Finding My Way Back... A Fall Photo Shoot

I wasn't supposed to be the one to take his senior pictures. Many years ago, I got disgusted with the prices they were charging for school pictures and I started doing them myself. She is a much easier subject to photograph, but we've always managed to get a couple of really nice photos of each of them. The past few years my MIL has taken all her grandchildren to have a portrait done, and the singles from those have replaced my pictures. Because life has been so crazy around here, especially in the fall, I have let that be OK. But not this year. My brother is an amazing photographer. He has a natural talent for capturing gorgeous shots, and a very pricey camera that takes really nice pictures. I asked Mr. Man if he would like for him to do his senior pictures, and he said he'd be honored. My brother was a bit of a harder sell, but in the end he agreed. We haven't been able to make it work out. Every day we have had free on a weekend to travel out to where he is, it has rained. The pictures are due to the school on Friday, and we were running out of time. Yesterday, I told him to cut his hair (he wanted it buzzed short, his favorite do, and it was getting too long and ratty) and we would do a photo shoot after lunch.

I had a bunch of great ideas for where we could go and pictures we could take. I brainstormed them all morning on the way to and from grocery shopping. He told me, as he laced up his sneakers, that we were going to the river. Oh, and once we got a good picture, we were done. I agreed, grabbed my camera and we headed out the door. We did a photo shoot at the river a few years ago. It's his favorite place in town, and it is only fitting that his senior pictures be taken there. He didn't want to smile, and I decided not to push it. He's a pretty serious kid, and he's had a rough couple of years, so I just went with natural. We had a bit of fun, and I got some smiles after all. I took a ton of photos, and eventually The Boy™ joined us and after a few more shots, he asked, "Are we done here?" and I said we probably had enough photos and I'm sure some of them came out good and we headed home. In the end, I kept 25 shots. Some of them are very similar to each other, with the purpose that I could make one black and white. The two I shared here are the ones I absolutely love best, and of course he picked a more serious one for his senior picture. So typically him. We had a good time, and really, I'm glad I got to take his pictures for him.