Jessica, a Class of 2011 Senior at Durango High School, came in for her senior session with plans to photograph out at Dalton for the fall colors. Well, they hadn’t quite turned out there – but it was still beautiful! After we shot there for a while, we headed up north to find some more fall colors, which we did. We ended in the studio, with Jessica’s adorable dog, who wasn’t nearly as excited about the portrait session as I was! It was a really great session – Jessica looked beautiful and her purple shoes were soo fun! It was a little breezy, especially at Dalton, but I love hair blowing pictures, so it was okay by me! Here are a few of my faves – hope you love them!

Taylor is also a Class of 2011 Senior at Durango High School and one of our models. She has been so much fun to photograph – from her model session, to the trash the formal session, to her actual senior session – she is just so beautiful! We shot her senior session between school and the Powder Puff game for homecoming and she was so excited to play football! I was actually worried for the girls on the opposing team – Taylor is super little but I was sure she was going to hurt someone! – In a good, team/school spirit way of course! We headed up north looking for fall colors and found a few – the leaves are just now really starting to turn here in town. We ended up stopping at The Ranch, Baker’s Bridge, along the side of Hwy 550 to use a cool fence. Thanks Taylor for the fun session and I hope you love these few of my faves!

Garret, a Class of 2011 Senior at Durango High School AND one of our models, came in for his session last week, squeezing it in between school and the Macho Men games for homecoming. I have really enjoyed getting to work with and photograph Garrett, and his senior session was no exception. We really wanted fall colors and so we searched around town, around Rotary Park, and ended in Lightner Creek, playing around with his running shoes. He runs on the Cross Country team at DHS and of course I love getting to talk with him about running. (I just signed up for my second marathon December 12th, by the way!) You may remember his sneak preview from his model session last spring, which had some really great more formal images. We went with a slightly more casual approach with this session, so he’ll have a great variety to choose from. Here are a few of my faves – hope you love them!

Kayla, a Class of 2011 Senior at Durango High School, was way too much fun to photograph! We went to only one location and still shot for hours! Kayla works at the Double Tree and we photographed around the river trail behind the hotel – like I said, for hours. Her mom and sister brought her adorable little dog for a few portraits and we traipsed back and forth along the river trail to the car for a clothing change and back again. We had talked about Kayla being told she should be a model and I agree that she should, just beautiful! – hope you love these few of my faves!

Adela is a Class of 2011 Senior at Durango High School. Her senior session was so much fun, she had me laughing the whole time! We started in the studio, blowing her perfectly done hair around with a fan, hee, hee. Then, while I was tripping over myself (I am sometimes kind of clumsy), she was skating on these skates that resemble a skateboard but are two separate skates, one for each foot! I was very impressed – it looked really difficult to do! We strolled along the river trail for a while and then picked up for adorable dog for some pet portraits. It was a gorgeous day and Adela looked so beautiful – hope you love these few of my faves from her session!

David is a Class of 2011 senior at Durango High School. He was so great to photograph – once we got warmed up, he had tons of ideas! We ended up doing everything we could think of, which means we have quite a few portraits for him to choose from, of course. He’s thinking of going into modeling and from shooting him, I’d say he’ll be great! I photographed his brother, Daniel, last year for his senior portraits and they are so different. Daniel was constantly on the move – I had to chase him around with my camera – which was fun too – and David was more relaxed – let me slow down a bit. These are a few of my faves from David’s session – hope you love them!

Amanda Warwick came all the way from Houston, Texas for her senior portrait session! She and her family own property here and vacation here, so when she decided she wanted to do her senior portraits here, she started doing research. She found us online and wanted to be a model for our studio. We couldn’t quite make that work because we weren’t sure how many of Amanda’s friends would fly out to Durango from Houston so we could photograph their senior portraits. But we were very excited to photograph Amanda! We had a blast during her session too. The weather started out a little “iffy” but the sun came out and it ended up being beautiful. We went everywhere. We used the hanging bridge, the train museum, Rotary Park, the river, the train tracks, the long grass off of Hwy 550, her red jeep, and the beautiful ponds at The Ranch. Amanda even got in the water at the end of the session! So fun! Here are a few of my faves, hope you love them!

Mike Maynes, a Class of 2011 Senior at Durango High School, came in for his senior session this past Wednesday. The sky had clouded over and the wind was blowing like crazy, but we had a great session anyway. The wind is not such a problem with short hair and I love cloudy sky light. We started in the studio for Mike’s mom, Jennifer, then headed downtown Durango and of course, to the train tracks. For those of you other Class of 2011 seniors, talk to Mike or one of our Models about how fun their sessions have been and then give us a call to schedule yours! We have so much more time and flexibility before school starts, so hurry in! 970-259-9255 Mike, these are a few of my faves, hope you love them!

You might have noticed that I was out of town not just this past weekend, but last week as well. That is because I was on tour! That’s right, the Senior Rock Star Tour! Allison Ragsdale Photography teams up with four other amazing studios to photograph senior portraits for those “rock star seniors”. The photographers who make up our “Paparazzi” include Ross and Kammi Bothwell of Roka Studios, Erin Cady of Art & Soul Photography, Dawn Gioia of Dawn Gioia Photography, Dusty and Michelle Volkel of Volkel Image, and us (Matt and I), Allison Ragsdale Photography. Our very own Paulette C. Dominique, a Durango High School Class of 2011 Senior, traveled to Denver with me to be photographed on the tour and we had way too much fun! We photographed in a few new locations this year and had such a great group of seniors.

In case you don’t already know what the Senior Rock Star Tour is, let me explain. We start out by offering our seniors the opporuntiy to get their hair and make up professionally done, then fill a limo bus with 15 seniors, 5 photography studios, all the seniors’ clothes, shoes, and accessories, our camera equipment, tons of drinks and snacks, and we spend a full day being chauffeured to different locations to photograph our seniors. It is so much fun and such a unique experience for senior portraits! How many seniors can say they had their portraits taken by 5 different studios in 5 different locations? So, obviously, we’ve already finished our first tour of 2010, but we have another scheduled for July 27th and we have spots left! So check out the website and register for your spot on the tour! If that date doesn’t work for you, give us a call and we would love to photograph your senior portraits here at Allison Ragsdale Photography! Stay tuned for a sneak preview of this past tour’s images!