Before all my senior portrait sessions, I meet with my seniors for a pre-consultation to discuss their vision for the upcoming session! Often time my seniors don’t really know what their vision is. The questions I hear most often are 1. What should I wear? 2. Where are we taking pictures? 3. What should I bring to our session? These are great questions and they do not have simple answers! I can think of many really neat places to take pictures in Richmond and Tampa, however do those place I love really reflect my senior, their personality and places THEY love? More times than not, the place I love my seniors have never even heard of so why would I want to take them to a place that has little or no attachment to them.
This is usually when I like to dig in and find out more about them.. places they love to hang out, little things they love (even like what they love to drink and eat!). I am going to feature Katherine’s session to share a little bit about how we can elements of things she loves and incorporate them into a senior session!
I am sharing Katherine’s session on the blog today and I think she’s a great example of how, together, we will plan a session around who you are and what you love! The easiest element of planning Katherine’s senior pictures was incorporating her love of dance. However, we wanted to take it a step further, not only does she love dance but she loves bright and bold colors and the color pink. When planning out her outfits Katherine showed me a leotard she loved a lot and once I saw it I immediately thought of the Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg, Florida. I knew in the Spring the bougainvillea’s are in full bloom. I could envision Katherine’s vision for incorporating her love ballet in this gorgeous setting. This picture is probably one of my most favorite pictures because we took into consideration so many of Katherine’s loves and I believe it shines in this portrait! Don’t you?
I also believe it’s fun to incorporate props or things you love without the prop taking the stage in pictures. Finding locations that incorporate your seniors favorite things make it easy to showcase the things they loved their senior year!
We used The Hyppo and The Dali Museum to highlight Katherine’s love of art, the water, popsicles, and her favorite beverage, Coke! Such subtle finds and easy and fun ways to make this session personal to Katherine!
It’s so exciting choosing locations around what you love and being intentional with your planning can take your session to a new level of fun. It is also my hope that it’s a great way to remember what you loved about your high school years! I always encourage my seniors to think of places they love and it’s so fun when you can see their happy shine in the places they love ❤
In this last shot we combined Katherine’s love of dance at the Dali Museum. We were equally intentional to capture the palm trees in the back ground so Katherine could always remember Florida if she ever moved away! PS- Palm trees are such a Florida thing and what many of us (like myself) remember most about home if we move away!
Gianna Grace Photography 