Schertz Senior Portraits - Elizabeth

Last Sunday was set aside for Senior Portrait Mini-Sessions.  We had GORGEOUS weather, amazing warm light, and a stunning location...and one of the sweetest high school seniors I've met took advantage of it all.

This is Elizabeth.  She is graduating from Steele High School in a few months:

 

 

A few years ago, I photographed Elizabeth with her brothers and sister at the same location. I love to see how kids grow and change! I barely recognize her:

 

 

(not only do I love getting to see the kids grow, but my photography has changed a bit during those years as well...love to see that too!) But really, isn't she beautiful?

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth, thank you so much for choosing me as your Senior Portrait Photographer. I enjoyed getting to know you!

Senior Portraits in Gilbert, AZ: Devon

This is my daughter Devon's Senior year of high school, which means that it is finally (yay!!) our turn to do Senior Portraits! This is beyond exciting for me. I've thought a lot about the significance of the images and I want them to be perfect, but I am also hoping that I can focus on just "being in the moment" and enjoying these last few occasions that we can spend together before she heads off to college.

Another thing I'm excited about is being able to share the session experience as a mom with my clients. I usually give a lot of advice to my clients during the planning stages about clothing, locations and what to expect, but that has always been from a photographer's view. After this, I'll hopefully be better able to see things from "the other side."

For Devon's portraits, one of the first things that we did was grab a few shots of her on the same day that she had her school yearbook pictures taken. She was already dressed and had her hair and makeup done, so it was really easy to do the two sessions back-to-back. For most schools in the Gilbert/Chandler school districts, yearbook photos are done at a photography studio during the summer before their senior year. I loved several of the images, so after we selected her yearbook image we ordered a few different poses for our home as well as for our family. I don't do studio photography with backdrops and lights, so I made sure to select the ultra formal ones that look the least like what I would normally take.

The recommendation for the yearbook photo was to wear a long sleeved, dark colored blouse. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find that in the middle of the summer? We finally found one at White House/Black Market. We ended up getting black, but a jewel tone would have been nice as well. If you have a student that will be a senior next year, I suggest looking for a blouse or shirt now, otherwise you will spend all day combing the malls in frustration like we did.

We ended up with about 20 shots that I loved. Most of them will go into an album, but two of them are framed and hanging in our house:




Originally, we planned to do Devon's portraits earlier in the year. That plan went out the window, however, when she ended up getting her braces put back on soon after school started. We have tons of pictures of her over the last three years wearing the darn things, and it was important to her to get some pictures of her with a perfect smile. So, we had to wait a few months.

Finally, last week, they came off. :) Time to get to business! We had a lot of decisions to make, including clothing, locations, hair style and props.

One of the things I always tell my clients is to first decide how you want the images to look. All of the decisions will fall into place once you begin to narrow it down, and the easiest way to do that is to think about who you are and what you like to do. Are you someone who typically dresses up or goes more casual? Where do you spend your time? Do you want to incorporate your school activities or a favorite hangout?

In Devon's case, we knew that we wanted her portraits to show that she's a Texas girl. That's where she was born, where she has spent most of her life, and it's where she's heading for college. Now that we had a basic look nailed down, the details fell into place.

Clothing: Jeans, boots, natural fabrics, layers, cowboy hat.

Makeup: minimal. We debated whether she should wear eyeshadow or not, and finally decided it wouldn't hurt as long as the colors were natural.

Hair: Straight or curly? We were undecided on her hair up until the last minute, when she ran out of time to do anything at all. So it is completly natural, she didn't do a thing except wash and air dry. I'm so jealous.

Location: Because I'm also photographing several of her friend's portraits this year, I want to use a different location for each Senior and I'm running out of ideas! As luck would have it, a few minutes before we left the house my friend Suzi suggested a place to try and it turned out to be the perfect spot.

Although I can make location suggestions, it always works best if my clients make the final decision on where do do the session. The thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't have to be perfect. The focus literally is not on the background, it is on you, and we can work within just about any location and still get great shots that you will love.


So here they are! I love every image, and now I have the difficult task of deciding what to print big and what goes into her album.



It is actually illegal to walk on or take pictures on railroad tracks, so after we got this shot we left. The light was too harsh, anyway.


We took advantage of an open building with a broken window:




I love using interesting details like the words on the building:




We didn't write this on the wall... it was a very happy coincidence:




The moss-covered wall made a great background:




At this point the sun was setting and it was getting cold in the shade, so we loaded up the car to head home. Devon pulled her hair out of her face into a quick braid, and immediately I knew we needed to get back out for a few more shots. These turned out to be some of my favorites of the day:




And this one seems to be the favorite of everyone that knows Dev really well:


We actually still have one more session planned before we are completely finished. We are planning a special shoot in April in her Prom dress, with professional hair and makeup and an urban, city-lights location.

She's a Texas girl, but that doesn't mean that she's a country bumpkin. :)
Stay tuned!!

Prom Night-Portraits at The Arizona Grande Resort

Have I mentioned how much I love to take pictures of teen girls? Well, can you imaging how much fun it is for me to take pictures of my own teen daughter??!! On PROM NIGHT?!!!!!!! I know that she had a great time, but I had a BLAST. It was so fun to see the kids all dressed up.

Devon and her date, Daniel:


Dev-just beautiful:


Daniel-so handsome!


Dev and Nicole-


And this is one of my favorites. Reminds me of those 80's teen movies that I used to love:
'

Most of the parents and kids were crowded around the sun-drenched fountain trying to get good shots, but I took Dev and Daniel across the street to a little spot that had some amazing light:



Unfortunately I couldn't get their friends to follow us, so Dev and Daniel would only pose for a few before they headed back over to the fountain. Once the sun went way down I did get some in front of the fountain. My sister says this one is her favorite:


Like I said, it was a great night for me. :) And I'm pretty sure the kids had fun, too.

Until next time!
~Leah

Introducing my Senior Rep for Mesquite High School

The last few weeks have been busy for me and for my gorgeous, sweet Mesquite High School Senior Portrait Rep for 2011-Brittlyn Miller!

As you will soon see, Brittlyn pulled off many different looks fabulously, each showcasing a different side of her glowing personality.

Check her out!














If you are a Mesquite High School Senior who is interested in an Ever After Photography experience for your Senior Portraits, and if you want to get a discount while you're at it, then find Brittlyn and snag a Rep Card from her. She will have plenty of them on hand, starting next week.

Support your Wildcat!

I have an new product that, as a Wildcat Cheer Mom, I know I'm very excited about.

This is a sterling silver photo necklace, with a hand-stamped medallion and two beads in the Mesquite High School colors:



I have one myself, to wear to football games this fall to support my favorite Wildcat cheerleader. I also have one with all of my kids pictures on it, that I wear almost every day.

I'm doing necklace mini-sessions for the next couple of weeks, so please don't hesitate to let me know if you want to get one for yourself. The cost is $100 if you simply want the necklace, or $150 to get a necklace and a CD of the images I take. And no matter which session you want, I always include a few files for your Facebook page.

Here are the images I took last night of Kenzie, who's mom is now patiently waiting for her necklace:








These are great for any sport or school activity, so if your son is in the band or your daughter is in volleyball, you can show your support and look good while doing it!

Senior Session: Brittlyn

Who doesn't love a beautiful girl? As anyone knows, teen girls are just about my favorite subjects to photograph and I don't think I need to explain why but I will anyway-the clothes, the attitude, the willingness to be posed and move around to different locations, the laughter and fun.

Last night I experienced all this and more at a senior session for this gorgeous girl. I did a model call because I'm introducing a new line of photo jewelry, and she was the first to answer. If I had the chance to hand-pick the senior I wanted, I would have picked her!



Brittlyn is as sweet as she is beautiful:






I'll have some images of the new jewelry (featuring Brittlyn, of course)posted here soon so check back in a few days.

Thanks for an awesome shoot Brittlyn!