Each year, we do a few super fun group session with our senior models. We always have a group who want to do the “trash the formal” pictures. That means they wear a pretty dress and “trash” it by getting it wet and/or muddy. So, these four beautiful girls; Lindsey, Tasha, Caity, and Laura came to the studio a little over a week ago to do just that. They all looked beautiful and we had a great time splashing around in the water in the Animas River. The water wasn’t too cold and the light was beautiful in the early afternoon. Here are a just a few of my favorites – I will post the rest on FB next week. I hope you love!

Rayven is a Durango High School Class of 2013 senior and one of our beautiful models. She came in for her model session last Friday and we had a blast running around town together, with our entourage. Rayven brought two of her friends, Corynna (check out Corynna’s model session sneak preview here) and Ruby. Plus, I brought our beautiful intern, Lexi, and my amazing husband, Matt. So, the 6 of us went from the salon, to the studio, to a few outdoor locations around the northern end of Durango, then back to the studio. Lacey, at Hair Fusion, did Rayven’s hair and make up and she looked stunning. I loved the outfits she brought and I’m trying to find a way to “obtain” the pleated skirt she wore as part of her last outfit for myself. Rayven has a great smile and she pulled off the serious face amazingly well too. Obviously, I was impressed! I hope you are too 🙂

McKenna is one of our incredible Durango High School Class of 2013 Senior Models. I had the opportunity to photograph her once before for our DHS Prom Mini Shoot, with Krii & Paul Black’s horse and carriage (through Durango Party Rental). That shoot was so much fun and McKenna was hilarious; telling us stories about having been chased by a horse when he was younger. She is so much fun to work with and I couldn’t wait to photograph her again! We had her hair and make up done at Hair Fusion, with Lizzie and Kristi and she looked amazing. She has such long beautiful hair; I want mine to be that length. We decided to do the session downtown since her outfits fit those backdrops better than the “great outdoors”. However, there was a Can-Am Spyder convention happening and downtown main street was blocked to traffic. We spotted a bunch of spyder’s lined up in the middle of the street and decided we had to shoot with them. I loved it because I love anything new and unique. It was another incredibly hot day, so we ducked into the Strater Hotel to photograph in the air conditioned lobby. We started there, but did a little exploring upstairs. Then we headed across the streets to Fuzziwigs Candy Factory for a few fun shots there. We finished the session back at the smiley building (they have a great old piano there that I love to use and someone was actually playing it the day before we tried to use it, so we went back to try again). I hope you love these few of my faves and make sure to check back to see McKenna’s music video!

Cecilia (Ceci) is our Ignacio High School Class of 2013 Model. We’ve worked with Ceci before, photographing portraits for her Miss Colorado Teen competition last year. She was a blast to work with and I have been waiting anxiously since then for her to become a senior so she could be a model for us. We started with hair and make up of course at Hair Fusion and Mary Beth and Lizzie made Ceci even more beautiful than she already is. She had some family in town, so we had a large entourage and took over the salon. It was a really, really hot day, so we started the session in the studio, in the air conditioning. Plus, we needed to photograph Ceci in her competition gown for the programs for Miss Colorado Teen and we didn’t want to take her outside in her dress before she’d worn it for the competition. We finally headed outside once we had decided it had cooled down enough for us. We photographed at and around the train station downtown, then headed over to the smiley building, a favorite location of ours. Ceci brought really fun outfits, including really fun shoes. It was such a fun session and I LOVE, love, love the images we captured! I hope you love these few of my faves and make sure to come back for Ceci’s music video so you can see them all!

Corynna is one of our absolutely gorgeous Class of 2013 Durango High School Senior Models and this is her sneak preview from her model session. We started the session at Hair Fusion and Mary Beth styled Corynna’s hair and did her makeup. We photographed her last week in the afternoon and it was one of those really hot days we’ve been having lately – in the 90’s. She was a great sport though and no one complained about the heat other than myself. I get a little cranky when I’m hot. Corynna’s session was a blast though. I really truly loved photographing her and I am so excited about the images we got! I can’t wait to share the rest of them in Corynna’s music video and I can’t wait to hang them in our new studio space. The hard part will be deciding which one(s) to display. Corynna looked great no matter what she was doing and a lot of time she would simply relax into a great looking pose on her own. I LOVED her outfits and Matt tried to get her to sell me her white dress; I don’t think she was interested. We started the session downtown and did a little bit of everything. Our new and amazing intern, Lexi, immediately got the hang of the reflector and she made the images even better with her natural lighting talents. I hope you love these few of my faves!

Lindsey, a Class of 2013 Senior at Bayfield High School, and one of our amazing models, came in for her model session last Friday. She was a blast! I don’t think I stopped smiling and laughing the entire time. Her mom and sister came for her model session and they made it so fun. I photographed Lindsey’s older sister, Leslie, for her senior portraits 3 years ago (we both couldn’t believe that it had already been 3 years). We started at Hair Fusion and Mary Beth did Lindsey’s hair and make up. She is so pretty naturally and looked amazing. I always ask my models what they are doing after their session because they are all done up and Lindsey happened to be going camping afterwards. Mary Beth told us that Lindsey would actually be going “glamping” (since she was all glammed up) and we all thought that was hilarious! We headed back to the studio to pick Matt up and to have Lindsey change. It was pretty hot outside so we shot in the air conditioned studio for a few minutes, then headed over to my favorite old building. I asked Lindsey to climb around in her heels through the overgrowth and a wasp discovered her incredible smelling hairspray and wouldn’t leave her alone. She was a good sport though; up for anything and everything. We walked down a nearby alley then headed to a location I discovered earlier in the week with a ton of beautiful rose bushes. Then we went down to the river and I had Lindsey dip her toes and roll around in the grass. We joked and giggled the whole time and I couldn’t wait to share these favorite few images of mine. Come back to see her music video too!

Taylor is one of our gorgeous Class of 2013 Durango High School Senior Models. She is also the daughter of (Holly) the owner of the salon that always does our hair and make up for our models, Hair Fusion. My husband, Matt, has known Taylor for the past four years through school and so when I say we were really excited for this session, I mean we were REALLY EXCITED for this session! Holly and her amazing team at Hair Fusion do such an amazing job for us every single time and Taylor was no exception. Holly did Taylor’s hair and Mary Beth did Taylor’s makeup. Taylor was so much fun to photograph! She’s such a natural beauty and I love that she chose to have her hair braided – so she looked amazing. And she can pose! Everything she did looked great. I would catch her simply standing there and she looked like she had struck a pose. I loved it! I loved the outfits she brought too – all of our models are so different and it has been so fun to see what everyone brings to their sessions. We stayed downtown and photographed around the salon, at a favorite – but rarely used as of late – alley, and the back of the Big Picture building for their awesome staircase. Taylor and I climbed the first level then both realized that we didn’t want to go any higher, so we shot a few portraits and climbed back down – as safely and quickly as we could. Thanks Taylor for being such an amazing model! It was so hard to pick just a few favorites because I love them ALL! I hope you love these few and I can’t wait to show you the rest!

Hattie Sue (great name, huh) is another of our wonderful Class of 2013 Senior Models from Durango High School. We photographed her senior model session in the library, down by the river, and in an alleyway near the studio. We started with hair and make up at Hair Fusion, of course, then Hattie put on her prom dress and we headed to the library. I hadn’t photographed a portrait session there before and it was so fun! We used the long aisles of books for their great leading lines and repeating shapes – they made for great framing and composition. We then discovered the reading room and did some silhouettes in there. Then we headed outside and down to the river. We had Hattie splash around in the river and twirl around in the sand. Then we played with the dandelions and in the grass. Last, we came back to the north end of town, near the studio, and used the neighbors blue fences and barn wood walls. Hattie was so much fun to work with and was up for everything we suggested. I’m so in love with her portraits and can’t wait wait to share her music video so you can see them all! in the meantime, hope you love these few of my favorites!

Aama Harwood is technically part of the Class of 2014, but she is just so amazing that she is skipping her junior year of high school and will be graduating with the Class of 2013 from Durango High School. She is also one of our Class of 2013 senior models. We photographed her session on memorial day last week, after that crazy windy weekend. We started at Hair Fusion, as we always do, and the pandora station that day played lots of great 80’s music. So when Girls Just Want to Have Fun came on, Aama requested that it be the song for her music video. So, that also became the theme of her model session. And we did have fun! We used our favorite river spot, behind Big 5, and (I still can’t believe this happened), I got pooped on by a bird. There was cotton flying around everywhere from the cottonwood trees and when I felt something land in my hair, I was really hoping it was “heavy” cotton. It wasn’t. Ew. Aama was nice and didn’t make fun of me – and of course, Matt did. After I got over that incident, we continued the session downtown, at one of our favorite restaurants, Gazpacho’s. Aama had this great leather jacket we had to use with a nearby telephone booth and she also had a great teal dress that matched the stairs at Gazpacho’s. We used a beautiful pink rose bush and our favorite new brick wall as well. We finished the session in the studio, with a backdrop that Matt created, as it also matched Aama’s dress. Aama was really funny and creative and I loved all her ideas. I can’t wait for her next session to see what else she comes up with! I hope you love these few of my faves and make sure to check back for Aama’s music video set to Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

Haley is another of our stunning Class of 2013 Senior Models from Durango High School. She came in for her portrait session on one of the windiest days I can remember ever having here in Durango! There was so much dirt and ash in the sky from the wind and surrounding fires that you couldn’t even see the mountains. She was a great sport about it all though and we toughed it out anyway. We started at Hair Fusion, of course, with Tegan styling Haley’s hair and Kristi doing her make up. I love Haley’s long hair! We started the portrait session in the studio since it was so incredibly windy outside. We thought we could save Haley’s hair style from the tornadoish winds, at least for a little while. I loved the outfits Haley brought – leopard print, etc. We finally ventured out into the windy weather and attempted some shots at the carnival. We even had Haley ride the carousel, which was so cute! We tried to hide behind a few buildings to block the wind and use their brick walls, etc. Then we found some pretty orange flowers and nice green grass. We all felt like we were chewing dirt by the end of the session, but we had a great time and got lots of great portraits. Thanks Haley for being up for anything and I hope you love these few of my favorites! Check back for the music video!

Anna is one of our Class of 2013 Models from Durango High School. She is also the younger sister of one of our past senior clients, her brother Webb. To see his sneak preview, click here. Anna wanted more of the gorgeous Durango backdrops we have for the backgrounds of her pictures than the urban backdrops we have downtown. So, we used the Animas River at Santa Rita Park, with smelter barely visible in the back. It was very windy and smoky so visibility was limited by the amount of dust and ash in the air. We found some gorgeous purple flowers, a cool bicycle rack, and splashed around in Junction Creek. We tried a few fun shots in the studio with Anna blowing bubbles with bubble gum so that she didn’t have to try to chew gum covered in dirt from the wind outside. We started at Hair Fusion, of course, where Mary Beth gave Anna a gorgeous water fall braid (which I had yet to master on my own hair). I hope you love these few of my faves and stay tuned for Anna’s music video.