Back to School

Yesterday my twin neighbors headed off to their first year in High School. Where did the summer go?? I know where mine went - eat, sleep, photograph. . . repeat! But watching them pose for mom as she snapped some quick shots to mark this moment in their lives, reminded me of the flurry of activity that occurs at this time of year.

It reminded me of preparing high school cross-country runners for another season of practices and meets. Each athlete was preparing to achieve the goals they had set for the season and the rising decibel level in the locker room told me that school was back in session! It didn't matter what the weather was, we were out there to set personal goals and win meets! We ran through the last heat/humidity of the summer, through the fall rains and finally the light snow and grueling winds that awaited us at the state meet. It was time to wear gloves again.

So as I'm working on a custom Senior "My Book" for Evan, I wish him his goal to compete in the State Meet and a personal best!

Pre-visualization & that little voice within

Things are humming around here - lots of graduation portraits being fit in before school starts again. Seniors are fun for me because they challenge me to find new places to photograph them. And I don't mean "just photograph them," but rather photograph them in a way that says something about them. So the challenge is let my intuition take over and actually feel what their body language is telling me and go with that. That's part of the "art" of photography.

Zoe was great to photograph! She really let herself relax into our session and some great images were the result. When I came up an area I've photographed in before, I noticed a new stairway was blocking an area I had used in the past. I needed to let me eyes show me what was going to work here.

I walked around and checked out my angles and listened to the voice that said, "try down low." I squatted down and took a look at where I could put Zoe. Bingo! I could see how it would look in my mind's eye if I put her right there! The rest was all her - relaxed, confident, willing to work with me and then, happy with the results!