Rianne is Class of 2012 senior at Durango High School and one of our 2012 models. She has beautiful dark, dark brown hair – and we styled it straight for her model session at Hair Fusion instead of curled! I was so excited about that part because we always do curls, but Rianne told me her hair doesn’t curl, so we got straight! It was a cloudy/rainy afternoon but we managed to avoid any heavy rain and just got sprinkled on a little. The trees are finally blossoming with gorgeous flowers, so we headed out to find pretty pinks and purples and whites. We ran around a few downtown alleys and then along the river trail behind the Discovery Museum for some great blossoms and great walls. We took Rianne and her mom to locations they never knew existed, like the silver garage doors behind Wendy’s. We’re always on the look out for stuff like that and since I try to take every senior to different locations, we can end up in some unusual places.We had a blast though – Rianne had great colors in her outfits (and great jewelry) and was up for anything and everything. Hope you love these few of my faves!

Tyler (Tighler) is a Class of 2012 senior at Bayfield High School and is one of our models. I’ve had the opportunity to photograph Tyler before when I photographed his family portraits this past summer. I also photographed his older brother, Alex, for his senior portraits a few years ago. I absolutely LOVE working with this family so I have been super excited that Tyler wanted to participate in our model program! We had a blast during his model session, with Tyler’s dad, Michael, trying to make Tyler smile and/or laugh for his his portraits. This worked on Tyler sometimes, but on me every time, so I was laughing the entire session. We actually got quite a few portraits with Tyler smiling but apparently I am a fan of his “serious face” since his sneak preview ended up being more serious than smiley. Tyler had great outfits for his model session – a simple black and white outfit (of which I am always a fan) and an all black outfit with a great “teal” tie. Tyler also had a very cool bass guitar that ended up being a great prop! We started in the studio, then headed out to a “teal” building, then a rust orange garage door, for a complimentary color palette. It was a very nice afternoon weather wise and Tyler was a great model – win/win! Hope you love these few of my faves!

Claire is one of our Class of 2012 Models from Durango High School. She came to her model session prepared with her entire closet (just kidding, she brought just the right amount of options) and she had the cutest shoes for each outfit. I’ve been on a shoe hunt for a while now and every pair Claire put on seemed like just the pair I’d been looking for – it’s a good thing we don’t wear the same shoe size or I’d be asking to borrow her shoes. We had a great time at the salon getting Claire’s hair and make up done – it was Bayfield’s prom so we got to watch all the BHS girls getting ready. Claire was the perfect model, even posting status updates to Facebook about her session as she was getting ready! It was windy outside, of course, so we headed up the block to shoot on a wall not being blasted by the wind. This particular wall had great bricks, stucco, wooden doors, and stairs so it became a great 4 in 1 backdrop. Then Claire’s mom suggested Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which I had never photographed at, so we headed over. It was such a great location! There was moss on the rock walls and wrought iron railings. Then we went to the river and back to the studio. Claire had a super cute pair of “holy” jeans that we had to use, so we ended with those. I hope you love these few of my faves!

Jen is a DHS Class of 2012 senior model for our studio and a really beautiful model at that! We had a blast getting her hair and make up done at Hair Fusion – the ladies there are so great! We headed outside – into the wind of course, as that seems to be the norm these days. Jen had a beautiful coral dress that just happened to be the same color as one of my favorite brick walls, so we headed out for the wall, meeting up with one of Jen’s friends along the way. My husband, Matt, taught Jen’s friend, Taylor, how to hold the reflector, so we once again had an entourage: Jen, myself, Matt, Taylor, and Jen’s mom, Evelyn. We laughed the whole time and I just love every shot we got! We used the courtyard at St. Marks and then headed over to the river since it was such a beautiful green color. There was a gorgeous tree that had just blossomed right by the river and Matt shot the image that made into this sneak preview of Jen with that tree – nice, huh!? Then we finished at the studio with the always favorite lying-down-hair-spread-out shot. LOVE!

Tevan is one of Class of 2012 Durango High School Senior Models and I wish I had her hair! She is just gorgeous – beautiful skin and like I said, beautiful (super thick) hair. Her hair and make up took 2 hours at Hair Fusion because her hair is so thick – it actually took 2 stylists to do her hair! And, she had even had it thinned just before! It was so worth the wait though – I love the portraits we got! It was pretty windy outside, but that ended up being fun as Tevan’s hair was heavy enough to mostly stay down and just blow about a little (I’ll stop talking about her hair now).

We started downtown at the red doors I mentioned in Kyle Down’s blog post as Tevan had her zebra prom dress with bright red ribbon and heels. Right as we started shooting the wind picked up and I got this awesome shot with Tevan in the doorway with her hair blowing and I love it! Not a traditional senior portrait for the walls at home, but so fun for the model session!

Then we headed out north to the clubhouse at Dalton Ranch for a brand new shooting location. We discovered this small section of rust colored wall and it became an amazing backdrop with Tevan’s hair and eyes – I think that one is my ultimate favorite.

We came back to the studio to finish up and I finally used my patterned black and white backdrop and I love that portrait too. Tevan had seen images of our from past sessions with our models lying on the floor with their hair spread out around their faces and wanted to do that, so of course I love that one as well, since obviously I am a fan of Tevan’s hair (I never did stop talking about it, did I?). Hope you love these too!

Allie (Allison) and Kyla (Kelilah) are two of our Class of 2012 Durango High School Senior Models… and they are identical twins – as I”m sure you can see! I was so excited for their session; they both have beautiful eyes and blond hair. Plus, I have been waiting for to work with them since we went to Jamaica together last spring with the Interact Club. We started the morning in the salon, Hair Fusion, and everyone kept doing double takes as these two were getting their hair and make up done – too funny. The ladies at Hair Fusion did a great job as always and we headed out north into a beautiful sunny day. We were a large group again, Matt, myself, our intern Ali, and the Wise Twins, Allie and Kyla. We packed into the car, then stopped along the highway for “grass shots”. We ended up at Appaloosa Trading Company – they were so good to us – they let us shoot all over their property and they have a ton of really cool stuff! We headed back to the studio to finish the session and Matt went to get us lunch, so we took turns eating and shooting and modeling. Hope you love these few of my faves!

Kyle is one of our Durango High School Class of 2012 Senior Models and he came in EARLY Saturday morning for his session – which I really appreciate. Students’ schedules these days are packed full so I am always grateful they take the time to participate in our programs, parties, sessions, etc, etc. Kyle showed up with freshly ironed shirts (thanks mom!) and I am such a fan of his hair – I was really excited to get started! We had an entourage, with myself, my husband, and our intern from Fort Lewis College, Ali, plus Kyle, of course. It was fun to teach my intern while photographing Kyle because it caused me to slow down and think even more about what I was doing and why I was doing it, since I had to explain it. We started in the studio, then headed outside to a few spots I had in mind downtown. As always, we came across a few new backdrops, such as the newly painted bright red doors on the building that used to be Stonehouse Subs – very fun. Kyle was great to work with and photograph – up for everything. We started discussing having our models paint us some new backdrops for a fun group paint session, which Kyle thought was a good idea – and I trust his opinion as he is in theater and has had experience painting backdrops – so stay tuned for those super fun portraits and brand new backdrops! Hope you love these few of my faves of Kyle!

Get ready for a long post…

Maggie is another of our Class of 2012 Senior Models for Durango High School and I was super excited for her model session this past weekend (when am I not super excited about a session, really?)! I had heard such great things about her and as soon as I got to meet and work with her, I could see why. She was up for anything and everything – even after we struck out twice on our first two locations (both were locked up tight). We ended up coming out way ahead though, with what I call the “portrait session of the year” (so far)! We found a brand new spot downtown that I fell in love with, as well as gained entrance into… the funeral home, Hood Mortuary! I know, it sounds strange, but they have beautiful furniture, a beautiful mirror, a beautiful chandelier, etc, etc in there and I can’t explain how excited I am we got to shoot in there! I was pretty much squealing the whole time (embarrassing, but true). We are friends with the owners, Ryan & Kristal (they were youth group leaders at my church when I was younger and they are absolutely amazing people – I miss seeing them as much as we used too!) and Ryan happened to be coming back from a bike ride with Kevin (another of our youth group leaders) as we were walking by the building and Ryan invited us in. What can I say other than thank you, thank you, thank you! We got to use our super cool Radio Poppers while we shot inside too! We also photographed Maggie in the Smiley building and headed out north on 550 for a specific “grass” shot I wanted. Maggie wore this super fun (sorry for the overuse of the word “super” today) pair of gold peace sign earrings that her mom wore on her wedding day – how great is that? Hair Fusion also did an absolutely beautiful job with hair and make up as always. It was an amazing session and Maggie was awesome and gorgeous, as I am sure you can see. Hope you love these as much as I do!

Bonnie is a Class of 2012 Durango High School Senior and one of our models! I was looking forward to her session so much as I have gotten to know Bonnie as we went to Jamaica together last spring and we shared a “condo”. My husband is the DHS Interact Sponsor for Rotary and last year the Interact Club went to Jamaica to complete service projects. I got to tag along as a chaperon and it was amazing! Bonnie and Maria shared the condo with my husband and I and Bonnie was a great housemate. She has a great attitude, is super tough (broken nose in a swimming pool accident while in Jamaica), and very trustworthy. So, as I was saying, I was very excited for her session because I knew she would be great to work with and photograph! We headed over to Hair Fusion together and the girls got right to work – such beautiful hair and make up! We headed out and didn’t get far before I spotted a location I wanted to use, so we stopped every few minutes or so for more portraits – and it was wiiinnddyy! It was nice to get back to the studio and escape the wind – my contacts were so dry! Bonnie had great clothing/color choices and we found a few spots I had never used before and am so excited about the results! Hope you love these few of my faves!

Katie is one of our Class of 2012 Senior Models at Durango High School and as you can see, she is absolutely gorgeous! She came in for her model session over her spring break, the day after it had snowed quite a bit in town. Katie has very pretty thick hair, which took a while to dry and curl, but I was so impressed by Hair Fusion (Chelsea specifically), as usual. Chelsea used a straightener to curl Katie’s hair – so cool! By the time her hair and make up was finished, the snow was melting and literally falling out of the trees onto us! It was pretty funny actually. Just picture: Katie posing for her portraits, her mom Janet holding the reflector for me, and myself photographing Katie; while we are all getting snow dumped on our heads, down our clothes, etc – funny, huh?! It was a perfect Colorado day though – everything covered in white and a beautiful blue sunny sky. Katie toughed out the snow and mud in her dress and heels and I love the images we got! We finished in the studio with some fun cowboy hat pictures and I learned that Katie never wears matching socks – which I love because until I met my husband, I didn’t either! Hope you love these!