JDP senior Brooke

JDP senior Brooke called as an inquiry with a bit of a panic in her voice.  She needed a portrait for her yearbook and she was under the gun with the deadline.  I’m so grateful we were able to squeeze her in!   Such a fabulous portrait time for this four leaf clover finder goes through life wide eyed in wonder!  Brooke’s curiosity is a big part of who she is as a young woman and I’m thankful we could capture that in portraits.

I was so intrigued to learn that Brooke reads a book, every.single.day!  Sometimes more!!  She estimates she races through between 400-500 books a year!  Thankfully she reads on her phone or she’d have filled up her house long ago!  She tried reading on a Nook or a Kindle in the past but filled them up too quickly!  Thankfully technology is keeping up with her voracious reading appetite today!  I knew right away when Brooke choose the red dress above from studio wardrobe options that I wanted to create the scene you see here for her.  Each one of these 4 pieces is a little different based on how it was lit and post production decisions.

This portrait above is full of symbolism I’d like to share with you.  I fell in love with an artist name Pino years ago.  The piece above Brooke is one of my favorites.  Pino gained his fame and fortune as an artist by painting the all too familiar Harlequin romance novel covers.  At the end of his life, having made his fortune, he returned to Italy to paint the scenes he loved of life growing up.  These represent my favorite work by him.  Brooke’s favorite genre happens to be romance literature, so how appropriate that she should be seated under a Pino piece of art that celebrates the joy of a woman being lost in a story!  And although it’s not visible from this perspective, there’s a book of Pino portraits in this scene as well!  The first portrait in this series will hang in Brooke’s reading spot in her living room where her Woodwick candle crackles beside her as she looses herself in a story.

Brooke’s session day was full of rain, but she was hoping for a chance to create outside.  We got a break in the rain and headed outside to create these beauties while the rain held off for a bit!

Brooke’s mom was hoping we’d see the fun, playful side of Brooke that shines through to everyone who is fortunate enough to do life with her. I saw that all throughout her session.  When she transitioned from public to private high school someone invited her to join cheer and she never looked back.  Her spirited enthusiasm is a wonderful addition to the team.  Her team mates joke when she’s lost in a story and looks up and says, “wait, what?!” on a pretty regular basis.  She says she sees people scrolling through the same photos on social media over and over again and she’d rather be lost in a story.  I love that!

Brooke has aspirations to be a bio-molecular engineer.  Just last week she had her first college interview–with MIT!  She is deferred and hopeful that they see the promise she offers and the wonderful addition she’d be to their fine school.

Brooke learned the day of her shoot that modeling is a workout!  She plopped down at one point to take a break and I saw the portrait below!  Freeze–stay just like that!  Now this piece will hang in her Paris themed bedroom! (yes this is still our signature red antique sofa which I’ve modified to match Brooke’s bedroom!)

This gorgeous portrait will be the cover to her album that will hold all her and her mom’s favorite portraits from her gallery.

Lastly, our Vanity Fair styled piece for Ms. Brooke!  Brooke–through this life, may you continue to be lost in a great story, one that you read and one that your life writes!