Kelsey | Graduate

Because I’m primarily a wedding photographer, I only do a handful of graduate sessions each year… but, it’s sessions like this one that make me LOVE working with graduates!! I love the challenge of peeling back the layers in order to get down to the real personality within a person.

Graduate photos are all about personality in my opinion. I recently decided to take a different approach to shooting seniors. The whole point of getting photos done at this point in your life is to be able to remember back to what it was like. This past weekend, I was looking through old family photos with my whole family. It was basically a game of “who could find the most ridiculous photo”… needless to say, it wasn’t that difficult! We uncovered lots of graduate photos that were more than laughable. I mean, it’s great that you can sit around as a family and laugh at how stupid you once looked… but, when you think about it, it’s a little sad too.

How awesome would it have been if we could have been flipping through boxes of images and found ones that captured our attention because they were perfect representations of what that person was really like at that point in their life? If you could see a natural laugh that made you laugh a little when you looked at the photo. If you could practically touch the emotion and the anticipation they are feeling in the image of what lies ahead.

It is for all of those reasons that I decided to rethink my approach to these sessions. Rather than simply handing them props that have nothing to do with who they are and making them look a little ridiculous… I decided to figure out what they like to do in life. What makes them tick. Are they serious? Do they belly laugh at every joke? Do they love to read? Do they love to text with friends?

I want Kelsey to be able to flip through a box of images and come across the shot of her texting on the iPhone and laugh with her kids about how addicted she was to texting when she was 17. I want generations to come to uncover these images and think about what a bright and vibrant personality she had when she was this age.

So, there ya have it. Those are my thoughts on shooting seniors. I’m hoping to blog a few more of the sessions that I have had recently with this approach.

For now… enjoy getting to know Kelsey. She’s pretty stinkin’ awesome!!