Cool Sr Portraits in Minneapolis

Cool Senior Pictures

This past week a woman contacts me with an emergency email, “Help this is an emergency.” “Senior portraits are due on October 14th and I do not have them done yet. Can you help me?” Well luckily I had Saturday morning open and I knew it was going to be a gorgeous fall day so I was all over it.

Under the bridge

This session was going to be for Daniel. Daniel is one of those typical boys who just don’t want their pictures taken. But mom tells me he is handsome with blue eyes, he is a creative artistic kid and he is a skate boarder. Well now my imagination was peeked!! You mean we can have fun and be creative?? That is fantastic news to me!! This is going to be fun.

No Skates

The family was from way up in the northern suburbs and I am a photographer based in Eagan, MN way down in the southeast sector of the twin cities. We are almost worlds apart. Sooooooooooo gee, I guess we get to meet up in downtown Minneapolis for the shoot. Of course you know my passion for shooting in Minneapolis, so everything keeps getting better and better.

Wonderfully cool in black and white

I had heard Daniel was a skateboarder. Turns out he is actually a long boarder, shows what I know, but the idea that he was a skate boarder fired my imagination even more. I spent some time doing some research on all the cool places to skate board in Minneapolis. I ran across this fantastic video by a young videographer in the twincities Kevin Horner http://vimeo.com/2265354 . Sweet stuff..

So off I went with my trust assistant Mark (often referred to as MarkPhotoGuy) to capture Daniel. The day was indeed a gorgeous fall day but there was not a cloud in the sky. My best photos come from days that are overcast with a very thin deck of clouds so we are going to have to be extra creative. Either we will have to be in the shade or come up with enough light to overcome the harsh shadows create by direct midmorning sun. Alas, Mark and his great ideas to the rescue, with either a great eye for seeing some interesting place in the shade and then with his expert skills on the reflectors he is able to give me the light that makes those baby blue eyes sparkle. Again, great job Mark!!!

up close and personal

So Daniel was up for exploring everything. We started off in the always fun and interesting St Anthony Main area of Minneapolis and of course there is all kinds of interesting brink and great nooks and crannies to shoot in. One note of caution for all you other photographers, the old Pillsbury flour mill building is completely surrounded by a fence so there was no possibility of shooting next to it’s always interesting old rock walls. So we improvised. Ask a long boarder, creative guy I knew Daniel would love being under a bride for some cool ambiance and effect. And we sure found some great light and interesting backgrounds there. Wow! Gosh there is so much great stuff in that area.

Daniel the creative

Then we had to quickly sneak over to the warehouse district in Minneapolis. There are more incredibly cool buildings over there for great backdrops etc but there are also some great murals. We had to make an effort to capture something over there. So off we ran. At the wall I really wanted to capture the light was very harsh and not much that we could do so I changed things up and distorted stuff for fun.

Daniel and Mom

So we achieved our goals of capturing Daniels personality, creating great memories and capturing a moment in time as Daniel and family prepares for that next huge step in life. I was so happy to be a part of it. Thanks for the fun!!