Years ago as my little boy played baseball and football, our neighbor's son also played sports at Joelton Park. We became good friends with our (just around the corner) neighbors, the Taylors and met their little girl Lexi. I watched this little sprite grow from a tiny little sister who played with my little girl into this amazingly beautiful inside and out young woman right before my eyes. And although I watch this process often it never ceases to amaze me how fast it goes. Our time as parents seems to drag early on and then it jumps on a train and rolls away so quickly we are out of breath trying to hold on and make it slow down.
The Country
Lexi wanted a county and city session for her senior images so we started off working on the country session. Immediately after we shot the two images above, the bottom fell out of the sky and we all were soaked to the skin. I don't know that I've ever seen rain fall so hard and so fast. We shot a photo, thunder rumbled, we started running and then immediately were soaked. Not knowing what our best option was we decided to grab a few impromptu images of her playing in the rain and mud puddles. Of course, as soon as we got out the umbrella, the rain stopped. But we still made some pretty cool images with the puddles.
The Cedars at Carr Farm
After a quick trip home for all of us to change into dry clothing and Lexi to redo hair and make-up we headed over the The Cedars at Carr farm to grab some more photos.
The Sunflower Field
We ended the day at a local sunflower field where, even though she was tired and a little hungry, Lexi wow'd us with huge smiles, twirls and lots of personality! I love me some sunflowers y'all!!
Downtown
A few months later, armed with a LOT of really cool clothes, we headed to downtown Nashville. My style tends to be, "Hey! Let's park and walk and see what strikes me!" And that we did. And we ended up downtown for hours and hours .... and hours and shot well over 900 images of Lexi in varying locations and outfits and she nailed EVERY.SINGLE.ONE of them. It was by far my favorite session in a long time. Something about being downtown just awakens the creativity in me. The textures, the colors, the sounds, the people, all the different places to shoot. It just makes my creative soul happy. Add to that a beauty like this one who loved having her photo taken and it was just a win-win for everyone.
So many great locations, but how about this garage series??? Wowza!!
The images we captured in Printer's Alley were striking. I loved the red neon background! And the "borrowed" stool was the perfect accessory for posing! (Yep, we put it right back).
The sun was at the perfect location for our time on the pedestrian bridge and I'm not sure which was shining brighter ... Lexi or the sun. Either way they made a dynamic duo!
The Red Shoes
Y'all!!!! Can we TALK about these SHOES?????
And while we are at it, let's clear up the misconception that I talked the UPS driver into letting us take photos sitting on the steps of his truck. Those of you know me know I WOULD do that if I needed to, but ..... if the truck is empty and there is a Goo-Goo box sitting there AND your senior has a bag of Goo-Goos she is eating .... it's just a logical leap to ASSUME that I'd just have her sit there. :) Sometimes the stars just align perfectly. We actually never even SAW a UPS driver the entire time we worked there.
Cheer
Our last session was on THE coldest day of the year I believe. It was windy and freezing and about to start raining and we managed to blow through these cheer photos in about a half an hour but I do love the lighting on them with the overcast sky. Lexi was a super hero. No doubt. It was freezing, y'all. And she kept right on smiling -- that's the hallmark of a true athlete!
Many thanks to Lexi and her mom Tricia for choosing me, laughing with me and allowing me some creative free reign. I love you guys so much!