One of my favorite photoshoots was Alizay’s senior session. I was very nervous at first because she was the first professional shoot I had done since the mess of 2020’s pandemic. However, when she had arrived, the familiar face of my old friend quickly replaced my nervousness with excitement.

We took our first shots in front of the Orpheum theater in Okmulgee. I wanted a really clean soft light without too much going on to get a relaxed atmosphere started. I tuned in my ambient and set my strobe light to pop off a nice glow across her providing a nice catchlight in her eyes. Keeping technical things basic allowed us to warm up with posing and get some good personality shots.

Once we had gotten in the groove, I wanted to get a little more dramatic with posing, which Alizay was a master of! I placed her in front of a darker background and slightly underexposed the ambient light so that she would be the eye-popping center of attention. I was impressed with what we got.

After getting everything I wanted in front of the orpheum, I thought it would possibly be worthwhile to get some pictures in front of the mural. I know what you’re thinking. Everybody gets pictures in front of the mural. I told Alizay that it’s not cliche if we do it better than everyone else. That’s where we got some of my favorites!

I wanted to keep things dramatic without losing out on such a vibrant and abstract background. We made use of the rail for posing and made sure to get some of Alizay’s trademarked sass with her expressions. We kept the lighting subtle but also made use of the strobe light to add shape and dimension to her face.

I just want to say here and now that the best way to get the best pictures of someone is to interact and connect with them. The goal is to have the subject completely forget about the camera so that they will be in their most natural form. Cameras do weird things to people!

During a little break, we were making our way across the street and I noticed how the setting sun caught behind her and cast a majestic and angelic radiance around her. This was our chance for something extraordinary. I had her stop where she was while I got the composition I wanted and had her pose. This one took a lot more work than the others but the result would be worth it. I had to crank up my shutter speed to avoid getting the background too bright and miss out on the detail of how the sunlight interacted with her hair. From there, I had to kick on high speed sync for my strobe to keep up with such a fast shutter speed. I set my strobe to full power and got what I was after. Something Alizay would be extremely proud to see.

Overall, we had a ton of fun getting some pretty awesome pictures for Alizay. I learned to not be afraid of trying something new as well as to not be afraid of trying something old as long as you’re willing to work out the details and add something better to overused “cliches.” Some of our best shots came from the mural that I thought had been overused. I also learned that grinding out the small stuff can and will pay off with the shot of Alizay with the sun glowing behind her.

Tips to remember

• Connection is key to capturing personality

• Be careful to not overlook certain scenes or lighting conditions

• Hard work pays off

• Just have fun!

Thank you for reading! I hope to hear from you soon. Leave a comment and please share to other friends, especially if they’re nervous in front of a camera or don’t know what to do about getting pictures done.