Danasia loved the idea of an urban setting for her senior photos so we met at Genesee Gateway Park, which is a park that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. It’s an AMAZING location for gorgeous views of downtown, but note to self – even with a lighting umbrella the sun is super intense late afternoon. If you ever plan photos at this park I highly recommend sunset (or sunrise if you’re ambitious)!

Even with the kind of crazy lighting situation Danasia was fantastic and super patient! She incorporated her brother’s basketball jersey into her session and we happened to also run into a basketball court.

All sessions are wonderful, but the great thing about senior sessions is that you can fit in a lot in a short amount of time because it’s just one person and they’re old enough to be on board (e.g. no candy bribes needed!). This means that you have time to play around with lots of different backgrounds and clothing changes if you want to, or you can keep it short (which is always an option too!). Either way it’s a low pressure, relaxed kind of experience.

And of course, the most important thing about any portrait is that it reflect the personality of the person being photographed. Senior sessions allow plenty of space for that to happen.

Thank you so much for choosing me as your photographer and I wish you all the best for your senior year!

It’s not very often that people want to take photos to remember their time in Rochester, but that’s what Irina and her fellow au pairs were hoping to do through this photo session.  Some were from Denmark and some from Germany and they became friends over the course of their time here.  We talked about several different location options, but settled on Genesee Gateway Park because of its view of the Rochester skyline.

Oddly I’d never been to this particular park and we parked the car really really far away from where we needed to be.  So should you ever have an occasion to be in this specific spot – park closer than you think you should!

We did quite a few group photos but also individual images and pairings.

We also had some interesting conversations about culture and specifically food.  Irina shared that in Denmark children are expected to eat what they’re served and how it was a bit of a shock to her that Americans weren’t that way. She balked at sugar cereal and pancakes in a way that made me want to hire her to teach my kids to eat.

This was one of my favorite images from the session.  Jumping pictures are kind of tricky because it’s easy to look ridiculous, but when they turn out well they turn out really well!

While I use studio lighting outside to give an incredible amount of freedom over lighting and time of day, the angle of the sunset made it very difficult to overpower the sun. As the sun set, a whole new lighting situation opened up and we did another series with the fall leaves as a background.

Thank you so much for trusting me with this beautiful memory of yours! I wish you all the best of luck in your next adventures.