salem senior portraits
I’m a sucker for a sundress and jean jackets with cowgirl boots, so when Makayla showed up in this adorable outfit, I was thrilled. We shot this mini session at a park near my house, which gave us a little bit of greenery AND a little bit of fall color, plus a variety of backgrounds.
Emily was so much fun to work with! I hadn’t seen her since she was in elementary school (her older sister was classmates with my oldest son and they did some extracurriculars together), so I was a bit taken aback at how grown up she was. This adorable senior brought some great outfits (and shoes) to her session, which we did this past June. Although these photos are not yearbook candidates (the deadline was long past), she wanted to do some last minute portraits, to document her upcoming graduation. We met up at my studio and walked around to nearby locations, including Riverfront park, an empty dock, the new pedestrian bridge, Minto Brown Park, and of course, downtown. For the last few shots, we took a short drive over to Deepwood Museum & Gardens, which never disappoints.
As I mentioned on my sneak peek post, this girl is musical! I got to hear her sing, during her session, and her voice is beautiful! Not only is she gorgeous and talented, she’s also smart and drive. Aleena is graduating a year and a half early from high school! What?! Yep, true story.
I had so much fun photographing this senior. She’s plays guitar and sings…both of which I had the privilege of hearing during our shoot! We walked around the downtown Salem area with her parents, who were SO sweet, while laughing, chatting, and snapping photos. More from this session to come very soon!
Okay, so the moms (as in me and this kid’s mom) basically had to force this session, but it was totally worth it! My son and this guy have been best friends since middle school, so of course he had to come along as an assistant (this was pre-Covid). I even got a behind the scenes shot of him assisting with wardrobe. ;) It was a very early morning session and nobody was really awake, but we got a few real smiles! Aside from the early hour, it was quick and painless…and Mom got some senior portraits!
As usual, I’m always way behind on blogging. To be honest, I think I might have blogged this session on my old website, which crashed about a little over a year ago. Anyway, this is Cameron and he graduated from West Salem High School a while back now, lol. Nice kid, adorable smile, and he obviously plays water polo.
Em is an awesome human. She’s incredibly smart and obviously adorable, but she is also sarcastic and funny, with a big heart. I am happy to say that her parents have completely embraced her since coming out to them as bi-sexual. They’re literally the only house in their neighborhood that flies an umbrella flag all year round (actually, I don’t think I saw a single other umbrella flag the whole time I was there). Em told me she wanted to incorporate her bi flag into her senior portraits, as well as her umbrella belt (which I loved so much that I bought a matching one to keep as a client piece) and I was like, “Yes! Game on!” Sometime after that conversation, I decided we also needed to use a rainbow umbrella (and that she needed to own one), so I had one shipped to her house prior to my arrival.
Happy Pride Month!
Well, it’s official…the class of 2020 is officially DONE with high school. Pretty anticlimactic for these kids and their graduation is delayed until who knows when, but hey, they’re done!! This guy, who I’ve known for over a decade, is one of these special seniors. Congratulations, Jordyn!
P.S. Notice we grabbed a family photo at the end? This is totally a thing you can do in the fall, during a senior portrait session! I mean, we don’t want the whole fam dam there the entire time, but having them all show up right at the beginning or the end is easy peasy!
India, a senior at South Salem High School, wanted to do some of her senior portraits amongst the fall leaves, but of course the yearbook deadline is weeks before the leaves even turn! Side Rant: Why do high school yearbooks have such early deadlines for senior portraits these days? Back in my day (insert bitter old man voice here) we didn’t have to have them in until spring and we still got our yearbooks on the last day of school! ANYWAY…In order to get some photos done in time for the yearbook, but also embrace the autumn colors, we broke India’s session up into two parts. The first was held in early fall, against both the urban backdrop of downtown, as well as the “we are still holding on to summer” color palette of Deepwood Estate (Click HERE to see part 1). This session (part 2) was held at Bush Park, near the art barn, later in the fall. Another bonus, aside from seasonal color changes, from breaking your session up? Two different hairstyles!
