Seniors 2013 - Emmilia

Keeping in the tradition of photographing seniors I've known for years, Emmilia is a girl who has been going to my family's bowling alley for at least a decade.  I even taught her to bowl when she was 5 or 6.  Now she's switched from her studies at Lincoln Park to do cyberschool so she can graduate early and start taking collage classes! 

When I put out my call for senior models this year, she responded so earlier this week we had her photoshoot.  We ended up at her aunt's house because Emmy wanted to bring her dog and her aunt has a big backyard.  I LOVE when people bring pets to photoshoots!  It's always so fun, even when the pet isn't being overly cooperative (kind of like Zander was this week).

First off, we did headshots.  Nothing too dramatic, just a nice pretty portrait.  I played with my portrait lens a little but it's really more dramatic for outdoors shots.  Studio is so great though because I love being able to control the catchlights in the eyes.  Check out how sparkly Emmy's are!

After the studio shots, we went out to the HUGE backyard.  It's pretty great and since it was nearly 6pm, the light was beautiful.  I took some really pretty pictures of Emmy with my "new" LensBaby which I got at ImagingUSA a few months ago but haven't really used much.  It's definitely going to make for some fun senior portraits this summer, I can't wait!

Emmy's dog Zander had been hanging out, sniffing around, and she wanted him included which was pretty entertaining to accomplish.  He kept rolling around!  Awww, happy puppy in the yard, he's so cute!  I want a dog....

Zander was being a little difficult though, so we ended up not using him so as many pictures as we would have liked.  I enlisted Emmy's boyfriend to help and hold my reflector for some more portraits of her because she was facing away from the sun and needed some light in her face.  I should have taken one of him holding it, she kept saying he looked like a giant M&M.  But this wasn't about him, it was about Emmilia.  She has been an awesome senior model for me!  If anyone else wants to volunteer, I have an application.  You have til the end of the month!

Seniors 2012 - Drew

I joked recently that I should do a "Zach's ex-girlfriend" senior special this year - Zach being my little brother.  I've photographed his first "real" girlfriend, a girl he hung out with in kindergarten and now his elementary school "girlfriend."  My brother and Drew were in the same class for years and she was his girlfriend because they played basketball together after school.  I love kids.  But now they're grown up and getting their senior pictures taken.

Drew and her mother came by on Sunday to do her pictures, but we ended up only doing studio shots because (like I mentioned in my last post about Jake and Melissa's wedding) the weather was horrid last weekend.  I had set up shop down in The Fallout Shelter, which worked really well because there's so much more room down there than in, say, a living room.  It was also my first shoot with a three-light set-up, as I just bought a third Alien Bee from a girl I went to college with.  From my point of view, I had a softbox to my left, a beauty dish to the right, and a hair light also to the right, but slightly behind where Drew was standing on the backdrop.  There's a photo of it on my Facebook page if you're interested.

We wanted to do more than just plain background shots though, so we cleared off the stage, grabbed the beauty dish and did some portraits of Drew and and her basketball with the brick wall.

Yesterday we finished up the shoot in Drew's yard.  I got a bit lost on my way there, honestly, but all was well in the end.  They have a pretty little garden and a big yard, and a basketball hoop.  Her mom Kelly told me she was glad to have me as their photographer because she knows we can work around each other's schedules.  Compliments like that are always so nice!