I've often joked with senior guys and their folks that if I can get them, on the way home from their session to admit that what they just went through wasn't so bad... I've done my job.
The point being... that most guys aren't exactly looking forward to this thing we call senior pictures. There are exceptions of course. But most dudes float somewhere in between a luke-warm indifference to Mom-Is-Making-Me-Do-This.
But in THIS case, the Wray family from Grinnell was not just thankful that they got their son here... and that he smiled... and that he just may have had a good time in the process... but they were thankful for another reason.
No growling.
Evidently, as I learned early on in the session from Matthew Wray's bean spillers (also known as sister Molly and mama Sara), Mr. Wray used to love having his picture taken so much... that he would growl at the photographer.
Let it be known that Matt Wray was as nice of a guy as one could possibly meet.... polite... conversational... engaging. It's not often that you'd find a 17 or 18 year old guy willing to include his baby niece as part of his senior session, but that's just the kind of fella we're talking about here.
I guess he just REALLY hated photographers back in the day!
Fast forward ten to fifteen years, and all that adolescent angst had been completely replaced with a broad grin (although i made him go B.A. on some sports and hunting images) and the days of GRRRRRR had swapped with a day of greatness.
From the sounds of it, Matthew had been unintentionally ended up in Montour via an ATV gravel travel adventure gone astray a few weeks back. But on this day... he very much found Montour on purpose.
The day started with our guest of honor droppin down his tailgate and paying homage to his love for all things outdoors. The camo coat... the rifles... the fishin' poles and the tackle box. All the elements were there for a cover image for Field and Stream magazine. ;) Even Molly got in on the act for a few as the sibling share in their love for the outdoors. It was nice finally getting to meet Molly as I had noticed over the last year or two that she was a regular "liker" or commenter on our facebook posts even though we had never actually done work for her. Hopefully the real thing was just as good as the cyber version of Stewart Photography!
I learned alot about Matt on this day. He dates a girl that is the daughter of one of my wife and I's friends from high school... he not surprisingly is a farm hand on the side. Mr. Wray is most likely gonna fall in his father's footsteps by shoving off for Indian Hills and their criminology department after high school.
As this often goes with athletes, we saved the sports stuff to the end... and when we got to crackin' out all the Grinnell gear for hoops, baseball and football, I discovered something ELSE about Matt.
Dude's brain is wired weird.
Translation: He's ambidextrous.
While we were running through our series of athletic poses for his eventual sports collage, it came to light that he's not really a lefty... or a righty.
He writes and throws with his left hand. But when it comes time to shoot a free throw or take his hacks on the baseball diamond... you guessed it... he does the way a right hander would. When he's fishing and hunting one never knows which hand he might use that day (he likes to keep the fish and pheasant guessing, evidently).
Regardless of what hand he uses... what we did at the very end of the session was priceless. As I mentioned earlier, it was Matt's wish to take a few images with his brand spankin' new President of the Matt Wray Fan Club.
Weighing in at just over 8 pounds and all of 29 days old, Emerson Ann Stark donned her little Tiger gear complete with a bright orange flowered headband. And while most senior guys would go all James Dean and be too "cool" for this kinda thing, you could tell that family meant more to Matt than any flack he might get from the guys over including little Miss Emerson in his session. I'm glad we went down this path with the Wrays... because the images of the two of them are hopefully portraits they will treasure forever.
It was a fun morning from start to finish and I just wanted to thank Team Wray for bringing their business north to our studio... it was a great experience.
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