Four (4) best friends.  Three (3) high schools.  Two (2) cups of coffee (sorely underestimated).  One (1) day.  When was the last time you opened your mouth and inserted your foot?  (Figuratively speaking.)  That’s what happened when we became involved in the idea of taking senior pictures of four best friends at their respective high schools all in one day without any location scouting nor shoot plans.  We commonly refer to this as a photography walk-about; little to no planning.  Just go out, create and shoot pictures. It turned out to be one of those days you wish would not come to a close. 

After the second cup of coffee we headed out to Fremd High School in Palatine, IL.  The weather for the day was ideal; sunshine with some overcast, and warm enough not to be cold.  Midwesterners know what it means by “warm enough not to be cold.”  Between the constant laughter, we directed our quad of seniors into some synchronized poses to serve as an undertone reference to the origin of their friendship.  We would love to say the jumping picture only took a few attempts, but when you are creating a jump shot with four girls with long hair, you better plan on many takes.  As the picture shows below, they nailed it!

We all jumped in our cars and raced over to the next location; Buffalo Grove High School.  As we pulled into the parking lot we started canvasing the area for compositions.  At Buffalo Grove High School, the athletics fields are a predominant fixture on the campus.  At the center is the football field, so we knew we wanted to incorporate it for a few pictures.  As our lovely seniors positioned themselves under the Bison’s football press box, we said, “Please, no one is to get hurt climbing up.”  And thirty seconds later, BAM!, Jordyn hits her head hard on one of the beams.  Freakin Murphy’s Law!  Now, all good photographers plan for just about everything; it was time to deploy the ice park from the first aid kit.  (Jordyn would make a full recovery.)

Let’s give a little backstory on the quartet; Faith, Kaila, Jordyn and Megan.  They met about seven years ago when they skated for the Chicago Jazz Synchronized Skating Teams.  Early on the friendship revolved around synchronized figure skating, but in the last few years it has grown into something much more as they all prepare for college and their future.  One of the foundations to their friendship is they are all humble.  They are themselves with one another, and they completely accept each other for who they are; life is so much more enjoyable this way.  A perfect example is in the parking lot sequence of pictures (scroll arrows below) as our planned shot fell off the comedic ledge within seconds, and we absolutely love that it did.  It is the perfect example of this four’s chemistry.

*Fortunately, no one was injured during filming of this segment. We learned our lesson not to bring it up again.

For the final destination on our whirlwind senior pictures tour, we boogied over to Maine South High School in Park Ridge.  As it was getting later in the fall day, the sun started to really warm up the sky and the surrounding landscape.  We knew we wanted to incorporate the school colors and mascot so that led us to the athletic fields; baseball, soccer and the football stadium.  Now, to ensure we do not self-incriminate, we may or may not have noticed the obvious yellow & black sign that read “Facilities Closed | No Trespassing”.  Let’s just say we have no comment to how we obtained the football field pictures.  It’s been said that photographers will do all sorts of things to create a portrait. 

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About Chicago Senior Pictures

A Chicago Senior Portrait Studio in the Illinois Northwest Suburbs. Our style of Senior Photography is influenced by fine-art and fashion editorial photography. Our “why” is providing an authentic experience to our clients in creating an exclusive product with an artist’s decorative touch. We are hard-working, talented professionals dedicated to our client’s experiences and the memories we create for them. We’d love to have you visit the studio and show you our folio albums, hand crafted wall art and print photography products. We can provide more information on the services we deliver.