The first time I photographed Max was in 2012 when he was the oldest of just 2 kiddos and now he’s the oldest of 7, what a blessing it’s been to have photographed his family over all these years and to have been able to capture his senior photos for him. We had a great time down in the West Bottoms walking around and finding great little nooks and crannies. I’m very familiar with the WB of course but always nice to just go for a walk and see what sticks out to us. I do have atleast one parent join us for every senior session so knowing Max’s parents well after the past 13 years it was nice to be able to catch up and the session flowed more like friends hanging out and having a good time.

So the West Bottoms is fantastic for the urban look but I do clean up images in post processing and remove out anything I can’t remove while on location. So while certain graffiti can stay if it’s not’s distracting from our subject, I do remove minor tags (which I did in the images of him sitting on the brick wall) and polish up images where appropriate, such as removing signs from windows and any random sticks or dirt on the ground. Having the eye for what makes a good location for any photos is essential but also making sure the images are polished is a top priority for me. I digitally develop all my images in Lightroom and every single image is hand edited and reviewed carefully to remove minor imperfections that most people may not even have ever known were there to begin with (unless I left them in). This is something I have always done in all my sessions as shooting on location is great, but you still want that really impeccable image.

If there’s green I can find to add into an image I will do what I can to add it! It’s not only my favorite color but I truly believe that a touch of green in images not only makes the portrait feel more grounded but our eyes are naturally, and I think biologically, drawn to seek out the color green and gives us that little joyous boost like what we all feel when things turn green in the Spring. Just happiness.

Adding in a touch of baseball to his session. It wasn’t the main focus but just a quick little attribute to his high school days.

This green door has been a favorite of mine for many many years. The pop of color in the artwork is a nice change of pace from the all brick / concrete feel of an urban backdrop.

Right as we were about to wrap up walking back to the cars we came across this beautiful Ivy wall and I had Max change back into his neutral shirt. When shooting I will intentionally look for location that I can shoot wide at so to give parents options for graduation invites, which the bottom photo below was shot and used for exactly that. Max’s invite info text was added at the top of the image and it looked great. So when I send out the gallery, I will intentionally include images that are wide angled as options for invites just as a little something extra.

Thanks so much for a great session, Max! I wish all the best in your exciting new chapter of your life!

If you are interested in working with me for your senior photos, please shoot me an email at jessicastromphotography@gmail.com for more info, I’d love to work together!