Treven's Senior Portraits in Downtown Houston

Treven moved here from Alaska recently and wanted to explore downtown Houston for his senior portrait session. Treven was a football player and a Class of 2022 graduate. He really wanted some shots with building in the background. He also wanted some color added into his images from backgrounds. He also had several outfits to wear, so it was good that I brought my trusty folding wagon. With a variety of backgrounds, textures and surfaces, I think we got some great shots for Treven.

Treven was eager for the skyscraper background first, so we went straight to the top of the parking garage of Franklin and Milan St near Market Square Park in Houston. We worked some different looks and poses, and also got one great shot of an impromptu exciting and smiling moment. I worked different apertures to get a variety of background blurriness for sake of variety. Luckily we found some spots out of the direct sunlight for better lighting.

Treven was a really camera friendly face and worked well with little direction from myself. That’s not a common find with senior guys, but I’ll definitely take it and I appreciated it well. Treven’s parents were great at being helpful with holding reflectors, scrims, and helping with wardrobe and hair. All these things go a long way to make a smooth senior portrait session.

One thing I love about shooting downtown is that its easy to get a variety of looks and not get the same ones over and over. It’s also easy to find softer light from all of the cover provided by buildings. I also like the experience the seniors have just being downtown. A lot of them have never been downtown so it’s quite an experience in its own right. This was the case with Treven, an Alaskan that just moved to Kingwood, Texas.

Jonas' Senior Portraits At Old Downtown Humble

For Jonas’ senior portraits, we wanted something outdoors with a small town feel to it. One of my favorite local places to suggest is Old Downtown in Humble, Texas. There are lots of different brick and wall elements with a variety of textures and colors. There’s also along the road there for a full small town feel.

I always like to start down on one end (Feed store) and work our way down. I enjoyed learning more about Jonas’ and his future while we were shooing. He’s a smart kid with goals. He’s busy applying to several colleges right now. He plays in the Orchestra and is on the varsity wrestling team. He is graduating in 2022 from Kingwood High School in Kingwood, Texas.

The late afternoon sun with cloud cover helped give us great lighting for our shoot. It’s actually usually not crowded at all down there. That was the case for his shoot. It’s nice not having to rush and/or be patient to get the spots you want. I had a changing tent available for outfit changes for Jonas. These is this rustic, ugly ole patched up wall that I love for shoots. You will see it down further in the gallery.

The upkeep in Downtown Humble is really good. They are hoping to revitalize the area and bring back more business there. There is a nice little park in the middle. I like the feed store down near the railroad tracks as well. I think its an undervalued spot for senior portraits in the Humble/Lake Houston area.

Overall, this session was great. I think we really hit the theme and look Jonas and his parents were looking for. I think his outfit choices were good and I like showing off some school colors for some of them as well.

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.

Xavier - Senior Portraits at Graffiti Park and Discovery Green

Xavier chose downtown Houston for the scene of his senior portraits. We started at the graffiti park on Leeland Street in Houston, Texas before crossing over to Discovery Green Park. He chose the bright colors of the graffiti to highlight his senior portraits on this day. This outstanding young man is going into the Air Force and will go to boot camp this summer.

I enjoyed getting to know him better and this helped him ease into the shoot better. He has a lot of goals in life. It was a bit overcast, which worked well to control the lighting for the day. The graffiti park is typically crowded, so a lot of planning and keeping a watchful eye to see where we could jump in quick to get shots. It’s a really cool place for senior portraits. Even for shots where the content of the art isn’t great, it’s still useable by getting more bokeh! I love doing the cap and gown shots, but man those tassles are hard to control to get them to face the right way for the shots. I’m going to try some rubber tack putty to maybe use on the top of the hat in the future to hold the string for us.

How to Personalize Your Senior Session

Your senior session is all about YOU! We want to make sure that we really show off your personality and make your photos unique to you. Now is the time to start planning your session so we can fully showcase you during your photo shoot. Think about your routine – where you like to go, what you like to do, etc. We want to get to know you through your photos. We’d love for you to take a list of your hobbies and extra-curricular activities and send them over to us so we can help you prepare your perfect session.

Below are some ideas of things you might want to incorporate in your session. These are just suggestions to get your brainstorming started:

• Sports

• Art/Theatre

• Music

• Favorite movie or book

• Your job or the career you’re planning on going into

• Your car

• Your school

• Your future college

• Your pet

• Your BFF

• And don’t forget about your favorite hang out – whether it be a coffee shop, park, football field, book store, etc. We can try to add this location to your session.

Alyssa incorporated basketball into her shoot because that was her biggest passion in high school.

Best friends Hailie and Sean had their senior shoots together on the same day so they could pose for a few pictures.

Sean Senior Portrait Session

What an exciting time to be a senior in high school. Graduation is a wonderful time of the year. I’ve had the pleasure of teaching Sean for the past three years. He’s been a great student and a great friend to all of his classmates. He will definitely be missed. Congrats Sean, Class of 2019, from Hargrave High School.