Senior portraits for the kid who does not want senior portraits

I don't say a lot of personal stuff on this blog, so this is a departure for me. My son is a high school senior, it seems unbelievable to say because how can he be 18 years old? But it's true. He does not like to have his picture taken, so I started early and he cooperated for some soccer headshots to use for potential recruiting.

These are undeniably cool so he was ok with them, and I was happy even though he refused to do the World Cup of arm folding.

But as fun as these are, they're obviously insufficient to commemorate the end of high school and all that entails. In August I was already making my case for more senior portraits. He was not interested. At all. Until I told him that there is no reason we need to be serious about these, we can have some fun instead. And he said... "Well, it would be nice to have pictures with two suns like Luke Skywalker." You bet it would. I started ordering supplies.

I think this is my favorite senior picture of him I've taken, period. (My mom does not agree.)

This wig is an official Disney Star Wars product, but it looks a lot more like Aunt Beru than Luke. (Wig for sale - cheap!) I actually really tried to get him to grow his hair out a bit like Mark Hamill (he had a soccer teammate at the time with perfect Luke Skywalker hair) but it was going to take too long and he lost patience.

We found a location as Tatooine as we could - I think it turned out great.

He was very happy to do fun things with a light saber! We have a million of these.

Our other best idea was to take "cool car" pictures, with his car, which is not cool. It's an old Acura that has been totaled, but it's a great student car (from a mom's perspective) and still drives fine as long as you fill up the power steering fluid from time to time. We upped the awesome factor by using a really small Three Wolves Moon shirt and some awesome glasses from the 1990s.

It was nearly impossible to keep that straight face because right behind us there were these dogs howling, just like the wolves on the shirt.

As fun as these were, I thought we should have pictures that we could, you know, put in a yearbook or use for more serious purposes. We have traveled a bit this year and I started making him take just a few pictures when we were somewhere cool. I get what I get in terms of clothes, and light, but that doesn't bother me.

Mount Rainier (amazing!)

California. These first couple were lit using iphone flashlights, I thought it was pretty cool that that worked.

Here he accidentally laughed while my camera was out and my timing was perfect!

This is my other favorite, so if I can't use the Luke Skywalker picture I use this one.

And a few in Costa Rica - his enthusiasm for senior portraits by this point was at a low ebb but he would occasionally cooperate. 

So here are my ideas for moms whose kids don't want senior portraits:

- Make it fun! You can do a cosplay type thing, get your own Three Wolf Moon shirt, or just google "funny senior portraits" and see what strikes your son's or daughter's funny bone. I'll be sure to take a few more serious ones too.

- Incorporate their sports or enthusiasms - definitely this helps increase motivation (like this guy or this guy for example).

- Make it simple! Like this girl who didn't want a big deal, but was happy to go to the park for an hour (and her pictures are beautiful!).

- Incorporate it into your life. Put your phone on portrait mode and just try some stuff when you go somewhere interesting. (Put your senior in the shade with shade behind him/her.) You could even try booking a senior session while on vacation (like this girl did).

If you are interested in senior portraits, I'd love to chat with you and discuss how to make yours the best they can be! We can meet in person or talk on the phone, or you can email me. I have more information about my senior graduation photography here.