As the end of the school year approaches, it’s about time not just for summer, family vacations, a summer job, but it’s also a time to start preparing for your senior pictures. This leads to the age old questions; why? Why do senior pictures? Your senior year is a huge deal! You’ve been in school now for 12 years, and next year, you’ll either enter the workforce, go to college, or both! You life will never be the same after this year. It’s also an exciting time of your life because while it may not seem like it, you’re getting ready to enter into the best years of your life. I know, graduation seems like the end of all things amazing and don’t get me wrong, high school was a blast, but seriously, my 20s were far better, and now that I’m 30, this new decade is already better than the last. This is why you should have senior pictures. Think about it, at every big event in your life, chances are at least one picture was taken: birth, first day of school, last day of school, vacation, birthday, then on to marriage, headshot for work/resume, and so on. Your senior year is just another big moment in your life, a chapter that you’ll enjoy reflecting back on years down the road. What better way to celebrate this new chapter than by photographing who you are at this stage in your life.
With that said, this is how senior pictures should be, a reflection of your personality today. We see a lot of photographers that do the old school, almost school picture looking style for senior pictures and nothing about this is personal or unique. Every picture looks the same for you as it does the next person, and like it did for the person 15 years before you. No way José! Our senior picture are all about an experience that you’ll love to look back on years from now. We want to capture who you are as a person, but also produce an image that you’ll love sharing with your friends and family. Many times this comes in the form of traveling to a location that you really like. The past two years, Chicago has been our main backdrop for senior pictures. Sessions like these definitely make your pictures unique, and provide an experience that you’ll never forget. Granted it doesn’t have to be Chicago, even pictures in our own backyard (fun fact, the pictures in this post are literally in our backyard) can be ones that are memorable. Marissa and Fatima’s pictures for example, the ones below, were taken during the same sitting. So even though the location wasn’t some far away land, the shoot was a fun experience because Marissa and Fatima were able to share the experience together and I feel like something like this could be really fun. For this reason, I’m going to be offering sessions like this starting this year. First of all, it’s a great way to save a little money on your session, and if being in front of the camera isn’t the most comfortable (for most people, it’s not), then having a friend or two there could really help bring out some personality organically.
Regardless of how the session is handled, whether it’s just you or three of you, in a unique location like Chicago, IL or on a family farm, senior pictures should be unique, fun, and of course all about you. Ultimately, we want the experience you have with your pictures to be memorable and whatever it takes to accomplish that, we want to provide it.
