What Is A High School Senior Photography Session?
In my last blog post I shared my top tips on how to get an amazing senior portrait. Today I’m going to dive a little deeper into a senior photography session and explain why you need one and how it differs from a regular school photo.
Your high school graduation is a rite of passage. It celebrates the culmination of over a decade of hard work. It is the grand finale of your primary and secondary school experience and signifies the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one into adulthood. Graduating high school is celebrated in many ways, one of which is by being immortalized through professional portraiture.
A senior portrait is all about capturing who you are in that moment and preserving that memory for a lifetime. It allows your parents the opportunity to have professional photographs that will allow them to reflect back on the treasured memories they have of you growing up. Remember, this is more than likely going to be your last year at home. Life as you, and your parents, know it will never be the same again after graduating.
One of the questions that I receive on a regular basis is about the difference between a school photo (i.e. what normally appears in your high school yearbook) and a senior portrait. Let me break that down for you quickly:
The typical school picture:
- You sit in the same pose as everyone else
- You have the same formal look (tux or drape) as everyone else
- Guys and girls pictures are all the same
- They show nothing about YOU, what you like, who you are - there is no individuality in these photos
A senior photography session:
- Is another milestone of your senior year, just like prom or graduation itself
- You can have outfits galore - bring them all so that we can capture a variety of different styles and looks
- Location, location, location – during a senior photography session, we go to various locations to get different vibes
- Is strategically planned with you to match your personality. We capture your daily look, your fun personality, your formal and serious side. We capture you, in all of your uniqueness.
Basically, we provide you with an experience for your high school senior photo session. We don’t want this to seem like just another boring chore that you have to get through to appease your parents. We want to make sure that you enjoy the process and we make it fun for you. As your professional photographer, it is 1000% about you, celebrating you, who you are and what you love. We head out to locations that you are connected to, wearing clothing that you love, that make you feel great, and that showcase your personality.
Again, these sessions are ALL about you! No two are ever alike, and therefore your session won’t be like your best friends, or the person's picture next in line to yours in alphabetical order in the yearbook. We strive for individuality - not conformity!
The fun continues even once your session is over. Can you imagine that moment? After planning your session, after shooting your session, can you imagine actually getting to see yourself, front and center of it all, like on the cover of a magazine? Viewing your senior portraits is also an experience and the feelings that are going to be evoked are real. I can almost guarantee that your mom will cry (afterall, her baby is growing up and soon is going to leave the nest). I can guarantee that you will have a wide variety of portraits to fall in love with that have something for everyone (you, your mom, your grandma) to enjoy. You will see all of the looks, varieties, and all of the special captures, where your personality is the center of attention.
After you are gone on to the next phase of your life, everything changes. The only home you have ever known, living with the only people you have ever lived with is no longer. Mom and Dad want this heirloom in their home. They want to see YOU on their walls. They want to walk past your portraits hanging on the wall everyday and see you and remember everything that molded your life from beginning to now.
This is work that I absolutely love doing. This is truly my passion! I love working with seniors and strive to make our high school senior photography sessions fun, unique, different and exciting - the session of your dreams. Allow Petersen Photography to create a senior photography session with results that you and your family will treasure for a lifetime.
Imagine it…and make it happen! Senior photography sessions take place starting in the summer going into your senior year, So now is the time Class of 2021, contact us today!