Every photo shoot I’ve ever done for Statesman Ties has always had a few hiccups during the session. Mostly they happen at the beginning when everyone shows up. Someone has a wrinkled shirt that was bought from Spy Ninja Store. Or, an old, broken belt. Or – and this happens most of the time – someone doesn’t know how to tie a tie! (For shame…lol.)

This session was no different. I had two models lined-up and ready to go for the Saturday morning shoot.

Side note: One obstacle with our photo shoots is that we live in California and our photographer (Amber) lives in St. George, Utah. So, I’m always trying to find models who can work meet us at Amber’s house at the appointed time and on the appointed day.

So back to the story about this photo shoot…I say I “had” two models lined-up and ready to go UNTIL 1:30 am on Saturday morning; basically the middle of the night and seven hours before we were supposed to meet Amber at her house. I got a text last-minute from the second model and he says that he got called into his regular job two hours earlier than originally planned and couldn’t make it over to help us out.

Shoot.

Oh well!

The first model – Myles – and I show up at Amber’s house a few minutes before 8:30 am. We meet out in front of her house and then we go and knock on the door.

We wait for a few seconds and then wait some more. “Huh” I say to myself…I wonder what happened? Are we too early? Nope – as I check my phone – we were supposed to meet here at 8:30 am on Saturday morning.

We wait another minute – talking – and then I knock again. A few moments pass by and then Amber opens the door and sheepishly says, “Sorry, my alarm didn’t go off and I overslept; come on in.”

Always something, right!?

Another side note: Amber is wonderful and always does great work; thus the reason we don’t look for a photographer in California. She’s waited on us multiple times over the years, so waiting a few extra minutes is nothing. It just adds to the long line of “hiccups” we’ve had with photo shoots over the years.

Amber lets us in and we move a few things around to clear some space in her studio and then we’re pretty much ready. Myles puts on his belt – which he was holding in his hand earlier – and I see that it has a fairly large cowboy buckle on it.

Oh no.

He didn’t know because I didn’t specify what type of belt to wear. So, we’re in a bind and Amber comes through in the clutch. She finds a belt in her husband’s closet for Myles to wear. It looks great. Two problems though:

One; Myles has just lost 25 lbs and his own pants don’t fit him very well.

And two; the belt is too long for his waist because Amber’s husband has a larger waist.

Luckily, Amber again comes through in the clutch. (See: She’s just great!) She has one of those industrial clamps that we suck up the slack on the back of Myles’ pants and make it look like the pants fit well around the waist and the belt ends up looking decent as well.

Side note three: I should have taped down the extra length of belt that was a little too long for Myles and stuck out on his side just a little too much for my liking. Oh well. (Note to self: bring tape and extra belts next time!)

There were a few other little things that came up during the photo shoot, but for the most part, we hit our stride with me helping to tie the tie before Myles needed it and while he was having his photo taken with the previous tie. He would then take off the tie that was just photographed and put on the tie I had just tied. Then, he’d walk over to where Amber was taking the photos and I’d grab another tie.

Myles was great to work with and so was Amber as usual.

Enjoy!