Zane is good friends with Abby. They have much in common, as uber-friendly, talented musicians in the same marching band, doing their senior portrait sessions in the chill of December, around Washington Park on back to back days. Zane’s session started right before dawn. Most teenagers wouldn’t be thrilled about having their pictures taken that early, but one gets the sense that Zane is a morning person.

Senior portrait at Music Hall

Since it was so early on Monday morning, traffic was minimal, and we were able to take a few shots in the cobblestone street with few interruptions. Then we headed into the park to be able to get more of the Music Hall building in the background. You can see from the frost on the ground how cold it was. The temperature stayed in the 20s for the whole session. Zane raised his eyebrows, but didn’t protest when I asked him to take off his jacket for a couple of shots.

People had told me repeatedly that Zane was such a nice guy, and that he would be up for anything. I was about to find out how true this was.

The playground was completely deserted, so we didn’t have to worry about disrupting younger families. I only wanted to use one of the structures as a frame, but Zane was all about the play boat.

We did take more conventional poses, and it turns out that while smiling comes very naturally to him, trying to restrain his natural exuberance for a few seconds for a serious pose was like trying to plug a fire hydrant. So we didn’t try it very often, and just let Zane do Zane.

The day before, I asked Abby if she wanted a picture with the purple monster mural, but she said she was good, thanks. I asked Zane his thoughts on the purple monster.

Senior portrait around Washington Park

I guess that wasn’t much of a surprise.