Hello! Happy Weekly-ish Wednesday & welcome to our last blog post of August. This week we’re sharing with you a local newly back-to-school 12th Grader’s Senior Portrait Session-!
We captured powerhouse Libby a few days ago locally here in South Bend over the weekend and we had a blast seeing this fantastic teen again. During the Session (in between both of us photographing as always) we got to catch up with her parents for whom we’ve previously captured 4 Sessions: their big wedding day at The Morris Estate’s Chapel & Supper Club less than 5 years ago, a huge Extended Family Portrait Session, & 2 referrals to one of their former workplaces (a bank chain) for Corporate Photography. The day we captured Libby’s Session like the majority of this week had unprecedented high temps in the 90s with the humidity making it feel like 98 degrees (according to the weather stations). Lucky her Session was a late evening Session that Libby wanted to still do, so we all tried to beat the heat by staying close to the river and staying in the shade as much as possible. Anywho, onto Libby’s Session-!
Libby’s Senior Portrait Session
Libby is heading in to her Senior Year of High School over at Jimtown in Elkhart this year. Libby is a big sister to her one sister who’s 2 years younger than her, she plays Basketball for her high school, she is also on her high school’s football Cheerleading Team, she is very sweet + hard-working, and you might not notice at all, but she’s a tough lady who has Type 1 Diabetes (so she has her pump’s tubing showing (on purpose) within some of the photos of her in her cool black & white outfit).
For Libby’s Senior Portrait Session, she chose our standard 3 outfits and locations here in downtown South Bend. Her Session was on one of the hottest days of this entire year/ summer thus far, but though we offered the family her early October rain date to keep her safe, Libby wanted to push forward with the late evening Session! Libby is no stranger to hard work and was excited for her Session, so we kept her in as many shaded spots as possible and her dad brought (and bought) her some snacks to keep her going-!
Libby is one of our favorite Seniors that we’ve photographed in 14+ years! This girl had a smile on her face, a great attitude, and was just an all-around happy kid with so much perseverance (which was on full display during her 90+ degree Session).
Libby came prepared for her Session with different sets of cool tennis shoes (which helped a lot in traversing downtown) and the cutest flower earrings-! She was such a great sport (*literally) about us making her do different cheer poses and walk toward us in the heat, so that really showed us the grit that Gen Z innately has.
Just a few years ago Gen Z gals & guys had to deal with something none of us older generations had to deal with at their age: A worldwide Pandemic. We’ve noticed that though this may have made Gen Alpha a bit feral and rough-and-tumble, it’s given Gen Z a totally different level of grit, wisdom, and just all-around perspective on what matters in life. Even in our brief(-ish) Session with Libby it was definitely apparent that she too has these wonderful Gen Z qualities (along with knowing how to laugh & hit all of her angles).
It seems like all of the shots we captured of Libby are our favorite and that’s because they are-! Libby was a gem to work with and we couldn’t be more proud of how this girl/ young lady has grown up in the past 5 years since we met and photographed her-!
As Libby starts her Senior Year of high school out in Elkhart with her cheer team in full-swing as well, we know this girl is going on to do big things. Once Libby finishes her autumn cheer season she will then be playing Basketball and then hopes to go on after high school to attend Purdue University (-!) We’re so excited to see what’s in store for Libby in the future, but for now hope to catch her on the basketball court this school year-!
Some Outtakes on Nearly 100 Degree Sesh:
A great job to Libby (who is busy in her last year of high school right now) and thanks so much for reaching out to us for Libby’s Senior Portraits, Sara-! It was great getting to catch up with you, Chad, & Libby this week and we can’t wait to finish editing all of the best of her Senior Portrait Session later this week (and send you the Proofing Gallery for you to choose her printed Senior Portraits)-! Good luck to you all tomorrow in the nearly 100 degree day that Libby will be cheering in (ah- hopefully the last ultra hot game) and we’ll talk to ya soon!
Unrelated:
We have many more wedding meetings this week in-person with our wedding couples, are putting together Wedding Day Schedules & formal photo checklists, we have wonderful new wedding clients to make Wedding Boxes for, we have more folks in the schedule for autumn leaf Portrait Sessions this October & November, we have folks finalizing their dates/ times for their Christmas & Holiday Family Portrait Sessions, we have Engagement Sessions that are being finalized for September & October, and we have weddings that we’re still capturing here in South Bend and Southwest Michigan between September and November. In between all of that we have 2 trips set for out West as well as the East Coast, so we’ll be non-stop through December 30th (a client-booked event date of course) as usual Whew-! ((There are some VERY exciting, unique Engagement Sessions & Weddings that we’re capturing this late Summer/ early Autumn, so hold on to your pants-!))
On a personal front our dogs have their 4th & 9th Birthdays this week and we ourselves celebrated our 9th Anniversary. Our cat Kevin celebrates his Birthday in December and he’ll be a whopping 18 years old (or so the rescue that we adopted him from 8 years ago thinks). Things we’re looking forward to in the last 4 months of 2023: a few more monthly friend hangs, a week of peace & hiking out West , married friends visiting us from Oregon, visiting Arizona aunts & uncles, giving our dogs their doggy birthday cakes (bought locally from a Michigan farmer’s market vendor for a 4th year straight), visiting with Ohio friends & family in months, East Coast spookiness, our unrelated printed Fine Art (each individually have separate/ different work printed & framed// hammered & assembled) being in more museum & gallery shows, and just generally making it to the huge family Thanksgiving and small Christmas unscathed/ alive.
What a year so far-! We’re 8 months in and nothing seems to be slowing down. It would seem that they call this “Busy Season” in our industry ((in most of the country)) for a reason-! Catch ya sometime in September when we have time to upload an Engagement Session, Family Session, or wedding.