KB Image Photo

True confessions.  About 10 years ago I if asked what kind of photography I really, really hated my answer would have been “GAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.  High School Seniors.  I can’t relate.  I hate that they want a jillion outfit changes. I hate that their mothers bitch at them the whole session about what they are wearing,  how they are smiling or not smiling,  I hate their attitudes. I hate their hair, are they kidding me?’

And to review, 10 years ago I had  4 year old and a 7 year old boys   Really, I knew more about Thomas the Tank Engine than about the latest Green Day song then.  I still had Goldfish Crackers embedded in my couch.

Now I have  14 year old and a 17 year old boys.   We spend our times talking about which O.A.R song rocks the hardest.  Every time we have a great conversation where I realize what incredible people they have become and I am alternately amazed and amused that I somehow birthed these 6 foot children.

But recently when I am asked to do senior photos of kids I have a really, really different take on them. What I try to stress to the parents is this experience I had while photographing my son Caleb as he embarks on his senior year.

This was not a scripted moment, I was driving to pick Caleb up from work and I noticed the amazing light on this field near where he worked.  I asked him “Can I take some pictures of you over there?” and he said sure.  (Let’s be honest  this was less than a question than a directive but a photographers kid knows better than to say “no” to good light) . He had come from work, he was not showered, and these were the clothes he was wearing.   That raggedy Led Zeppelin shirt and his hair not as short as I would like.  But he sat down and grabbed a dandelion and blew on it like he did when he was 4 and I made this photo of him and it’s one of my favorites of all time.

This photo, in so many ways is so perfectly him.

Even though I think his hair is too long.

Even though I know he does not comprehend Robert Plant is OLDER than his mother despite the Led Zeppelin shirt, and oh by the way DUDE I was there when the pig flew over the crowd for the “Animal” Tour and you were like 8 years from CONCEPTION.

But this photo, right now…it’s my kid.  It’s his life, it’s what he is learning in his world.  And I think that’s worth remembering in the year he will be a Senior. Whatever the stuff that is important to him.

If this is the kind of photo you are looking like for your High School Senior, click on the contact me button and let’s talk!