James - Gamer! & Eastlake Class of '22!!!
Planning / brainstorming sessions are ALWAYS so fun for me ~ when I ask "What do you like to do? Where do you like to go? What makes you smile??" ~ that is when I get to dive into my client's world and hang out there, learning about it all through my clients' personal "lens". Then we get to make up where our photoshoot will happen. James chose FOREST :)
We came to our location decision in a roundabout way; one of James' favorite games online is called Dota 2 & sports lush greenscapes interspersed with blackened destruction and all kinds of rocky mountainous terrain. We brainstormed public forests with awe-inspiring large old growth, and decided on a location that is also close to a beach and downtown Seattle... Discovery Park has it all!
Now, what would be a way to tie online gaming into portraits in our forest scene?
Then this happened!!
James' online buds, his Team, had this honorary T-shirt made for James ~ and he received it in advance of our shoot, it was perfection :)
The T celebrates their team's 1st place finish in a Dota 2 tournament that happened in August 2021, with an Illegal logo & "CHAMPIONS" squarely on the back:
and their team name, Illegal, with logo on the front (above), and James' gamertag thesmallnut written down one sleeve:
And can I even tell you how fun it was to me when James brought his Toothless slippers to be included in our senior portraits???!!? Awwwwww I love How to Train Your Dragon!!
Hi Toothless!
Next up: the car as the sun sinks in Discovery Park :) There seems to be extra gleam off these surfaces this evening :)
In our next scene we included beloved family pup, Bella ~ but she nearly stole your show, James!! What better than beach fun for a sweet pup?
My daughter, Sasha, was helping with pups (Bella and our Hana) and as the sun set on this rather COLD Autumn evening, she had her heaven by caring for both dogs in a nice cozy car while James' mum, Juliette, took over "photography assistant" duties as we ventured into the streets of Seattle. Here we found beautifully crunchy brick walls near Pioneer Square that I thought worked well with the jersey for James' rugby team, the Eastside Lions.
Fun fact: James has his roots in South Africa. His family's lyrical accents are fun to experience (yes, James, probably from growing up with your parents you still have a tiny bit of a proper sounding accent, it's great!!). And the South Africa flag has great colors for this same environment :)
I reallllly love to have a segment of our photoshoots reserved to dress "as dressy as you go" and THIS was SO MUCH FUN for me, atop the Butler Garage in Pioneer Square:
Thank you for viewing!
And thank you, Gene Juarez Salon in Redmond for James' hair :)
Our finalè today is a short video montage, our Session Movie :)
James!
I'm grateful to have spent the afternoon with you on that fine day :)
I'll be praying for your life and future every time I see your fun portraits!
Which I think will be often, as they scroll across my website!
I'm glad I was able to dive into your world for this day!! Thank you!
~ Jeannine
