowa are acceptable responses), I did admit that BV was my second choice back in the day... and as a consolation, the Schildroth's told me that sister Jill is currently attending college at Central. So we had that at least. :)
At the end of the indoor portion of Jenny's first outfit... I took a another glance at the radar, this time using the extremely accurate look-out-the-back-door-to-see-if-it's-still-pouring Bryan Mega Doppler and I felt like it was worth giving it a shot.
While we got dripped on for that first outfit... it didn't take long for Jenny to flash that perfect smile and like clockwork the clouds were chased away. So we got a little of the best of both worlds... super soft overcast morning light, followed by the brilliance of dramatic sunshine.
Either way... I noticed this future business/marketing major, once she got comfortable... had anything but an all-business approach.
Several times during the session, usually with Mama Chris at close range holding a reflector, Jenny was TRYING to do her best to pull off a serious pose... but without fail, she could just FEEL her mom's presence there (and undoubtedly a goofy stare) and inevitably... the BOTH of them would bust out laughing.
Hence the couple of black-n-white images you see in this blog.
I had been told that Jenny was convinced to try Stewart Photography by first cousin and photographer favorite from the class of 2013, Paige Kromas. The to-that-point quiet and somewhat reserved senior we had in Jenny, had suddenly turned into a laughing, joking, sarcastic ball of unbridaled fun. It was at THAT juncture it all made sense to me. Lord help the attendees at THOSE family get-togethers!
So, we danced through the sunshine and giggles the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon (despite some BRISK wind that nearly destroyed our gobo umbrella creating some comical adventures between Chris and I trying to get Jenny shaded on the haybale shot below. Dang, after that fiasco, I think the Schildroth's should be REQUIRED to purchase that image!) :)
A couple of images that I'm quite certain that will be part of Team Schildroth's order capped off our day.
Jenny's time this summer gets spent primarily as a lifeguard at the Reinbeck pool. But when she's not doing that, there's a decent chance she's focused on volleyball. A gal that's spent alot of time over the years playing club ball, the Gladbrook-Reinbeck senior leader had a couple of requests for me. Instead of one of our trademark sports collages, Miss Schildroth opted for a different route.
One was a showcase of all her club jerseys in an old school Me-And-All-My-Stuff approach... but the second one is where it got fun.
In yet another chapter of what has already become the Summer of Pinterest Requests, Jenny was gonna take her shot at pulling off something she had spied on the social network craze.
She wasn't sure she could pull it off... but was willing to try.
The idea was to do a pushup of sorts... but instead of planking with her hands on the ground... her palms would be planted on a couple of volleyballs.
While I was dumping digital files after outfit four, evidently Jen was in the back in the cameraroom practicing this feat just to see if she had any prayer of executing it. I emerged from the work area to her telling me that she MIGHT be able to do the modified pushup on her knees... but doing the full thing probably wasn't gonna happen.
I told her that maybe we cold use some Photoshop magic to make it work... so we went with that approach -- Just shoot a couple images... then combine them for the desired effect.
Then somehow, like the theme of the whole day... Jenny turned another 180 and mustered up the strength to do the pose for real. (Granted it wasn't for real LONG... but nevertheless, the girl showed some serious suck-it-up and get-it-done!)
The result was awesome.
What's also awesome is the fact that Jenny is currently with a group of students from her church down in Kentucky helping the less fortunate. It's something that she's done at least once a year for several years recently, and I applaud her for her volunteerism and compassion. She left the day after her session with us, and I'm not sure she's got internet where she's at... but whenever she does get the chance to read this, I just wanted to let her know that I was highly impressed and felt fortunate to get to know her and her mom a little better on that day.
Thanks for all the smiles, Team Schildroth. :D
No comments:
Post a Comment