The Reams Photo Blog! Portrait and Wedding Photography in San Diego and Orange County » Senior Portrait

Samuel | San Diego Senior Portraits

Paul — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:23:11 +0000

Samuel is a senior who lives in Imperial Beach. He’s got a rad Southern accent. And, as evidenced by his senior portrait preview post and by the pictures to follow, he photographs like a rock star. Throughout the shoot, Amy and I marveled at how natural in front of a camera that Samuel is. It’s remarkable. This was only our second senior portrait in San Diego-we’ve taken senior portraits in Portland and in Chico-and we were grateful to Samuel for choosing such a cool location. For those of you who haven’t been down there-and Amy and I hadn’t-Imperial Beach is a pretty cool part of San Diego. I hope you enjoy the photos-feel free to check out our portfolio or drop us a comment at the bottom of the page to let us know what you think.

I love the processing of this one. It looks like it came out of my Polaroid-I think it works great for the playfulness of this portrait.

Josiah | Senior Portrait

Paul — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:01:47 +0000

We’ve gotten a little behind with blog updates over the past few weeks, but I thought that we’d share a few images that we took of Amy’s cousin, Josiah, while we were up in Chico for Thanksgiving this year.

And this is one of my favorite images of the weekend. We had a great sunset happening in the orchard across the street from Josiah’s house, and I love Josiah just sitting and thinking in the orchard. He’s a philosophy major, so I really think it works.

Thanks for looking! Feel free to comment below and to check out our portfolio.

Samuel | Senior Portrait | Preview

Paul — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:22:32 +0000

A quick preview of Samuel’s senior portrait session. More to come-soon.

Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments section below, or to check out our portfolio at www.reamsphoto.com.

Reams Photo Senior Portrait: Kelsey

Paul — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:08:12 +0000

We loved exploring a local university for Austin’s senior portrait and getting a view of Portland’s older neighborhoods and an elevated view of the city during Maddie’s portrait session, but when Kelsey told us that she had decided to have her portraits taken in downtown Portland, Amy and I were a little giddy. We love shooting portraits in urban settings, and downtown Portland was so rife with cool textures and colors that we had a hard time choosing where to take photographs. As the four of us walked along (Kelsey’s mom was kind enough to come as a wardrobe consultant/carrier of the bags), Amy and I kept remarking to each other “What a cool wall” or “Wow! Look at those bricks” or “Can you lay down on the sidewalk over there?” I’m sure that Kelsey and her mom thought we were crazy. But Kelsey kept laying on sidewalks, posing in front of cool walls, and climbing into the windows of abandoned buildings for us. And we kept on taking pictures.

Kelsey was a fantastic photo subject. Not only is she naturally beautiful, but she did a great job of avoiding the “bride face” frozen smile that can afflict a subject during an hour long photo shoot. We’re so glad that she decided to get up early in the morning and wander the streets of Portland with us.

Several people have asked about the locale for the preview of Kelsey’s senior portrait session and for insight about the texture that was applied to the pictures like the ones below. In downtown Portland, near the location of the famous Saturday Markets, there’s a church with a rather odd water fixture outside of it. It’s shaped like a long thin guitar and, as evidenced in the photos below, it’s surrounded by bamboo shoots that make a great foreground to shoot photographs through. The last photograph is nearly straight out of the camera-all I did was bump the color and the contrast a tad, but I love the texture that using the bamboo as a foreground creates.

Portland Senior Portraits: Madisen

Paul — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:55:18 +0000

So, this was probably our most dangerous photography session.

It started with Madisen’s family picking us up and driving us up into the hills above Portland. “We’re headed toward Suicide Bridge” said Papa Sickler. As we entered the exclusive neighborhoods (which have a great panoramic view of downtown Portland), Amy and I spotted a cool brick wall and a great set of stairs…right in front of a residence. We snuck onto the front yard and began to photograph Maddie, all the while hoping that no dogs or gun-toting owners would come charging out of the front door. As we left, a car pulled into the driveway and gave us a funny look. Also, a squirrel threw an acorn at me. Deliberately.

But the danger was just beginning. On the drive down towards the bridge we saw a few more great looking walls with fantastic gates in them. Maddie’s dad pulled off to the side of the road and we tried to avoid the cars that raced along the highway while shouting instructions to Madisen across the street. That “wind” that’s making Maddie’s hair do wonderful things. That’s a pickup truck (who am I kidding, this is Portland-it’s a Prius) speeding by only inches from our photo subject.

Finally, we arrived at the aptly named Suicide Bridge, where a chest-high rail is all that separates you from a 100 foot drop and a scenic view of Portland. In order to get the correct angle to include Madisen and the skyline, I’d need to stand on something that was at least a few feet tall. The options included Madisen’s father, the Ford Escape that we were driving for the weekend, or the chest high rail with a perilous drop. We’ll show you what we decided with the last photo in the post.

Madisen’s got a fantastic smile. She’s easy to photograph, chose great shoes, and wore a cool hat. However, she won’t let you know if a squirrel is taking aim at you. So, nobody’s perfect…

And here’s where you have to stand to get the shot above. Jay was nice enough to divert traffic around our car (apparently with some sort of forcefield-check out that flare).

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