Senior portrait season kicks off the minute after the last day of school, as that is the official moment juniors become seniors, and it lasts until the day before the yearbook picture is due (which varies by school, but typically anywhere from October 1 – December 1).
Hair & Makeup: The Crown. August 2016
As the Seacoast’s leading modern senior portrait photography studio, we get a lot of questions about senior portraits, including when they should be scheduled and taken. There are a few factors to consider as you plan your senior’s session…these factors are the key to figuring out when to schedule your session. For the sake of this article, we’re going to address senior girls. Let’s face it, most teenage guys would rather pretend senior portraits, (and perhaps photography in general), didn’t exist.
Hair & Makeup: Wink Salon. Wardrobe: Pretty Little Things
If this is your first child, you should be warned: senior portraits are not what they used to be. We are talking individualized, editorial, magazine style photoshoots. Kids aren’t lining up in the school gymnasium, holding roses, with an angelic hair-light pointed at the back of their aqua-net heightened hair anymore. That was the dream we lived.
Hair & Makeup: The Crown. Venue: Outside our studio/June 2017
WHEN to be photographed..in four easy steps
- Fashion. The major deciding factor for when to be photographed is fashion. Senior girls have ideas about what they want their portraits to look like, which is largely influenced by what they’re wearing. Some girls want to wear sundresses and some want to wear sweaters. The quickest way to determine when to be photographed, is to figure out what she wants to wear.
- Skin Tone. Girls often tell us that they want to be tan for their senior session, which gets trickier as summer turns into fall. If having a “summer glow” is important, she’ll want to schedule her session during the summer months, while she can still get to the beach.
- Schedule. This is the most pragmatic factor, but often overlooked. If your student is a fall athlete, their schedule tightens up in mid-August. Senior portraits are scheduled in the evening, typically 1-2 hours before sunset. That’s often the time students are practicing, have games, work, or are doing homework/studying (once school begins). Seniors who plan to get their hair & makeup done by a professional also need to remember that they’re navigating not only their busy schedules, but also the hair & makeup artist and photographer’s schedules. This is where planning ahead will make a big difference!
- Environment. The last factor is the environment. If your senior wants blooming flowers, she will want a summer session. If she wants colorful leaves, early October is her best bet. It’s worth noting that there are more weeks of blooming flowers than colorful leaves. There are only a few weeks of foliage, so if foliage is at the top of her list, her October date should be scheduled as early as possible (we have clients who book their fall sessions a year in advance). “Environment’ is the least of all the factors because many environments don’t really change with the seasons (cityscapes, beaches, forts, etc..), and honestly the picture is more about the senior than what’s behind her.
Hair & Makeup: The Crown. October 11, 2016
When to schedule your session
As soon as possible. The early bird gets the worm. The earlier you schedule your session, the more flexibility you’ll have in terms of choosing your date. You don’t have to have any of the details figured out, just get a date circled on the calendar. You can fill in the details about location and wardrobe later.
Hair & Makeup: The Crown. August 2016
We think July & August are the perfect months for summer senior portraits. The weather is great, the tans are on point, and our schedule (and your senior’s schedule) isn’t completely jammed yet – which makes rescheduling in the event of rain, easy peasy. Of course we photograph seniors from June through November, so there’s really no right or wrong time to get photographed. We always make it work!
For more information about our senior portrait sessions, please review our guide or contact us to schedule your session!
Big brother was just a love, enamored with his baby sister (just look at him examining her little toes!) and so darn cute I just wanted to squeeze him! Don’t you!?
Fast forward to last week, my dear photographer friend Meg was in town to do one of her STRONG photoshoots (she was photographing our Lynn) and she had a vision for a night shoot with water. Somewhere between 10pm and midnight, while we were playing with the hose in my front yard, I remembered the smoke bombs..and was feeling the bravery that comes with having two other photographers and a hose handy. Safety first, people.
It turns out that smoke bombs aren’t actually scary..at all. And we made all kinds of magic happen that night. But since I wasn’t shooting, I was only helping, I had to make my own magic happen.
Two days later, my assistant Caleb, who happens to be an amazing athlete and soccer player, willingly stood out in the rain at 10pm to let me photograph him.
I wish I could show you the behind the scenes footage of this shoot. It wasn’t just raining, it was POURING, I had plastic bags over my lights, my youngest daughter was under an umbrella with a hose, while my oldest daughter was sitting on my back, holding an umbrella over my camera. I was laying on the ground (in the dog poop region of my front yard), yelling instruction to Caleb, then we’d take a few shots and all run into the garage and look at the back of my camera and then devise a plan for the next shot. Then we’d all run back out to our positions and do it over again. Repeat. We were drenched. Like as though we had just been submerged underwater in our clothes, yet fully fueled by the excitement of the epic photos we were making.
They also made me want to offer these to everyone, because these are just beyond good.
They’re EPIC.
But first I called some friends to come play..
And I swooned again.
These sessions are for people of all ages, sizes, genres, hobbies, sports..
You see, I know her grandmother and I went to school way “UP” Maine with her mother and her aunts. Many of us have since moved to Southern Maine and and so it was such a joy to be able to photograph them in this beautiful stage of life!
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