It's only gonna take an hour, right?

She probably isn't the only senior mom that's heard it before.

So we won't blame her... or her son for the conversation.

It probably went like this.

Mama Jennifer: "Clifford... I've set up your senior pictures with Stewarts."

Cliff:  "Oh, ok... what day is that?"

Mom: "A few weeks from now... on a Wednesday morning."

Cliff:  "Morning?   Like what?  Noon or something?"

Mom:   "Umm... No... 8 a.m."

Cliff:  "Come again?"

*crickets*

Cliff:  "This is only gonna take an hour, right?"

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And so it goes with most senior guys.   Get in, get out... get it over.

Not ALL are like this, mind you... but it probably not a stretch to assume that many are.

So you can imagine Mr. West's chagrin when he was told that due to school policy and football season not being over... that instead of 8 a.m... they were actually gonna start at 7 a.m. at our studio!

To the young man's credit, he was here... on time... at 7 a.m.   Daylight savings time hadn't switched back to standard time yet... so it was dark  when Jennifer and her oldest son arrived.  

That's commitment... especially from a senior guy!

The plan was to bust through Cliff's sports collage stuff... then get out to Grandpa John's farm for images there... and then get #28 back to school on time as to not break school policy and face the ire of Mustang Football Coach Matt Bandstra!

Our strategy worked like a charm, despite Cliff probably feeling a smidge crusty upon his arrival.   He quickly turned things on and we got him back to school on time and while it took more than an HOUR... we didn't torture him TOO much in the process.

I've got a couple of connections with the family as Cliff's dad and I were childhood pals back in the day.   I spent time on Grandpa John's farm back in grade school.   And furthermore, Cliff's older sis, Lauren, was my sports picture right-hand-gal for the past two years before she ran off to the University of Iowa.   

I found myself doing a double take on more than one occasion looking through the lens.   Anyone that graduated with me around the late 80s early 90s will no doubt agree that Clifford is a spittin' image of his pops.   I about called him Chris a couple times... which I'm sure he'd appreciate.   Maybe if I had just ONE more hour, I would have slipped up and done that... but as it turned out... I avoided it and got some solid images in the meantime.

Mission accomplished.