A R I A N A
CLASS OF 2022 ~ MILFORD HIGH SCHOOL
Ari is an upcoming 2022 graduating senior at Milford High School, a talented ballerina, and the most petite little Senior ever. She's also pretty special to me....she is family, my grand-niece. After talking to Ari about what her hopes and dreams were for her senior portraits, I discovered she loved images I had taken in a local stream, she really loves meadows with golden light, she cannot wait to wear her cowboy boots, she'd love to add bohemian style clothing and she wanted an urban street style for her dancer portion of her portraits.
We settled on the local stream and a local meadow for her first session and then we would travel a little bit to find some street art for her dancer session. Ari is tiny...maybe all of five feet around 98 pounds so when planning her sessions that was a factor to consider for shooting.
I wanted to be sure she was safe in the water while we did our first session and I didn't want the city to literally swallow her in her second session.
For Ari's first session we all met up at Brown's Brach Park, a local beauty with a forest, trails, a boardwalk, and a sweet little stream running through it. When our posse (Ari, her Mom Mom, my assistant Bliss and I) arrived at the boardwalk section of the trail beside the stream we realized how populated it was that day. It was a holiday weekend and several children were enjoying the stream as well. That was going to pose a challenge, but I was up for it.
I made sure she had all her outfits ready and that Mom Mom was on the job to help before I started climbing down to the water. I put out my hand for Ari to follow me. She looked at me with those big baby blues as if to say, "Are we actually going in the water?" Well, there was no turning back now.
I looked back at her and said, "I got you...c'mon." She gingerly stepped with me as I got into the stream. Once I was in she realized it was fine.
Hey, if this old lady can climb down to the water's edge and plop into the water it must be okay. Ari took a deep breath and plunged in with me.
The water there is not very high and is pretty calm. It actually felt really awesome on a hot day.
Ari was awesome climbing back up to the boardwalk a couple of times to make her outfit changes in the changing tent and stepping back in with me.
This was my fourth time shooting in the stream at Brown's Branch. It's so pretty there, but and I knew the later it got in the day the darker it would get. Well....it is summer and there was a storm approaching (of course) and we could hear the thunder starting. We look around at each other and decide to keep going and just work faster. We were; however, in the woods so we had to really move fast.
Luckily I had my assistant/lighting girl with me and she was phenomenal at keeping the light on Ari as it got darker and darker.
We got some pretty cool shots and the impending weather made it even more exciting. We were able to make some incredible memories.
We decided to bring along a gown she had to make her portraits have a dramatic flair. Since she is a ballerina, we used her talents to
add even more drama. Executing dance moves in water is definitely not easy, but Ari makes it look so and it took only three shots to get this image.
This is my absolute favorite shot of the day.
SESSION 2
For the second portion (the dancer portion) of Ari's portraits, we wanted an urban/city feel since she had decided that her wardrobe would include mostly street clothes. Downtown Salisbury offers street art and beautiful murals for just such a session. It's a bit of a hike from Milford, but it was worth it for these shots and her Mom Mom was willing to drive her over so the city it was!
I brought a few pieces of chiffon for her to hold and some accessories to add to her street clothes. Bliss stood behind her throwing the chiffon while Mom Mom was lookout for cars. Yep, it takes a village. There was a lot of laughing...mostly on my part during this portion of the session. We even scared away a homeless (I think he was homeless) man while we were running here and there.
These shots took several tries, running back and forth out of the street but Ari persevered, Bliss and Mom Mom helped and I think it was well worth it.
When we plan a dancer session we combine our dancer wardrobe pieces with the dancer's own wardrobe to style the dancer in the way that they love. Most of what Ari wore during her session is her own, with our touches here and there...like this child-sized hat to fit her tiny head. We bring our changing tent along and pop it up for changes. When Ari met with us in the studio to go through our dancer wardrobe and select clothing for her session she had a good grasp on the looks she wanted, like these black jeans and bralette.
I don't know about you, but I can barely bend down to pick up a piece of paper in my jeans, let alone do what Ari did in hers.
FUN FACT: I sometimes bring along my portable speaker to add a little umpf to the session.
The song "Dancing in the Street" started playing from my playlist during these shots. NO LIE and not planned ahead of time.
We stayed in the lower portion of the parking garage where it was cooler and had more ventilation for these shots and I'm pretty happy we did.
I put on some music from my portable speaker to liven things up a little. It echoed and added a cool vibe.
It was a suuuuuuuper hot day and I was concerned that Ari stay hydrated BUT we drank, walked, shot, drank, walked, shot
until we gathered as many looks as we liked.
Warning....I have a tendency to just power through on days like this.
I drink my water and I just work faster to get every shot in before we all pass out.
I LOVE urban dance sessions.
They give a solid foundation for the dancer's feet, which is critical. The architecture and sometimes grundgy walls add something different that I love. Since Ari trusted me to plan her session from top to bottom, I had the opportunity to use areas I had previously used and loved.
I knew she would look amazing in these areas and that she would kill it in this style of session and she did. We were able to get all of these shots in one city block. We used painted electrical boxes, cool little alley ways, sidewalks, a parking garage, a library, a painted crosswalk, and a mural.
We used every last little drop of sunlight and even added our strobe light at the end for some shots in the crenoline skirt I brought along for her.
Ari has one more session left since the last half of her first session was rained out. Stay tuned for those images later this summer.
PROMPT: Yeah, we're just hangin out...posing on the side of the library like we do it every day...all cool and such.
PROMPT: Twirl, Ari, Twirl! And SMILE!
PROMPT: Jump, Ari (insert correct dance term from Bliss here....me...yes, THAT! Point those feet!)
Give me a pretty smile and relax and breathe for a bit.
PROMPT: If the sun is in your eyes close them until I count to three then open them and smile BIG!
PROMPT: Ari...sit up on this box and tip your hat down and hold onto it for me so I can see your shadow.
PROMPT: (Do what I do...Miss Sandy models the pose, which is worth the price of admission alone.)
PROMPT: Look fierce, Ari and stay balanced. I'll be fast.
DONE!
PROMPT: I'm going to be over here...turn and look at me.
Cigarroa HS Indoor Percussion-157