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Leah Headshot

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Business yet beautiful

Leah Headshot

High school senior photography has come a long way in the last 20 years. Gone in my mind are the drab poses stuck in the closet of a studio, the classic poses that have been used by photographers for over 100 years and of course the attire that the student would never be caught dead wearing in public. Today students have an identity that is truly them so why should we cover it up with nonsense? The answer to that is we shouldn’t nor should we ever partake in this sadistic ritual of taking boring photos of people who aren’t boring to begin with.

I’ve had to pleasure to work with a lot students in the last year and I’ve slowly grown bolder and bolder to match what they are looking for as their lasting memories of school and the youth they won’t have forever. Recently I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Miss Leah Horcher, who isn’t just a pretty face, but a person of substance, exciting ideas and wants. From day one she knew what she wanted and never started from it, even though her mom supported her, you could tell mom wanted a few of the normal senior pictures. Leah walked in with bold ideas that were completely away from the box that too many photographers pull ideas out of. Maybe it’s safe, but mostly it’s boring and unoriginal. Leah hands me a stack of 5 images and basically says, “I want these, make it happen please.” Just so you all know I was super excited to do this cause her ideas are fun ideas and forces me to go past the photographers you see day in and day out and grab from the pure inspiration pool.

Leah’s ideas were basically high fashion, far out and of course wild. With the encouragement of her mom I was given the ok to take the shoot with my direction with the heart and soul of her daughters vision. What happened was a few last minutes changes, overcoming some lighting I’ve never tried and of course getting dirty. All in all it was a super effective shoot with lots of laughs and smiles keeping it fun and productive.

In my opinion when a photographer approaches a high school senior he or she needs to know what the vision the student is looking for in the final product. Sure they hire you for your skills, but we have to be an adaptive bunch and shoot a ton of different scenes and make up new techniques as we go or we won’t grow and sometimes we will fail in making the client happy. I see too often that people get stuck in their safe mood and shoot what they do best, but never branch out in style or flair. Get out of the rut that you call your style and make anything and everything yours or else you’ll be the one hit wonder that will have others passing you by. Do you want to be the bell bottoms of photography?

Business yet beautiful

Taking the idea of getting as far away from safe as possible it’s completely ok to
experiment live with your subject. Sure it may not turn out, but even the safe ones don’t always turn out. I knew this and went for it with Leah and instead of shooting the paint photos like she had described and even sent me a photo of we went on location, came up with something completely different and added flair to an otherwise already shot image. Originality doesn’t have to come from a seed or single idea, but can encompass multiple ideas and ones that are already existing, but they need your interpretations and ideas feeding it into the full-blown experience.

I just have to finish this by saying thank you to Leah, the amazing student with a creative vision, and of course Connie, mom, who let her daughter have fun and do her thing. Can’t wait to see where things go from here, but I do know that one thing will never return for me… the inside of the box.