Senior Pictures - The End and The Beginning...

It's coming, time for a new school year to start, and many of the students will be returning as Seniors, getting ready for their last year in high school.

As I said in my earlier post, “The Magic of Teens,” I love working with them! Senior pictures are one of the best situations to shoot. Seniors are excited, looking to the future, enjoying the moment!

 This is Brittany, who has now successfully completed high school and is moving on to college in the fall.

She was so much fun to work with! We found an abandoned farm house and an overgrown field accross the street that we used for our shoot. She was all about the different poses and backgrounds, and came up with several of these ideas herself.



As a photographer, it's easy to try and be in total control of the ideas, but it is good to listen and try their ideas too.



When you are willing to give up some of the creative control, you can have fun with your 'subject,' sometimes finding new ideas will come up in the process.










As with anytime shooting people, it’s important to get to know your ‘subject’ as a person.

Find out what they like, how they imagine the shoot will go. Ask them what they are most looking forward to this year. Find out their favorite music/bands/tv shows and movies.

Having these little conversations put people at ease, and allow them to relax.

Some advice:

on clothing – tell them ahead of time (and if you are someone getting ready for senior pictures, listen up) to wear something they love, but use neutral colors so that the outfit doesn’t end up fighting with the backgrounds for attention.

Keep it simple. If they want to do a change of outfit, change just a shirt, shoes, and/or accessories – this will make a much more successful photo shoot.

Play: play with angles, backgrounds, have them be silly or fashionista-like. Have them ‘strike a pose’ because it’s in between the silliness they relax and tend to have fun. Many times that’s when you get the best shots.                                   

I tried shooting from both below and above - both worked in different ways. With her sitting, it was good to go from above, using the tumbleweed as background.

In the picture shown above right, I wanted to get the sky, the wheel, and her, so I shot slightly below in order to create a great scene. The wheel and field behind were one of her ideas. This pose turned out to be one of my favorites, and hers.

Have a great day!

~Capturing The Moment~

            ~Phaedra~