To get great shots, sometimes you just have to wait! And wait! And wait!

     Neither rain, nor snow, nor (do people still say "nor"?... am I quoting this correctly?...)

Whatever it is, the weather wasn't going to stop my Senior Portrait Session with Connor. We had an end of school deadline approaching.  It rained 4 times during our session, but do you think that was gonna stop us?! Well...it could have...


     I met Connor through the work I did for The Dance Project last year (click here to see what I'm talking about).  Soon after the TDP's session, Connor's Mom had contacted me to shoot his senior portraits, although at the time, they needed a shot for the yearbook asap!  So we set up time to shoot the yearbook image with the style, attire,dimensions and file size info required by the yearbook staff and knew that we were postponing the rest of the session until after Connor had his braces removed in January.

     Months went by and I wondered if they had forgotten about their deposit and maybe hired another photographer.  Then came the email (I sensed it was coming for some strange God way thing).  Scheduling was a challenge as I've been busy shooting a lot of Webmercials, photo stuff and then there's life stuff... and Connor, a Tennis team, swing dancing, Archery team-going to Nationals type of student had a full dance card, making the goal to get this session in before the end of school, editing and printing images to pass out before the final bell a bit of an intense deadline... for some...oh yeah... school is out in two weeks!  Easy Peasy!

     Now you know why we had to get this session in asap!  This is why enduring 4 rain falls was the only option.

     The day of our session, it rained.  It had been raining the day before and my phone told me that we'd only see more the next several days.  The weather in Brighton Michigan has not been cooperative this year for sure.  Thankfully, about an hour or so before our scheduled time, the rain stopped and as I looked out my window, I saw exactly what I imagined for some of Connors shots.  A great, dramatic cloudy sky just waiting to be our backdrop!  I called Connor and suggested we start as soon as we could meet at our first location.

     As I waited, I looked up and continued to thank God for the perfect backdrop.  I started setting up a few light stands as I knew I'd be using some off camera flash with my favorite modifiers.  I may have even whistled or hummed as I prepared.  This was gonna be an awesome session!

     Connor and his mom pulled us and we looked over his first outfit, chose his tie (he tied his bow tie without using a mirror, by the way!)  I got him in position for the first set up and BAM!  The sun came out from behind the clouds and ruined everything!  It wouldn't go away!  I didn't want the sun!  I wanted clouds!  There was a breeze and the clouds were moving, so we had to wait (we would get really good at waiting over the next few hours).  We were able to get a few shots in and them moved to the next spot just steps away.

     We set up and again BAM!  There's the sun!  Too much of it!  Again... more waiting.  I was able to get the sun shots I wanted and use more off camera flash, but this meant placing my light about 6 inches away from Connor's face because I had only set up one speed light and I had to over power the sun.

     After getting a few more shots, we had noticed the storm clouds we saw in the distance were making their way toward us.  So we had to move on.  Up to the next location, Connor had changed outfits and the more dramatic storm clouds actually felt perfect for his dark suit.  So again, we grabbed a couple shots just before the rain came pouring down.  Connor jumped in my truck and I put away the light I began to set up.  We chatted about Connor's plans for the future, the school dance and other fun things all the while keeping our eyes on how fast the storm was passing through.  The rain passed and I jumped out of the truck ready to get back to work.  Connor had noticed a spot across the street that he thought might be fun to shoot so I walked over to inspect the view.  Then came the rain.  Again.  So we waited.  Again.

     Again, the rain stopped and a few more shots in the camera.  The sky was now a wash of gray.  Not great for pictures.  That changes how you think about a shot you may have preconceived.  But we got 'er done and moved on to the high school for our tennis and archery shots.  Guess what?  It started raining.  But this time, it seemed like a rain that wasn't going to end.  I decided to keep going and just see if we could get lucky.

     By the time we arrived at the high school, it looked like the rain had stopped.  Mostly.  I lugged all of my gear on to the tennis courts and as soon as we got set up for the first shot.... yup... rain...so I packed everything back into the truck.

Waited.

Again.

     Connor's mom had met us back at the High School and I had a good feeling that the rain would again stop.  I was going to wait for a 1/2 hour tops.  Anything after that, and it was probably just going to continue raining and now we were facing loosing any chance of sunlight as it was almost 7pm!

     Fifteen minutes later, the rain had stopped.  There was still enough sun popping out of the clouds to give me what I wanted and away we went.  I unpacked the truck (again) setting up all of the lights and things I was going to need for these shots.  The marathon session went until we got what we needed.  It was officially dark and we were officially done.  And I couldn't be happier with the images we got.  It was all so worth the waiting.