I am so excited to finally share Shantel's senior pictures publicly! Shantel requested senior portraits way back in August and was all set to do them a few weeks later in September. But the threat of rain had us pretty nervous. I can normally shoot portraits in light drizzle, but this was monsoon, rain an inch in an hour type of rain. I'm so glad we were able to reschedule for the next sunbreak, because this was perfect weather for Shantel!
This lovely Graham-Kapowsin senior just oozes sunshine anyway. There was no way to have her portraits done in the rain. Her dad accompanied and even assisted during our two hour session among my secret locations.
If you know Shantel, she'll give you the story of one of our great locations and how we even got good lighting advice from a stranger!
And if you know her, you know that this picture below is NOT her normal persona. This girl can laugh like no other! I don't think I've ever laughed this much or this hard with a client.
Graham is full of great locations for country girls, right Shantel?
Some new stores have moved into our area, which gives me the opportunity to find brick walls without leaving town, ha ha. And do you love her shoes here??
Thanks so much for visiting with Shantel's senior session and leaving her some encouraging words. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her and her family over the last six weeks!
For more information on senior and family portraits in the Graham area, please contact me over email or leave a comment.
Summer winds down and school is in the air. Especially for this year's senior high students! This is the best time to get senior portraits done! The sun, the hours, the opportunity to showcase your passions and talents! I only take on senior clients as a special request, but Alivia and I had such a great time I may be open to doing this more often! Alivia is about to be a senior at a local high school and she chose two locations that mean a lot to her. The first place we stopped was at Mountain Meadow Lavender Farm. The summer has been so warm and sunny that they had begun harvesting the lavender a few weeks prior to this session. But there were still so many great things about their farm, we just had a blast!
The second location we visited was a nearby farm that belongs to friends of Alivia's family. She has spent a lot of time here and is one of the places she is the most comfortable.
Alivia is a great friend who loves to exercise her creative side. Her big heart and generous nature is easy to see and easy to love.
So have a great year Alivia! I loved getting to know you and have a small part in celebrating this season in your life!
For more information about senior or family portraits in the Graham and Spanaway areas, please leave a comment or send me an email at info@ndrobbs.com
Last fall I had the pleasure of photographing Coltin, a senior at Sumner High School. Now that his graduation is eminent and he has selected his pictures and albums, I can share them with everyone!
He picked out some great locations in Seattle, focused on showing the city he loved with it's majestic skyline and great colors. After doing some warm up pictures at the lake near his home, we ventured out into the gray skies that most people associate with Seattle. It was a classic kind of day!
All photos can be viewed larger by clicking on them.
Kerry Park is always a favorite for the skyline.
And then off to Alki Beach!
Congratulations on your graduation Coltin! Off to the next step!
Senior portraits are available at any time of year and are available in three packages. For more information on senior portraits please email me at info@ndrobbs.com.
Did you enjoy The C Family in all their adorableness?
Now that they have had the pleasure and excitement of getting to see all their images and make their selections, I can share a little more with the public!
I decided it was time to share with everyone how I process and work with the imgaes after the portrait sessions.
First comes a cull - removing images that have obvious things wrong like a lot of folks blinking, any gear malfunctions (not a lot of those) and anything else that isn't immediately appealing. The second part of culling (after removal) is the saving of the very best. I may have 5 images of one child in one pose and just ONE face is perfect! My clients don't need to see all of them, even if the other faces are workable.
After I have narrowed it down to about 40 (and sometimes I start with 400!) I can move on to step two.
Second step is enhancing - doing a light through the whole group of pictures. Sometimes I adjust the white balance, other times it's straightening the images. Here is where Lightroom Presets are used. I've made two of my own presets to make this part easier. One is called Shade for the time I did 3 family sessions in the same location and in the same shade. ALL of those sessions needed a little bump of this and that. To avoid doing it manually every time, I found the "recipe" that worked and created a preset. Now anytime I shoot in the shade, this preset is ready to go.
The third part of my workflow is in details. Here is where I whiten teeth, remove acne and occasionally remove grass or trees that are distracting. Many images don't need this step at all.
Now I'm ready for the fun part - preparing the client's blog post and video! I may have about 40 images to work with, but now to choose only 20 for the video and only 5-10 for the blog. How in the world does this happen? Especially for someone who can be indecisive in other areas of life?? (that's me, in case you didn't know) It helps when I take a little of MY emotions out of the story. I get so wrapped up in the little snippet of my clients' lives I got to be a part of, that sometimes I need a day or two to unwrap so I can be objective again. Whew - brushing hair off forehead - now I'm ready. The truth is that I pick only the images that fit the overall mood and theme of the session. Then I have a time limit because of the music I chose. I sometimes to have remove a few to fit the time, but I make sure it doesn't change the overall feel of the video.
For the blog post it is the same process but I have to get the numbers even fewer. There are very few exceptions to my personal 5-10 image rule and one of them is a wedding! So if the image makes it to the blog, then it is one that I KNOW my client will enjoy and want to see and that I will want to see again and again!
So now that you've heard about what happens behind the scenes, please enjoy The C Family again, this time in their own video! Please feel free to leave comments or questions!
