Tips and Tricks to Making Your Senior Session a Success!

Congratulations! You are a senior and will be graduating from high school or college in a blink of an eye! This season of your life is coming to an end so that a new chapter can begin! This is your moment to shine and to capture your unique personality, style and interests. As a senior photographer in the East Bay of California, one of my favorite things is helping seniors prepare for their personalized session so that we can get the most out of our time together. It is a fun process, but I promise taking photos is even more fun! See below for my 6 tips on how to prepare for your senior graduation photos:

6 Ways to Prepare for Your Senior Photos

1. Find the Perfect Location That Fits Your Vibe

The goal of your senior session is to create a cohesive story that is all YOURS. This starts with a setting that you love or reflects your hobbies, interests or vibe. The location is the backdrop that will help set the stage for your outfits, color palette and style. For example, Juliana wanted 2 settings for her senior photos. She wanted something with a grungy, urban feel but also loves the beach. Knowing these two things helped me choose the perfect location for her session! I have a massive library of East Bay locations that I have scouted and photographed at so I can help immensly with making your visions a reality. Here are some location ideas to consdier:

• The Beach (See Below)
• An Urban Downtown City feel (brick buildings, interesting architecture, textures, and colors)
• A rustic, grungy yet colorful setting (see below)
• A field of wildflowers
• rolling hills with breathtaking sunsets
• Your School! The football stadium, pool, basketball court, tennis court, bleachers, gym etc.
• A place with water views such as the bay or a shallow creek to splash around in

2. Choose your outfits

This is the fun part! Shopping around for your perfect outfits whether that be in your closet or at your favorite store. For the one hour session, I recommend 2-3 outfits that look and feel very different. This includes new or clean shoes too! Once you have landed on the location, you then will need to choose outfits that compliment that setting. For example, if you have chosen a field of flowers for your session, I would recommend wearing a spring dress or skirt and top. If you wanted to do a grungy backdrop, you might do one of 2 things. Juxtapose yourself in a gorgeous dress to really create contrast or fit the vibe and come in a ripped jeans, sneakers and your favorite band tee. The most important thing above anything else, is that you feel amazing in whatever it is you decide on! The rest you can leave up to me!

3. Gather Props that you would like to include that showcase your talents or interests

These help tell the full story of your accomplishments in high school or college and maybe even speak to where you are headed. Examples are:

• Cap and Gown
• accessories such as jewelry, baseball hat, wide brimmed hat, etc
• Letterman’s Jacket
• sport uniform, chearleading uniform and pom poms, swimsuit for an underwater session
• Sweatshirt of the college you were accepted into to
• Instrument you play
• ballet shoes, tap shoes, dance attire
• soccer ball, baseball, football, softball, volleyball, water polo, golf clubs etc.

4. Choose the time of year to do the photos

Spring is the most popular time of year to do these photos as it is the season before graduation. This is also my favorite time of year to photograph seniors because everything is back in bloom and the sun is out longer. The colors of spring are always so gorgeous in the east bay and I have a lot of favorite locations filled with wildflowers and rolling green hills in the backdrop. It is also warmer out so your wardrobe options are much larger! I can also accommodate swimmers, water polo player and dancers for underwater photo sessions! If you are curious what that is click HERE! Or check me out on Instagram HERE

5. Come ready to have fun!

I always bring my speaker with me and let you choose the music that will make you feel like a rockstar during our photo session! I will be beaming ear to ear the whole time, pumping you up and giving you all the confidence to just keep doing your thang! I am constantly talking to you, guiding you or giving your ideas for photos so that there is never a moment where you feel awkward or unsure. I have been a photographer for 15 years and making people feel amazing in front of my camera is my number one goal so your real smiles shine through!

6. Reach out asap!

My senior sessions start booking up in February so don’t wait to reach out so you allow yourself time to outfit plan and brainstorm your ideal locations. Plus, I want to make sure you get a spot! I cannot wait to meet you and take your photos! All my seniors had at least one of their images printed in a magazine or senior blog or even won an international image competition last year! I can’t wait to see what kind of magic we create together this year!