Austin Senior Portraits at Mercer Botanic Gardens

For Austin’s senior portraits, we wanted something outdoors with some different elements for a variety of looks. One of my favorite places to suggest is Mercer Botanic Gardens in Humble, Texas. Although very colorful with flowers and such, there are lots of different landscape elements, rocks, wood, benches, fences, etc. to get some great variety of poses, even for guys. It was a joy to learn more about Austin as we went around and did our shooting. He’s a smart kid with goals, and was in the band playing percussion. He is graduating from Kingwood Park High School in Kingwood, Texas.

The tree cover helped with lighting. We had to be careful with some posing to avoid harsh highlights, as they don’t allow off camera flash, stands, etc. It’s a very busy location typically, but we went on a weekday evening and this helped limit the crowd for the day. Having a watchful eye is key to try and hop to the different areas while avoiding crowds. They have a restroom on site which is very handy for outfit changes. Towards the back, their is a rock pile wall that I just love for photos. It’s probably my favorite spot in the entire gardens. They were hit pretty hard with the Arctic Freeze we had this winter, but they are recovering well by this point of the year.

If you don’t know, Mercer Gardens is going to have a huge expansion to their location. They plans look absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to see it when it’s done. It’s really a beautiful place for both portrait sessions and other casual photography as well.

Overall, this session was excellent. I think we really hit the theme and look that Austin and his parents were wanting for his senior session. I love senior sessions and still get excited whAustin and his mom love their final portraits.