At the beginning of the summer I was contacted by a friend whose daughter really wanted a senior portrait session with me. I've known her parents for a very long time, I even went to middle school with her dad and played in the band with him through high school at Eastern. Her mom also went to Eastern, although she was younger than us. Not only did I have that connection but we are also sort of related. Megan's dad is the first cousin of my sister in law. I remember the first time they all showed up at my niece's birthday and I thought well how cool is this! We've seen each other a few times a year for almost 10 years. So when they told me they wanted me to take their daughter's senior portraits I felt honored and anxious all in equal portions.

Megan is very easy going and she had quite a few ideas already that she had shared with me using Pinterest. I love using Pinterest with my clients, especially the younger ones because they can scan the images they like and share them with me. I then use these images to create a personalized shoot. For Megan, most of the shots could be created at a nearby park. I suggested a sunset shoot at the Meridian Historical Village. I have shot there plenty of times and know the location very well. While looking through Megan's Pinterest photos I also noticed something interesting, some of the poses were ballet poses. Sure enough she was a dancer and hoped to have that brought into her session.

With date and location picked all we had to do was wait. The sun was setting pretty late into the day still so we adjusted the time to a later time. When I arrived I was upset to see that there was a chance of rain. Most times that's a deal breaker but in Lansing, Michigan during late summer a chance of thunder storms creates these amazing sunsets. The rain held off, the sun set and the sky was amazing.

We shot for an hour. We moved from dock, to flower bed, to gazebo to sunflower garden. She had brought multiple outfits that she quickly changed into to created a well rounded set of images.

We were even able to create her yearbook shot.

I don't think there could have been a better way to spend this warm late summer Sunday afternoon.