One of the projects I worked on this weekend (whew!  its been busy, y’all!) was capturing some photos for my friend’s daughter for her sixteenth birthday.  She genuinely wanted some decent photos of herself with her friends, not doing anything in particular, just enjoying a day at the local botanical garden.

Happy birthday!

I learned a lot during this casual shoot.  I learned that despite possibly being the most beautiful and engaging of all subjects, its often difficult to direct groups of teenage girls.  Sometimes they get bored and start checking their phones.  Sometimes they’re self conscious and touching their face and hair so often its difficult to get a clear picture of them.  Sometimes there are (slight) wardrobe accidents.  And no matter how much you plead with them that early in the day is best, not just for the light quality but also for the lack of heat, 10 AM is probably the earliest you’re going to coordinate them.

Hoopin’!

Jump!

circle of friends

I also learned that I really had fun doing this and I can’t wait until the birthday girl gets to share all of her pictures with her friends and family!  I wish I had had the foresight to have done something like this at her age!