Senior Photos? The pinnacle of youth, the 12th grade, on the edge of becoming an adult, eight teen years in the making, you are just about to end your K-12 experience, and you need pictures to prove it!
This is quite possibly the silliest reason for anyone to have a professional photograph taken of him or her. Now don't get me wrong, I love photography, but most senior photos are a joke. Now, I have looked around at some senior photography here and there to kind of get a grasp what everyone out there is doing, maybe pick up an idea or two. But the more I look at it, the more I realize how boring these pictures are! People, you are so much more creative than this! Not all of these pictures are boring, but most! They don't usually impact me as an exciting photograph expressing the full potential of the model (the senior student). It bothers me more than anything.
I guess this is more directed toward the portrait studios that have the fancy signs out front, that hardly leave the comfort of their own studio.
Typical, standard, and boring are all terms I would use for the general senior photo category. Unfortunately, I don't think any yearbook team has really gotten the point. But then again, they are just looking for a way to streamline the process when they have 200-300 graduating seniors. What’s the deal with the requirements for senior photos? It has to be a certain height, with only a certain amount gap between the face and the edge of the photo, and such. Oh my goodness, this is ridiculous! Why even get a senior photo taken? Let the kids submit a picture into their yearbook that actually expresses their personality! Okay, so yeah, then again, if there were 200-300 students with senior pictures, it would be a little aggravating to have a bunch of “personality” pictures. If someone submits a bad picture, then nobody will never able to recognize him or her for the rest of their live. Wait, that doesn’t make sense.
Okay, I guess this is where we look back on my life, a little retrospect if you may. Maybe because of a little bit of a soar thumb from my senior year, let us look back to… the year 2000.
I suddenly feel like I am in a Conan O’Brien skit.
Okay, so here we are in the year 2000. Okay, so it is still now, but you can just pretend we are in the year 2000. Wow, almost years ago? You know you are getting old when you have to start thinking about your ten-year high school reunion. Should I start working out? Come up with a dramatic business plan to make millions so I can arrive in a Ferrari (maybe I could just rent one for a day?). I have two more years to lead myself to perfection! Actually, I will probably just show up with my brand new 1990 Volvo station wagon claiming I am a photographer, and people will look at me funny. Okay, so the car is not specifically new, but it saves me money because it is old, it runs, and it is 100% paid for!
Wow, I am easily distracted! Are you still there? Oh, hello!
Anyway, back to the point! Okay, so this was well before my photography years, in fact, I have not even discovered the ways of photography at this age. I was still trying to make web pages, and do computer programming as a hopeful living. I was the classic nerd, without the classic nerd glasses. I had 20/20 vision. I didn't really know much about anything besides computers. What does this have to do with anything? Well, I got my senior photos taken, they were not too fantastic, and my mother only bought one. It wasn’t even accepted by the yearbook team, and they instead, with out any warning, put up my student body picture. I wish I could find my yearbook, so I could share you the humility. It was horrific!
I decided to add my senior photo to the mix, just to show you how NOT to do a senior photo. I have nothing wrong with backdrops, but the one that was selected for me, was just terrible. I should have been in a wedding with the light haze and the faded edges.
Of course, I figured it was only appropriate to paste a hand on my face for cheap mild entertainment. I should have submitted the picture with the hand as my face to yearbook.
I wouldn't want this to happen to anyone! How humiliating? I get my yearbook, and it is the worst picture of the century! This is the picture that all my classmates will have to look back and reference me when my name comes up in the news, or something.
Anyway, point is, why does a senior photo shoot have to be so generalized, streamlined, and generic? My goal as a photographer is to keep away from the generic, and produce something fantastic. I want to treat each individual senior as a model, and make him or her feel special during the photo shoot, no matter how long the photo shoot. I understand this isn’t for everyone! Maybe someone might want to be generically placed in a picture, that’s fine, we can do that! Senior photography is a trick, and I feel I am already on the path of starting something interesting!
Here is a look at some examples from my recent senior photos from the last few months, please enjoy, and be sure to click on the ones you enjoy most and leave a comment on my Flickr gallery!
