I’m hoping that I can start keeping up with this whole blog/newsletter thing. Honestly, my life is not interesting enough to record videos on a daily basis for marketing so this may be just what I need.

Then again, I find my seniors and families interesting, so I think that’s a start.

So, who are my favorite seniors from the past?

Yeah, I’m not answering that one. For starters, I think all of the seniors whose portraits I’ve made have been my favorites. Sports or not, they’re all special to me because they chose me and my studio to highlight who they were. I do have some memorable experiences and a few good days that pop in my head. There are definitely a few people I connected with or was inspired by, as well as having a few seniors that I could relate to more, whether it be identifying with their body-size or their personalities, maybe their love of certain genres. It’s all subjective.

I think my real passion for the art of senior portraits started after my first Senior & Youth National Conference in 2017. That was also the year I rebranded (the first time, following SYNC) and the year I photographed my two cousins who were graduating from high school in the same year from the same school. I got to take them all over the place, including the beach, for portraits. They were my models. Now they’re in college – I think for life – and one of them is getting married.

Makes me feel old(er).

Last year I finally got to photograph a senior that was into Harry Potter, which meant I finally got to use – wait for it – MAGIC!

I’d been waiting on that for many years and thank God my skillset was advanced enough to bring some visual effects to the table. I mean, she is a Slytherin but she’s more of a Slughorn than a Pansy.

I photographed a guy in the Class of 2021 a few years ago, one of the first of that class, in the summer of 2020. His portraits were a lot of fun. He was definitely only there because of his mom but, as the day wore on, I think he realized he could have fun because he could be himself. He’s one of those that I could relate to and to this day I still use his images in my classes and I just designed a Wall Arrangement with his portraits for studio samples. I also got my Master of Photography degree and the SYNC Photographer of the Year with one of his baseball portraits, so I guess you could say it was a good one!

There was a time when I thought I’d be moving to Huntsville – my favorite city in Alabama (and still is). I had two seniors there that were fantastic and I wish I could turn back time to photograph them all over again. Their families were great to work with and you could tell they were all really close. That, to me, matters more than anything. One of them is now playing football at Vanderbilt.

I really wish I could’ve made Huntsville work.

I had another senior a couple of years ago that just could not, even if she tried, take a bad portrait. I think I even tried to pose her poorly at one point and she just ran with it. Every single one of her portraits are still on my hard drive just because they’re all amazing and it was all her. She was also a model for some of my artwork for my storytelling competition pieces. That’s another one that I wish I could go back and photograph again and again. It helps when mom is there to throw the infinity dress up, dodging weeds and rocks at the river.

I had my first firefighter with the Class of 2023. That was really cool. He came in specifically so that he could have fire in his portrait art and I happily obliged.

Now I’m focusing more and more on the idea of what these portraits really mean for people. I think back to what they mean to me and realize that these images are a big part of not just my business buy my own life. I can look at one of these portraits and remember exactly what was said, where we were, and the situation that we were in when I photographed it. Same with the artwork, I can remember exactly what I was doing when I was painting or applying the effects that were used.

I thought about what they must have been thinking at the time and I’ll never really know, but I hope that it was along the lines of confidence, self-esteem, feeling beautiful or special, that they matter not just to their parents but to others as well.

I never had my own portraits made when I was growing up. We did the yearbook thing and the McDonald Insurance ads, but that was about it. Never anything like what I’m trying to provide to others (and I’m not talking about the artwork). No one in my family has a portrait of me. I’ve never had a family portrait. I made my grandparents come in for a portrait just so I could have it, but that’s it. I never had the confidence, the self-esteem, the feeling that I belonged when I was growing up. Don’t misconstrue my words there, my parents love(d) me. I grew up in a great home with loving parents. The rest of it was a realization that I only found as an adult.

I have seen so many people’s houses over the years and I’ve seen the portraits on their walls; their family, their children, even their pets (it’s a thing because my dog’s portrait is hanging on my walls). I think a part of me is jealous of that kind of display of love and affection, that these people thought so much of their family that they immortalized their image to remember who they were at that moment in time.

This is why I do what I do. I don’t just photograph people or create art (I mean, I do love those parts). I provide a service that captures who someone is. I capture the memories that last. I capture smiles that fade. I make things that people can look back on and remember, with joy, a trigger of emotion and nostalgia. I give to others what I never experienced.

That, to me, is what I do.