The free soul is rare….

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it. Basically because you feel good, very good,  when you are near or with them.” -Buk

Several favorite quotes come to mind when I think about Cali’s senior session. I think the one above is perfect. Cali is a free soul, and photographing her was as easy as breathing.

When we first met with Cali for her Senior model interview, I knew pretty quickly that there was something special about her. First off, she’s gorgeous. I knew she was meant to be in front of a camera, and I was determined it would be MY camera. Cali was polite, confident, beautiful, – all things we wanted for our senior models. We sat and discussed ideas for senior portraits and in general just tried to get to know her better- and then it got weird. Like, super cool kinda weird. She started throwing out ideas of doing sessions in an old abandoned house, and a junkyard, and showing me pictures of outfits she had in mind. Needless to say- she had me at “junkyard”. It’s not often that you get a 17 year old girl who’s down for getting their senior portraits taken in a junkyard- or wants to wear her “old grandma” shirt downtown with some combat boots while wearing full on glam makeup. Yep. I knew after that meeting that Cali and SHP were a match made in Heaven!

We started off on day 1 at our studio, and we got some pretty awesome shots. Cali is a NATURAL – I loved all of her studio shots! Everyone always says they want “outdoor” shots, but there is still just something special to me about studio images.

We knew after Cali’s studio session that session #2 would be epic. We found the perfect junkyard at Danny’s Motors and they were so nice to let us use the property for the session. I have to say, this is the only session I have ever prepared for by bringing a sledge hammer. HAHA! Cali was up for ANYTHING! She knew exactly how to pose, what facial expressions to make, and wasn’t afraid to get dirty. She never even complained about the mosquitoes that were eating us all alive!  We tromped all over the junkyard and I think we came away with some of my most favorite ever senior images.

Yup. It was pretty magical from a photographer’s standpoint.

After we got eaten up by herds of mosquitoes, we cooled off a while and headed to downtown Bremen. Here’s where her “old grandma” shirt and combat boots came in.

We ended the day with a few more shots in downtown with my grandmother’s old suitcase. The sun set on a beautiful day filled with lots and lots of gorgeous images. We could have shot all day with Cali- not only because she was a great model, but she was just plain fun to be around. She’s real. She doesn’t put on a fake front for the world, she is who she is. I liked that about her most. Don’t be surprised if you see a lot more of Cali in the future- we still haven’t locked down an old abandoned house- but when I do- it’s going down for real!

Thanks Cali, we appreciate your “down for anything” personality – I can honestly say your sessions were absolute FUN and I hope your love your portraits as much as we do!

Until Next time…..

-Karen