Client Appreciation: Kaylee Senior Portraits

Back when I lived in Wisconsin, I shot this senior portrait session around Alma, Wisconsin.

Locations: Tim Neitzel's property on County Road N in Alma, Buena Vista, and the town of Alma.

Kaylee was such a trooper! She was climbing up on ladders at the deer stand (hello, I said this shoot was in Wisconsin, right), climbing up on fallen trees, and pretty much doing anything I asked her to do for the shot.

A lot of clients believe that a bright, sunny day is perfect for pictures - but the truth is, us photographers love an overcast day! The day of Kaylee's senior portraits was a bright, sunny, day, which is why we started in the woods, under the safety of the shade from the trees.

The lighting in the shade was even, and not harsh under the canopy of the trees, which made for great pictures. 

I also loved her choice of outfit against the greenery of the woods. The purple sweater with the dark blue jeans and shirt worked wonderfully with the scenery.

​The fact that it was fall and a bit of yellow and orange worked their way into the images only helped the color scheme.

After the woods, we decided to head down to the town. I would love to tell you that if you've never been to Alma, you have to go, but if you don't appreciate the charm of small towns, the strength of the Mississippi, and the beauty of the bluffs, then I just can't tell you to go ;).

As I stated before, it was a bright, sunny day, so we hunted for any shade we could find, or had her face away from the sun.

Please note, that facing away from the sun only works if you can get an even shadow across the client's face. In the image above, you can see the bright sunshine through the leaves in the background, but the fact that there was nothing to cast shadows on Kaylee, the method of facing away from the sun worked wonderfully. I loved the contrast of the fall leaves against her blue striped shirt.

We walked down the street a ways, and found this older, red brick wall, and of course, she was in the shade (hurrah!). She and her outfit looked wonderful against the brick, and who doesn't love old brick?

Train tracks do run alongside the town. Train tracks run along the Mississippi for quite a length, you could almost follow them to tour riverside towns in Wisconsin.... or you can just take the River Road. Whatever floats your boat! Ha. Okay, I'm done.

Anyway, the town has a bridge that goes over the tracks, so we headed there next.She was just tall enough that when she sat down on the bridge, her face was above the shadow lines. Just so you all know, I said before this girl was a trooper, and I mean it! The walkway part of the bridge is the rigid metal, with the little points that stick up at you. While you never notice it with your shoes on, it really hurt my knees when I was kneeling to take this image, and so I can only imagine how it felt when she sat on it!

For the image below, I normally greatly dislike taking images on train tracks, but since Kaylee's mom was with us and could keep an eye for oncoming trains. I highly recommend NOT taking photographs on train tracks for the following reasons:

1. It's hard to hear a train when you are on the tracks. Obviously, I could see beyond Kaylee, and she could see beyond me, but we could have been distracted until it was too late (PS, that's the back of a train you see behind Kaylee).
2. It's trespassing! If we had gotten caught, the railroad company has the right to sue you for trespassing.

So what are my alternatives? If you can, find a piece of track that is no longer being used. You can find them on the sides of active railroad tracks and older towns, like Alma. Use that instead!

Since I normally don't like taking images on train tracks, I had her sit down, shot photos in a quick succession, and then had her get off the tracks. We were probably only physically on the tracks for two minutes!

Do you want to have an Imbeccable senior portrait session? Book your free consultation today, or email/text me questions at photography@imbeccableimages.com / 608-304-5427.

Book your free consultation