I am a natural light portrait photographer specializing in seniors. Self taught and have been photographing since I was a sophomore in high school. Located in Minnesota just south of the Twin Cities, I strive to capture my clients as they are, right now, in this moment of their life. Find more of my work on the Web: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest
This was actually the first photo of our session. We had just parked our cars and he was walking across the street and I had said “STOP RIGHT THERE!” and he turned and naturally put his hands in pockets.
Like I had said before, he was already a very smiley person, so getting shots of him smiling were not hard (unlike a lot of the guys I photograph, they are always very serious). For this one though I wanted a more authentic smile, so I just started saying random things, basically not making sense and he started to crack up!
This shot was meant to be a serious one, but Jake’s sister Rachel accompanied us and she was apparently attempting to skateboard while carrying his outfits…I had no idea what was going on behind me but he was laughing so hard which was PERFECT for these shots.
Jake is naturally a very “smiley” person, as you can see from the following photos. For this one I told him to take a few deep breaths, in through the nose and out threw the mouth. Right when he was done, he was relaxed and I snapped this shot.
This shot was actually Jake’s idea. He was joking around saying “Let’s do this cliché pose” and leaned against the wall – the photo was meant to be humorous but this was one his parent’s LOVED!
Jake is a skateboarder – we had taken time trying to get all these fancy shots of him riding but it just wasn’t working out. He sat down to tie his shoes and I got on the ground, on my stomach, right in front of him and yelled “JAKE!” and he looked up and just started laughing!
As a natural light photographer and lover of golden hour, I had to take this shot. What I have noticed while photographing senior guys is that they don’t like to be posed. So I just simply tell them, stand comfortably. If they seem awkward I will make a few adjustments but other than that they are completely comfortable and I seem to get more authentic images out of that.
This was toward the end of the session, we were actually walking to our last location and he was riding his skateboard. So I was just snapping as he rode. My favorite thing about photographing senior guys is to just get them in their element, no posing or telling them to look at me, they seem more relaxed when they don’t know I’m shooting.
Another image of him laughing at his sister. It was a great help to have her there. I high suggest having someone come along who the senior is most comfortable with, as they will be more likely to be relaxed and not feel so stiff and uncomfortable. A lot of times parents can cause this effect on them, so if the parents don’t mind, I will suggest a sibling or a best friend to tag along as well.
Last shot of the session and again, this set up was completely his idea. My main approach with photographing senior guys is to let them get comfortable and then do any adjustments that make the photo that much better. Guys don’t typically want fancy poses, so I told him to just plop down on the ground, get comfortable. Originally his board was across his lap and I had suggested putting it behind him.
