Senior Portraits and Bailey
If there's one thing I don't enjoy about Spring in Northern Japan, it's the wind. For this shoot with Bailey, we were dealing with wind gusts in the 20mph plus range. If I was a natural light photographer, this wouldn't have been as big a deal. I'm an off-camera lighting kinda guy. My equipment consists of a portable strobe, a battery to power it, a light stand to hold it, and an umbrella to reflect and diffuse the light. As you can probably imagine, in strong winds, my umbrella becomes a kite. Luckily Bailey's mother Tracey was more than willing to be my lighting assistant and did a wonderful job of getting the best lighting possible for this shoot.
We decided to do this shoot in town and it worked to our advantage. The area we were in was a place were the military folks go to on Friday and Saturday nights to unwind after a long week at work. Known for it's night life but completely empty during the day, it's a perfect place to hide from the wind and get some urban shots. Bailey was extremely easy going and willing to try anything which made for one of my more enjoyable shoots.
Senior's have definitely become one of my favorite people to photograph. I missed out as a kid and didn't have any done. I honestly don't remember it being as big of a thing as it is now. I can see why it's a big deal nowadays. It's actually a nerve wracking experience as a photographer. I have to ensure that these kids look awesome so that in 20-30 years from now, they can show there kids or spouses how cool they were and still are. Challenge accepted.
-Michael
