April has been a full month of editing, consulting and lots of travel. I feel like I spent most of the month on the road and I am just now spending a few days sitting at a desk and catching up on my work. At the beginning of the month I received a text message in the early morning hours for a senior hoping to set up an appointment. At the time I was booked over 2 weeks out, but that wasn't going to work for her, so I agreed to do a session that afternoon. That's kind of quick for me to get an idea of what someone wants, research and get permission for a location and consult on clothing (something of which we didn't have time for). As a result, I spent most of my day trying to find somewhere "different" than all of the usual hot spots in town to shoot...and at 4 that afternoon I finally found it! A storage room with quite a beautiful window downtown. We received permission to use it after-hours (resulting in someone having to stay late and let us in) and it was so worth it in my opinion!
Check out a few select images from the session below!
The diptych above is my favorite 2 photos of the entire session. I love the contrasting bright light and happiness of the left photo (which was actually a test shot for lighting that I got lucky with) compared to the more subtle softer light and serious/peaceful expression of the right.
A normal senior session with me is up to an hour and a half with 3 clothing changes and 3 locations within 10 miles of each other. I remembered passing downtown there is a couple of cool older buildings with vines growing up the wall and thought this would be a neat place to check out for a second option at the shoot. Although I normally do not have brick walls in my images (my personal preference to avoid as it has been overused), the client asked if she could try it and with the different colored bricks and vines, I think it is a slightly fresher take on an old go to.
As a special request the client asked to be photographed in her father's old army top with an older army Jeep. Unfortunately due to distance to reach the Jeep and the setting sun we weighed the options for taking the drive and getting more photos closer to town. It just wasn't possible. As a result we got this fantastic shot in the vines.
The fourth and final location of the shoot took place near the train tracks. I was able to snap a few fun shots before losing the sun. I grabbed the classics in cap and gown and then at the clients request we did a couple train track shots. This is not something I advise but when I found out she really wanted them I couldn't say no! :)
Although we ran over on time, locations, and clothing changes...I felt like it was a great experience. The client was fun and bubbling with personality. She had tons of ideas for what she wanted (clothes, fun faces, posing, etc.) and she got just that. It's not often I have a client who doesn't really take my advice on anything, so this was a new experience for me.
Unfortunately you can't always have a perfect ending with pleased people. I always try my best to provide more than anyone expects. I want happy, repeat customers. In this case, I spent a day finding locations (specifically a window because a few of the example images they had provided used windows) and I did a rush order as a favor with no extra fees. I hate feeling like I have failed in some way to give someone what they want. I show customers images from my camera during a session to make sure we are on the same page about where everything is headed and even send some of the beginning edited shots to make sure they are going to be happy with the finished product. I hope there are no hard feelings moving forward. I have stressed and gone over all of the images repeatedly to see where I could have gone wrong. I even talked to some of my professional photographer friends to see how they felt. After multiple conversations to resolve any unhappiness in this situation, I realize sometimes it's just a learning lesson session and I will have to move forward and grow from the experience.