If you are just starting your senior year right now, you probably have not given one thought to senior pictures yet. That is normal. But I want to let you and your folks in on something that most families do not find out until it is too late, and that is how much the calendar matters around here.

North Texas gives us a beautiful window every fall, and it is shorter than people expect. Mid September to the first week of November is the best stretch of the whole year for outdoor senior sessions. The light gets softer, the heat finally lets up enough that you are not sweating through a nice shirt, and everything still looks good. Then somewhere around early to mid November we usually catch our first freeze. One cold night is all it takes. The grass goes brown, the leaves that were hanging on give up, and those pretty backgrounds turn into a whole lot of gray sticks.

I can work with just about anything. Thirty years in, I have learned how to find good light and a good spot in almost any conditions.

What a session with me actually looks like

Here is the part nobody tells you. You do not have to know how to pose yourself. You do not have to be photogenic, whatever that means. That is my job. I will tell you where to put your hands, which way to turn your chin, and when to quit thinking so hard about it. Most seniors walk in a little nervous and are laughing at me within ten minutes.

We build the session around who you actually are. If your Saturdays are spent under a helmet running a bead in the shop, we go photograph that. If you have got a bike you saved up for and washed by hand, bring it along. If you swim, we get in the water. Just like the photos in this post. Those are the pictures your mom is going to hang on the wall and get a little misty over now and in twenty years, because they look like you and not like a stranger in a nice shirt.

We will also get the classic ones. A good clean portrait in something sharp, out in the trees or by the water, is what goes in the grandparents' frames. Most seniors do a few outfit changes so you end up with a mix, one for the tribute page, one for the wall, and a few that are just plain fun.

Why September and October fill up first

Two reasons. The weather, which I already covered, and the tribute page. If this is your first time through it, the yearbook photo pages are handled by the school's contract photography company, so those are not mine. Where my work shows up is the tribute page your parents buy, and a lot of schools want those turned in well before the holidays. Every family in the area figures that out at the same time in late October. Those last few weeks get tight, it starts getting dark really early in the day and the good evening slots are few and far between. They go first because that is when the light is best.

If we get you booked in September or early October, you get your pick of times, we have room to reschedule if a storm rolls through or the wind is blowing your hair all over the place. And most importantly you will have your images back with plenty of time to get anything printed for the family and shared on social media.

Let's get it on the books

Reach out and we will talk through what you are into, what you want to wear, and where you want to shoot. There is no pressure in that conversation. I just want to hear about you.

The seniors I photographed in the past had a blast, and I would love to do the same for the class of 2027. Every one of these young people is somebody's whole world, and I do not take it lightly that I get to be the one who captures them right before everything changes.

Give me a call or send a message and let's find your date.

You can schedule the call right here:

https://calendly.com/innovativeimages/portraitphoneconsultation