Sam Hunker | Senior

When I was typing the title to this blog post, I accidentally typed "Sam Hunkey" in the subject line.. I chuckled.. backspaced.. corrected, but then for half a second, thought, "What a killer nickname.. I should leave it." because this kid is such a hunk. Seriously. His "chill" personality and his occasional hilarious comments out of nowhere make him that much more handsome.

Sam is graduating from Trinity this May, and he will hopefully be playing baseball in college somewhere come Fall. I think anyone that has seen him play baseball is excited to see where he'll end up. His mom hopes he will play for a school close to home so she can watch him play. Uh.. duh. I hope he does too.. and I vow to go see more Trinity games this season.

Okay, I'll stop typing so you can check out this guy's good looks. Meet Sam. He likes baseball:

















Mom. :)



Hadta get a picture in too. :)

Jordan & Claire | Life

Even though a good portion of the following story sounds like it should be completely shoveled out of my memory forever, it's so absurd, I think it deserves to be recorded. Ready? (sidenote: I was laughing the whole time, so there are no complaints.. just laughable and frustrating inconveniences) Here goes: A few weeks ago, I purchased tickets to The Civil Wars Show at Monk's coffee shop in Abilene, TX. I quickly found my concert buddies and decided I might as well head to Dallas afterward to visit family and friends. I began to plan my trip. One night, my dad noticed something under Gary (my car) was leaking, my tires were so worn, and my battery was loose. Awesome. After my car had been not running for a while, I would have to tighten everything before it would start again and then occasionally drive to United for free air. (Why does air cost money other places? I don't know) . Sooo before I left for Abilene, I bought brand new tires, fixed my battery, and stopped the leaking underneath my car. Woo! So the next day, I drove to Abilene, and Gary was feelin' new. I photographed Jordan & Claire.. SO much fun, and on our way to eat before the concert, Gary puttered to a stop. Everything in my car shut off. The battery was totally dead. Jordan's AWESOME brother came and jumped it, but it immediately started shutting off again after I drove for a bit. He then REJUMPED my car, and followed behind me half a mile down to an auto parts store. Gary coasted into the parking lot, losing life quickly. :/ The awesome guys at O'reilly's tested my car battery. It was shot. I had a new battery installed. Everything was good to go. We made it just in time for the concert. Yay!



The next morning, I packed up my things to head to Dallas. Gary was NEW AGAIN (or at least I thought)! About an hour and a half outside of Dallas, I broke down... about 45 minutes away from any town. I called an auto parts place. They gave me Lloyd's number. I called Lloyd. Lloyd tows cars. An hour later, Lloyd shows up. Lloyd loads up my car. Lloyd and I drive for 45 minutes on back roads. We pull into a car shop. I meet Diego & Juan. I ask Lloyd how I should pay him. He says, "You know what? Don't worry about it. Money isn't everything and you've had a rough day." My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe this absolute stranger would bless me like that. I hugged Lloyd and then spent 2 hours in the lobby of this small town, run-down car shop reading up on Japan and remembering how fortunate I am. I was given time to think and pray, and for that, I am grateful. So everything turned out fine. My car was officially fixed.. for real this time, and I finally made it to Dallas that evening. Who knew that a trip from Abilene to Dallas could take over 8 hours?



New Tires: $400
Fixed Battery & Leaking Rear (gross): $60
New Battery in Abilene: $100
Tow Guy (Lloyd): $0 (whoa)
New Alternator: $180
Diego & Juan to install alternator: $70
Spending unplanned time reading/thinking/praying: Priceless



Here is the Abilene shoot with one of my most treasured friends, Claire, and her handsome drummer boyfriend, Jordan:

Meredith Dawson | Senior

I know I say it about every senior blog post, but MAN! I can't believe these "kids" I know are seniors and graduating! Most all the seniors you've seen on my blog have been little brothers and sisters of the people I graduated with, so it's crazy to me that they're so grown up. Meredith is second to youngest of the Dawson family, so it will be WILD when youngest Dawson, Scott, graduates.

Sooo.. Meredith was a blast. The gal's laugh is awesome. It's like a girly giggle/cackle, and you can't HELP but smile when you hear it. The greatest part about her is that she would crack herself up. If I demanded (yes.. I get bossy on shoots) a laugh from her, she would quote a movie or a youtube video she had just recently watched and then just bust out in laughter. Now, that's a pretty incredible quality to have. Meredith is a woman of such joy. :) She was up for anything and ready to go. I called before the shoot and asked if she would be down with playing with spray paint for part of her shoot. Once on board, I booked it to Wal-Mart and bought some cans.

Take a look, yo:















I experimented.. spray painted saran wrap and used a rubberband to secure it over my lens. hah.. different effect than what I expected, but still fun!



Yay for covering up curse words with flowers and happy things!! haha.