Kyle is a Class of 2012 Senior at Durango High School and is also one of our models. We’ve been able to photograph Kyle for his model session (click on Durango Senior Model Photographer to see his model session), his paint splatter group session (click on Durango Paint Splatter Photographer to see his paint pictures), at Trish & Corey’s wedding, and now for his senior session – and he is so much fun every time! We wanted to go shoot somewhere we’d never shot before, so the morning of Kyle’s session, we called up Lightner Creek Inn and asked if we could come shoot on their property. They were so nice and told us we could come out there anytime – so we’ll be back! Their pond had dried up, but other than that, it was still a great place for Kyle’s session. They have a great barn, a great white fence, beautiful green grass and trees, flowers everywhere, great stonework, plus the structures themselves are great (slight over use of the word great, I apologize). We even found a shovel propped up against a tree and had a little fun with it. Some of my favorite shots from the session are actually with the shovel! I wanted to post them all here, but then it wouldn’t be a sneak preview, so I had to choose just one shovel portrait. We made a stop at Smoothie King on the way back to the studio and finished up with some head shots on our new backdrops. Hope you love these few of my faves!

Elizabetha is a Class of 2012 Senior at Durango High School – don’t you just love her name? She has such stunning eyes – I’ve been excited to photograph Elizabetha since I met her for her consultation earlier in the summer. We started at Santa Rita park in the pretty flower garden, sunflowers next to the river trail, and the swings. We had clouds and sunshine intermittently, so we would be hot one moment and cool the next – at least I was. I’m not sure I regulate heat well – I get very cranky when I’m hot. Elizabetha did not get cranky in the heat, which is wonderful! We headed up to Fort Lewis College, more specifically the Lion’s Den, for our next location. We were trying to avoid downtown as it was the weekend of the bike rally and we probably would never have found a parking spot. Elizabetha had this great outfit – red dress and red heels – that went perfectly with the rocks! We found a bottle of bubbles, probably from a wedding the previous day, and I had Elizabetha blow bubbles for a few portraits – I love them! Hope you love these few of my faves!

Donna and Nicole are Class of 2012 Seniors at Durango High School and they came in for their yearbook session together. The afternoon before their session, I was photographing Tevan’s senior portraits (see previous post), and someone started yelling at us from the club house out at Dalton Ranch. At first I assumed we were in trouble for being on the green, but as we got closer, I realized it was Nicole shouting over the distance at us to be heard. We planned Nicole and Donna’s session from across the way. It was perfect timing and what a coincidence, huh?! For their session, we spent the next morning by the river, in the pretty soft overcast light. Nicole and Donna kept each other laughing the whole time, so we got some great huge smiles mixed in with the serious faces. I loved both of their outfits and their willingness to try anything I suggested. The river was a gorgeous green reflection of the trees lining the opposite side and we used one of my favorite trees to lean on. These two only need one image each for the yearbook, but we got so many great images, it could be a difficult choice! I hope you love these few of my faves!

Tevan is a Class of 2012 Senior at Durango High School and is also one of our models. She is stunning – you may remember my raving about her hair in her model session sneak preview – and she can stare down the camera lens like no one else I know (that is meant as a really great compliment – not sure it came out that way). Tevan lives out in Dalton Ranch and wanted to have her portraits taken at her home and at the Dalton Ranch Golf Course Club House – which is gorgeous. It is still so green out there, with lots of pretty flowers and stonework. Tevan’s home is equally beautiful, right on the green and between two ponds. It was sprinkling rain on and off all afternoon and started to get windy during our shoot. The rain finally won and decided for us that it was time to head into the studio. We finished here, using our new pink and brown/blue backdrops, plus the classic black and white backdrops. We had to fight the wind outside, but embraced it once we got to the studio with the use of a hairdryer to blow Tevan’s hair around – I love the wind blown look, especially when you can control it. We tried to convince Tevan to give us a “cheetah leaping out of the grass” pose, but the closest we got was her super cute zebra shirt. Thanks for such a great session Tevan! Hope you love these few of my faves!

To see Tevan’s model session blog post, click Durango Senior Model Photographer.

Raquel is a Durango High School Class of 2012 Senior and one of our models – and a favorite repeat client of mine as well. I got to photograph Raquel’s family for her 16th birthday present and now she’s a senior! We have so much fun shooting together and I guess we’ve done it enough now that we were completely on the same page during this last session. Every time I went to suggest something, Raquel would have just been about to suggest the same thing and vice versa! So we just fed off each other with new ideas – like “yea – I was just thinking that – let’s do it!” We started with Dudley, Raquel’s adorable new puppy, whom I’ve fallen in love with. He wasn’t nearly as excited about the session as I was, but that’s ok. Then we headed over to Santa Rita park to use the rose garden and to photograph Raquel with her car, a BMW convertible, that she also got for her 16th birthday from her grandpa. LOVE this car – we, myself and my assistant, Katie – rode around in the back sitting on top of the seats with the top down, having more fun that we probably should have been having. Then we took Raquel’s car down to the river trail and parked it just off the trail. We used the train tracks there too, then headed back to the studio. We used our new pink backdrop and vintage yellow wingback chair for one of my favorites from the session. As you can tell, we got a lot of great images, so here’s just a few of my many, many faves. Hope you love them!

To see Raquel’s family session blog post from her birthday, click on Durango Family Photographer. To see Raquel’s senior model session blog post, click on Durango Senior Model Photographer. To see Raquel’s paint splatter session blog post, click on Durango Paint Splatter Photographer.

Sierra is a Bayfield High School Class of 2012 senior and one of our amazing models this year. She came in for her senior session last week and we had even more fun during this session than her model session – which means we had a lot of fun! We started downtown, at my fave staircase and my fave alley, then we headed out to Santa Rita park, which is just gorgeous this time of year. They have a rose garden that just keeps getting better and better, with a cute little bridge and a pretty archway. It’s right along the river as well, so of course, we had to use the river as a backdrop too. We finished in the studio, with a couple of our new backdrops (and the classic black) and I love what I am getting with these new patterns and colors! Sierra has bangs now, as opposed to her model session when she didn’t have bangs, and I love this look on her! I wish I could pull off bangs. I hope you love these few of my faves!

To see Sierra’s model session blog post, click on Durango Senior Model Photographer. To see Sierra’s mud and water session blog post, click on Durango Trash the Formal Photographer.

Aimee is a Class of 2012 Senior at Mancos High School. She came in for her senior portraits last week and we had a blast! Her friend, Morgan, who is considering becoming a photographer herself, was a huge help during Aimee’s session! She got to be my assistant and immediately caught on to how/where to hold the reflector and flash! I was impressed and very grateful! Aimee is gorgeous, as you can see, and has a super fun personality. I loved the outfits she brought and the locations we ended up in. We started downtown – at the local photographer’s favorite spiral staircase (I was talking with another photographer the other day and we were commenting on how amazing it was that we never run into each other there, because we all shoot there!), then headed over to Rotary Park for the train tracks, then hit the road north, headed up toward Durango Mountain Resort. We finished up in a field of daises. Then Aimee was headed back to Mancos for volleyball practice that afternoon (after pancakes at CJ’s Diner). Thanks Aimee for the super fun session and I hope you love these few of my faves!

Claire is a Class of 2012 senior at Durango High School and one of our Class of 2012 Models! To see her blog post of her model session, click on Durango Senior Model Photographer. She also participated in one of our group model paint sessions. To see that blog post, click on Durango Senior Paint Photographer. Claire’s senior session was amazing because we discovered a field of wildflowers just past Cascade that was simply breathtaking. Claire is gorgeous and she had her hair and make up done at Hair Fusion for her session. She has become such a great model – she threw perfect poses right and left so I just could just keep shooting away while she posed herself. So much fun! Claire’s mom met us at the end of Claire’s session at Baker’s Bridge for a few mother daughter portraits and what an adorable pair they are! They were so cute together and were laughing the whole time about awkward hand poses, which kept me laughing the whole time as well. I hope you love these few of my faves!

Curtis is a Durango High School Class of 2012 senior. He came in for his senior session the day after Joe’s senior session (one of his closest friends) (to see Joe’s sneak preview, click on Durango Senior Photographer); after a late night of playing cards with his grandma and Joe. We photographed his session in the afternoon though, so I think he got to sleep in a bit. Not this week though, as Curtis is in soccer tryouts all week. Curtis was so much fun to photograph and he had me laughing the whole session. He has gorgeous blond hair and blue eyes as you can see from these fave-of-mine color portraits, but he also looks amazing in black and white, as you can also see from these few of my faves. I am normally such a fan of the “serious face” and I totally forgot to ask Curtis to do some serious faces as he has such a great smile – so he had to ask me about it! He has a great serious face as well though – wouldn’t you agree? Matt photographed Curtis as well as shot some video, while Melissa (Curtis’s mom) was a super great assistant and held the reflector for us. I can’t wait to share their video with them! Hope you love these too!

Colton is a BHS Class of 2012 senior and the younger brother of one of my great friends and beautiful past bride’s, Shannon Ellis. To see Shannon’s wedding sneak preview blog post, click on Durango Wedding Photographer. I was so honored and excited to photograph Colton’s senior portraits! Colton’s mom, Patti, is so much fun, and she came along to help get real smiles out of Colton and also to hold the reflector (little did she know I would put her to work). What a great team we all made! Colton was great to photograph; easygoing with a great smile (great serious face too). He let us convince him to wear more clothing changes than absolutely necessary, including a tie (which we had to have Matt tie for us because the rest of us didn’t know how). Thanks Matt! We finished the session in Rotary Park, where we wandered down to the river and to my absolute shock, the huge fallen tree I use in a lot of my sessions had disappeared! I don’t know if it floated away or was removed, but either way, I can’t believe it’s gone ! My post production lab, PWD Labs, liked Colton’s session so much that they previewed some of their “artistic styling” on his images for me for free! Pretty cool, I think. Hope you love these few of my faves!