I don’t take many portraits, I tend to prefer to shoot landscapes.  It’s not because I don’t like shooting people it’s just that I’m not overly confident and landscapes don’t get disappointed if I screw up!  Having said that I don’t think I’ve upset anyone yet, but then like I said I haven’t taken many.

Anyway back at the beginning of the year Danielle asked me if I wanted to shoot her at her gym.  She wanted at the time some facebook pics showing her doing what she loves to do which is lift weights.  So I went to the gym and captured a few action shots and posted one on the January 13th.  Well Danielle liked the picture, at least I think she did as she asked me to shoot her Senior Portrait.

For those of you who don’t know (mostly friends from the UK) here in the US it’s very common for senior high school students to get nice portrait pictures in their last year.  These (I think) go into their last year book and also act as a nice reminder of what they looked at when they were 18.  In the US there is quite a large industry for photographers taking senior portraits.  So Danielle wanted hers done and she very kindly asked me to help.

Seniors usually get environmental pictures doing their favorite past time or hobby and for Danielle again she wanted to go back to the gym.  So off we went and we took some shots.  I’m really not sure who was more nervous, Danielle or me, but we both got through the experience unscathed.  These pictures were not suposed to be her lifting anything, just her posing by equipement looking gorgeous.  She of course pulled that bit off no problem, so the pressure was definitely on me to get some nice shots.

At the end of the day I think I got around 140 pictures, 30 of which she really liked.  So I cleaned them all up for her (which mainly involved me tidying up the wall behind her and adding a little vignette.)  Tonight I asked her if she minded me posting one fo the shots and she said no problem go for it.

I have to say I really liked all of the 30 we we ended up with, but selected this one as it had the weights behind her and her leaning on a medicine ball.  So as an environmental portrait it came out well.  I also put a fan on her for this shot and liked the effect it had on her hair.

I should say here that Danielle is very pretty so for me this was pretty easy to get a nice picture, and I’m very grateful to her for asking and am pleased she likes the results.  So thanks Danielle for a great experience, who knows I may one day do it again.

Tonight the guys found a wooden horse to play with and were found “hanging” from something sensitive!