It ended up being a good thing I asked...
A couple weeks back when I was photographing Taylor Wanatee's BFF, Katie... it came up.
The pair of East Marshall friends were looking forward to hittin' up Florida Georgia Line's show at the Iowa State Fair.
Awesome, I thought. Jealous, I also thought.
But in the next sentence, Miss Bestie Brafford also dropped in this tidbit: The show was the same day as Taylor's senior session!
What an epic day that was gonna be, for sure, but then I asked Katie...
"Do you know what slot Taylor is in? 8 a.m. or 1 p.m.?"
She didn't know the answer. So I checked. 1 p.m. it was.
That was a problem.
Those of you that know Stewart Photography, know that five outfit senior girl sessions combined with location work don't get done in a couple hours.
It's more like half a day.
I quickly told Katie to give her friend a heads up and it wasn't 20 minutes later and I got the facebook message from Taylor...
8 a.m. will be just fine.
So a morning session it was, and the Ultimate Day To Remember was still intact for Miss Wanatee.
She must have been excited because even though she accidentally set her alarm for 8 a.m., she woke up on her own at 6 a.m. and Team Wanatee including Mama Lisa, Sister Genesis and BFF Katie were all ready to attack the day on time.
The first challenge Taylor gave me (there were a plenty... this girl had done her homework) was a trip to the ever-transforming East Marshall football field. Workers there are feverishly trying to get the area prepped for football season as the work on the new track is rounding into form. We stayed out of the workers' way, by staying up in the grandstand and behind the pressbox. I don't think they minded the cheerleader-launching sideshow to spice up their morning anyway.
Taylor wanted to toss in a cameo appearance at the EM wrestling room as she's cheering for both sports. Once that was in the bag... we were off to the studio.
Perhaps the most challenging assignment was to get Taylor's requested sparkler image executed. Once again, Pinterest struck a senior's imagination. It was some work with Lisa and Katie playing big roles in helping us achieve this picture in the pitch black studio... but in the end... I like our version better.
Taylor's mom threw her hat in the ring with requests as well, asking that we superimpose an candid of little wee Taylor in a princess dress that they purchased at Disney World way back in the day. She admitted they could barely afford the dress back then, but there was no way her father was going to let his baby girl not have it. The girls found a big girl gown that was similar to the one that was bought in Orlando all those years ago. Put the magic wand in her hand... and you see the result. After a tough year that included a leukemia diagnosis, Mama Lisa will hopefully enjoy that trip down memory lane.
The day was filled with a myriad of expressions from our firecracker of a senior subject (the girl has spunk for sure!), but in this case, she saved the best for last.
In a total Taylor move, she had planned from the beginning to pull a twist on the "Trash the Dress" phenomenon that has become in vogue recently. Only in Taylor's case... it was Trash the Jean Shorts and T.
We got our commiserate amount of "regular" images and then it was on. With Katie tossing her clumps of dirt and mud, the self-inflicted mud smear was on... and she pulled no punches. No doubt about it... she was a bona fide mud monster. There's a hilarious series of images that you'll have to hit up Taylor to see her proof book... but I chose the dichotomy of her adorable smile bursting through all that mess she made.
It was mid afternoon, and only a few short hours before the girls were to be down to the fairgrounds in Des Moines to watch Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelly belt out their new smash hit, "Dirt."
A fitting capper on a whirlwind of a day. But just like FGL says... This is how we roll.
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