I went to Jared's...

 I get to this point every year.  

Sometimes I wonder if I'll every truly get there.  Yet I know if I'm patient, the time will come.

But in today's Instagram need-it-yesterday world... sometimes I wonder.

When it's mid September and you're 15 seniors I'm-waiting-on-you-so-hurry-the-heck-up world where a wait that used to be acceptable, now turns to unacceptable...

I feel that.

So, on this day... only a scant few days from Christmas... and now only a week and a half since the session... I can finally say... we're posting out last senior blog of 2015.

Experience tells me that there will be a few more for the class of 2016 after the first of the year.   But for now... they proverbial hay is in the barn... and, as far as I'm concerned... it couldn't have ended much better.

Green Mountain-Garwin senior Jared Van DeWalle was our "finisher" and fittingly... he was a man of many hats.

Three of them, to be exact.

I noticed when he walked in that he was sporting a Fox apparel cap... and had a cowboy hat in hand.   His father had warned us a few days earlier that his LeGrand Volunteer Fire Department gear may be in tow as well...  Thus you now know where the third head gear came from.

I asked Jared right away if his pops would be okay with him wearing all these hats... and he assured me that it would be okay.   I told him pointedly that I had best not receive a complaint call from his father after the fact...

Jared insisted that it would not be problem.

So Mr. Van DeWalle and his three hats proceeded.

After a brief soiree' at the studio, we took off for Casa De Jared.  I was originally told it was somewhere between LeGrand and Garwin... which I guess was technically accurate.   Truth be told; however, Jared's house was within spittin' distance of my own in LeGrand.

A quick trip around the corner, followed by the always adventurous trek across the four lanes of Highway 30 and we were on the gravel of Abbott Avenue and just a mere mile over the hill from the Van DeWalles.

As usual, I was worried that I might walk into a less than photogenic locale... but to my surprise... we were rewarded with lots of opportunity.

Jared had scouted a couple of spots near the Iowa River (thankfully the H3 allowed me the opportunity to get to... trust me... its predecessor the 1996 Plymouth Voyager would have never made it!).  The idea was to chronicle his dedication to bein' a good ol' country boy and his involvement with the fire department in these spots.   Once we banged out his "album covers" in the cowboy hat and plaid... it was off to save the world from flames riverside.

In retrospect, I was driving to the studio just few days ago after a rare few days of December rain that caused some unseasonal flooding and I couldn't help but be thankful for the fact that we got Jared's trademark images done when we did.  Less than a week later... many of these images that you see here would not have been possible.  Undoubtedly, many of the areas are still under water.

But on this day... it was dry... and in fact... we busted out the fire hose and sprayed down the area with plenty of water that a few days later would NOT be needed in any way, shape... or form.

After completing our work riverside... we made our way back up to the Van DeWalle ranch and finished up there by a dozer and an old machine shed.

My favorite moment there was when I was posing our easy goin senior guy by an old gate in the shed and I looked up and saw an old sign over his shoulder.

If memory serves it said... "Oliver Van DeWalle Shorthorns... 1/4 mile north of Hwy 30." 

I asked Jared... "is that grandpa?"

"Great-grandpa."

If  you look closely as the image below... you can barely make out the sign over his shoulder with a blue ribbon around the head of a prize shorthorn.  

Cool history if you ask me.

Just like the senior season of calendar year 2015.