KP (pictured) has been a friend of mine since childhood. For at least a decade, now that I am thinking back. It was only natural that I should have the privilege of taking her senior portraits.
However, when KP told me that she wanted her senior portraits taken at midnight, I started to think she'd lost her mind. It's hard to get nighttime pictures to look good. On top of the difficulty with dark pictures, there was the stress of the approaching deadline. The portrait session was planned for the 16th of November, three days before they were due for submission.
The setting was also a source of concern. It was going to be dark; it was on a rocky beach; it was going to be cold. How was this even going to work out?
Eventually, we figured it out: a floodlight to see the ground and to illuminate KP's face. An assistant (a very patient friend) to hold it. Then she showed up to the shoot wearing a hoodie and a trench coat. Oh, the humanity!
But it worked out. Somehow, with everybody's fingers freezing off in the cold and my incredulity mounting, the photos started to come together. I took them home, sat down and began editing. The hoodie actually looked good; the lighting was fantastic; the posing and the setting worked their wonders. What a lesson in skepticism! The willingness to at least try - to put in an ounce of effort - sometimes pays off more than you can imagine. As I sat there, editing away, it dawned on me that these were the best portraits I had ever taken to date. Who would've thought?
You can find the rest of the portraits here: just navigate to Season Six and you'll see what happens when a skeptic takes a walk on the promenade with a friend.