This session was the longest drum roll of my business yet.  You know how when something great is about to come and the orator requests, “Drum roll, please!”?  This client first contacted me in June for a senior portrait session at the end of October.  I always send out an easy questionnaire so I can begin personalizing each session, and that became my “drum roll, please” moment.  I was intrigued with this senior from that moment on.  I couldn’t wait for our consultation session in the fall.  And finally… the long drum roll ended with a spectacular resounding of the cymbal.  The day was finally here!

Actually, I think that’s a small taste of what her mom has felt like.  Life with her daughter has been a series of prolonged drum rolls, starting with the arrival of this amazing girl.  Worth the wait?  Oh yes!  This girl loves her tech, coffee, chocolate, cats, and moreover, her mom.  She wasn’t exactly thrilled (at least on the outside) for her senior portrait session, but she wants to make her mom happy.  I don’t say that lightly.  There are some kids out there who roll their eyes and say, “Whatever, Mom…” and glibly participate.  This senior was not one of those.  She put her all into it, even if she couldn’t see what was so plainly obvious to me and her mom.  Why?  She loves her mom.

What was so plainly obvious? She is an intricately amazing young lady with a beautiful smile that pushes her dimples in.  When she smiles, you believe that life isn’t going to be so hard after all.  She approaches life very pragmatically and knows that her mom has gone through great lengths to open life’s door of potential to her.

She also loves coffee.  We were going to have a session at the Starbucks downtown that used to be a Texaco station, but it was currently undergoing some renovations.  I also learned she loved chocolate (DeBrand, to be exact), but had never been to the downtown store.  That became the easy substitute, and a nice warm midpoint during a chilly session.

Her mom has a tasteful appreciation of the arts (looking around her house during the consultation session, that was plain to see).  That sparked another idea of starting the portrait session in downtown Fort Wayne in front of some of the amazing murals that artists have done (you can see the 2018 murals here and some older ones here).  We specifically choose murals created by Tim Parsley, Tammy Davis, Jeremy Selzer, and Jerrod Tobias.

Finally, when people love their animals I love to include their animals.  We returned home to their lovely blue home with the cheerful yellow door to do just that.  I choose to photograph this senior with her cats in front of their curio collection of cats to emphasize how much they love cats.  As a footnote, I have to say that their cats reminded me of photographing toddlers – you couldn’t predict how they were going to act nor how much they were going to try and squirm out of your arms!  My outtake photos of this part of the session are pretty hilarious!

And now, without further ado…. Drum roll, please!

Thanks for reading!  This is just one of my ways of putting a smile back in the world!