I love shooting senior portraits in the fall, especially if it means hiking through the woods in order to best take advantage of the leaves… and climbing on top of bridges… and over waterfalls… well. We wanted to make sure we got interesting shots, and I think we lived up to that!

Congrats Isaiah, best of luck for the rest of your year!

Alisa & Luke are such an adorable couple, and so easy to photograph. They’re such a good example of how you don’t have to know how to model or even what do in front of a camera… you just have to be comfortable.  They have this great little look they give each other, this private, happy smile, and there aren’t even words for it. Just adorable.  I’m really looking forward to their wedding this fall!

To say that we were going for nontraditional senior portraits might be putting it mildly. As for the accordion? He’ll tell you it’s my fault, but I don’t know. I may or may not have been responsible for setting him up with an amazing accordion teacher one day. But it’s absolutely not my fault that he took like two classes and and wound being stupidly good at it. That accordion actually has a history to it- it was my great-grandfather’s, who played it at my parent’s wedding; Ian worked at it & played it at my brother’s wedding last year. Good stuff. And everyone knows that the accordion is the sexiest instrument alive, anyways.

We snuck in a lovely engagement portrait session at sunset at the Strip District this past week… more to come. :)

Breanne & Will are going to get married next month at Armstrong Farms. The venue is gorgeous, and even from our phone conversations, I knew we’d get along. I was already looking forward to the wedding. Now that I’ve had a chance to actually meet them, I am even more excited. They’re gorgeous, and laid back, and so much fun. We had a really great time running around Oakland- the Cathedral of Learning, wandering through Schenley Park, riding the carousel, and posing with nearly every dinosaur we found. We did skip the tight-rope walking though, maybe next time.

In the meantime, I wanted to share some of my favorites from the afternoon.

Sara asked if she could bring her dog, Ralphie, along for some shots… Of course I said yes! I absolutely love animals- for a while, the house I grew up in had: three rabbits, two cats, one large dog, and fish. After that, taking pictures of one dog is easy! Anyway, I love it when people choose to document their pets as part of the family. I’m happy to work with them anytime.

Of course, we did end up getting the one day that was 90+ degrees and sunny and humid.  But Ralphie was a good sport and Sara, of course, looked chic and beautiful the entire time. She has such a great sense of style.  This first shot looks like she walked out of Sex & the City.

More coming soon of this cutie… In the meantime, just look at those lips! Aren’t they perfect?

But that’s still a month away! In the meantime, here are some of my favorite shots!

Doesn’t she have the prettiest eyes?

More to come!

All of that to say: remember that masquerade ball I mentioned? There were a pretty good contingent of steampunk costumes present. Combine that with the Century Inn’s amazing old-time decor and bar, and I could have taken pictures all day. It made me so happy I thought I’d share a few of my favorite portraits.

And good times were had by all. :)