Maybe being just good enough isn’t enough for you at all. Maybe you have aspirations for college and you need to have excellent grades. Maybe you’d love to win the state championship and good enough, just isn’t enough.

Professional portraits are expensive. Many people settle. You’ve got a friend who likes to play around in photography. And, really, that’s “good enough” for your senior pictures. Really? Is it? You’re only a senior once. You will never graduate high school again. You’ll never be this filled with excitement and anticipation as you prepare to step out into the world, taking your first steps as an adult. Mom and Dad, this is likely the last professional portrait you’ll have of your son or daughter until they get married! Do you really want to settle for “good enough?”

It’s important to me that high school seniors have amazing portraits to mark this huge step in their lives. Yes, I have a business to run, but I only started this business because of my passion and love for capturing moments in lives. I want to help you have these last few moments while you still have your baby at home with you. In fact, I’d love to include mom in a shot or two with her senior!

If you think you can’t afford exceptional professional portraits for your senior, you’re wrong. You can’t afford to NOT have quality portraits done. Give me a call or shoot me an email. We will find a way to make the portraits you need affordable. Because it’s really that important. And “good enough” simply isn’t good enough.

I hope you love your pictures as much as I do, Alli!

Here are a few favorites from her session:

First, the group shots:

And here are some pretty basic head shots of each of the girls. Don’t you just love the way they coordinated their blues/greens? I thought they did a great job with wardrobe.

And here they are, doing what high school girls do best… texting. My favorite was when the group of two on the left actually called one of the girls in the group of three on the right. So funny!

I just had to put this one in here. This girl just looks like a model. It’s one of my favorite individual shots from the whole session.

After all the fun of modeling, we went for cupcakes. They got kind of crazy with them, but that’s what makes for great shots!

If you’d like to schedule a friend session, contact me. There’s a button right below to schedule. If you do your personal senior portraits with me, you can get the friend session added on for free, and if any of your friends what to schedule a senior session with me, they will receive $50 off their session fee. But this deal won’t last for long! You must schedule before Sept. 30 to take advantage, so call or email now!

Nominate a Senior

And here is the image. Sigh. Every time I look at it.

By the time we finished here, the rain had nearly stopped, so we headed out to try our original location again. But, on the way back, we passed this area of Urbana that had been under construction for quite a while and is now nearly finished. It provided several very cool back drops. It will be even more amazing when the grass comes in.

By the time we finished here, it was starting to get back and I figured our original location was now a no go, because it was bordering on too dark when we first stopped there. Now as for sure going to be a no go. So, we headed more into down town Urbana and checked out Crane Alley. Because of how dark it was getting, I knew I had to pull out my flash. This was the first time I’d ever done anything like this and I have to say, I’m quite wowed by the results. I’ve done lots of reading and studying, so I had the basic knowledge in my head, and I’ve used my flash in “safer” ways before. But, since this was my own daughter and she’s been right beside me on my photography journey, I knew she was open to me experimenting and was going to be patient with me, so we played. This next shot is one of my top three favorites from the night. First, I happen to think she’s beautiful and she’s such a natural in front of the camera. But I also just love some many elements about this image. The rain drops, frozen in the air. The lights strung across the alley behind. The light flare from my flash. I just love it.

She had one more dress she wanted to wear for her pictures, so we changed and headed to a parking garage again. This time, one that was decently lit. Not enough to use those lights, but we had fun again, using the flash. That’s the first one here below. All elements came together perfectly. A nice breeze lifted her hair just so, the city lights in the back ground. Just perfect. Then, as we were headed home, we made a last minute decision to try our original location again. Now that we had the flash out, we would have no problem with it being dark. And it was. Pitch black out. It was 9 p.m. and totally dark. In fact, we had to use the van head lights to even see what we were doing once we got there. But, it was totally worth it. This shot is amazing.

This session is special to me in many ways. It’s my own daughter. I got to try new things and learned a ton, and best of all, created some really fun memories with my girl before I send her off to college. I love you, Emily, and I just know you are going to totally jump in with both feet and make a huge difference in thousands of lives. You’re amazing!

Signed, your senior photographer, who is now reduced to tears thinking about you all. Thank you so much for inviting me into this very special time in your lives.

We started with hair. What I didn’t realize is that this was the very same day of the University of Illinois’ graduation. The hair and nail salons were on campus. Talk about a parking night mare. Well, we survived and arrived at the appointment on time.

Gorgeous glittery updo! Next was nails. I’ve never been to have my nails done before, so this was a new experience for me, even as an observer.

She went with a French manicure with a thin red line, to match her dress. It looks very classy. After braving the rain, and protecting the do, we were off to the mall for some makeup.

Emily’s request was a natural look except for her eyelashes. She wanted her eyelashes to really stand out. I think that goal was achieved. What do you think?

So, after a few pictures with friends, I got to take some of just my baby. This was really a fantastic day for Emily. However as Mom, it was a little bittersweet. We won’t have any more days like this, until her wedding. I’m looking forward to that day immensely. Now, here are some final images of my own Princess.

I am so happy to have this entire day documented. If this is something you are interested in for your own prom, please contact me for pricing information. And remember, I can only do one prom session per school (or even less if two schools are on the same day). So, get your bid in early. You can even reserve the day now, without knowing the actual date of your prom. If you’re not sure you want this, don’t worry. I’ll send a reminder out in the spring if I still have dates available.

Vendors:

Hair – Lando Hairstyling, Urbana, Campus

Nails – Modern Nail Salon II, Urbana, Campus

Make-up – Sephora, Champaign, Market Place Mall

Photography location – iHotel, Champaign