Mama waits no more...

I had to chuckle.   But I love the enthusiasm.

Not to mention the consistency and reliability.

We photographed South Tama's Damon Whitebreast a week ago Thursday.   And as most clients of our expect and understand, especially this time of year at the studio... their pictures aren't going to be ready the next day.

Usually not the day after that either.   Or the day after that.

Our focus shifted several years ago in this Instagram-esque We-Wanna-See-It-Now world we live in, from getting it out FAST to working as hard as we can to crank out the best QUALITY we can... and lots of it.

Per usual we had plenty of other jobs already on the back burner ahead of Mr. Whitebreast  when the week began.   But that wasn't gonna stop his excited mama, Hattie, from checking... JUST in case.

Tuesday she called.    Ready?  

"Nope."

Wednesday?

"No again."

Thursday?

"Negative."

I was unaware of the calls until Thursday as my secretary informed me of Mrs. Whitebreast's anxiousness.

I didn't blame her... I'd be excited, too.

I asked my secretary, Jennifer... "Did you tell her I haven't even STARTED on Damon yet?"

Jen responded, "I've just told her that we'll call her when they are ready."

After three such instances, Friday rolled around and I manned the studio solo yesterday.

10 a.m. rolled around... the phone rings.   You guessed it.   Hattie Whitebreast.

This time our super excited senior mom got a little more of an explanation and to her credit, she totally understood.   The good news is that I finally started on the artwork that you see below here, and fortunately the light could be seen at the end of the tunnel.

She was pumped to see images of her son with his trusty "best friend" Toby the 17 year old lab/terrier mix.   She couldn't wait to see his football/basketball college.   She was stoked to see the images paying respect to his Native American heritage.   Add in some fun shots with his main squeeze Kiley and a slew of other ideas, and you get the picture.   There was a lot to be excited about.

I had to get Hattie up to speed with how our system works here at Stewart Photography to ease her mind a bit.   There were already several images up on our core website at stewartphotography.net... and our world famous blog was forthcoming in short order.   All perfect barometers as to where a senior's progress stands as they work their way through our system.

So here we are... the blog is nearly ready to be dropped.   The much awaited images are complete and his book is ready.   I assured Hattie that I had been getting up at 4 a.m. every day all week to get to this point, and she thanked me for my efforts.

At long last, her Nanaki (Meskwaki pronounciation "None-a-gee") was complete and her wait to see her son's images (at least the one's on the blog) was over.  At 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, I had my work cut out for me to make the images be as big as this fella's stature and wonderful personality.  I hope it was worth the wait!  Rest assured, that phone call from Jennifer will finally come on our next business day which is Tuesday!   In the meantime... enjoy Damon's blog!  :)

Brady's bleedin' Dodger blue...

 I've been making quite a ruckus lately about my affection for all things Gladbrook-Reinbeck,

Not just the seniors' unbridled support of Stewart Photography... but also by the top notch parents.

We've seen lots of new Rebel faces this senior season... but also some familiar ones... repeaters if you will.

Once such case took place just last week when Brady Kuehl made his appearance at our studio.

In a rare scenario... I had actually had the opportunity to meet BOTH of Brady's folks in the fall of 2012.  Sister Callie visited in October that year and her first go-around found us having to postpone the outdoor portion of her session.   Mama Chris came to the indoor... and Papa Tim came to the rescheduled outdoor.

So unlike some of our new found G-R super awesome parents, I already KNEW what to expect from the Kuehl's.   And not surprisingly, it was part of what made Brady's session memorable.

My favorite moment for our baby-faced senior fella was when he busted out his Los Angeles Dodgers long sleeved T for a series.

A huge baseball fan myself... I have been suffering for most of my life through what has been more than a century long rebuilding project. for my Chicago Cubs.

Meanwhile, Brady's Dodgers are once again in the hunt to be part of the MLB playoffs.   Two games up with a dozen to go in the National League West with the eventual NL MVP in Clayton Kershaw on his side, Brady is pumped and poised to see his boys in blue make a run at the World Series.

On my end, however, I was curious as to how a small town Iowa boy ended up a Dodger fan.

I'm not sure I've ever heard such a claim in 21 years on the job at Stewart Photography.

Cubs?  Sure.

Twins?  Yep.

Cardinals?  For sure.

Brewers?  White Sox?  Royals?   Yes, yes and yes.

Proximity driven?   Of course.   But it's not a surprise.

So how then, does a fella from rural Iowa end up a die hard Dodger?

Papa Tim chimed in...

"I like to call it good parenting."

Suddenly after realizing that I've doomed my three kids to a lifetime of suffering with the Cubs... I realized... that indeed., Tim was right.

Young Brady Kuehl was smart enough to take his father's guidance in all things MLB and run with his birthright as a perennial contender.   In my boat-that-won't -hold-water excuse as a Cubs fan, I pointed out that it's been over 25 years since Kirk Gibson's miracle "I can't believe what I just saw" World Series Championship in 1988, but alas... it's been since 1908 since my Cubs won it all... so I've learned as I gotten older to just  keep my big yapper shut when comparisons pop up.  When your opponents have generational lifetime scoreboard on you... it becomes tough to argue.

So I merely told the Kuehl boys I had little sympathy towards their Southern California Championship cause.   While 25 years is a long time... it's nowhere NEAR having a "bad century," like my beloved Northsiders from Chicago.

In addition... we talked a lot of academics at this session.   I'm guessing they don't let just any old dummy join the Missouri Institute of Science and Technology, but that's where Brady has determined was his soft spot to land in his pursuit of a job in aerospace engineering.  Look out NASA!

I did get the big sis update and I was pleased to learn that Callie is enjoying her college years in Pella at Central College.   They haven't quite put the finishing touches on the statue they are planning to erect in my honor there, but in the meantime,  I'll applaud Callie's college choice at the very least!  ;)

So whether it's sending one of their kids to an awesome Iowa Conference college like Central or steering your offspring in the direction towards a perennial winner like the Dodgers, I couldn't kelp but think that both Callie and Brady have gotten some extremely sound advice over the years.

My suggestion?  Keep listening to mom and dad.

Peace out.

-BStew

-30-

Changing my Black-N-Gold focus...

Well... after a week that's seen my favorite teams in black and gold fail at the hands of their rivals, what better way to turn my focus into something positive by writing about a gem in the same color scheme.

I've been looking forward to this one for a couple years.   We photograph alot of seniors from BCLUW annually.  And this year's Class of Comets has had a ton of familiar names.   Repeat clients... younger siblings... lots of loyalty.

The latest of the Conrad caravan to Montour came in the form of Nicole Montgomery.

Big sis Danielle paid us a visit a couple years ago as part of one of my favorite group of seniors of all time.   I was talked into attending one of their volleyball games that year in support of what amounted to nearly the entire Comet starting lineup being on Team Stewart as well... One of the few players wearing black and gold that I hadn't photographed?   You guessed it.   Freshman, Nicole Montgomery.

Naturally I thought to myself... Hmmm... well, there's probably someone I might see in three years.   But as competition is as abundant as I can ever remember in twenty-one years in business, one can never take anything for granted.

So when Nicole trusted me to deliver for her... I made sure to thank her... and then went to work backing it up like I've always tried to do.

Just like her sis, she made my job easy.

It's not hard to bend over backwards when there's this sort of unbridled enthusiasm coming from the client right out of the gate.   Sure they're anxious... maybe even a bit nervous... but you just know that they are stoked out of their mind because they trust you to not only make their images blow their mind... but also their DAY is going to be everything they ever wanted.

Pressure to deliver?  Sure.  But it sure doesn't seem like it when your senior is giddy with excitement.

What I liked most about Nicole was how easy going she was.   Was it damp, cloudy and windy?   You bet it was... but was she carefree about her hair and overall look?  Yes she was.   Combine her trust in me with her comfortableness in her own skin and it was a perfect combo.   You'd have to ask Mama Angie as she was our only witness, but it seemed like we were hitting it on the screws all day.

I take that back... there was ONE other witness.

The cat.

While we were uptown doing urban images with our middle hitter turned super model for the day... we kept getting followed around by this friendly cat.  

Only problem was... Miss Nicole wanted NOTHING to do with said feline friend. 

All i could do is laugh as... we'll call her "Alley" the cat kept persisting.

Mama Angie was entrusted to SAVE her daughter from the, ahem... EVIL death kitty several times.   Thank goodness for that!   As a tribute to Alley... she make the blog as the last image in the batch... enjoy!  :)   It's just a little something extra I can do as thanks to yet another partner in ratface crime.   I've pulled no punches about my affection for all the love that comes our way from Conrad-way over the years.   I couldn't appreciate it more.  

It's often said that you can't say thank you enough, and even though Team Montgomery knows it... I'm gonna thanks them again anyway.  You're the best.  :B

At least he didn't growl at me...

I've often joked with senior guys and their folks that if I can get them, on the way home from their session to admit that what they just went through wasn't so bad... I've done my job.

The point being... that most guys aren't exactly looking forward to this thing we call senior pictures.   There are exceptions of course.   But most dudes float somewhere in between a luke-warm indifference to Mom-Is-Making-Me-Do-This.

But in THIS case, the Wray family from Grinnell was not just thankful that they got their son here... and that he smiled... and that he just may have had a good time in the process...  but they were thankful for another reason.

No growling.

Evidently, as I learned early on in the session from Matthew Wray's bean spillers (also known as sister Molly and mama Sara), Mr. Wray used to love having his picture taken so much... that he would growl at the photographer.

Let it be known that Matt Wray was as nice of a guy as one could possibly meet.... polite... conversational... engaging.   It's not often that you'd find a 17 or 18 year old guy willing to include his baby niece as part of his senior session, but that's just the kind of fella we're talking about here.

I guess he just REALLY hated photographers back in the day!

Fast forward ten to fifteen years, and all that adolescent angst had been completely replaced with a broad grin (although i made him go B.A. on some sports and hunting images) and the days of GRRRRRR had swapped with a day of greatness.

From the sounds of it, Matthew had been unintentionally ended up in Montour via an ATV gravel travel adventure  gone astray a few weeks back.   But on this day... he very much found Montour on purpose.

The day started with our guest of honor droppin down his tailgate and paying homage to his love for all things outdoors.   The camo coat... the rifles... the fishin' poles and the tackle box.   All the elements were there for a cover image for Field and Stream magazine.  ;)   Even Molly got in on the act for a few as the sibling share in their love for the outdoors.   It was nice finally getting to meet Molly as I had noticed over the last year or two that she was a regular "liker" or commenter on our facebook posts even though we had never actually done work for her.   Hopefully the real thing was just as good as the cyber version of Stewart Photography!

I learned alot about Matt on this day.   He dates a girl that is the daughter of one of my wife and I's friends from high school... he not surprisingly is a farm hand on the side.   Mr. Wray is most likely gonna fall in his father's footsteps by shoving off for Indian Hills and their criminology department after high school.

As this often goes with athletes, we saved the sports stuff to the end... and when we got to crackin' out all the Grinnell gear for hoops, baseball and football, I discovered something ELSE about Matt.

Dude's brain is wired weird.

Translation:  He's ambidextrous. 

While we were running through our series of athletic poses for his eventual sports collage, it came to light that he's not really a lefty... or a righty.

He writes and throws with his left hand.   But when it comes time to shoot a free throw or take his hacks on the baseball diamond... you guessed it... he does the way a right hander would.   When he's fishing and hunting one never knows which hand he might use that day (he likes to keep the fish and pheasant guessing, evidently).

Regardless of what hand he uses... what we did at the very end of the session was priceless.   As I mentioned earlier, it was Matt's wish to take a few images with his brand spankin' new President of the Matt Wray Fan Club.

Weighing in at just over 8 pounds and all of 29 days old, Emerson Ann Stark donned her little Tiger gear complete with a bright orange flowered headband.   And while most senior guys would go all James Dean and be too "cool" for this kinda thing, you could tell that family meant more to Matt than any flack he might get from the guys over including little Miss Emerson in his session.   I'm glad we went down this path with the Wrays... because the images of the two of them are hopefully portraits they will treasure forever.

It was a fun morning from start to finish and I just wanted to thank Team Wray for bringing their business north to our studio... it was a great experience.