Moore Is Better...

Spread the wealth...  Share the love... The more the merrier... 

There's those things.

And then there's Bailey Moore.

Most often, I'm gonna see the senior... and senior mom at this thing we call senior pictures.  On occasion we'll have another along for the ride.   Sis, friend from school, boyfriend, even grandma might make an appearance.  But USUALLY it's mom, senior and MAYBE one more of the aforementioned party goers.

Evidently Miss Moore really likes to party.

No less than TEN people were here on her behalf on this day.   I wasn't sure whether to be flattered that so many wanted to witness this event... or to charge admission and sell concessions!

Three friends from her high school, a friend from her boyfriend's high school, two gals for hair and makeup, one of which had her young son with her, the guest of honor's sister... and yes... Mother Dearest.

I hope I didn't leave any out, but Lord knows that there could've been one or two more and they would have blended into the entourage.

There was at MINIMUM, one more person that I know would have made an appearance on this day, too, if he weren't off serving our country.

And that's how I was privy to this young lady in the first place.

A year ago I photographed Tanner Parrish as a member of East Marshall's Class of 2014.   And somewhere along the line in the past year or two, this gorgeous young lady started showing up at all things East Marshall.   A quick glance through the images below tells even the person with a desperate need for Lasik surgery that she isn't a face you'll forget... A true head turner, Bailey was Tanner's girl, and she quickly was adopted by Mustang Nation as a card carrying member of Club LeGrand.

Her fella was captain of the football team and she was on his arm for everything else she could get to at the school.

Coincidentally, about twenty years prior, her mother Michelle paid a few visits to the very same school.   Daily actually... because that's where she WENT to school.

Mama Michelle was just a year younger than the author of this blog, and her brother was just a year older than the photographer.   We all grew up on the gritty streets of Gilman.   And in a town of 500, everyone knew everyone and their business... for good and for bad.

So when the call went out of facebook a couple months back when Michelle was hunting for a photographer for her Grinnell-Newburg High School senior, I felt I had to act.

In a rare move, I messaged my old friend that through the years we had lost touch with.   I put my best foot forward, encouraged her to give us a look, and to my surprise, many others on the same facebook post, from her new home of Grinnell and beyond told her the same thing.

The next thing you know... the prettiest gal in all of Grinnell was on our books.

It's difficult to argue, take a glance at the images again and one realizes very quickly that Terri Parrish didn't raise no dummy.

So my double-digit party was here, I had won the Battle for Bailey... and it was time to put my money where my mouth is and deliver.

Despite her barrage of buddies, Miss Moore had very little requested other than to make her look fabulous.   I assured her and her mother that I had much bigger problems than trying to make THIS one look good, so we were off to do what I thought was easy... Have fun... and make stunning images of Bailey.

We were over in Tama for a few poses... and while I would claim that the girl couldn't take a bad picture.   One guy thought differently.   We were on the streets of the 52339 area code shooting by an old apartment building with a door that looked even older... paint chipping... the façade of the building was falling away.... I thought it was cool as heck.

Not this guy.

He comes barging over to our crowd and looks at me and interjects...

"WHAT IN THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!?!?   Shooting THAT pretty girl by THAT ugly door?!?!?"

And he walked away.

Everyone's a pro these days.

Sigh.

Undaunted by our "experts" opinion, I kept doing my thing and Bailey just kept on hitting it on the screws.

I did forget to mention that in another impromptu facebook request, literally the day before her session, Michelle had wondered aloud via the social media giant if anyone around had an old Chevy pickup that Bailey could use for a shot or two.   Bailey's boyfriend's sister-in-law Brooke (say that 3 times fast) saw the post and quickly suggested that she contact LeGrand natives and two-time Team Stewart Photography members, Todd and Angie Wilson for the use of their old blue.

And in classic small-town fashion, the Wilson's were glad to help out whenever we needed them.   Turns out it was near the very end of the session.   Bailey couldn't thank Todd enough for helping out saying she made her dream come true.   I told Todd I was disappointed that he didn't retort that he had been hearing that all of his life from the ladies... but he just smiled and shook his head and said,  "nah, BStew... I'm too OLD for that."  

:)

At that point, our party of 10 had one-by-one been whittled down to Mom, Sis and Senior and I.  We thanked Todd for his extra effort and we headed back to the studio for just a few more.   I assured Bailey that I could keep on photographing her all night, but at this point I was just going to make her and her mother's decisions more impossible.

Ultimately, I guess that will have to be their decision to determine if I delivered on my promise, but something tells me that I'm gonna be okay on this one.

Good luck ladies, your book is ready.  ;)  Thanks for choosing Stewart Photography