Rissa's Senior Session - New Location

I love shooting at new locations! I'm constantly looking for new places to shoot, sometimes I see something that I look at every single day and it suddenly looks different and is a photo shoot backdrop! Sometimes I just stumble upon a place. In July my friend and I ran a 5k brew run in Bozeman, starting and ending at the Bozeman Brewery.  As we ran along I was looking at all these buildings and thinking "wow these would be great for a photo shoot!". Later that week Rissa's mom contacted me about doing her Senior Portraits and I said oh I have such a great place.
We didn't get to the shoot until just last week, so I had to revisit the neighborhood to make sure I wasn't in a delusional state while I was running!  I even arrived to the area early for the shoot and found more buildings to use.  We had to make some adjustments to my original vision because of the sun that evening and it was not giving us very many shady areas at the buildings.  The other side of the train depot had amazing colorful graffiti. The second building was proving very frustrating for me. I was doing the best I could but just wasn't happy with the light. I suddenly turned and looked across the street and the building with the tin sides and wooden steps was sitting right there just inviting us to come over!
We decided to head back to the train depot to see if we could use the green doors. The sun was so close to getting to the point that we could shoot we decided to wait it out. Just 15 minutes later it was perfect. Some of my favorite shots are from those last 15 min of shooting! It pays to be patient.

Mike Senior Session - Clouds are good!

Photographers talk about "the light" all the time and everyone loves to see those hazy, sunny images.  But what most people don't know is that working in that light isn't easy. Yes its gorgeous...when you have a reflector to bounce light back into your subjects face so its not in shadow. But it's also a challenge..finding the right place to put your subject so there's no shadows across their face, changing your angle every time the light moves a bit...just to name a few :)!
So when I have a shoot scheduled and its a cloudy day, I'm happy. Clouds are nature's soft box. It diffuses the light, it gives a more even light. It allows me as a photographer a lot more "room to move" without having to worry about where the sun is. Cloudy days also make colors pop, so I love a cloudy day in the fall for a shoot!
Mike was lucky to get one of those cloudy days. Actually we were lucky to have a dry shoot. I don't like to cancel due to weather until the last minute if at all possible (unless its windy, cold and miserable). It'd been pouring for a good hour and about 10 min before the shoot it stopped! I think it started to sprinkle as we finished up, but sometimes Mother Nature Cooperates.
Guys aren't always really into their portraits, but Mike did a great job and I really feel like I was able to get a lot expression and emotion out of our shoot!

On a side note....I usually pick out my favorites from a shoot pretty quickly as I'm culling them. But every once in awhile when I go back to get them to clients or create my blog, I see one that I can't believe I didn't LOVE the first time around! That happened today with Mike's....I'm really loving the middle B&W one below! 

Grooms Family

I do quite a bit to prepare for my photo sessions. I talk to my clients, find out their expectations, learn names, ages and interests of everyone involved so I can relate to them on a personal level. I hate to be a "stranger" putting a camera in their face and expecting them to smile and feel comfortable. So I like to take that time to make them feel comfortable. If I don't get to meet everyone before our shoot, I like to spend the first few minutes talking to everyone and getting to know a little about them.
I'm constantly looking for inspiration for new locations, poses and ideas.  I subscribe to countless blogs and newsletters with tips and tricks so that I'm constantly learning and becoming better at my craft. Before a shoot, I make notes on poses I want to do and try, I draw stick figure diagrams and I refer to it often each shoot. That's not to say I don't go off on spontaneous tangents during shoots, because believe me I do that too. I just like to have a little bit of a plan, whether any of it happens or not!
So Sunday morning before Cindy's shoot, I was prepared....and then I went to pick something up off the floor and gracefully poked myself in the eye with the piece of paper in my other hand and immediately I knew, I scraped my cornea!!! And the first thing that I said "NO!!!! I have a shoot in 2 hours!!!" I thought about trying to reschedule but I knew that one of her son's was only in town for the weekend and I also knew that it being adult children and I already had my preparations done that I could persevere and get it done!
I actually didn't feel too awful, I would just randomly have episodes where my eye would start watering profusely and I couldn't open it....so luckily I only had one during the shoot! Thank you Grooms Family for putting up with my slight disability that morning and allowing me a few moments to get myself back together!

It was a beautiful morning at the Headwaters State Park and we were able to utilize a couple different locations there to get some great shot!  Cindy is the owner of The Foxy Lady Salon in Bozeman. She believed in my vision for a shoot with her stylists and I'm so very thankful for that!