Planning for your senior portraits is what’ll have you feeling your best. As much as I like to pre-plan everything that happens at a photoshoot I’d say there’s about 30% winging it. Which works out well, because believe it or not, I’m pretty much a fly-by-the-seat of your pants type of girl and there’s always something that disrupts the best-laid plans…whether it’s when the weather takes a nosedive during the shoot or a location I typically use is inundated with people or animals…you get the idea.

STYLING

For this particular shoot, it was the wardrobe. The one thing I usually have locked down pre-shoot.

Rachel is from Connecticut and the styling appointment was via Skype. We put together a few outfits but I sensed she wasn’t crazy about her selection. So I gave her suggestions for additional things she may want to borrow from friends or shop for. But, I also know in the back of my head that planning for her senior portraits is going to happen during hair and makeup! 😀 She arrived with an enormous armful of clothes and I was thrilled. I love options!

Why do outfit changes matter? Because pre-shoot I map out the location, outfit, sequence of locations….(honestly there’s a method to my madness). While Rachel was having her hair and makeup done I’m winging it and planning all at the same time. She brought this amazing long blue dress that Rachel and her mom were calling the goddess dress. I knew we were going straight to the field in that dress.

LOCATION

Typically we start off swooshing a bit and then once I’ve got a good idea of the girl’s personality and how that goes we’ll full-on spin. In the middle of swooshing and laughing Rachel yelled…

Can I keep doing this? Can I spin all the way around? This is so much fun!

She is my kind of girl!! Do you believe in magic? I do. I see it happen at just about every photoshoot. Go here to watch the behind the scenes video.

If you’re interested in more of the creative side of how I approach my shoots to set up the best possibility for making magic, get on my email list below.