Senior year is fast. I know, I have two kids and both are now in college, and the oldest is in her last semester, then she graduates in May.
Four years of college flew by.
My youngest was in high school yesterday. Life is fast.
Senior portraits are just a sliver of life, but maybe one of the biggest slivers out there. Kids are moving from childhood to adulthood. Not every kid is the same, and neither should their portraits be like everyone else’s.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a studio portrait, or an environmental portrait, it’s the photographer’s job to create something unique.
It’s my job to see differently, to look for you while you stand in front of my camera.
It’s funny, but when we start a session, the person being photographed is usually more excited, nervous, and anxious than I am. Their energy level is much higher than mine. As we start working you can feel that dynamic change.
Sometimes I start off slow. Looking for your best angle. Your best expressions. Your best poses.
I’m looking for you.
That’s the only way I know to describe it.
Then I see you!
I find you.
I find that something in your eyes. In your gaze. In the way you stand. The way you move. That look that you didn’t realize you had, and I’m off!
I get more and more excited as I start to find you. Start creating images. Full force. Shouting instructions to you.
“Turn your head this way!”
“Stand like this!”
“Move your hands like this!”
The magic we create is awesome!
This is why the consultation before the shoot day is important.
It’s where locations are decided. Artistic vision is first discussed. Things such as style, color, black & white (my personal favorite), formal, casual, etc… So many ways to photograph someone. So many ways to approach things.
Nothing cookie-cutter (that’s boring to me). Nothing cheesy.
I love to have fun. I love to try new things. New approaches. Those who come to me are also looking for something different. They don’t like the same old same old.
I grew up on magazines. I devoured them. From sports magazines, to my mom’s fashion magazines, to the different magazines you would find at the corner drugstore’s magazine rack.
I would flip through them for hours; looking at all of the pictures. I still do this, only I go to Barnes & Noble, grab some coffee while I am exploring.
It’s what inspires me to this very day. It’s where my ideas for backgrounds, styles, and posing come from. I am a photo nut. Always studying. Always looking at what is out there.
It’s where we can go if you want to play.
Can you believe there’s only a few short months left in the school year? Heck, we are halfway done.
Right now college applications are consuming you. Scholarship applications.
Spring Break, Prom, Graduation Dances. Graduation. Then it’s over.
Fast.
Now is the perfect time to start planning for those Senior Portraits.
Contact me, we can meet over coffee and a tasty pastry. Discuss options. Play with ideas. No commitments, and it’s free.
Imagination has no limits.
