I debated whether to call this post “apples” or remain consistent with my other senior portrait posts and title it using the senior’s name. But my inner OCD took over and I had to remain consistent… plus I really love the spelling of Cidney’s name.

Why “apples” you ask? This is why. Look at them apples. This gorgeous girl has the most perfect bone structure – she should seriously be a model. If only I had apples like that. They ordered a 16×24 of this photo in a metal print and I can’t begin to tell you how stunning it looks up on the wall.

Cidney is one of those girls that really surprised me. Back when I was in High School long long ago, I remember girls either being really pretty or totally nice or smart and responsible. Rarely did someone fall into all three categories. Unless times have changed from when I was a teenager way back when, Cidney is an exception to the rule. And after seeing how much her mom loves her, all of this is no surprise to me.

These were taken early last fall but I’m just now getting them up on the blog. Its crazy to think how many photos we got in such a short period of time. I’m only showing a fraction of what we got. We just zipped around from location to location and hit all of my favorite photo spots in about an hour! I love me some comments so don’t be shy!

Okay, this middle photo has a story to it. Her footing was a little awkward while walking across the railroad tie and she said she felt like the creature from The Grudge. Then she gave me her best impersonation. If you know what I’m talking about, you’ll know that she did a pretty good job mimicking that creepy kid with the hair over his face working his way down the stairs. We got some pretty good laughs out of that one.

Apple and eyelashes. Totally not fair.

There were some bicyclists getting ready for a ride when I was setting up this shot and one of them yelled out “you know, there’s a dumpster in the background.” Yup, I know. I don’t know what it is with me and dumpsters but I like them in my photos.

This location is one of my many secret little spots. Not secret in that its hard to find, but secret because there’s always a perfect little pocket of light that just wraps around whoever is standing there and you might not ever know it until you see the results in a photo.

The photo on the left is one of my favorites.

Reason 723 why I love Oregon: super tall wooden railroad tracks that still get used on a daily basis.

Yay! Its senior portrait season!

Here’s the problem though… [I like math so I will equate things]

senior portrait season + wedding season + family photo holiday photo season = a VERY busy Krissy

As much as I would like to blog every senior and wedding and family session (with the occasional 1st birthday cake smash thrown in) real time, I just don’t have the band width to get each blog post up as I shoot it AND be able to deliver the final product to my clients in a timely manner.

What does that mean? [again, another equation]

busy summer/fall + purposely slow winter/spring = lots of summer blog posts throughout November-March

So… [here comes an IF, THEN statement]

IF you’ve had your photos done but haven’t seen a blog post yet

~ or ~

IF you enjoy looking at my work on a slow controlled new-post-every-week-or-so pace

~ or ~

IF you love seeing photos with warm golden sunlight when its been months since you’ve seen anything other than dark grey wet sky above,

THEN, keep checking the blog.

Can you tell I like math?

Anyway, how about I show you my first, of many, senior sessions of the season. I’m definitely not an over shooter, but I do take enough photos during a session so that I can be selective during editing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a session with so many keepers. I mean, this girl is gorgeous! She has such a sweet and kind disposition as well.

I had a five week period this summer where I did nothing but wedding after wedding. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE weddings, but it is definitely easier to have more control over a senior portrait session. It was really quite refreshing to call all the shots from the setting and timing based on light, how to pose, what to wear, etc. Yes, I have discovered I’m a bit on the controlling side with the camera in hand, and I make no apologies for it. Every so often, the second I take a photo, I know it will be one of my new favorites. That’s what happened as soon as I took the photo below on the left. To me, it was perfection.

Okay, okay. Enough with the words. Enjoy the photos.

My schedule is super full through the end of September, but I have a few dates set aside so that I may take advantage of the warm summer sun that I know we’ll eventually someday hopefully get to photograph some of my favorite subjects… high school seniors.

And, of course, I have to share some of my favorite senior shots from last year.

Attention class of 2012! My one and only contest this year will be to give away a custom senior portrait session with ALL of the edited digital images on disc. That is a $1200 value! The winner will get a pre-consultation meeting where I answer all of their questions and go over all the details, a full 1-2 hour session at the location(s) of their choosing, multiple outfit changes, and ALL of the edited images from their session in both color and black & white, in both high resolution for printing and low resolution sharpened for web viewing.

There will only be one grand prize winner, but each entrant will win something… they just don’t know what they’ve won until the contest is over.

Interested or know anyone who might be?

Here’s how to enter:
1) Send a photo of yourself to Krissy at krissy@krissyallori.com. Do your best to have the photo reflect your personality. If you’re quiet, show me a sweet smile. If you’re a clown, show me goofing off. You get the idea.
2) In your email, answer the following questions (all answers must remain under 2000 characters):
- Tell me one word that describes you best and explain why.
- What do you look forward to most during your senior year? What do you think you’ll miss the most about high school?
- What are your plans after high school? College? Travel?

Here are the rules:
1) Availability is limited to one guy and one girl from each school. Krissy Allori Photography reserves the right to make an exception to this rule on a case by case basis.
2) Contestants must be part of the Class of 2012 and go to school within the Portland metro and surrounding areas.
3) Contestants must have a parent or guardian grant permission to participate in the contest as well as agree to the model release.
4) Entries must be received no later than February 21st to qualify.
5) To redeem any prizes associated with this promotion, session must be completed no later than July 30, 2011. Availability is extremely limited, so failure to book early may result in the forfeiture of any prizes if mutual session date cannot be agreed upon.
6) Session must take place within the Portland metro and surrounding areas.

How it will work:
1) Krissy will post the applicant’s photos along with the answers to the questions to her blog and Facebook.
2) People will be able to vote once on the blog and once on Facebook. Votes will be entered in the form of a comment.
3) The applicant with the most votes will win the grand prize. The remaining applicants will also be awarded a prize and will be notified of what that prize is at the end of the contest.
4) Every senior who books a session will come away with Senior Portraits that they will love and their parents will forever cherish.

What a sweet girl Maia was. One quick session with her and I could just tell she has a heart of gold. Her session was very last minute as we wanted to squeeze it in before the rain came so we literally made the decision a few hours before we planned on meeting while she was still in school. I know how long it takes me to mentally prepare for having my photos taken. Poor thing. I think she would have liked a few more days, but I seriously think it was worth it to get all the fall colors right at their prime while the ground was still dry. This is Oregon after all, and when the forecast calls for 10 days of rain, you have to believe it!

The most amazing thing happened during our session. I set Maia up sitting on a path with a gorgeous tree in the background and took a few shots. I got totally excited when I saw how beautiful it looked on my camera’s LCD. If you’ve had a session with me, you know how giddy I am when I love the photo I just took. I’m a bit of a dork that way. Anyway, I showed the LCD to Maia’s mom and she started to cry. She said that she could tell it was going to be nice from what she could see with her own eyes, but when she saw how it looked on my camera, she couldn’t believe it. This gave me goosebumps. What she said is one of the million reasons why I absolutely adore photography. It’s because of YOUR reaction. It’s because I am doing something for you that you love and will cherish for years to come. How many people can say that they’ve created that kind of emotional impact on a person they’ve known for fifteen minutes. I think that’s pretty darn cool. As my husband always says, I’m a lucky girl.

You did fantastic, Maia, and I love how your photos turned out. Enjoy your sneak peek!

Ah, Nick. Not only was this guy completely adorable, but I loved his personality. He was playful, funny, a huge goofball with his brother (I did a family mini session right before his senior session), and a complete flirt. I have no doubt that he has a swarm of girls following him around school. He just nailed the three looks too: big smile, half smile, and sexy serious. The session was so fun and easy. This is how it went: get to a location, get shots of each expression at full body, half body, close up, change locations, repeat, watch Nick do something funny, take a quick shot of him laughing, change clothes, change locations, and so on. We ended up with a ton of awesome shots for him to choose from and I enjoyed editing each one.

Nick & family, enjoy your sneak peak! Lots more to come in your gallery.

I was really impressed with Melissa. Not only is she gorgeous – beautiful green eyes and she really connects with the camera – but she has a fantastic personality and carries herself so well. Its so inspiring to talk to a young adult and just know that they are going to be happy and successful in life. Funny how you can tell just by interacting with them. Melissa is a volunteer fire fighter and is getting a head start with her career in the medical field – so impressive, I tell you! Her mom was just as sweet as can be too. She carried all of Melissa’s clothes and shoes around to each location we went to and made sure Melissa was comfortable and natural in front of the camera by staying out of sight. I don’t think I could take a good picture of myself, even now, if my mom was watching! Anyway, she was a true pleasure to get to know and photograph.

Enjoy your sneak peek!

The session I had with Kylee was absolutely perfect! Honestly, it could not have been better. First off, she is just stunning. Flawless, I tell you. Then, we were able to get a ton of variety, which I love. I had taken a drive before the session with my kids and scoped out the areas I wanted to use, keeping in mind how bright and how low in the sky the sun would be when we got to that location. So, I had it in my mind ahead of time how the session would go. Kylee and her mom showed up at my house right on time (love that). She had brought a ton of clothes (love that too) and we planned out which outfits she would wear for each location. Then, it was pure magic. In less than an hour and a half, we went to six different locations, with four different outfit changes, and the most gorgeous lighting varying from full open shade to the most intense golden back light. Kylee was INCREDIBLE in front of the camera. I don’t think I got one bad shot of her. In fact, this session produced more “keepers” than any other session I’ve done. This sneak peek has only about a third of what I plan on showing Kylee and her mom in the gallery.

On top of all that perfection, there was something that made the evening so much more special. You wanna know what it was? It was the relationship between Kylee and her mom. It was so incredibly evident how much they cared for each other in the littlest things. I know these photos were a stretch for mom but she was bound and determined to not only get them for her daughter, but for her daughter to love the photos and enjoy herself during the session. Mom respected her daughter when she didn’t want to be watched during the picture taking, and she sat in the car and read her book, although I know it was killing her not to watch.  It went both ways, too. After one location, Kylee got into mom’s brand new car with dirt all over her boots and she immediately apologized when she realized that the floor mats had gotten dirty and mom instantly said, “oh, don’t worry about it honey.” Again, such a super small thing, but an example of how sweet these two were together.

Without further ado, I present to you the lovely and gorgeous Kylee…

You would not believe the amount of cars honking as they passed by.

I had so much fun photographing Kadie for her senior photos. She was a complete natural in front of the camera and I just could not believe how she worked the camera. All I can say is that I hope her dad keeps a loaded shotgun by the front door because I’m sure she has quite a few admirers.

Blonde hair and piercing green eyes. WOW.

I just love this one. What an intense look in her eye. Seriously, this girl was so much fun to photograph.

Congratulations on entering your senior year of high school, Kadie. You have so much to look forward to!