I got the wonderful opportunity this afternoon to try my hand at Senior Portrait photography.
My good friends Beth and Mark (whose daughter Chloe has appeared multiple times in my blog) have a nephew named Brandon who is graduating high school tomorrow! They asked me a while back if I might be able to take a few shots of him. I figured it would be a wonderful experience, so I agreed.
This morning I was a bundle of nerves. I'd never attempted anything like this before and I was shooting someone whom I'd never met! I had Beth give me an overall "description" of Brandon before the shoot, but I was still going in blind. At least I knew that he would be able to take direction since he was a teenager (something my 2 year old seems to have trouble with at times - go figure!)
We settled on 2 locations for the pictures - Valley Vista Park in Cuyahoga Falls, and downtown at the Falls River Square. The rationale was to include both "naturey" pictures as well as a few urban ones.
Hit the park first...first thing I noticed about Brandon was that he has truly beautiful eyes.
I shot about 150 RAW images at Valley Vista and Brandon and I looked at one another and said, "ehhh....I think I've had enough nature - let's go downtown" Nothing at the park really wowed me, there were lots of people that kept getting in my shots and we had to work hard to avoid parked cars and the electric grid in the background.
Turns out Brandon is not a "Park Dude". He is an "Urban Dude" through and through. Once we hit downtown, his personality came out and I got more than just 2 basic expressions from him.
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Who says you can't have fun in a parking garage?
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| Brandon looked at me like I was nuts when I told him to go to the top of the ramp and then come toward me while running and jumping in the air, but I think it made for some pretty fun shots! | |
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| Brandon's Mom was not a fan of me asking him to jump off ledges. I told her not to look. | | | | |
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| Like I said - Don't look, Mom ;) | | | |
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| I told you this kid had gorgeous eyes |
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| Falls River Square has great splashes of color everywhere |
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I'm pretty sure this is my favorite shot of the day - reminds me of a movie star pose and expression
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| Congratulations, Brandon. Best of luck to you. It was a pleasure to meet you today! |
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7 comments:
Dana,
These are FANTASTIC! What a great job and very cool, creative perpectives!!
Stacey
Great job. I like the movie star pose.
Valerie R
wow!! these pics turned out really well... thanks u so much for taking them.... sincerely ur model.
Dana......I am WOW'd!!!! You have done a GREAT job! It was very nice to meet you yesterday. Brandon (ur model) had a great time. He thought your ideas were fun and good. He is very happy with these pictures in your blog and is on pins and needles waiting for the others (so is his mom). Again...THANK YOU so much...these are GREAT!!!!
Therese (model's mom)
;-)
Very nice pics Dana :) you're very talented. I know who I would chose to photograph me :)
Nice shots. You have some good places to shoot.
Wow, he really is an urban dude! He came out of his shell in the cityscape. Your pictures are beautiful! How talented you are. :)
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