Liz loves to draw and aspires to become an artist and is playing around with various mediums. She also loves french and hopes to spend some time in France as part of her college experience. She’s planning to work hard this summer as a life guard slash swiming teacher to buy a car! Liz is caring, funny, and a good friend.

Anika is an aspiring photographer herself so I tried to guide her through some of the steps I was taking as I captured her and her friends photos. She plans to travel to the other side of the country and work for an established photographer in Florida next year. I love to see seniors aspiring to fill independent and creative roles, and I am also a little partial to photography!

Orcas Island is a wonderful place. Thank you Anika for allowing me to visit!

Gabrielle plays the French Horn for her school’s marching band. In fact, she has played a lot of instruments including Percussion, Piano, Violin, and currently she is learning to play the Trumpet. She volunteers with a program called PantherPal to work with Elementary students and acts as their “big sister” or “big brother.” Gabrielle first struck me as a sweet person and has a rich sense of her own personal style.

Julia is open, confident, brave, and a talented singer and actress. She plans to spend her Summer in Las Angeles this year and after graduation she is off to College at BYU (located in my home state). Julia’s even going to audition for American Idol! I am so excited to see how she does. Her life is an adventure and will become even more exciting with her ambitions for the future.

Laine is a very friendly, cheerful and outgoing person. She attends The Bush School on capitol hill. Laine actually enjoys school and her classes and plans to study psychology and communications in college. She is involved in the theatre program and she (like Reiko below) volunteers at the Children’s Hospital! I am so lucky to be able to photograph such talented and giving seniors! Laine also has the sweetest relationship with her Dad. He followed us around on his bike from location to location. I always have a soft spot for father-daughter relationships like Laine has with her Dad.

Reiko is caring, fun-loving, responsible, and a great listener. She will spend her summer volunteering at the children’s hospital and… I also heard something about a fun excursion to Japan and Disneyworld Tokyo. Reiko has attended Japanese school for the last 12 years on Saturdays, so we decided that sporting a traditional Japanese uniform in Bellevue would really reflect her style. Reiko’s name means professional woman and she is planning to use her talents to help kids.

Farin has a soft and very approachable presence about her. She plays basketball and is the treasurer of her Senior Class, just to name a couple of things. She has musical laugh with a very natural smile.

Erin is very active within her community and spends some of her time using her knowledge of ASL to speak with the deaf and hearing impaired. She has also spent time in Chili doing missionary work. Erin is very kind hearted but is also tough when she needs to be. She and her mother are very close and good friends. I was impressed with her spirit of service and adventure.

If that wasn’t enough, I took advantage of a PPA Super Monday course in Olympia with Kari Blunk and Ben Leavitt learning the ropes of lighting and posing. Kari is a fantastic senior portrait photographer and just won “photographer of the year” at the Professional Photographers of Washington convention. Ben is a lighting and photoshop guru. I learned about these small one day PPA workshops from Angie at Click Chicks, a small group of female photographers down in Tacoma. I was able to carpool down to Olympia with Mark, a portrait and editorial photographer in Bellingham. During the workshop, I enjoyed a hands-on experience with outdoor lighting in bright daylight as well as portrait studio lighting, posing, and much more.

All in all, this has been an inspiring weekend and I have a lot of wonderful ideas to employ!