Toree's Two-Tiered Torrent

Normally it's pretty easy for me to find my wheel house quickly.

My groove.

The sweet spot.

Get in the zone.

With a wide variety of experiences back when I was in high school, I've always prided myself in being able to relate with a wide variety of seniors that we see at Stewart Photography annually for the past two and a half decades.

Everyone knows I'm a sports guy... but I've done the band thing... the choir thing... the speech and drama thing... the plays... the musicals... I can relate to the academics.... the artists... the leaders and the followers.

So when Miss Victoria Grace Benson showed up for her senior session, I was well aware and informed as to what to expect... but that didn't mean I was gonna find my comfort zone any time soon.

Of all the things that I've had the opportunity to experience over the years (and back in the day), DANCE and HORSES were not two of them.

Aside from the extremely robotic box-step I busted out in the high school swing choir days, I cannot claim to even fathom the level of dance that Miss Benson can pull off... and I can honestly say that I've never been on a horse in my lifetime.

Clearly, I've photographed dancers many-a-time... and I've seen y fair share of horses as part of my job... but the point is...  it's not something that's in my immediate area of expertise.  

Now, everyone knows that one doesn't have to be a world renowned chef to be a solid food critic.   Nor do I have to be able to be capable of doing the splits in mid air to be able to photograph it well.   But being able to RELATE to your client in a way that they know that you know what they know is something that helps built rapport... trust and confidence.

Unfortunately... I didn't have that luxury here.

What I did have is a life long friendship with Toree's mom... a long history of photographing her daughter(s) despite my ignorance of their passions, and a track record that hopefully put them at ease with my ability to deliver.

So when I was asked to meet the Bensons at Bill and Cherie Strunk's property between Marshalltown and Albion to photograph Toree with four horses, I knew I was gonna hafta lean on them to lead the way with their wants and needs in that realm.   Similarly, I knew the same would be the case when it came time to photograph arguably the best dancer in the area.

And I was totally good with that.

Sometimes it's nice to let the client be the expert... and then to take the ball and run with it from there.   And that's what we had here.

For the first three hours of the session, I was totally at the horse expert's mercy at Casa De Strunk.   Refreshingly, Toree had plenty of specific ideas of what she wanted to attempt to pull off... and I merely just had to pull it off.

I let her be the judge if she feels like we did that.

The same could be said when we maid yet another visit to the MHS Auditorium to take advantage of that beautiful facility.   Auditorium Czar Al Paxton was his usual accommodating self, and between the years of knowledge that our senior mom/studio director has, paired with the nearly unmatched physical abilities of her second born... I found myself in a dream scenario of capturing a postcard image one after another... and another... and another.

Let's be honest.... just look at the images... the girl is ridiculous.

It made my non-dancing butt look pretty darn good, did it not?

We took the ladies' talents to the streets as well... and the magic just kept on keeping on.   We were several hours into this thing, and I felt like we had nearly zero "meat-and-potatoes" images that would suffice as solid senior images of regular Toree.... but that's what you get when you're dealing with a special talent like Tor-Tor.... anything but  regular.

Eventually, we did have to break down and do some regular senior images, but even then Victoria was her usual amazing self.  It's been a treat watching this young lady grow up... and I feel honored to be the guy that's been chosen to capture most of the meaningful still images for her along the way. 

Reality is... I'm not sure a split second click of the shutter does this girl's motion poetry justice, but that was my task.   I hope I lived up to the high standard she sets by living her extraordinary life on a daily basis.  Hyperbole?  Maybe so.  But I think she and her family are the bomb.com on many levels.

I hope the images we captured reach those levels.

Thanks so much for your loyalty to our studio, Team Benson.   I hope you realize how much your support means to us.