Stephanie Surgener Senior Portraits

I used to specifically shoot senior portraits for a living a few years ago for Michael's Photography Inc. which was based out of Smyrna, TN but which covered schools for a 75 mile radius.  I was their outdoor senior casual photographer and I must have shot 2 or 3 thousand sessions in the 3 years that I worked there.  It was an amazing job for me.  I learned a lot, became much more comfortable directing people to quickly get what I want, and became familiar with off-camera lighting.  Most people have a negative connotation to school photography and photographers but I am extremely proud of the work that I did for Michael's.  Back then, before it sold out to the soul-less corporate picture Mill that is LifeTouch, it was a Mom & Pop that encouraged creativity and gave the photographers a freedom that I had never felt on the job before.  I had guys that wanted to get shots with their classic cars so we would get smoke bombs to place behind the back tires and have them hang out to make it look as though they were burning rubber, awesome right!  And I would have girls roll-up their jeans and creek stomp while their friends would toss boulders into ponds to create a splashy background!  Basically, I will always love shooting senior portraits.  So much so that LifeTouch better watch out.  One of these days I'm going to offer them some competition and go after some of the schools that I used to frequent.

Stephanie's older brother Shawn had me take some portraits / headshots last year and it was great that he agreed to come to this shoot and assist with the reflector.