High School Senior Portraits – Delusions of Grandeur or Mad Genius?

Okay. I can’t be the only Mom that doesn’t just want GOOD senior portraits for their graduate but STELLAR portraits. And by stellar, I mean portraits that show off their personality. These portraits need to be as unique as they are, right? I learned quite a while ago that school pictures were just something that were never going to reflect the inner light of my child – the person that I literally grew in my “schmoo oven” … ha ha.. I don’t really use that term but omigosh, the mom on The Goldbergs makes me laugh so hard and she says stuff like this all time and it makes my daughter cringe and roll her eyes whenever I channel this character.

When I was in high school, we were required to visit the school recommended portrait studio. We were given the option to do wardrobe changes but basically, all the pictures looked the same… girls in off the shoulder wraps (simple black or feather. EW!), Cap and Gown and guys in tuxes or something more casual like a sweater. Everyone basically looked the same.

Back to the pictures… 

When Michaela was a junior I started formulating ideas for portrait sessions. And while I could have hired a photographer to takes these portraits, there were several reasons why I didn’t.

1. I had multiple photo shoot ideas – many not even in our state. It was too expensive to hire another person to do this.
2. Being a photographer myself, I didn’t want to risk “backseat driving” the experience. It would have been not fun for ANYONE.
3. I would only have myself to blame if the pictures sucked and I wouldn’t have spent a small fortune to screw it up.

While I have been taking pictures pretty much my whole life, I don’t do this professionally. Everyone seems to have a digital camera these days and even with cellphone cameras getting pretty dang good, everyone thinks themselves a photographer. And there is a mindset that drives me crazy – for example, someone will see a picture that I’ve taken and really like it. Instead of saying “Hey, that’s a great picture. I like what you did there.” They will say something like, “What kind of camera did you use?” Drives me insane because it implies that the integrity of the photo is thanks to the equipment (which DOES play a part) but the one operating the equipment only played a passive role. Good photography is an art form. Not everyone has an eye. It takes practice, honing your skills and raw talent to be a successful and gifted photographer.

So that’s my rant… sorry. I have two dream jobs… A) work third shift at Disneyland, fixing up the chipped paint and destruction left behind by disrespectful guests or B) photographing concerts full time…. or travel photography. If it means seeing the world and recording the experience with pictures, that would be amazing.

In hindsight I am so thankful that we did all these photoshoots. I am a planner so I planned these a year in advance, starting with a trip to Disneyland in the winter of 2019, knowing that if for some reason the photos bombed we’d have an other chance at it later in the year. As it happened, it totally rained on that trip. While we had some soggy moments, we did manage to get some really fun shots! And the rain helped keep the park empty which made it nice for having less background noise in the photos. In all, we did photoshoots in Disneyland (2x), Universal Studios, Spring portraits at the Utah State Capital, Summer and Fall portraits at various locations near our home. When the pandemic hit in her senior year, all these shoots were already completed. Had we waited, we wouldn’t have had the choice in pictures. And the best part? We made each photoshoot into an excursion to remember and I think we captured Michaela’s love of reading, Disney, her future in medicine and inner light really well!