I hope the pictures were worth a thousand of 'em...

A good journalist never runs with a story until he's got at least TWO sources.

Luckily for this old writer... I've got several up that way.

I've made no secret of my personal affinity for the Conrad area... when a community supports you in droves for many years... it's hard to not reciprocate those feelings.  I have friends in Cometville both old and new and it's funny how they all kinda root for me... and for each other.

"Got any more BCLUW kids comin' in," I'll get asked.  

I'll answer in the affirmative... and then comes the scouting report... from friends...

"Oh he'll be easy to shoot... sharp lookin' guy."

or

"I bet she brings in her softball stuff..."

or

"That family is crazy!   You'll have FUN with that one!"

Well... when last Thursday's senior showed up at my door... I had been tipped off by many...

"She is SOOO quiet."

I shrugged it off... and thought.. I've seen this type before... in fact... I kinda like it.   Beats loud and obnoxious any day of the week.  :)


So I said to myself... Bring it on!  I'm up to the challenge...  I'll get her yappin' by the end of the day.


But what did I find out?

I think Mikayla would be the first to admit... I wasn't gonna win this challenge.

Over and over and over... I fired off questions to Miss Dennison... just trying to spark her into a long soliloquy on a topic... ANY topic.

She wouldn't take the bait...

"Yep." 

"Nope."

"Not really."

"Uh huh."

"Okay."

Lots of short answers... But you know what?   One thing was ALWAYS there...

That ornery smile.

I can't be for sure... but I think she actually knows EXACTLY what she's doing... she just isn't gonna let us in on it!  :)

I gave her mom, Nikki (who looks more like the older sister) a laugh when i said... "You know, Nikki... I think that Mikayla and I could get along... if I could just get her to SHUT UP!" 

:)

So, I called my shot early on in the session... but no matter... Miss Mikayla wasn't about to let one loudmouth change her in the scope of a few hours at a senior session.

The funny thing is that I've heard MORE from her via facebook and twitter SINCE the session than I did DURING the session... which, I guess, is the world that we now live in.  (btw.. the girl has over NINE THOUSAND tweets to her name... and I though Class of 2010 standout Taylor Johnson had a lot with 5,000!)  #getbackbro  #watchandlearn

Part of the fun was taking just one more image of Mikayla... this time it was a couple of days later... at work... which just happens to be at the world famous "That Place" in Conrad.  My wife and I took a break from the non-stop retouching Saturday night (much to Mikayla's chagrin) to go eat.   In my classic fashion... I "sniped" one more image of our senior at work... and then tweeted it to her, just to let her know that, even while i was relaxing... I was STILL working on images of her!  ;)

I can make her wait no longer... and while she hopefully feels like her pictures are worth a thousand words.. I certainly didn't get many of them while she was here.... and you know what?   That's ok.

Thanks for being such a good sport, Mikayla!  ;)

One day off...

"East Marshall Week" rolled on last Thursday morning as my fourth consecutive Mustang senior (and fifth in the last eight) came in the door in the form of Gilman's own, Austin Parmenter.

Not only was it the fourth straight EM senior... it was the fourth straight guy... and fourth straight football player.   A fifth Mustang was on the way the next day... and if you mix a trip to the Iowa Girls State Softball Tournament on Monday night... it's been a whole-lotta Purple-n-Gold of late.

E-M-H FIGHT!! E-M-H FIGHT!! ;)

Austin actually took it a little easy on me Thursday as he actually DIDN'T bring in his football gear like the others.  So, there was no trip to the football field or locker room... or weight room in order on this day... which was almost a relief of sorts!  ;) 

What I did know is that Austin and I... and his folks, Kenny and Debbie... go WAY back.  

They make there home right on Highway 146 in Gilman... and if you follow it through town... eventually you wind around to my boyhood home where my folks still live... so we have that Gilmanite connection.

I've watched Austin grow up from the time he was very little... photographed his little league pictures in Laurel... his middle school football images... the high school football stuff, of course... but one session started it all.

I couldn't remember exactly WHEN it was.... Or what age he was at the time of the session... In fact, even his Mom wasn't so sure.

I just remembered that his Cubs' fan father and I had something in common... and that THAT was part of the plan for Lil' Austin's session.  But I still was failing to remember if it was a newborn session... a 1 year... or a 2 year???

The solution was simple, actually.   I fired up the old Macintosh Classic (students of the 80s will know what I'm talking about) that I only keep around for trivial information just like this!   And while the little squirrels were running around in there (it almost sounds like that, actually)  the info came out.

Turns out it was a two-year old session... and the really eerie thing here?  I looked up the date for the little two year old Cub fan...

July 18, 1996.

No biggie, right?

Except for... what was the date last Thursday?

July 19, 2012

Sixteen years and ONE DAY separated the two visits to the studio by the Parmenters and their only child, Austin.   What are the odds of that?  I thought it was pretty cool!

Regardless... it was a slightly cooler day after a run of hot ones.   We talked all things EM... we talked the Cubs... we talked about all Austin's classmates we've seen recently... and we even found time to get the puppy photographed that he had always wanted... and his parents finally caved in and got him a year ago... Buttercup... who was ornery... but we finally got it done!

I suppose going forward I'm gonna see more of these "life-full-circle" moments where I am asked to do the bookend session for local seniors... which I think is really cool.   It's great to see that kind of loyalty and support... and to Team Parmenter... I thank you for that.

Judge-ment Day...

Sometimes... things don't always go as we planned them.

Wednesday morning was no different.

One of the earliest seniors to book this year was none other than East Marshall's Nate Judge.   His mom and I graduated together.... ummm... a couple of years ago... and evidently there was never a question as to where their session was gonna be.

With all that time to plan... surely nothing would trip them up, would it?

;)

Wednesday morning... 8:05 a.m... (so just a SMIDGE late...  so I KNOW they've been scrambling a bit... in walks Nate, Mama Cari and Girlfriend Samantha.

We do our normal outfit "show-and-tell,"  and with another scorcher forecast on tap, I take one look at East Marshall's heavyweight wrestler and highly suggest that we get him in his jeans and long sleeve shirt and get THAT out of the way, ASAP.

Nate looks at Mom.... Mom looks at Nate...  Mom says.... "it'll be alright... they're not THAT wet."

Wet?

Evidently the insane humidity that we've been experiencing didn't allow Nate's Rock Revival jeans to dry on the line from the night before and now i KNEW why Cari was still holding them in her hands.

"You'll be ok... you can just wear 'em.... It's not THAT big of a deal."

Except, I could tell... It was.

Rather than start off on a tension filled Mom vs. Son issue... I made an executive decision... Started in the shorts... and put our Black-and-Decker fan that we use to make girls' hair blow, directly on those damp jeans.

Crisis averted.

So, just like the day before with his football teammate, Josh Wilson... it was Operation Get The Outdoor Stuff Done Before We All Melt.

I had been worried about this one in particular in regards to the heat.   We had two big guys trying to get this done.  One, the photographer, usually looks like a train-wreck at the end of the session in heat like this... The other... didn't have the option of looking like that...

To my surprise... as I found myself squeegeeing sweat off my brow repeatedly... Nate kept saying, "I'm really not, too bad."

And you know what?  He wasn't.   No sweat... no perspiration coming thru the shirts.   Dude was taking it all in stride.

It wasn't until I began to pull candids for his sports collage that I got it figured out.   The big fella has dropped some serious poundage since last football season...  and bottom line... he looked great.

The first hint of this came to me when Nate popped out his football jersey and something didn't seem right to me.

I asked, "why does that number just look wrong to me?... You haven't always been number forty-three have you?"

"Fifty-nine."

"Coach is moving me to tight end this year."

I've yet to meet Coach Farley, who's entering his first year of a rebuilding program at East Marshall.  I've seen no less than six Mustang seniors in the last couple weeks... and to a man... they all have good things to say... and seem unified in their mission to get this thing turned around... and to do whatever it takes to regain respectability.

I asked Nate if there were any wins on the schedule this season.

"Yep."

How many?

"All of them."

That's buying in.   And I like it.

Nate didn't plan on having an 0-9 season the year before...  Nor did he plan on having an injury his junior season of wrestling...  He didn't plan on the heat index getting to 110-degrees during his sesson... nor did he plan on his first outfit being derailed by humidity.   But you know what?  None of it phased him.

Why?

I couldn't tell you for sure... but if you take one look at the last image on this blog... You have all the answers you need.

Nate didn't plan on losing his best friend, either.

While I already let the cat out of the bag on this image a couple of nights ago, I would be remiss if I didn't give it the attention it's worthy of.

For the few that are taking the time to read this, that are not aware... We are just one week shy of the one year anniversary of the tragic loss of Nate's shoulder-to-shoulder teammate on the line... in the wrestling room... and in life... Mason Stephens.

The raw emotion that has spilled forth since that image was unveiled has told me one thing.   It still hurts... East Marshall and our community still grieves... even a year later.   This was to be Mason's senior year, too.


Nate wanted to honor his fallen friend with some ink on his right bicep, and despite his mother's understandable initial hesitancy, it was off to the state of Arkansas to get this done legally.

The cross adorned with a pair of angel's wings, Mason's initials and "Psalm 23:4" will now live on forever on Nate's arm... Naturally, he wouldn't let his senior session pass without letting his old buddy be a part of it.

My wheels started churning... and I immediately knew what I was gonna do.

We darkened the camera room... softened the strobes... 

Click.

I glanced down at the back of my camera...  felt the lump in my throat swelling... I looked up, voice quivering...

"Dude... that is really, really cool."  my voice trailing off to almost a whisper.

I had to act like I was adjusting the settings on my main light behind my 4x6 softbox to keep everyone from seeing the tears in my eyes...  But I have a feeling they knew, anyway...  and that's ok... I'm on their team.

Sure... the session began with a couple hiccups... but after the life lessons this guy has learned this past year? You don't sweat the small stuff.  

Literally, or figuratively.

#SWEATINandSWAGGIN #WILSONstyle

Where do I start with this one?

The connections with this family have went from zero to sixty-five in 4.3 seconds over the past three years.

Sure I knew of Todd and Angie Wilson before then... who hasn't?  I've watched their boys grow up from peewees to young men.  One can't be a patron of East Marshall High School and not know instantly who "Luke Man" and "Lil Guy" are.   It's in the fabric of what made us Mustangs recently.  

Luke (class of 2011) is now at Iowa State, but hasn't really left as he was back as middle school baseball coach this summer (teaching my own son the ropes of the middle infield... and there could be no better example).   And Lefty Joshua "Lil Guy" Wilson had his turn on Tuesday to try his hand at this senior picture thing.

The road had been paved by his big brah a couple years back... and after Luke's epic session... It had been reported to me that after seeing so many unique ideas for his big brother.... young Joshua wondered aloud... "has BStew saved any cool ideas left for me?"

Oh ye of little faith... ;)

Truth is... now that the Darrin and Tracy Nuese family has no more seniors to bring me... next in line for favorite #facebook/#twitter/#texting Power Family in the district?   #YouGuessedIt.  Todd and Angie Wilson and Sons.

Not sure where I'm gonna go after this year... But in the mean time, I had to try to find a way.... somehow.... someway... to top the untoppable as one of our biggest fans in Mama Angie Wilson brought son #2 to us.... her baby boy...  Joshua.

An exemplary young man in his own right, Lil Guy had a bad hand dealt to him out of the gate as the insane heat and humidity that has plagued us was bearing down on Central Iowa again.   The Wilsons, being the gamers that they are, showed up an hour early to do whatever they could to ease the situation.... I wasn't surprised.  Winners do whatever it takes.

Just like his older bro, we took a trip out to grandma's near the junction of highways 30 and 330.  The images we have gotten there are particularly satisifying because it really MEANS something when we get an shot by a fence with the cornfield in the back... that they've been doing since Josh was a little boy.   And when we get shots in his grandparents barn when he and his partner in crime brother of his have played since they were way shorter than their mama... that kinda stuff is priceless.

Sure it was nearly 90 degrees by 9:30 a.m.... but that couldn't stop us... it was in to Marshalltown to get a little urban stuff before returning to the stomping grounds that both mom and dad have invested so much in.... East Marshall High School.

We had JUST been in the locker room last week with Josh's life long buddy, Walker Steward... so with so much Mustang swag in such a short amount of time, my work was cut out for me.   Add in the fact we had been there two years ago with older brother?  I swallowed hard... prayed for creativity.... and you know what?   God provides.

Some of my favorite images came in that locker room and gymnasium.... Why?  Because I KNOW how much it means to Josh.  I've been there.   I know what it feels like to be in his shoes.   I know what it feels like to win a conference championship in that town.... and also what a kick in the stomach it is to pour your heart and soul into something, only to have things not turn out as you might have hoped.  

Sure it might be just a game... but I know that the life lessons that Josh is learning... he will take with him forever.... both the good and bad... and he will be a better man for it.

Life isn't always easy.   Going 0-9 in football can be soul crushing to a high school football player.... as is not getting the job or promotion you had hoped for.   Suffering thru back-to-back 1-21 seasons in hoops is no picnic, but coming out of that with the knowledge that there are bigger and more important things waiting for you that ultimately you have no control over... is winning that cannot be decided on the court or gridiron.

Josh Wilson flat out gets it.   And if my own sons turn out to be 1/2 the young men that he is... my wife and I will have done something right.... Something very, very right.

Thanks for your loyal friendship Team Wilson...  Hats off, Todd and Angie... you done good... both times.