Football, Hunting & Welding... oh my!
Ethan is a senior at Chesterton High School in Chesterton, Indiana, graduating this spring! When his mom reached out and told me her ideas about capturing his interests and asked if I'd be willing to photograph him welding, I was THRILLED. I learned how to weld in high school in hopes that I could use that skill to create large sculptures one day, and I think it is such a neat craft and the lights and sparks that it creates are so awesome, so I was so excited to get to photograph that.
We booked his session for sunrise and met at the football field. It was a beautiful morning, but there was forecast for rain starting towards the end of the session. Luckily, we were doing the last portion of the session inside at his family's shop where he would be doing the welding.
Anyways, back to football! Check out how awesome these shots turned out at the stadium! As you can see, it started out sunny and once we moved over to the bleacher photos, the clouds got super moody, and I love the drama it created.
I love a classic football player senior session!
When we finished at the football stadium, we headed to the family's home in Chesterton which is set on a beautiful property. This session took place at the beginning of October, and the foliage hadn't quite fully turned yet so we had some pretty green left and some beautiful rust tones starting to pop out.
We did a few more photos with the football in regular clothing, and then threw on Ethan's hunting gear for a few photos with his hunting rifle. My family is very familiar with gun safety (my brother is a police officer) so we did these very safely, and I absolutely love how they turned out! When we were done with those photos, we did some nice good old photos in regular clothes, and no props. I did have Ethan sit on an overturned boat for a few photos, and his mom mentioned that his grandpa would love those photos. I love it when something seemingly random turns out to be meaningful!
And now, I'm sure you've been on pins and needles wanting to see these...
The welding photos!
Again-- safety first! My camera (a Canon R6) has a panel on the back that I can pull out and turn/angle it towards me. Knowing about welding, I knew that I shouldn't look directly at the light. I also wasn't sure if it would come through in a harmful way looking through the eye piece on the camera, so here's where the screen panel on the back came in. I was able to look at that, facing sideways from Ethan and still photograph him safely without putting myself in danger. Pretty cool!
I joked after taking these photos that I was going to niche down and only exclusively photograph welders because I loved how these turned out so much! hahaha... but seriously, where's my next senior welder at?!
The last little bit of this session was still at the shop, but not welding. Ethan has been building a meat smoker in his spare time, so I made him pose by it for a few photos because it's really cool and I was super impressed by his accomplishments! We also got a few photos of him with the shop in the background. I'd never expect a simple garage-like location to turn out so cool, but I really love how it turned out! A good option for a senior session location in the rain when we need a little shelter and like the grunge look!
If you're graduating this spring and still need to have your senior photos taken, now is the time to book!
Contact me today so we can talk about packages, pricing, and my new senior rep program!
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