First Senior Portrait Session

Oh what a day…late September back in ’17…what a very special day for me….

Sorry, great song and it seemed to fit perfectly! Anyways, thank you for visiting my blog. This post is both exciting and terrifying for me. I had my first Senior Portrait session! As I am a budding photographer (mostly hobbyist), but slowly putting myself out there. This August I spent a lot of time online reading up on taking senior portraits and posing. I wanted to absorb as much information as possible so that when the day came I was prepared. After countless hours on Google and Pinterest I felt like I had some ideas. Now what I needed was a location.

I ended up hearing about a wedding venue in Allenton, Wisconsin that doesn’t charge (yet) for photographers wanting to do a photo shoot there (as long as it doesn’t interfere with an event they have booked). When I saw the pictures online I knew this was the place! I messaged the owners of The Gardens Wedding Center on Facebook and they got back to me within an hour. They were extremely accommodating and helpful. The location had quite a variety of shots available from floral gardens, a pond, a sweet bridge, to a swing and a 1840’s church complete with wooden stairs and stained glass windows. ( http://gardensweddingcenter.com/ ) (@thegardenswc on Facebook)

After spending time at The Gardens Wedding Center we ventured into town and found some cool buildings to use as a backdrop and a parked train with some fun street art on the side of it. We even found an alleyway with good lighting and textured brick.

One thing that tends make me nervous while doing a session is the terrain. I have Transverse Myelitis which has greatly impacted my stability and mobility on uneven and unstable surfaces (such as grass). I also have developed a slight tremble or shake in my hand which only seems noticeable while carrying hot coffee (of course), painting or taking pictures. So I brought my tripod with to help reduce any shake I may have on camera to try to maintain focus.

Editing generally takes me quite a bit of time because I am not as proficient with Photoshop as I am still learning. I used both Lightroom and Photoshop for this batch. I struggled with making them all look similar so they could be framed together and having a variety of tones to appeal to both the Senior and her parents.

I ended up giving them quite a few. More than a typical package would be for a professional, however, they are family and I am learning. So really it was a win-win – well, except for my husband who had to keep answering my questions like he was at the eye doctor…One or Two, Three or Four…the poor guy was such a good sport.