Tallulah’s Local San Rafael “Senior” Session

I had so much fun taking Tallulah’s “senior” photos last Friday! Tallulah isn’t quite a senior yet but was totally down to step in as one so that I could practice working on my senior portraits and build my portfolio! I picked her up and we headed down to Dominican University a few hours before sunset in San Rafael. Quick side note: I actually did my first ever family photoshoot (in California) at Dominican University near the beginning of COVID! You can find that blog post here.

Tallulah had a really cool wardrobe with lots of different styles. My personal favorite was the first one she wore: ripped straight leg jeans with the simple green shirt finished with the white converse. So cute! But she looked amazing in everything!

We spent our time wandering around Dominican University in search of flowers and beautiful light. It took us a hot minute to finally find a magnolia tree. I’ve been practicing working with flowering tree branches and framing them around my subject’s face. It’s not as easy as it looks! Or for whatever reason, I’m always struggling to get the look that I’m going for. Regardless, Tallulah was a great sport and let me put her in so many flowering bushes and trees, holding a myriad of branches in front of her face and behind her head. I love it when my subjects are down to play and let me experiment. I had so much fun working with her!

Take a look at a few of my favorite images and leave me a comment letting me know which ones are your personal favorite!

Warmly,

Skyler

I think this first outfit was my favorite. I love anything edgy, hipster, or whatever you want to call it. (Remember, I an no style-guru and am terrible at describing styles.)

I’m so glad I had Tallulah hop behind these flowers! I wanted a session with alllll the flowers but we kind of had to work for the ones we found!

“Hey Tallulah, do you think you can like, lay down, behind the flowers?”

Walking around Dominican University. I need to shoot here more. There are so many spots to work with. I wasn’t even sure about this spot (below) but when I look at the images after, I fell in love with them! They are definitely some of my favorites.

Oh man, there were three women with 3 dogs that were walking around while we were snapping photos. They came over and let their dogs loose to come and visit. It was the best impromptu puppy photoshoot ever. 😀

I’m a sucker for Australian shepherds as my parents have had two now. So the little puppy below stole my heart immediately.

“Tallulah, I want to put you in flowers.”

“So do you mind sitting on the ground and leaning against this blank wall here?”

We were so stoked when we found this magnolia tree. I’ll be honest, I need to work on my flower game. I took so many photos in this spot and ended up with a small handful of favorites. But it’s okay. I can tell that I am improving. Just gotta keep at it.

The photos below are a great example of me taking a risk and being totally unsure about whether the photos were actually good but then loving them after uploading them to my computer. Sometimes you just gotta just trust your gut and go with. (Sometimes not….) But I’m really happy with how these images turned out below!!

“All right girl, grab your dress and swish it back and forth while looking over each shoulder and walking towards me.”

These last two photos were an experiment. I’m still not sure how I feel about them, honestly. Let me know what you think! I wanted to capture the rising moon in the background. 🙂

If you’ve read this far, I love you and thank you with my whole heart.

If you liked this post, you may also love:

Sophia’s Glowy Sunrise Senior Session

Personal Branding Session (With Wine!) in Sebastopol, CA

Networking Photo Shoot with Moon Spell Photographer, Joy Moon