Mary // Class of 2017 // Minneapolis Senior Photographer

Mary, oh Mary. What can I say about Mary?

First, she's a total sweetheart. I cannot even begin to tell you how genuine and compassionate this girl is. I can tell she's the type of girl everyone wants to be friends with simply because she takes the time to want to get to know you, to want to be your friend, and to want to be involved with you.

Secondly, she's a total babe. I mean look at her. Enough said.

Thirdly, she's the exact type of senior I want to be photographing. Yes she's pretty, stylish, and yes she's bubbly, but she's more than just that. She's smart. She's independent. She's involved (SADD, volunteering, basketball, humanitarian work, just to name a few) She works hard and goes for what she wants, but doesn't take herself or life too seriously. I loved working with Mary because she's confident in who she is and isn't afraid of being herself. She and I even share the same pet peeve of when people walk too slow (I mean, okay, have you ever been on a narrow sidewalk and don't know exactly how to pace yourself with the person walking ahead of you?!?!?)

If you haven't seen this kick ass video that my friend Kyle Morgan put together for me, watch it below. It gives you an inside look into how my senior shoots really go down. We're not doing weird poses or anything forced. Instead, we talk, laugh, and I might even sing "Work" to you and attempt to dance along. 

My girl Jen is on hair and makeup, and kills it per usual. Jen does an awesome job at highlighting all your beautiful features without transforming you into someone you're not. She's spunky, wild, and a ton of fun, so you should totally have her along for the ride too. 

I can't wait for the Class of 2017. If you're like Mary and want an individualized, fashion forward, and full of life type of senior shoot, I just might be the photographer for you. I would love to get to hang out with you for a few hours and genuinely get to know you, while you find out all the weird things about me (like how much I love obese cats, have a strange obsession with 90s r+b, and just how ungraceful I really am enough though I was a gymnast).

I can't wait to meet all you babes!

I'd love to learn your story. Let's get chattin'

Jenna // California Dunes

I'm not a spontaneous person, though, I do wish I was. I have to carefully analyze things before I can make a decision, and even then, I still suck at making decisions. Maybe carefully analyze is a strong choice of words, but I do like to think of possible outcomes of my decision. I'm a freak, I know. Love me anyways. 

When Ben Sasso announced his new workshop called Heck Yeah Photo Camp along with the lineup of kick ass photographer speakers, I immediately pooped my pants in excitement. Dylan and Sara. Lara Jade. Jonas Peterson. And my all time favorite, Gabe McClintock. Those are all poop your pants worthy names and some of the big names in the industry that I look up to for inspiration. In this situation, I could have mulled over whether or not I should travel thousands of miles to photo camp in which I know no one and whether or not I'd be "good enough" for it or whatever other crap I thought about for .000002 seconds. Instantly, I knew I should go. "Another graduation present for myself," I thought (I tend to forget I spent $700 on a tattoo and another $400 on a plane ticket to NYC to get said tattoo). 

My girl Jenna Mahr decided to come along 'cause she too couldn't resist the goodness that is Lara Jade, and what a surprise, she instantly becomes the muse of every single damn person at camp. Look at her. She's like real life Khaleesi.

We befriended this rad dude named Kyle and he organized this killer desert queen shoot at the dunes after camp. His rendition of the dune shoot can be found here. Yours truly even makes an appearance or two. Can I call myself the real life Asian Khaleesi? 

I would normally much rather be behind the camera, so in between shots, I took these.

Mackenzi // Class of 2016

yup, I blogged her again.

she's just that exceptional.

I literally owe my whole senior season to this girl. In May, we did this mock senior shoot and I told her to tell her friends about me. I didn't expect much to come out of it, maybe get 3 or 4 girls from her, because many of my photographer friends have done senior reps before and did not get the results they wanted. Well, Mackenzi delivered. She delivered good. I can attribute 90% of my seniors to this girl. I dunno if it's her stunning good looks, if she's super popular at her school, or her warm, genuine personality. Whatever it was, she rocks.

I decided to blog her real senior photos because I feel like they're even better than the first time around. It might be one of my favorite senior shoots to date. I think what made this shoot so successful is the fact that she and I really click. Like, really click.  We talked like normal friends would. We did weird things like normal friends would. We goofed around like normal friends would.

She truly gets what I'm trying to do: stray away from the normal senior photo. I'm not trying to make you into a super model. I'm not trying to make you look perfect. I'm not trying to make you into something you're not. I'm trying to showcase you in the most genuine, raw, and real way. I want to shed light on what makes you, you. This is the kind of stuff that gets created when photographer + client are so in sync with each other. This is the kind of stuff that I strive to produce and send out into the world. This is the good stuff.

Thanks Kenz for being so kick ass and for reviving my love for photography. <3