2- Look for the best light
Photographers love the Golden hour (the hour before sunset or the first hour after sunrise).  If you are shooting somewhere with water, early morning and just before sunset will capture the water at its most vibrant. The golden hour offers beautiful soft shadows, more vibrant colors, and a soft golden hue on the skin. You may have to stay out a little later, or wake up a little earlier, but I promise it will be worth it!

3- Flash, even in the sun 
Many people think using your flash is not recommended.  But how many times have you taken a portrait of your (insert family member, friend or pet here) and the background is beautiful and perfectly exposed, but your subject is a dark blob you can hardly see.  That is because your camera is going to expose based on the lightest part of the image.  If the background is brighter, it will underexpose your subject.   There is an easy fix.  Turn on your flash! This will fill in the shadows on your subject, and balance the light of the brighter background so you will have a beautiful picture of both the scenery AND your subject.

5- Mix it up -- Try a different point of view
If you have ever watched ATJ shoot, you see her frequently laying on the ground or maybe even up on a ladder to get varying perspectives. Give it a try, get up high on a wall, or down low in the grass. Switch it up and try a new perspective to get a more interesting point of view.

6- Don’t forget the people
My mother-in-law always complained that her husband concentrated too much on the animals and scenery. They now have boxes of pictures, but few with their kids actually in them. Try to capture your subject interacting with the surroundings rather than just standing in front of it. Pose a group of people in the photo in an interesting way instead of in the typical line. Be creative and don’t be afraid to have fun.

8- Zoom in, get close
Now even closer. Of course you want a wide picture of your beautiful surroundings to give you a sense of place. But then pause, zoom in close on your child’s face, a butterfly, or a flower. Or even just pieces of a beautiful hand painted tile or an interesting seashell or your baby's toes wiggling in the sand.

9- Watch your horizon
I am the queen of shooting like a drunken sailor. But always be aware of your horizon line. Holding your arms tight against your body while you are shooting will also help with camera shake and blur. If all else fails, get a tripod. Additionally, watch for distortion. This one is especially true for improving your smartphone photography. With the super-wide angle lenses on smartphones, it’s really easy to make buildings look cockeyed and distorted. You want to keep the smartphone facing straight and not angled up. This is especially hard in cities where you want to capture entire monuments or buildings. Try backing up, or even crossing the street so that you can keep your phone (and the buildings) straight.

10- Look for the unusual
Don’t forget to look for something unusual, quirky or colorful in your location. Look for repeating lines, vibrant colors, fun shapes, and interesting people.

11- Rule of thirds
If you want to really make your photos stand out, try the artistic rule of thirds. When you look through your viewfinder or at the LCD screen, imagine a tic-tac-toe grid over the scene. The rule of thirds says that the points where the lines intersect are the best places to position your subject. The goal is to place important parts of the photo into those sections and help frame the overall image in a way that’s pleasing to the eye. For example, placing a person along the left grid line rather than directly in the center. Or keeping your horizon on the bottom third, rather than splitting the image in half.

How invested is your senior in this process? Boys are generally less interested (or profess to be) in the portrait process than girls. [Check out Jessica’s recent post dedicated to Senior Boys.]  Girls might be more into the photo shoot but they can easily get locked up in their head about what to wear, what to bring, hair, makeup, etc. that you are ready to kick them to the curb before shoot day dawns.

Props/Bring items that help define your high school experience

This is where you get to be creative. How do you want to tell the story of your last four years? 

Why bring a baseball, when you can bring THE baseball from your first home run. Why bring a stack of books, when you can select THE very books that made you fall in love with reading in the first place. This is a great way to add a layer of meaning to your Senior portraits. Even if no one else knows the story behind that object, you do. And you will remember it every time you see that portrait.

You have worked so hard to get here- don’t you think your senior portraits deserve at least a CHANCE at being timeless? Between you and me, nothing screams 2021 louder than a brown filter (although mom jeans are a close second). We have seen so many family galleries where one image with a brown filter just throws the whole thing off. All it takes is a quick convo with your photographer to save your gallery.