More than a month ago my gardening friend Dawn called and asked me to photograph her son’s senior portrait. We talked about locations and decided that their extensive property in southern Skagit County would be a good place. Chris is an outdoors guy, an athlete, and a pianist. As is often the case with active high school seniors, finding a time that fit his schedule was a challenge. We ended up with an October Sunday morning session under cloudy skies.

It was actually raining when I arrived, so we started with a few interior shots with Chris at the piano. He wasn’t too keen on those, but we wanted to make mom happy. When the rain stopped we moved outside and began working our way around the garden.

We shot under the grape arbor, among the structural ornamental grasses, and around a contemporary sculpture. We did standing and seated poses and tried kneeling but Chris had a football injury from Saturday’s game and it hurt to kneel. Painful grimaces don’t make good portraits.

This portrait is in the apple orchard. At first I had Chris leaning on the tree, and looking through the crotch of the V-shaped trunk. Then I asked Chris if he had any other ideas and he immediately climbed up in the tree. He’s pretty tall, so fitting him into the tree was almost a challenge. I guessed that he’d been climbing the tree since he was little.

Chris had an easy smile and we had a good time working together to create a wide range of poses in locations throughout the property. I knew the family would probably only purchase one portrait at the end, but I like to provide many concepts to choose from.

This portrait of Chris at the edge of the woods is the one everyone ultimately liked the best and ordered as a small wall portrait. He looks relaxed and comfortable, and the golden yellow autumn foliage contrasts nicely with the blue sweater and jeans.

The overcast sky served as a giant softbox. I added a single off-camera flash as fill and to give a little dimension to the light in this portrait and in many of the others I made that morning. I shot with the Canon 1Ds Mk II, a 24-105 and a 70-200 lens. The fall color in the garden and the adjacent woods made a nice setting.

All in all, we worked for a couple of hours. When Chris and his folks came in for their viewing and purchase session earlier this week (they were out of the country in between) there were many portraits that they liked a lot. I showed more choices than I often do, but they were pretty quick to make decisions as I projected the portraits. Finished portraits will be back from the lab after Thanksgiving and will look great in their home.

Here’s a video with more of the session:

If you like what you see and would like to explore having me create your senior portraits when the days get a little longer and the weather more dependable please send an e-mail or pick up the phone and call. You can use the Contact page on the menu at the left, too.

Last Saturday evening I had the pleasure of working with Micaiah to create a series of portraits in Zuanich Point Park on Bellingham’s waterfront. Micaiah and I met through Model Mayhem. We met over coffee and decided the waterfront would be a good location.

We worked several locations and clothing changes, ending with this outfit. I used a long lens for all of her portraits to soften the background. The late afternoon light started out a little harsh, but by the time we got to shooting with boats in the background the sun had sunk behind a thin cloud bank and gave this gorgeous soft glow.

Micaiah had a natural grace which made her very easy to pose. I’d suggest a spot and show roughly what I had in mind and she’d be right there and looking great with very little adjustment needed. She’s interested in a career as a model. Being easy-going, good looking, and able to take direction will all serve her well.

The photo at the top of the post was made soon after the one by the lamppost here. Micaiah saw the sunset developing and pointed it out to me. While the harbor portrait was made entirely with natural light, I used a single small strobe in an umbrella for the one with the anchor and statue in the background.

By the time we got to the rocks overlooking the water the sun had set and we were working with the soft afterglow and blue tones on Bellingham Bay and Lummi Island in the background. Again, a single strobe in an umbrella provided the key light on Micaiah.

One of the things that sets a professional photographer apart from the masses with cameras is the ability to see how natural light is affecting the subject and to work quickly and effectively with added light sources like strobes. Especially as sunset light is fading there isn’t time to futz around with equipment and indecision. Micaiah’s mom was present for the shoot and I pressed her into service as a reflector holder and then holding the light stand with the umbrella in the light breeze as it was getting dark.

This morning I photographed the Burns family in their home near Whatcom Falls Park.  It was a cool and rainy day so we decided to shoot inside. Cora is about 2 1/2 years old and was a delightful little girl.  She really liked pressing the button on the flash meter as I checked the lighting on various shots.

Here’s a teaser video …

These photos were lit with an umbrella and a corded small flash. I’m really coveting a completely wireless flash system.

This morning I photographed a young family in Bellingham’s Cornwall Park. The forecast was for possible snow and/or rain, but the morning dawned calm and partly sunny. It was still cold, only in the low 30s, at 10 am when we started but this is an outdoors family that was prepared for the conditions. Here’s a sampler from the session:

We worked for about an hour until the little one said “done” and headed toward the car.

Because my subject was so mobile I shot handheld this morning, using on-camera fill flash most of the time. I had set up off-camera flash for the first shot, but with a sync cable to the camera. It worked, but I’m really coveting some wireless flash triggers.