I had the fine opportunity of shooting my first Senior Portrait Session since moving here to the Pacific Northwest and it was indeed a blast. Having finally found my footing here, I must say I am quite happy with my decisions to reinvent my business mold and seek more of the niche market areas with my photography.
Well the arrangements and date was made and I was both eager and excited. As with my last photo shoot, I did not have the time afforded to me to scout the location, which was going to be on the clients farm. More and more, I no longer have the trepidation or concerns I used to have when it comes to having some knowledge of the lay of the land before a photo session. Not to say it is not something that I will not continue to practice when I can but being able to be sharp on your feet is something that every good photographer has to be keen on.
The clients farm was located down in the Snohomish, more so on the country side. As we drove down we passed a quite a few farms, some with a few cattle, goats and llamas and some that were just abandoned. My eyes scoped out quite a bit of ideal spots that would be great for some possible future shoot locations. I arrived and met Cindy, she took me on a tour of the farm which was very expansive. Cindy rescues distressed animals, most of which on the farm were horses. Since I had arrived early I had some time to spend milling about and setting up my shots, while Anika, Cindy's daughter got ready.
Prior to actually meeting Annika I had spoken to Cindy in regards to whether or not Anika had any type of theme in mind, her response was she is simple and if you ask her she would say, I don't know. Sure enough when I met Anika her answer was exactly that, I don't know. Annika was a country girl and an accomplished horseback rider so I decided that we would incorporate that into the theme for the shoot. As an added bonus the family pets were awesome, they had three dogs two Retrievers and a Corgi as well as a cat with cattitude. I can not recall the two Retriever's names but the Corgi was named Maggie and she sure was a ball of energy. With this opportunity, I decided to get some pet photos to use to promote more of my pet photography and let me just add that Cindy's family pets sure knew how to strike poses, at one point when I was trying getting some shots of Maggie the cat ran right out struck a pose that pretty much said, hey buddy my time to shine.
For this shoot I opted to use my 22" BD and natural light. It was a cloudy day which is what I was counting on and the sky was just one big giant soft box so the odds were in my favor. Whenever it comes to lighting my aim is to treat my set up as if it was a movie. I light with the intent of setting mood and atmosphere. I always want my images to have a high production like look and feel to them. Needless to say Annika was a joy to work with. A beaming smile and just an all around great young girl.
I have worked with many experienced models in the past and there were a few who were just difficult to shoot. Annika's mother really called it on point when she said she is simple, I was explaining the direction for one of the set ups and she got where I was going without further question. Her ambition is to be a nurse someday and I have no doubt she will be a great one. Below are a few samples from our shoot that I hope that you will enjoy. You can find more on the Senior Portraits tab in Gallery I. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, this has been another fine episode of The Full Frame.
