Mason’s creativity and love for producing music. As soon as I saw the headphones I knew I wanted to incorporate them into the shoot. I think creativity spreads like wildfire.

Most of my seniors want inside and outside images.  For the outside images, we walked to an old industrial site close to my studio.   The colors and textures that can be found around these old buildings is amazing and make for the perfect background.

I usually don’t consult face to face with my seniors before they come in, but I do instruct them to bring a mixture of outfits, any equipment or props that they represents their hobbies, interests, sports and etc. Once they arrive we will go through their outfits and I will suggest a certain outfit which will match the background the best for the shoot. If they brought a certain prop, I want to know why they brought it and what it means to them. You can find a lot out about the person by just listening to them!

I used a Nikon D7000 and a 50mm 1.8 for this shoot. I love my 50mm lens and it rarely ever leaves my camera.  With the DX conversion it was closer to an 85mm.  I also like to shot wide open for maximum depth of field.  Remember that YOU limit yourself NOT the equipment! I recently upgraded to the D700 but some of my favorite images were taken with my D80.

We started around late afternoon. It wasn’t full sun but not quite late enough to be able to shoot out in the open. The industrial building I shoot behind is north facing and the lighting is perfect.  I will also use some of the buildings as a natural reflector!

I start by editing in Lightroom and then finish them in Photoshop. Personally, I have been able to shed time from my post production by first using Lightroom to correct ……  Who doesn’t like to save time.  I used MCP presents on some of the images and once I am happy with the color correction I then import into photoshop to correct any blemishes or imperfections.

I do not know what it is about guys, but I have the hardest time shooting them and I tend to work harder to obtain great images. It is difficult for them to relax.  Sometimes due to mom being there, others it appears for no reason.  I had no difficulty with Mason.  He was open to any suggestion I had and our creativity worked together to capture some great images.

My style is modern mixed with a little editorial. If it looks like it should be in a magazine, then I have succeeded!  I try to incorporate this into every image I capture.  Mason was no exception.

All you need to do is be genuinely interested in them! It’s that simple! Ask them what they like, what they want to do after graduating or what they do in their free time. You can get a pretty good feel for what type on images they’ll like from that.