I’ve been dying to blog these natural high school senior portraits since the moment I downloaded them to my computer. Everything was perfect – the late afternoon light, the lakeside location, but most of all — Nicole. She brought her beautiful smile, bubbly energy and great sense of style to the session. I’m thrilled with the results!

Nicole lives out in Montana but often spends her summers in Auburn. This year, we coordinated so that she could have her senior portraits taken while she was in town. When we first talked, she asked for what almost every teen requests when they come my way: natural senior portraits that don’t look fake or over-retouched. I guess there are a lot of studios out there doing really heavy retouching, which is too bad because girls are just SO beautiful at this age, it would be a shame to distort that with photoshop after-effects. I try and take pictures that I would have wanted for my own senior portraits: natural, fun and relaxed. I love using light and angles (instead of a bunch of Photoshop) to show these girls just how stunning they truly are.

When I arrived, Nicole had about ten outfits laid out on the floor, color-coordinated and complete with all of the accessories we could ever want. I’ve only included a few of them in this post, but she definitely gets some extra “points” for being so creative!

This amazing vintage turquoise truck was parked on the property, so we HAD to take pictures with it. This image is one of MANY that we took with that truck. I couldn’t get enough of it, lol!

Love those waves! Nicole had her hair and makeup done just before the session and she looked stunning.

We also got to use a vintage trailer that was on the property. The rusty reds go perfectly with her denim shirt.

Goodness…she’s so beautiful! Her smile, the dress, the light — love it all! She looks like she’s straight out of an Anthropologie catalogue!

We took a little side-trip into Downtown Auburn. There are so many great little spots hidden away in town like this old brick wall that made a nice textured backdrop for her pictures.

And this lattice wall was a great visual element for some fun, relaxed images.

‘Tis the season for high school senior portraits! If you’d like to book a session with me, shoot me an email at info@jillcarmel.com or call us at 916.933.8352. If you liked this session, check out this fun and relaxed teen session.

Thank you, Nicole, for being your amazing self! I love these pictures of you. 🙂

Update: Nicole sent me this after seeing her pictures: “We are so happy! I love them all 🙂 They are exactly what I wanted! You are such an amazing photographer. You’re definitely the reason they turned out so good!”

And then a few weeks later her mom wrote: “We just received the pictures, disc and cards today. Thank you sooooooooooo much. We just love everything and are so pleased with [the] pictures. You are just wonderful and we are certainly spreading the word to our friends back in California. Good luck in your business although I don’t think you really need luck. You have the talent and spirit to be successful. Take care and we hope to meet again some day.”

Haha – they are so sweet!