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.
