Prom photography bonus shots

If I sit and ponder my recent birthday for too long, I might get a little melancholy. It feels impossible to me that I could be just one year away from being 50. My gosh. Didn’t I JUST turn 40?!?

My husband asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate. I couldn’t really come up with much. But after this extraordinarily long winter, I knew it should involve being outside, feeling warm air on my skin and taking photos.

During the course of the weekend, we went on several long walks and visited a couple of lovely forest preserves. I got to take photos of my 15-year-old playing baseball on the high school baseball team, which was so much fun. (My hands have been too cold to pull out a camera up until now!) I also got to photograph a mama owl two different times and even spied her babies in a nest.

But the photography highlight was taking photos of our oldest son and his sweet girlfriend on their way to prom. I posted a few of these on Facebook and Instagram, but I thought I would post a few more of them here for those who are like me and get excited to see a cute couple all dressed up and ready for prom!

My goal with photography is to try to capture the true emotion and personality of the people I’m taking photos of. It’s easy with these two because they are so genuinely happy to be together.

This was probably one of the photos where I asked them to “look serious.” THIS is what always happens!

Because it’s been so cold for so long, there was barely anything in bloom this past weekend. I was so happy when I saw that the place where I wanted to take the photos was covered in these little blue flowers! I had to think of some way to get them in the shot.

I also try to capture the details that you might overlook when taking a photo. Things like, the girl’s hair, their socks and shoes, her nails and his bracelet.

Because we walked a little ways to get to our photography spot, my son’s date wore her Vans. My son actually had given her these shoes for her birthday a few weeks earlier. Since he had the exact same pair, we asked him to bring them along.

Aren’t they just the cutest?

So, I’ve really enjoyed taking photos this year, and I’m thinking about doing some senior portraits. I recently updated my photography web site, which has been sitting dormant for a few years. Check it out if you are interested!