My Best Fran: Senior Portrait Shoot

This girl is graduating in just about two weeks! I have to hand it to her, she's graduating with not only one, but TWO degrees! All while working full time and completing two internships. I had the honor of photographing her senior pics. This was a fun shoot we separated it into two different days due to weather, but we still were able to get some really good shots. This girl is going to do big things. In addition to sharing some photos from our shoot I wanted to share a few things I learned that day. 

1. It's better to start early

With the time change, the sun is going down a lot earlier than it used to. For us here in New Mexico that means around 5pm. We started shooting around 3:30pm and the lighting was perfect and only got better as the evening went on. Around 4:45 is when I started having to lower my f stop and at that point I knew I lost my light. I don't have a super fancy lens and have slowly learned what limitations it has, especially when it comes to light. Starting earlier allowed me to take my time when setting up a shot and allowed for a variety of poses and locations.

2.  Outfit Changes

As much as I love to take photos I struggle with posing my subjects. I want them to look natural, feel most like themselves all while shooting at the best angle. Oftentimes I am so caught up in the lighting, my camera settings, and the background that I forget to pose my subject! One of the things that helps me gain a new perspective and get re-inspired is outfit changes. Not only do outfit changes give photos a lot of variety they also help to inspire a new location or angle you didn't think of before. With Bree's shoot we were able to shoot a few different outfits. 

3. Location

Because these were senior photos we chose to do them at her University. This ended up being the perfect location for her shoot because there were so many different places to take photos. When thinking of a location to take pictures, keep in mind you'll want to pick a place with variety. If you're a newbie like me, then a new spot may be just what you need to get that perfect photo. We walked around the campus and stopped every now and then when I found a spot that caught my eye. 

Go Lobos!

--M