Category: Seniors

I remember working with his guy like it was yesterday!!!

I vividly recall visiting the various properties at which he was interested in having his pictures taken – such cool places!

Like this creek…

The Limestone “walls” were amazing but the mosquitoes were thick and thriving!  🙂  Ha!

It was a super cool location, but our time there was short and sweet!

This old barn was on another piece of property and had so much to work with!

The pasture area held some picturesque areas along with a sweet cow that is special to R’s family!

In honor of R’s involvement with Ag, a nearby wheat field was the perfect place to capture some pictures in his FFA jacket!

The shot below was a team effort!  🙂

Special thanks to D, R’s mom, for holding the bottle of milk and dashing away as it was time to click the shutter!

It has been fun to cross paths with R and various events and hear how things have been going since graduation!

College life seems to agree with him!  🙂

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know R and his family and look forward to working with them again in the near future as they celebrate the accomplishments of another (upcoming) Senior!

Can’t wait!  🙂

Since I am focusing on Seniors throughout 2016, I thought I would backtrack and feature Senior sessions which never made it onto the blog, working my way up to those who will graduate this May!

I recently ran into J at a local basketball game and enjoyed catching up a
bit!  Although she has had a lot going on in her life, she is doing well and enjoying her first year of college!

J was absolutely wonderful to work with!  She brought some great ideas to her session, which I had fun implementing during our time together.  She opted to do two sessions.  One during the Summer and another once Fall hit our area.  In fact, we ended up splitting her Fall session into morning and afternoon sessions since there was so much she desired to document!  I have such a hard time narrowing down which pictures to share, so bare with me!  This first set of pictures are from her Summer session.

We started in Haddam, KS and worked our way toward an old farmstead outside of town.

Along the way we stopped by a creek and caught some fun shots near and in the water.  🙂

J’s Mom made this special quilt for her…something she will probably treasure forever!

We also passed this field of “flowers”…how could we not stop?!

Finally, we reached the old farmstead.

It was the perfect place to display some of the art work J has made through her HS years as well as the perfect place to play with some paint!  🙂

I have always wanted to take some fun pictures of someone splattered with paint…just needed the right person to come along!

She rocked it well!  What a great way to end J’s first session!  So many fun memories!

NOW to her FALL session:

Part 1:  We met early in the morning and were at locations special to her.  We started out around her home.

With another stunning quilt J’s Mom made for her!

A nearby pond where her family kept some of their horses.

Another pasture, up the road and around the bend, where she has fond memories.

Part 2:  After taking a break for a few hours, we reconnected that same evening to wrap up J’s session(s).

J wanted pictures around her High School so we met there and captured more wonderful pictures of her interests and activities!

I had a blast with J and am thankful it worked out to visually lock in these memories for her!

This Senior could not have timed his session any better!  🙂  They were hoping for a splash of Fall color in his pictures and ended up with a ton of colors from which to choose!  (It can be so hard to time a session for Fall color, you never know exactly when all the color will be at its peak…T hit it just right!)  Here are some of his pictures with awesome color!

I will never forget what happened during his session.  I had switched lenses and casually set the one I was not using on the chair in the above pictures.  I was ready for the chair and just grabbed it, pulling it toward the desired spot.  Upon doing so my lens went crashing to the asphalt…it was like slow motion as I watched it bounce end to end, back and forth on the hard surface.  This was one of my favorite lenses which has been used often!  As anyone with an interst in photography knows, lenses are not cheap…all I could do was look up and say, “God, please don’t let it be broken!!!”  I picked it up but did not want to look it over…didn’t want to know of any probable damage!  We went back to taking pictures and before long we were back in the car and preparing to head to another location.  It was then that I took a deep breath and began to check out the lens.  I was encouraged – the exterior didn’t show any dents or chips and the glass was normal – WOW!!!  I didn’t hear anything rattle on the inside as I moved it around.  So, I put it on the camera body, and took a few shots with it – AMAZING, simply AMAZING!  The thing did not show one ounce of damage!  Everything worked as it should!  I do not know HOW it survived that fall and those bounces but IT DID!  I looked up once again and thanked God for this miracle, for it was huge to me!  Months later, as I continue to use this lens, I am reminded of what it survived and am grateful all over again!

Now back to this awesome guy’s session – T plays the trumpet so it was fun to incorporate his instrument into some of his pictures.

While working around town we were watching the light for just the right time to stop by the Belleville Farm and Home Store to catch some pictures with the tractor out front.  It was kind of funny because we would have some cloud cover and start to head that way only to have the sun pop out, bold and bright, sending us a different direction.  It all worked out in the end but added some humor to our time together.  🙂

We also spent some time at a farm T’s family owns…loved hearing about the memories they have made out there over the years!  It was also fun to catch some pictures of T with his dog…I remember going into their store and seeing this dog when he was just a puppy!

Wishing T and many other Seniors out there God’s best as they head off to the next thing after graduation this May!

This guy was so super easy to work with!  He whipped out the smile or serious face as needed, had some fun along the way, was game to try a few ideas I had and didn’t get upset with me when his freshly polished car ended up dusty from the dirt roads I took him down.  (It was a GOOD THING we took some pictures of him with the car before heading down those dirt roads!)

It was awesome to work with C and I am excited about sharing some more of his pictures with you!

We started out at this cool, old station – love all of its character!

We rolled through Haddam and took a few quick shots along the way before stopping for some pictures with C’s car!

To document C’s time with the football team, we took these pictures at the ball field:

This is the part where I took C down a dirt road and his car ended up totally dusted in the back.  Just for fun he struck a pose to say, “Look what you did”.  🙂  It was kind of fun to be able to write his name in the dust though.

We were keeping an eye on the sun as we caught these images…we had a special sunset picture in mind!

And here is the pictures we were hoping to capture with the setting sun.  🙂  Love it!

C, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to work with you and wish you all the best as your graduate high school and move on to the next thing in life!

Oh my goodness!!  I think it is safe to say this girl is living her dreams!  Just wait until you see her interests and where she spends so much of her time!  Not only does she have the privilege of working with great animals, she also has an amazing place in which to enjoy them!

About a year out from having Senior picture taken, J’s family talked about getting on my schedule.  With her pending session in mind, I began to write down ideas as they came to me.  It was super exciting to finally have the day of her session roll around so we could begin putting all those ideas into action.  Quite honestly, while we captured A LOT for J, we ran out of time for all of our ideas.  🙁  Guess that is better than running out of ideas though.  🙂

We started off at the local FFA sign – isn’t it cool!?

It was very warm out the day of J Session so we did not have her spend a lot of time in the FFA jacket!  We hopped into our vehicles with a great appreciation for the AC and headed for her house.  After she changed clothes, we started taking pictures near some trees on their property – I call them cigar trees since they have the long seed pods hanging down!  🙂

We spent a little time down by the barn to capture these pictures with one of her horses.

Adjacent to their barn is an indoor riding arena…the perfect place for a few backlit shots near the large doors.  I just love the haze created from all the dirt being stirred up!

Since J has also worked long and hard with her heifer we pulled her in a for a few shots too.  🙂

It was still rather warm outside, so we headed back to their house where J could freshen up and change clothes.  While she was cooling down and changing you should have seen all the work her family was doing!  In fact, they did so much in preparation for J’ssession!  All they accomplished was greatly appreciated – it truly was a family event!!!  Thanks to each one of you – T, L, S, S – you all rock!!!!

It was now time to devote some attention to capturing J with her favorite guy, Superman!  🙂  They make a great pair!

This is one of the many things J’s family set up for her session: mowed lawn, trailer hooked up, truck and trailer positioned just so, animals groomed and tied to the trailer…waiting…all we needed was J!  🙂

Her two favorite rides:

A representation of time spent on the dance team.

A few pictures taken around the outdoor riding arena.

I am so happy J and her family live in a place where they can thoroughly enjoy the things that are special to them!

J, thanks for entrusting me with your Senior memories!  I loved getting to work with you again!