class of 2027 Archives - Crystal Freemon Photography

I’ve been photographing this senior for years, so it was really fun to take her senior photos too. She’s just the coolest human, and I love the way these turned out.

She chose The Factory at Franklin for her session. Like South 40, it’s one of the few locations I shoot that requires a permit and fee, but if a client chooses it, it’s worth it. It’s a fabulous location with so much variety packed into one place: old brick, big doors, stairs, textured walls, and lots of little corners that make great backdrops. You can get a completely different look just by walking around the corner.

Most of my favorite spots there are outdoors, and we worked our way through a lot of them. We also had one big factor working against us: this session happened before the heat dome finally broke, and it was SO hot. Thankfully, The Factory has a few indoor spots I love, so we could pop inside between outdoor locations to cool off for a few minutes. Those old colored factory windows, the brick walls, and the string lights make for a moodier look, and some of my favorite images came from those breaks.

That’s one of the things I appreciate most about this location. It works in almost any weather, and it’s easy to change up the look between outfits without driving to a second spot.

Thinking about senior photos for your Class of 2027 senior? My fall calendar is full, but The Factory at Franklin is a great option for winter sessions. With all that brick, glass, and character, we aren’t relying on fall color or green trees for a beautiful backdrop. Reach out to check my availability and book your session.

I’ve been photographing this senior since she was two years old, and this session is special to me. Her mom is one of my best friends, one of the people who’s been my village through raising my own kids, and getting to watch her daughter grow up through my camera has been one of the unexpected gifts of this job.

The weather on Thursday felt like a gift. We’d already rescheduled once because of rain, and the weather this summer has been impossible to predict. She really wanted sunshine for her senior pictures, and somehow we got it, along with temperatures that weren’t even that brutal for a July day in Middle Tennessee. I’m calling that a small miracle.

We shot at her grandparents’ house, and it was perfect. The light there was gorgeous, and more than that, it’s a place that actually means something to her. Between the flower gardens and her gorgeous playhouse still sitting in the yard, it gave us backdrops that a park just can’t compete with.

I’ll be honest about something I struggle with every single time: culling. I shoot too many photos, and I keep too many photos, and I am in awe of photographers who can hand a client a gallery with fifteen images in it. I get the appeal. I just don’t think I have it in me. Subtle differences in expressions, the way they are holding their hands, or just how the light subtly changes in a beautiful way, make it so hard for me to narrow down the images.

I have an especially hard time cutting down the number of photos for close friends. In this picture, she especially looks like her mother. In this one she reminds me of that toddler I used to photograph. It made me think it maybe would’ve been fine if it had rained on us after all, because I still remember the impromptu session we did years ago, her in her little rain boots, back when I was still learning how to use my camera. I don’t know when our babies turned into grown women, but apparently it happened.

So yes, this blog preview has more photos than it probably should, and the final gallery will be ridiculous. Sorry, not sorry. Some sessions are just worth the extra scroll.

If you’re a senior looking for photos that actually feel like you, or a mom hoping to hold onto this year a little longer, I’d love to talk about a session.