The last summer of your High School career
My approach to senior portraits is to showcase the young adult your senior has become. I look at these sessions more of like a personal branding session, celebrating their accomplishments, interests and memories. I know this can be an overwhelming time on a lot of levels, but, starting now will help you set yourself up for success when deadlines and other activities start to fill up your calendar.
I take pride in not just taking senior portraits but getting to know the kids and helping them come up with fun locations and outfits that highlight their vision and tell their story. The process is made even easier with the style guide website I offer my clients. After the planning process takes place we are off to the races with shooting. Full galleries are delivered in 4-6 weeks and you are all set to download them and start making invitations, hanging them up on the wall, using them for social media posts and submitting the images to the high school year book.
One of the main reasons why now is the time to start talking about what your vision is for your session is seasonal changes to your backdrop. If you are wanting snow for your shoot you better be prepared for last minute shots. If you want wild flowers, you need to be on the schedule by mid July. If you want sunflowers we need to chat about a drive east sometime in August. Also, the calendar does book up so start talking with me as soon as you can if you are interested in starting the process sometime before images are due to the school.
Why I think every senior should hire a professional photographer
I hear it a lot, "she/he only is doing this cause I am making them", says mom/dad. I will tell you that almost every time I do hear that, the senior ends up opening up and having a blast with me. I do purposefully offer a variety of packages for this reason as I don't want to overwhelm them too much but I do think the experience is worth it, even if it's a mini. Capturing this time is something to hold on to. Something you will look back on later and see how far you have come. We may not all look back at our photos from that time and completely love what we see but it will rush back the memories of some good times or funny moments we can laugh at forever. It's also this launching point, a period of time where the kids start to morph into a new time on their own and and what an awesome way to send them off with these pictures before they leave the nest on their next adventure.
