Senior pictures II

****Today is the last day of high school for Alyssa! An era for the entire family has ended. I am excited for her future even though it means big changes for all of us. I have had this draft written for a while and thought that today is as good as any to publish it especially since her senior year is almost over...****

When Alyssa had her senior pictures taken late last summer, we were mildly disappointed with the results. Not disappointed with the subject(!) and how she looked but rather with the composition of the pictures. The photographer took SO MANY up close pictures of Alyssa. If Alyssa needed headshots (she did not...) we would have been set. 

A friend asked me to take her son’s senior pictures in the fall. She knows that I am not a professional photographer but that didn’t matter to her. Her son didn’t care much at all about photos so my friend didn’t want to spend a large amount of money on a professional. Before I took the pictures, Alyssa went with me to to the site where I was going to take the pictures.  I wanted to do a test run with various locations/ backgrounds in the park. The pictures that I took of Alyssa were really good... though she was not photograpically ready, if that makes sense. I told her that I would be happy to take senior photos of her later in the week in the same park after she’d done her hair and make up. She thought about it but said that she didn’t want to deal with another photo shoot- that the senior photos we had from the professional were fine.

Fast forward to spring break- before we left, Alyssa indicated that we could try to get some senior pictures of her near the beach. She didn’t necessarily want beach senior pictures because she knows how windy it can be right at the beach. But, she said maybe near the beach we could get pictures. Of course I was game to take pictures of her!

I brought my Nikon and a prime lens to Florida. The first day we were there, we walked around looking for a location to take pictures. It was extremely windy everywhere, not just on the beach, and Alyssa asked me if it would be OK to not take pictures. I told her that was fine! We had photos (lots and lots of up close photos but photos nonetheless!).

Then came Friday. Friday was our last full day in Florida. The weather was supposed to be really bad with rain and storms. And not just a tropical storm that comes and goes within 1/2 hour; rain was predicted most of the day. We both woke up by 8:00 am. Radar showed that rain was on the way but it wasn’t raining yet. I suggested to Alyssa that we go on a walk- since we knew rain was coming and it appeared that once the rain came, it would be with us for a while- this could be the last opportunity to spend time outdoors. We walked to the CVS that was closest to our hotel to get some snacks and pop. While at CVS, Alyssa found a shirt that she really liked. It was one of those crocheted (sp?) tops that was one size fits all. We verified that we could return the top if it didn’t fit. Alyssa and I hurried back to our hotel so she could try on the top. If it didn’t fit, we would likely run into rain if we had to go back to CVS to return it.

Alyssa tried it on and it fit. She loved how it looked with one of her skirts. At this point, the rain still hadn’t started. I suggested that we go down to the beach and I could take a few pictures. I suggested this mainly just as something to do- it looked like we were going to be stuck inside for several hours- and to get us to the beach for maybe one last time. Alyssa was game so we went to the beach and got a few pictures. By the end of the photo shoot, it had started to rain. We ran back into the hotel where we stayed for the next few hours!

The rain did stop after about five hours. By this time, we had pictures on our mind. When the rain stopped, radar showed more was on the way. I asked Alyssa if she’d like to put on a new outfit and take some more pictures before rain came back to the area. If they didn’t turn out, no big deal. We didn’t have anything planned to do and the sun was not out so it was not a great time to go to the beach or pool- this was as good as anything to do with our time 😊. I thought that many of the pictures turned out really good! Here are a few of the many that I took:

Here are a couple that I took earlier in the day- with Alyssa in the crocheted top before it started raining. These are obviously not posed pictures since Alyssa is looking at her phone. But, I think they are somehow fitting. She’s a teen who likes her phone- shouldn’t senior pictures reflect what the senior likes?? She also loves the beach so I love that the ocean is in the background. Also, I thought it was fitting that I took this on the last day of our spring break in Florida of Alyssa’s last high school spring break. Every spring break from her freshman year to her senior year, she went to Florida to a beach town. So I do love that we got these pictures at the beach!