What can I say about this girl other than she is quite simply one of my most favorite kids ever.
Spur of the moment hyperbole? Maybe. But I'll tell you this... God doesn't make 'em much better than Sarah McCoy.
Her
folks and I go way back, and one might think that that it would be real
easy for a girl like this to say... "i don't wanna go there just
because DAD went to school with him"... or "just because MOM says so"
or "just because big SIS went there."
What does she say instead?
"Dad... It's BStew! He's like FAMOUS!"
While that's most certainly a stretch of epic magnitude, it probably at least falls
somewhere
in between the "local celebrity" status and making pops puke a little
in his mouth when he heard his girl say such nonsense. ;) But what
Sarah has learned at a young age, is that sometimes it's okay to
schmooze a bit to win over someone that's about to do a job for you.
#flatterygetsyoueverywhere
All kidding aside, you won't
find a more genuine girl than this one... and while I'm not sure WHERE
the nickname came from... I've taken to calling her what my old friend
Papa Heath and Mama Chris call her.... "Bug."
So it
came down to this... whatever Bug asked for... I could never tell her
no. We've photographed a SLEW of all-state, all-district,
all-conference and even the Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of
Iowa, in the past few seasons from BCLUW... What hadn't we done?
Photographed one at the place where yet another conference championship
was won this year... the softball diamond in Conrad.
The
decision was made a few weeks ago while sitting around the newly minted
fire pit at her home as I was doing some schmoozing of my own with the
folks... Why not do some images at the house that The General Dave Lee
built? ;)
With yet another blazing forecast for her
special day... I left the studio in Montour at 6:30 a.m. to try to
minimize the inevitable issues that the sun would create for us, even at
a one-hour-earlier-than-the-normal-way-too-early start time of 8 a.m.
That's right... 7 a.m..... at the home of the Comets....
Take
one look at what we did though! It certainly paid off... Both of us
were squintin' and sweatin' to be sure... but I'm glad we made the
sacrifice... because even an hour later woulda been even more difficult
to execute.
With our special softball images in our hip
pocket... we headed off to a private location to get shots taken with
her beloved puppy, Chloe. From experience, I know this dog is like her
very own baby girl... much to the chagrin of her father who again,
nearly vomits at the thought of his daughter's fawning over such an
unmanly and spoiled "best friend." ;) Before we could get to the shots
of Chloe... I made an unexpected stop at the bridge in Conrad... and I
SWEAR that Sarah's folks must know every soul in town. Not only THAT...
but nearly all the town's residents decided that 9 a.m. was a good time
to cross that bridge and flick Heath, Chris, Sarah and sister Shannon
some crap. I didn't think we'd EVER get done there! Even recent
senior mom Tambra Simpson made an appearance, somehow rolling out of bed
and showing up with her hair PERFECTLY done. Weird. ;)
Once
we were done being distracted there... we did the shots with Chloe and
were THEN distracted by my brother in law, Josh Good, who just happened
to be making a Pepsi delivery near by... After that we were off to
Marshalltown. The brief detour in Mtown included a stop at a mutual
friend of ours at Melanie Ewalt's home. Mel is a converted disciple to
the good book of Stewart Photography... but just ask her... she's glad
she made the switch to our preachings. :) I hope she enjoys getting
to see some of her hard work in her backyard being portrayed in images
with one of her good friend's daughters. How cool is that?
After
an additional stop uptown, we finally made our way back to Montour to
complete the indoor stuff and to, once again, come to the revelation
that our session lengths are unrivaled by any other studio. Why?
Because it's not about just numbers to me... never has been. Ask
around.... But when someone close to me personally comes through our
doors... and they just happen to be folks that have always been there
for me... it's only natural to try to pick it up a notch above that
already-insane-usual notch. Is that even possible?
Oh,
they apologized for taking so much of my time... which I would have
nothing of the sort... I was just trying to not wear out the Comet
catcher for what would be yet another softball game that night. The
girl cannot be phased, however. She's only been killin' it since she
was asked to START on what would wind up being a state champion team as a
freekin EIGHTH GRADER... And what does she do for an encore the next
season as a freshman? Just make the Class 2A State Tournament
all-tourney team with one of the greatest one-week offensive runs that
the tournament has ever seen while her team was winning yet ANOTHER
state title!
Rockin' it while winning doesn't suck.
Sarah
McCoy will go down as one of another in a long line of great players
that have come out of that Black-n-Gold laced school... but more
importantly... she is an even better person... One of the best kids
you'll ever meet... and if the worst thing she ever does is show up four
minutes late for curfew one night... I'd say... someone, did the right
thing somewhere along the line with that one.
Happy 4th of July everyone!
#hugsforbug
#bstewout
