Jackson should have known that when his mother and I set the start time for his senior session at 3:30 that he was screwed.
That meant that with three hours of daylight left, he was in for the Senior Session Endurance Award. Now granted, he’s pretty easy-going about having his picture taken. And a lot of that time would be spent wandering around town looking for appealing spots and watching me fuss with the lighting. But still. That’s a long time to be under scrutiny of a camera lens. He took it like a champ.
Although I have photographed many dapper young men by this building before, Jackson presented a new challenge.
His head didn’t clear the sconces.
Two years ago, his six-foot-two-and-growing brother, just squeaked by. Jackson is the giant in the family, and his six-foot-five frame wasn’t going to make it, even in a casual slouch. When we put him in front of the sconces, it was hard not to have them growing directly out of his head. Someone, not me, compared the look to a unicorn. But we finally got his shoulders and head angled just so, and got the traditional gentleman look checked off the list.
We were a little disappointed to see that many of the quaint, intriguingly distressed textures we had used for his brother’s session had been spiffed up with new paint and in some cases, boring, generic siding. Some of the walls had in fact been touched up within the last month. But Jackson doesn’t really need trendy urban decay in the surroundings to look cool.
And while he pulls off the brooding look remarkably well, his personality is actually much more sunny.
Still, it was much easier for him to relax while he was playing his guitar. He’s been learning to play the cajon, too, but the guitar is more photogenic.
But his true love is baseball. I’m saving the baseball part of the session for a different post, so you’ll have to wait for the sequel.
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