I do not think I will ever forget the day I had my senior photographs taken.
When my mom and I pulled into the studio parking lot listening to Britney Spears or Franz Ferdinand or Dashboard Confessional (definitely Dashboard Confessional), my stomach totally filled with dread. I’ve never really enjoyed having my photograph taken – it’s not something my family did growing up and, while I loved ridiculous selfies with my friends so much that I probably would have done ten Instagram photographs a day, I was totally terrified of having my photographs taken by a professional photographer and, let’s face it, the gravel parking lot, huge white building, and cold waiting didn’t help with that, either.
But! I was there and I was going to enjoy it! I got through the yearbook headshots with a grin plastered on my face and, when I stepped into my second outfit – Lucky jeans and a purple top with a deep V in the back – the photographer had me stand against a tree and I swear it was one of the most awkward moments of my life. My mom, like every mom, was standing there saying I looked beautiful and all I could think was “Why the heck am I leaning against this tree?!”. I mean, I like trees. I’d even say I love them – they are awesome! But leaning against a tree awkwardly while a lens was held right in my face? It just wan’t for me. It’s was for me at all and, as the session went on, I felt more and more awkward.
Hand to my heart, I have senior photographs wearing a corduroy jacket standing with one foot placed knee-high on an old Coke box and senior photographs in front of a fake two-foot tall waterfall. I’d show them to you, but I’m pretty sure they got lost in a fireplace somewhere.
I photographed my first senior (my cousin!) less than two years later. As a new photographer with no clue how to do anything, I did know one thing: I was never going to shoot in a studio (at least not a studio like I had experienced). I photographed my first senior in the heart of the Kansas City Plaza. We took photographs in decorative parking garages and water fountains and colorful staircases and crossing urban city streets. It was amazing.
Over the next few years, I continued to photograph senior photographs for family members and friends. I shot senior photographs in sunflower fields and school bleachers and lakes and downtown areas and against brick walls and muraled walls and the exterior of malls. I shot photographs of seniors twirling and blowing bubbles and cheering and chewing bubble gum and reading and holding umbrellas and standing in water. Quality wise, my photographs didn’t hold a match to my senior photographs. But those locations and those ideas? They just spoke to me and they spoke to me for one specific reason: Those photographs looked like the people I was photographing and something about that made my little heart burst with joy.
For me, photography has always been about people. I love people and love getting to know people and love hearing stories and I want every single high school senior to have unique photographs that reflect them – if they want to take photographs in a canoe or with a hula hoop or in their dance costume or take photographs in a bowling alley – as long as it’s them, I am so down. Like, so down that I’ll run with basically any idea a senior gives me. Your senior photographs should be about you, not about a stiff pose in a stiff setting. I’m not saying this in a cute way or a kitschy way but, in ten years, you’ll want to look at your senior photographs and laugh about how awesome your life was at seventeen and eighteen, not laugh because all you can think of is an awkward tree branch digging into your shoulder. Sure, both are memories (and great memories!) but your senior year is such a fast, fleeting, and fun time and, as a photographer, I totally, one hundred percent believe that those photographs should be about you – your likes, your interests, and the way you laugh when someone tells a cheesy joke. Because those things? Those are the things that make you yourself and, when you look at your senior photographs, I want you to see an amazing person looking back at you.
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* Lissa Chandler is a creative portrait and wedding photographer in Northwest Arkansas who specializes in senior portrait and wedding photography. Lissa is known for creative, personality-driven, and fun senior portrait photography in Northwest Arkansas and currently lives in Fayetteville with her family: a husband who totally hooked her in Doctor Who (I give in!!), a four year old who, once again, said today was the best day of his life, and a one year old who celebrated turning two today by eating frosting and throwing rocks. Lissa is currently booking 2015 Seniors, 2015 weddings in Fayetteville, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, Rogers, Springdale, and all of NWA. She is available for wedding work nationwide. *