Senior Portrait Session :: Brooke {Palmyra HS ~ Class of 2012}

I am so very far behind on blogging, seems this time of year it always falls far behind on the list of things to get done!

Brooke is a senior at Palmyra High School and we had a wonderful time walking around her family's home and nearby woods~ finding her childhood hideouts and spending a little time with her horse, Lakhota. It was a good thing we photographed Brooke's session when we did~ less than a week later this same area would turn into a soggy mess after tropical storm Lee moved through our area. I love that these images are special to Brooke and her family since they were taken at her home, a place with lots of good memories. She enjoys playing volleyball and soccer for fun, and plans to attend Bloomsburg University to major in nursing. And, a girl after my own heart, she likes to shop! :-)

I think her choice of outfits worked well with the natural background colors and I have a bunch of favorite images, but here are a few of this beautiful, brown-eyed girl:

Senior Portrait Session :: Cassie {Elizabethtown HS ~ Class of 2012}

Even though I love photographing kids of all ages, over the past year or so high school senior girls have become my favorite group to work with... putting together clothing, shoes and accessories is one of my favorite aspects of the shoot. I want the images from each session to reveal her unique spirit and personality so you feel like you might already know her.

Beautiful Cassie (with that gorgeous red hair!) is a senior at Elizabethtown Area High School and has plans to go to school to become a nurse (apparently the majority of senior girls I photograph have this same plan... not sure if that's a coincidence, but they are certainly some of the sweetest and kindest people I know!) Cassie is active in her youth group at Elizabethtown BIC church, and loves to ski. She brought her best friend along for the session and we had a blast, despite the August heat, a random creeper, big spiders, and fears of poison ivy (rational fears... as in my husband can point it out to me and I will still say "but I don't see a red stem... and lots of plants have three leaves!" Yep. But no worries~ no poison this time :-)

Here are a few images from her session~ we started out in a beautiful butterfly garden and ended (with some of my faves from the session) in a patch of weeds off the main road. Love it!

ahhh that beautiful, long red hair~ seriously jealous!

Senior Portrait Session :: Aaron {Hershey HS ~ Class of 2011}

Typically when I photograph seniors, we meet prior to their portrait session and go over clothing, what to expect and it gives me a chance to interact with the family while checking out the location if we are photographing at their home. So this was a first for me~ due to some conflicts in our schedules, I photographed at a location I had never seen, with someone I had not yet met! But Aaron (along with his sweet mom, Deb) is so easy going and likable, any thought of being concerned quickly disappeared. We had a great evening to photograph, Aaron was a natural in front of the camera and I think we came away with some great images.

Aaron was telling me a little bit about his thoughts post-graduation~ he would like to attend an ALERT basic training, in which he would receive initial training in search and rescue, diving and aviation, in preparation for Emergency Response Training. I had never heard of this before, and after reading more about it, I think it sounds amazing. I am so grateful there are people like Aaron who are gifted in this way! Aside from working and school, Aaron loves to kick around on his skateboard and hang out with his brothers and the family dogs, Sam and Annie :-)

Here are a few of my faves from Aaron's senior portrait session~ I especially love the second to last one of him (b&w with the skateboard.) What do you think?

Senior Portrait Session :: Megan {Palmyra HS ~ Class of 2011}

Yet another senior portrait session I am so excited to post! Occasionally we need to reschedule portrait sessions due to inclement weather~ and I was somewhat tempted to reschedule Megan's senior portraits due to the 20 mph winds passing through the area, but am SO glad we didn't! It was definitely a challenge, and though we were limited with where we could photograph to avoid the major wind gusts, I just love how the images turned out with her beautiful wavy hair. (Megan's mom was so glad her new hair straightening product didn't arrive in time for the session, and after seeing how these turned out, I was too... use what God gave you, girl~ you are beautiful, inside and out!)

Megan is a senior at Palmyra High School, and although she doesn't know exactly what her plans are following graduation next June, she knows she wants to have a job working with animals.  We were blessed able to photograph right around the corner from Megan's house, on a beautiful property with some fun spots and lots of pretty greenery. It was tough narrowing these down, but here are a few of my faves from Megan's session:

Senior Portrait Session :: Rachel {Manheim Central HS / Class of 2011}

The first week of school craziness and 95+ degree temps didn't deter us from having a great time photographing Rachel's senior portrait session. She chose the Back2Basics senior portrait session, which is typically a shorter session, with 12-15 images in private online gallery, and is geared for mainly purchasing Gift prints (8x10 and smaller) and wallets.

Rachel is thinking of pursuing actuarial science as a major in college, and is keeping busy filling out those dreaded college applications. She spent part of this summer in Germany, attending two weeks of school there with her family's exchange student (who spent a month here last year), and the rest of her time there relaxing and touring parts of the country. Now it's back to school and band! Here are a few images from her portrait session~ love the warm light and those bright blue eyes!

Senior Portrait Session :: Paige {Elizabethtown HS ~ Class of 2011}

What a blast these senior portrait sessions have been! And Paige's session was no exception. She has a fun, outgoing personality and great expression. We traveled down to Lancaster Central Market area on a beautiful summer evening and simply had a great time walking around and finding all kinds of interesting little spots to photograph. Oh, and since apparently portrait sessions with me often end up with interesting things happening, we were also pretending not to watch some guy get busted for something or other. Ah, yes, the joys of city life!

Paige is a senior at Elizabethtown High School, and has been busy the past few weeks in her role as drum major for the high school band. She stays active year round at school with diving over the fall/winter and track in the spring. Her household will change a little this fall as her older brother heads off to college, but her younger brother is still around to keep things interesting :-) Here are a few sneak peeks from her portrait session~ if you know someone who needs senior portraits this fall, my year-end schedule is filling up quickly~ I have about six spots left for senior sessions. My personal faves are the last two~ stunning!

Senior Portrait Session :: Malorie {Elizabethtown HS ~ Class of 2011}

Wow, Malorie totally ROCKED her senior portrait session!! Her main request for senior portraits was that she wanted something unique and I hope we accomplished that here. As I am working with seniors, I am realizing that going through their closets to find combinations of colors, layer, accessories, etc. that will work together later in a collage of the images is vital to making a session work. (Um, yes I am going to confess that I really like going through people's closets~ kind of like retail therapy in some way.) Malorie had everything laid out for me and I didn't have to make many changes~ just added some accessories and she was good to go!

I was so excited that one of Malorie's college visits from this summer was to my alma mater, Clarion Univerity~ she is thinking of going to school for elementary education and special education and has more college visits planned in the coming week. It was kind of a reality check for me to think that when I first met Malorie's family at our church, she was about the same age as our daughter is now~ which means this high school senior thing sneaks up pretty quickly! So here is a sneak peek of my faves from her session~ with so many fun ones, it was hard to choose:

Senior Portrait Session :: Julie {Palmyra HS ~ Class of 2011}

So excited to post this great senior portrait session with Julie after we've had some internet issues this week~ I couldn't post her images and the wait was about making me crazy! Julie did an amazing job and has a phenomenal smile to go with her equally beautiful personality. At one point I was trying to get see if she could do a 'serious' look and she, her mom Donna, and I were all cracking up... it just wasn't her~ anyone who knows Julie would agree that she is a truly smile-y girl! So I think these images really reflect her heart and inner beauty as well as the outer.

Julie is a senior at Palmyra High School, and although she isn't exactly sure what she wants to do after graduation, one possibility is to become a nurse. Nursing as a career seems to be a common theme among the seniors I photograph this year and I am excited that so many young people are considering it~ it is definitely needed and it takes compassionate and caring hearts (like Julie's :-) to give back to others in need. Julie has had a busy past month of travel~ her family just spent two weeks out in the western United States and she also spent a week in Kentucky on a mission trip with her church youth group to help families in need of home repair.

Here are a few of my favorite images from her session~ it was Julie's idea to pick the flowers from her mom's garden just before we left~ love how the colors pop~ enjoy!