The 1st quarter of the year is over which means high school senior season is back! I’m so excited! I love senior portraits because they’re always so much fun! One minute I might be laying in a puddle of mud to get the best perspective for a portrait and the next I might be creating the portraits on top of a ladder and using a fog machine. The variety is probably my favorite aspect of senior photography. The sad thing is, a lot of seniors aren’t as prepared as they should be. So, whomever you choose for your Las Vegas senior photographer, here are 5 tips to making the most out of your session. Enjoy!
1) REMEMBER, THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN! I’ve seen a lot of seniors think that their senior pictures were going to be no big deal, just something to make mom happy and they just didn’t care too much about their session because they are used to the way the yearbook photographer treats everyone. The BIG problem is that once they saw how much fun they were having they realized they wasted so much energy having a bad attitude!
2. WHAT’S THE POINT? Have you ever asked yourself what the point is of having a senior portrait taken in the first place? Sure, there’s your yearbook shot (I’m NOT the yearbook photographer though) which is taken of everybody so those aren’t that special but why do people have senior pictures made anyway? Well, simply put, your senior portraits are meant to do and symbolize several things such as the fact that you’ll probably never look as good as you do when you’re a senior! Don’t believe me? Just wait until you’ve been out of high school for a year or two and you run into an old classmate at Starbucks or the movies…you might just be shocked! 🙂
Another important reason to have a senior session is that for the first time in your life, you’re going to be FREE. You’re future is yours to take, however you see fit but you don’t have a clue how you’re going to do it, how you’re going to deal with all of life’s changes and how much stinking fun it’s going to be figuring it all out along the way! When you look back at your senior photos you’ll be able to remember how you felt knowing that soon after they were created, you were about to head off into unknown territory onto a new part of life without lunch passes, cafeteria food and bells ringing every hour. It’s an exciting time!
Lastly, the very BEST reason to have a senior session is simply to make your mom and your family happy. You might be leaving to college out of state and they won’t be seeing you nearly as much as they do now. A high quality senior portrait is a way for your mom and your family to have a part of you with them even when you are gone. Senior portraits definitely help moms not feel so far away from you.
3. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WEAR! Clothing choices are much easier to figure out that you might think. Make sure you bring more than you think you’ll need but for the most part, stick to simple colors, few patterns and earth tones work best. These tips will benefit most skin tones and help ensure the attention is on your face and not your clothes when you look at the final image. Still, bring some colorful, funky and trendy clothes too!
4. I DON’T TAKE GOOD PICTURES… I’ve heard this so many times! The fact is, unless you’re a professional model, you probably don’t know much about posing, lighting, expressions, etc. so don’t sweat it if you think you’re going to look bad–you’re not! I will be helping you the entire time to find your best angles, best expressions and you’ll probably be having so much fun you’ll forget all about how nervous you were! Some people hide it really well but the fact is just about everyone is nervous at first. That’s totally ok and natural. One thing that really sets me apart from other photographers is that I am not going to get mad at you if you’re nervous, I’m not going to make fun of you, I’m not going to make you feel bad, etc. I’m there to make sure you look amazing and have the best possible time along the way. It’s going to be a blast! Check out TNGseniors.com for some examples of my work and guess how many of these seniors are models. Any guesses? Fine, I’ll tell you. ZERO. They are just like you and were nervous at first and didn’t know what to expect but they ended up having a great time!
5. You Won’t Look Like Everyone Else. I Promise! When I was fresh out of high school, I worked for a yearbook photography studio. Once and a while when I’d get back to the office after taking 500 assembly line yearbook pictures (really, I felt like a monkey pressing a button for 8 hours) I’d have to take a few senior pictures in the studio. At that time I had noreal portrait experience but the company didn’t care. They were not selling high quality, artistic, one of a kind images. They were selling the same pictures to everybody! When a senior came in, I’d have to take a picture of them by a fake brick wall that was made of rubber, then stand them by a bunch of foam blocks that said, “2003” and then stand them next to a fake street sign and then sit them on a fake pile of hay…..hang on a second…I’m having bad flashbacks…deep breaths, Nate, deep breaths………………….ok, I think I stopped hyper-ventilating. Good….what was I saying? Oh ya! I hate when I see everyone’s photos looking the same! You’re not the same as everyone else so why should you’re photos look the same?
For those who want to show off their truly unique personality with portraits that show off that personality and don’t treat them like the rest of the herd, check out TNGseniors.com for the highest quality senior photography in Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City!
For those who want to show off their truly unique personality with portraits that show off that personality and don’t treat them like the rest of the herd, check out TNGseniors.com for the highest quality senior photography in Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City!
