It's gotta be the shoes...

I found that one of the advantages of having a child in high school is that sometimes she can give me some insight into an upcoming senior.

Case and point.  I was mentioning the other night that the next day I was going to be photographing Danny Whittler the next day.

Then came the warning.

"Wait 'till you see his shoes!"

Shoes?

"You'll see."

So when Danny and his mom, Tina came thru the door the next day... it didn't take long to figure it out.

One look through the images in this blog, and one cannot miss 'em....

The bright PINK kicks.

It what has become Danny's trademark, his louder-than-loud hightops, HAD to have an explanation... and if you know me... I HAD to find out what it was.

Coincidently... if you go back just two blogs ago on our Stewart Photography running blog-show... you'll find none other than the person to "blame" for this footware choice of Mr. Whittler.

An employee of The Sports Page in Marshalltown and fellow East Marshall classmate, Danielle Roberts, seems to have convinced Danny that he would look SWEET in the aforementioned pink shoes.

Add in the fact that Danny just might happen to think a lot of Miss Roberts and you get the picture...

Guys will do almost ANYTHING if the right girl tells him to do so!  ;)

So... I had my story... which I just LOVED... but, now the job was... how to document it?

I'm not sure Danny knew for sure that I was gonna take the ball and run with it to quite this degree... but make no mistake... when he noticed that I was all over this like stink on .... ummm... pink.... he couldn't get enough.

Just a tip for my clients... when I took a glance at the back of the camera and get a goofy giggle and start pumping my fist... it's safe to assume that we got something pretty special... and THAT image can be found at the top of this blog.

Danny's skywalking pink shoes shot is one of my early favs of the year... and hats off to the dude for his athletic efforts in pulling it off.

Will it hang on his mom's wall?  Probably not.   But dang... it's awesome.

Thanks for the laughs, Danny.  Seniors that aren't afraid to break the mold it part of what makes my job so fun.

"Insuring" a good time and sweet images!

in·sure
   [in-shoor, -shur]  verb, in·sured, in·sur·ing.

1.to guarantee against loss or harm.
2.to secure indemnity to or on, in case of loss, damage, or death.

Yes I know the title should read "ENSURING," but stick with me here.

My insurance agent since I got married, Rick Matney, has been there for me and my business for over 18 years now.  Even longer than that for my folks.  So, with every mishap (broken lens, studio fire, roof damage, back door break-in) along the way, he's been there.

Dude has my back... and it's that what you pay all them there premiums for? ;)

So when Ricks wife and first born child, Kaelee came walking in our door Tuesday morning, it seemed only natural that it was MY turn to insure.... or ENsure something for the Matney family.

Mama Chris told me that there was never a doubt as to where they would go for pictures... Some of their most cherish images of their family came from our studio over the years... but as her husband reminded her... "you take care of those that take care of you."

Novel concept.  ;)

Too many times have I found this to be forgotten in our current society... but not on this day... It was Kaelee's day... and I had to pay out on their "claim" for some amazing senior pictures!

Kaelee did take it relatively easy on me as she brought in her flute (had to borrow one from Stewart Photography alum, Lainey Crawford, I'm told.... [Kaelee heeded your advice Lainey!  #youwilruenotgoingtobstew!]   And other than that... it was just cute little outfits... a few freckles and that infectious smile!

We did battle some stiff breezes at times that ended up rewarding us with cool results with her hair... but we also had a few "close calls" with her little skirt as she threatened to go all "Marilyn Monroe," on us, if you're pickin' up what I'm layin down.  ;)

I've often joked with senior moms over the years when they find that their daughters are suddenly driving my Hummer H3 around town near the end of the session.   The mom's usually ask... "are you SURE you wanna let her do this, Bryan?..."  followed closely by... "do you have good insurance?"

And I always laugh and say... "why yes... yes I do."

Thanks Matney family!  Great to see you and catch up!

She had just one request...

When East Marshall senior, Danielle Roberts sat down with me to talk about her session last Friday she only had one wish.

"I wanna look awesome."

In classic Danielle form, she didn't mince words... she got to the point... and wasn't afraid to ask for what she wanted.

While I have my opinion on how the images turned out, I suppose the jury is still out on whether Miss Roberts feels like I delivered on her one request.

Truth is... I felt like her want/need to look amazing was easy to fulfill... at the risk of sounding inappropriate, she had already done the hard part... and I told her a line that I've been known to use... "I've gotta LOT bigger problems than making YOU look good, Danielle." 

;)

So the bar was set... and I think if she was being honest... she KNEW what the outcome was gonna be... otherwise she wouldn't have been at our studio in the FIRST place, right?   Nevertheless, I didn't pull any punches... it was go time for yet another demanding (and rightfully so) senior girl, who wanted this to be a session of a lifetime.

After joking with Danielle's mom, Crystal, about how THIS session was "probably just like hers back in the day," (knowing full well it wasn't) I discovered that even though Crystal's senior picture appointment was only a couple years ago (ahem)... it WAS shot in the exact same place her daughter was!

So Crystal was photographed by my predecessor, and I think Danielle was morbidly interested in me digging out her mom's old negatives... but I resisted and was thanked for doing so.  ;)

In the meantime... it wasn't about being able to top mom's session from 19(last two digits omitted to protect the innocent)... it was about looking awesome.

We took a roadie around every nook and cranny around Tama County to insure that happened... and the end result is that I probably took too much time... and made mom's third shift sleeping schedule suffer immensely.

My hope is that after seeing these images that two things will happen.   1) Crystal will forgive me.  2) Danielle will feel like that request of hers was fulfilled.

Doin' bidness with Bidwell...

If Daryl Bidwell learned one thing at his senior session it's this...

Don't get me goin'.

It's debatable if it can be called one of my "strengths," but I've been blessed with the gift-of-gab... and those that really know me... know that if the topic turns to sports... you may never shut me up.

;)

Daryl was our first South Tama senior on the 2013 senior trail, and I was aware that Mr. Bidwell had just completed a strong track season on the Trojans' outstanding sprint relay squads.

Throw in the fact that he plays a little hoop and pigskin, too... and his fate was sealed.... It was sports roundtable time with BStew.

Just when he thought it was supposed to be senior pictures!

I don't think he really minded much... the ones I really felt sorry for were his girlfriend Emily... and Daryl's dad, Dale.  Emily did an amazing job of giving me a hand with gear now and then... AND "assisting" me in calling out Daryl when he tried to pull a phony smile... Papa Dale, who incidentally looks like he was yanked right out of the rock band ZZ Top with a foot long white beard, kept the mood light when the sports talk lagged.   Dale taught me what "I thought" will do for a guy when I was sharing the story from a couple weeks back with I THOUGHT I could beat my son in a 400 meter dash.  ;)

In between all the sports... and razzin, we did happen to catch a few images...  Daryl had HIS idea for the sports thing.... (which I now call the 'old school' collage... the-me-with-all-my-stuff image)  and we did that... but I assured him that I had a few ideas of my own... which manifested themselves into a rad digital collage and some killer images that we did on his stomping grounds in Tama....

No surprise then... just like the chatter... the images have a heavy emphasis on sports.  Oh well... that's how we roll.

The early Wolverine gets the worm...

We're only about a week and a half into our 2013 senior campaign and just like a year ago... GMG is bringing it hard with the earlybird representation.

Already our second installment from up Garwin-way... Lexie Dubberke owned Tuesday with her own style and flair.

It was just a week ago that she and her folks decided to take full advantage of our $100 earlybird special bonus... Lex and Mama Kari came down to take care of their deposit a week ago... and ironically... we were photographing her classmate, Cheyenne at the time.

I paused for a few moments to answer Lexie's questions... and then told her we'd see her in a week.

That week came and went in a blink of an eye and evidently the short turnaround was no deterrent for Lex as she knocked it out of the park.

I'm told that she rarely wears her hair down (usually opting for the side pony or braid... which we DID see, too) but that's where we started on Tuesday.   Lexie slipped on the short shorts... the boots... and did up the big hair... and I'll be danged if the session wasn't instantly Snookified.   Am I wrong?

The Jersey Shore influence wasn't over with, however, as we did have some fuzzy boots on her last regular outfit, as well...   Sandwich those around the cutest little spring dress... and my job was easy pickins.

Originally Lexie had made a couple requests that I didn't think we could pull off well considering the sunny conditions... but I wasn't about to let her down... so we gave our best shot at shooting in full sun on the tracks and in an open field... Not too shabby, huh, Lex?

She did also wanna get in the water... which I kinda thought would be pretty shallow after the drought-like conditions we've had around here... but to my surprise... she got in and it nearly went up to her knees!   Cool reflection in the water on that day... check it.

Finally, we had to do our sports thing for Lexie.   There was some talk of visiting GMG's new gym... but near the end of the session, she pulled the plug on the idea opting to just let me spin some digital magic for her collage instead.  In the midst of doing our sports series... I told her she looked "totally B.A." and stumbled into my favorite image from her session... which is the first one shown here... A reminder to us all that rather than taking ourselves so seriously, sometimes it's best to just laugh a little. 

Thanks for the fun session, Lex!