Practically a Professional?

As much as I like to joke that I'm practically a professional in everything I do, that's obviously not the case.  Haha.  When I pulled out the "real" camera last weekend to take Ethan's senior pictures, I was annoyed and dismayed to realize how rusty I have become with photography.  It would be an easy excuse to blame the fact that the lighting kept switching in and out of being overcast -- not to mention it was the end of the day and we were losing sunlight anyway -- but the fact of the matter is, I think I've lost my touch.  Doh!  It's too late for Ethan, but maybe if I brush up my skills in the next two years Grace's will look more practically professional when it's her turn.  Hahahaha. 

But enough of that.  Without further adieu, I now present (complete with commentary) my favorite senior of the year, Ethan.  (And just as a heads up, this is an absolute photo dump of a post.  Consider yourself warned.)

To prepare for this photo shoot, I did a thorough search of Pinterest for tips on senior picture poses for boys.  "Leaning" was a top suggestion on almost every site I found.  Hahaha.

Fun fact: Ethan refused to let me cut his hair for the pictures.  I'd like to congratulate myself on not being a pusher and making him do it anyway.

"Stairs" were another top Pinterest tip for posing.  We utilized this one quite a bit.  Hahaha.

This face showcases Ethan's enthusiasm for posing in a location where he was right in the way of a lot of people needing to go up and down these stairs.

He was a real champ, though, and sucked it up long enough to get a couple of shots in before I finally agreed with him that we were too much in the way.  Haha.

This pose combines the Pinterest tips of using a bench, having hands in pockets, and looking off to the side.  Hahaha.

Sticking with the hands in pockets for now.

Pockets AND leaning.  Hahaha.

Next location -- more stairs!  Haha.

Getting shots completely in focus were a much bigger issue than they should have been in this shoot.  I wish his eyes were in clearer focus here and that I had managed to capture the "catchlights" in them.

This picture is Scott's favorite.  I really like it, too, but I'm kicking myself for not framing it better.

For this next series of pictures, we had finally stumbled upon some really great lighting.  Unfortunately, there were still a lot of issues with focus here as well.  Booooooooo!

We also transitioned to an outfit change in case you missed it -- striped polo to solid grey polo.  This one is actually one of my favorites.

Arm folding was another Pinterest tip.  I don't think Ethan felt like it was a very natural pose, though, so we didn't use this one all that much.

We had to throw in some "serious" face poses as well, obviously.

I guess we just really loved posing on stairs.  Haha.

This shot captures stairs, staggered steps, leaning forward, and resting elbows on knees.

This picture makes me laugh because he's imitating a baby picture of Isaac that Isaac has been going around imitating lately.

(Here's the Isaac photo for reference.  Hahahaha.  I recently found a framed copy of it and put it on my dresser, which is where Isaac found his inspiration.)

(And here is Isaac's re-creation of it.  Hahahaha.)

(I think this is my mom's favorite.)

I like to call this his GQ pose.  LOL.

It was at this point that we started to lose the daylight.  I had to brighten the exposure in Lightroom when I uploaded it.

Same with this one.

And one more set of stairs to finish it off!  Hahahahaha.  I kind of like the circular nature of starting the photo shoot on one set of stairs and ending on a different one.  

And that's all folks!  Perhaps I'll be able to take some actual in-focus shots on his graduation day this Thursday.  #fingerscrossed