Christian uprising

With lots of advance planning and an admittedly "stressed out" mom..... STC senior, Christian, was our Thursday afternoon client.

We love seniors that come in with a vision of their own... and in this case, the target image was getting that "after 6" look with Christian's suit...... check out the spotlight below....... sweetness.

Christian and his mother are also big Chicago White Sox fans....... so... not surprisingly.... we talked all things Windy City baseball. I had to swallow my Northsider and National League pride for 3 hours.... but folks like these made that relatively painless. :-) And hey, maybe it'll be a Windy City World Series? We shall see.

Without further delay...

Part of my job on a daily basis is to try to bring out a senior's true personality. With some, I have to so some digging to find their niche'. Others will take a while to "warm up" to the camera and the overall experience.

Then there's Dylan.

This guy needs get on the comedy circuit immediately.

I've been dying for two weeks now to get these images posted because Dylan visited a couple weeks back on a morning that saw nothing but rain, rain and more rain. We did the indoor back then, and ever since have been eagerly anticipating the return of the East Marshall funny-man.

Dylan proved that his initial appearance was no fluke as he had his A-game again this morning. This guy had his mom and I doubled-over on several occasions. It's my hope that his humor shines through. Check out Dylan's image below........ he's doing his best Burt Reynolds imitation.... you'll have to ask him to explain.

There were a couple of things he did take seriously... his football and his hunting. The dude loves his wrap-arounds as well. Enjoy the images.

could it get any nicer?

Folks... could this weather be any better? Seriously... maybe this is mother nature's way of making up for all that rain in the spring? Whatever the case, it is pretty tough to beat this stretch we've had, and Wednesday's beneficiary was Sidney from Marshalltown.

Sid brought me a full afternoon. Her sis... her lab...... the Harley...... in the end... lots of fun. Sister Mags worked in first followed by the old lab Casey. Casey really felt like it was just time to play instead of being a super-dog-model....... but we survived with a little coaxing/wrestling. :-)

Thanks to Mark for bringin' in the black Harley.... that was sweet..... and Sidney pulled no punches with the matching outfit....... look out... that Harley girl looks TOUGH!

Additional thanks to Sid for putting up with my soapbox rants... Anyone who really knows me, knows that I can get long-winded occasionally. Evidently Sidney is a good listener. The fact that she's a Hawkeye is a plus, too. Not a bad H3 driver...... and not afraid to get her jeans wet, either! Sid jokingly mentioned that she's been studying up on "America's Next Top Model." I think the homework definitely came in handy.

Monday Morning Runningback

Our week kicked off with Rebel runningback Austin coming our way. Gladbrook-Reinbeck just happened to have the day off from school, so unfortunately for this guy, no classes were missed! :-)

There was pigskin aplenty discussed throughout the session as not only did we talk about the who's who in the Class 1A ranks.... but we also reveled in Iowa's 17-5 victory over Iowa State over the weekend. (4 outta 6..... 19 outta 26, ahem).

Of course, we couldn't leave out the NFL discussion, as Austin's Cowboys were prepping for what ended up being a shootout victory last night. I asked Austin why he was No. 22....... and he admitted it was a tip of the cap to former Cowboy Emmitt Smith. Not a bad person to emulate, my friend. We agreed that the SuperBowl should be Cowboys v. Steelers come February.

From the sounds of things, the road white jersey nearly didn't make the session as a washing machine malfunction (not to be confused with a Timberlake/Jackson wardrobe malfunction) nearly made Austin come with only the home blues. Luckily Herk and Brenda got everything worked out in the nick of time.

Enjoy homecoming week everyone in Rebel Country...... beat South Winn!

Sunshine Session

So, we all have nicknames. And while some are self-explanatory... others just are what they are.

I'm not sure why Cade has been tabbed "Sunshine" by good friend Arley and others, but he assured me that he indeed was just that.

Cade was yet another Cyclone fan that seem to want to torture me this week. Cyclone State, 7 of 10.... yada, yada, yada. Where were these folks from 1983 to 1997? But, I digress.

This senior had a special connection to his pickup that used to be grandpas. We got some neat stuff there.... note that the license plate used to be 688 CTY.... now it's 68 CTY as a "tip of the hat" to Cade's football number.

A big congrats to Cade for being named to GMG's Homecoming Court for next week's festivities in Garwin. Additional kudos to 5 other Stewart Photography vets that made the Wolverine Royalty.... way to go Angie, Kayla, Jessie, Brad and Arley!

And the beat goes on...

We love our repeat clients at Stewart Photography and Tuesday's offering was the third and final installment courtesy of Dan and Julie from Garwin. Daughter three... also known as Angela, kept cranking out the smiles as I got caught up with mom and dad and where the older sisters are taking their lives.

The session would have probably gotten over AT LEAST one half hour earlier, if not for the incessant text message-interruptions from big sis, Alicia, who just flat out could not stand not being right where the action was! (just razzin ya!... and, hey... get my Cubbies goin again, would ya, Alicia?)

It was great to see dad at the session as he's overcome some serious health issues in the past year. There's nothing more important than experiencing things with our children and I was glad to see Dan at our session, if for no other reason than to just "be there."

Mama Julie and I go way back to my 7th grade year when the greatest Jr. High English instructor that old South East Marshall County ever saw, left before getting the chance to spread her wealth of knowledge in my 8th grade campaign. And while I ended up doing OK for myself, I have no doubt that my potential was stunted by her departure. :-)

Ang got some really cool stuff.... hats off for having the fortitude to stand in the Iowa River despite a 40 degree morning! Check out the candid image below of her laughing. This almost always happens when I ask a client to "be serious."