Senior Portraits | St. Charles
This past summer, I headed back home to St. Charles to do a mock senior portrait session with my sister at LeRoy Oakes. It’s nice to shoot to be creative sometimes!
SISTERLY LOVE
My sister and I have never been as close as I would like. We are complete opposites. One of the reasons we never hung out is probably because she is a social butterfly (I’m not) and was always gone from the house. I have been working (sometimes 2 jobs at once plus freelance) since I was 19, which put me out of the house as well. Needless to say, we never got to see each other much.
That’s what made this photoshoot so special to me; getting to spend time with my sister. We’ve occassionally done things alone together and it’s always such an incredible time. I wish we had the time to do more things together, but now I live an hour away and she’s preoccupied with college, a boyfriend, and a job. Ahh, life.
SHOOTING AT LEROY OAKES
I had really wanted to do a photoshoot at LeRoy Oakes in St. Charles for some time. I kept seeing it come up as a shooting location for photographers out that way. In all the time I lived in St. Charles, I never went to LeRoy Oakes, and it was right down the street the whole time.
I also didn’t want to take up too much of her time since she was being so nice to model for me. Plus, I think she had plans later that evening. It helped that LeRoy Oakes was in her neck of the woods. I would rather have been the one to do the traveling.
STYLING FOR THE SHOOT
I love my sister’s style. I’ll be honest, I’ve gotten more than a few pieces of clothing after seeing my sister wear it. She has great home décor taste too. If I had to list some words that came to my mind when I think of my sister, they would be: hippie, boho, free spirit, easy-going, and down-to-earth.
With that perception of her in my mind’s eye, I headed to Amazon to find some boho/hippie summer dresses. I also got her a flower crown because it’s a trend right now when it comes to portrait photography. The flower crown turned out to be the perfect addition to the dress in the end.
THE SHOOT
Our shoot lasted for about 90 minutes. I wanted to continue experimenting with photography during the golden hour (the hour before sunset). I had us arrive at LeRoy Oakes around 6:30.
My sister was such a sport. We had two dresses and she took the wardrobe change in stride. She didn’t mind me having her trapse through tall grass or sit in the foliage either.
Our shoot was filled with lots of laughs, gorgeous sunlight, great photos and even greater memories.
I am in love with how the photos from this shoot turned out. They are some of my favorite photos that I’ve taken to date! But most important was the time I got to spend with my sister!