JDP senior Amelia

Go big or go home…all or nothing…fast or slow…that’s my approach to life in a nutshell.  I tend to draw clients who appreciate that and often live by the same philosophy.  Tamara and Amelia are two such clients.  They are all in, with eager anticipation, to create something amazing when we gather for portrait creation.  They bring a sense of adventure and eyes wide open to the possibilities, even when those possibilities sound crazy! I told Tamara that I consider her and several other clients who have been with me from the beginning, to be a patron of the arts.  I am blessed to have crossed paths with clients who give me the freedom to create for them in ways that makes their heart sing and mine as well!  Click here to message us about your own custom senior portrait experience!

Blog followers will likely recognize gorgeous JDP senior Amelia as I’ve been documenting her milestones since she was 9 years old and I can hardly believe it’s time for her senior portraits!  I still remember the little girl with a big smile who was eager to have me photograph her doing some dance moves in a grassy clearing.  She’s grown into a young woman whose smile still radiates and whose dance ability has grown with countless of hours of training to perfect the craft she loves.

Amelia will make you laugh and she isn’t afraid to laugh at herself.  She’s full of spunk and passion and is the kind of kid who can be counted on when she gives you her yes in life.  She’s hard on herself, but not others. Somehow she’s managed to keep straight A’s in top level classes, while being in the dance studio taking classes like it’s a part time job!  Oh and she also works and helps her mom with her younger brothers!  The day of her session she was racing around delivering balloons for a surprise birthday party before she came for styling!

 

Click here to message us about your own custom senior portrait experience.

Amelia began in the fashion design program at Career Tech last year and isn’t sure if this may lead to a future career path or perhaps be kept as a hobby.  She frequently works on pieces at home, hunched over her sewing machine, with a mouth full of pins, muttering frustrations over uncooperative fabrics while trying to bring to life the vision in her mind.  Future Vera Wang in the making?  Only time will tell!  We are so grateful to one of our JDP senior moms, Kitty, who loaned us this vintage sewing machine to create this homage to Amelia’s love of creating.

Can we talk about Amelia’s day for portraits…it’s MD so the only thing you can predict is that the weather will be unpredictable.  It was 100 degrees and storms broke out on and off throughout the time.  We were able to work around it, but poor Amelia was in a sauna to lock down this gorgeousness, though you’d never know it to look at her!  Since I have photographed her since she was a little girl, I told her at the pre-consult she would be the first JDP senior for us to incorporate live butterflies into her session. We’ve been eager to share this new addition with our blog followers!

Amelia wanted to have a downtown segment to her portrait time so downtown Westminster got to see her pixie self posing on its streets and tap dancing to boot! To say JDP seniors cause a bit of traffic stopping while we are creating would be a more than accurate assessment of how it goes down in the downtown!

Our favorite little stop in for the downtown segment was Molli’s Cafe–an adorable little coffee and sandwich shop that was hopping with catering going out the doors when we entered.  Apparently their sandwiches are the talk of the town.  However, the owner didn’t hesitate to allow us to create in her cafe for a few minutes and was incredibly gracious.  She was nostalgic for her daughter’s own senior portraits, Molli who she named her cafe after.  She even had college advice for Amelia! Highly recommend local crowd check out Molli’s!

Ms. Sass brought out her spunk for the segment below and the special gift of her belt from her boyfriend Zach.

Studio shooting allowed us a break from the intense heat and a chance to let the storms move by.

Amelia choose this cool combo below and had her mom in tears…”she looks like she’s getting married.”  Tears tend to flow pretty freely when clients come back to see their portraits…but there’s something even more special about when it happens during the shoots.  I see it a few times a month and it never gets old.  To be moved that way is why art is so vital to our lives.  It connects us to emotions that need an outlet and those tears are precious.

All the hours Amelia has poured into dance, you know we were going to feature that in her portrait time in studio and in water!  May you continue dancing all the days of your life Amelia! The world, with all it’s sharp edges, is a more beautiful place when beauty like this in motion. And when we pause to take it in, it helps to softens our sharp edges as well.

  

Lastly…we ended with an explosion of red powder which Amelia’s boyfriend Zach helped to bring to life.  His shoes are still red and so are random things in the lower level studio!  This for sure goes down as the messiest in studio creation ever…but what a powerful way to end this marathon portrait creation time for a girl who feels like she’s a niece to me after having watched her grow up over this last 8 years.  Amelia the world awaits the impact you are bound to make.  You’ve got a large cheering section behind you just waiting to celebrate all you’ll do in this life!  May your surrounding tribe help lift you to heights you never dreamed of in this life!Click here to message us about your own custom senior portrait experience!