I had had enough experience with this crew to know that this was gonna be fun.
Chad and Diane Miller had sent me the first of two children as part of the epic BCLUW Class of 2012 a couple years back. The whirlwind that was Abby Miller set in place a new friendship with yet another Conrad family that came full circle Monday.
It was child number two's turn. Brother Mitch was on deck, warmed up and ready to take his hacks.
The Miller's were back for the back end of the doubleheader and after seemingly bumping into them around every corner the past couple of years I had a pretty good idea of what to expect.
But just in case I wasn't... I got a last minute surprise.
At my desk Sunday night, burning down yet another 18 hour day that becomes par for the course this time of year.... I get a text... from a number I didn't recognize.
It didn't take me long to figure out it was Diane "Rockstar" Miller. They had just returned from a little vacay in the Ozarks and were scrambling a bit and were trying to nail down how we were to handle her son's Kawasaki. Do they bring it to the studio? Do I come there?
We settled in on having it brought here... but it was just the start of what would be a crazy fun day.
Sister Abby was back for an encore that would include her rocking the reflector and grey card as well as making sure Mitch's smile wasn't fake.
We photographed that motorcycle no less than thirty ways right out of the gate, and after that... it was Mama's turn.
Diane had mentioned that she really liked alot of the urban streets and alley type looks we had done on a much hotter (like we're talking surface of the sun kinda hot) day three years ago with sis's session. She wondered if we could do that again... and naturally we hit the streets.
The kids are gonna kill me for this, but I swear to you it was one of the all time priceless moments in my career.
I was just making sure as a point of reference when I asked if Mitch was indeed the baby of the family while we were setting up for a shot over on 3rd Avenue in Tama. Diane had confirmed that, indeed I was looking at all of her children in front of me.
I then thought I'd bring up that my wife and I, too, had a daughter... and then a son a couple years later. And when my son was born, I thought things were just right. However, my wife had other ideas... so we had a third.
And THAT's when her kids WISH the convo had ended.
I won't repeat exactly what was said... but let's just say that Mitch's mother said that she too wanted to maybe have a third... but the reason it didn't happen was that Papa Chad didn't do something to her that is a slang phrase for a woman being made pregnant.
The delicious brutal honesty sent Abby in a series of OMG's and poor Mitch could only look down at the ground... face as red as the bricks next to him. The vision in front of me of the kids wanting to crawl into a hole was priceless. I can't lie... i was bent over at my waist laughing. Granted the Miller kids didn't find it quite so funny... and I'm guessing they didn't appreciate the vision that was put in their minds against their will.
I thought it was classic.
That kinda fun just cannot be had without clients being comfortable with you... and vice versa. Thanks for the rib cage aching laughter, Diane. :)
We bounced all over Tama/Toledo before returning to get Diane just a "tree shots" so it wasn't all hardened streets.
But the Diane Drama wasn't over yet.
Not that it was necessarily her fault (maybe Mitch coulda helped pack... senior boy? ok, nevermind it was mom's fault), but we were heading down the home stretch with just sports and Mitch's water ski looks left on the docket when a problem popped up.
Mitch's swim trunks had been forgotten.
And just like she was shot out of a gun, Diane made was she called a "refreshing" little hour round trip to Conrad and back to fetch the forgotten garment.
The spare time allowed Mitch and I to talk shop. Ok... we talked sports... let's be real. The Comet quarterback is looking forward to the season getting underway with a new coach up that way. We also touched base on his just finished baseball season where he roamed the middle infield at the shortstop position for BCLUW. Throw in a little South Hardin/BCLUW wrestling talk and the hour passed pretty quickly before Mom returned for the finale'.
It was a great day... I'm only sad that there aren't more Miller kids so the crazy hijinks could keep on coming. If only dad would have cooperated. :)
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