My Cousin Tony [Senior Session]

Two Youts! Two Youts! Anyone who gets my movie reference will let me buy them a cup of coffee the next time we hang out. :)

One of the perks of blogging for 30 days straight is the chance to put up some old sessions that never made it up on the blog. A chance to embarrass my super-cute (yep, Tone, I called you super-cute) cousin who is already attending Nazareth College and thought his senior session was safely put away in my archives. This session was done last year, but since I never got a chance to highlight it here, I am using today to send a shout out and a cheek pinch to my extremely helpful, go-with-the-flow, deeply kind and thoughtful cousin Tony - and tell him that I love him. ♥

Even though he likes to pretend that he's an aloof tough guy in these pictures, he was actually very easy going, adventurous - up for trying lots of different spots in the nearby town of Lancaster. He was quick to laugh at my stupid antics and gracious about not calling me a dork (which I am sure was on his mind). :) He's a really good kid who is tearing it up at Nazareth, blazing his path in life as the down-to-earth good guy he is, showing them all what cool really looks like. You just know he will go far in life, but the best thing about him is that he will never forget where he came from.

I love you, Tone! Hope you are having a blast at college, and seriously - now you are free to call me a dork without big-cousin repercussions. :)

Andrew ...Class of 2012...

In January of last year, I got an email from Karina, a girl from my past - we went to high school together, and I haven't seen her since. Facebook had reconnected us, and she had come across my photos there. She had some very sweet words for my work... and she asked if I would be open to working with her in getting some Senior pictures done of her son, Andrew, sometime over the summer and I, of course - said yes! I really enjoy doing Senior pictures - it's a great time to really focus on getting a collection of images that showcase their personality at such a pivotal time in their lives - I think I said it to her when we first talked about it - something about the moodiness contrasting with the contained excitement at that age (and life stage) make for some really great pictures (especially after they get more comfortable!) - capturing the bridge between childhood and adulthood. So, I was super excited to 1. Meet and try to capture her son's personality and 2. Get to see her again after all these years!

A really cool thing I found out right before the session was that she was pregnant with her second child - and what a neat spectrum of ages in kids she would soon have! Hint: More on her second child soon... :) She looked radiant and Andrew was a joy to photograph - he's got the GQ model look, is so interesting with his myriad of hobbies, acts super cute with his mom and girlfriend and seemed like such a good kid with a sense of adventure and a great sense of humor - he was willing to do whatever I asked and I love that in clients! Combined, it all made for a super fun afternoon. He really made my job easy!

I headed over to Rochester and we landed in Highland Park at the Warner Castle - which turned out to be a pretty awesome location, especially for a Senior Guy! Lots of stone textures, wrought iron, concrete and greenery to balance it all out. Pretty much a dream for me! I processed these with a range of textures to enhance the masculine backdrops and add a little grunge. :) I love working with textures, so this was a fun post-processing procedure for me, even though it took longer than your average session.

^This one makes me laugh... about 15 minutes before this pic, he was talking about how he just really didn't like cats... and then this stray cat came out of nowhere. We laughed about it and it actually came right up to us, jumped up on the bench and just hung out for a few pictures - crazy, right? I had a hard time keeping the camera still because I was laughing so hard. :)

{Challenge Notes - weekends are tough! Hopefully the weekdays will help to get me back on track and posting earlier... thank you for sticking with me!}

Jordan, Senior Portraits in The Yard

Well, finally..... here are my favorites from my cousin Jordan's Senior Portraits that were shot here in my yard. Again, she was super cool to work with, always smiling! Plus, I had the added bonus of Aunt Jeanne as an assistant for both me and her... holding reflectors, suggesting poses, making her laugh! It was a blast with you both, and thanks again for the cool opportunity to practice in this genre. :) You made my first foray pretty dang easy.

As a technical note, after I uploaded this (which took forever!) I realized that I probably need to sharpen my images before making a slide show...something must happen in the conversion that fuzzes them up a bit...so I will apply that little gem to the next shoot spotlight....which is..... Mike, Laura and their super cute babe, Hunter! Mike happens to be Jordan's sister and so also my cousin - though he happens to have grown up so close with my sister and I, which made him feel like our baby brother.... :)

For now, enjoy the beautiful Jordan!

Jordan's Senior Photo Shoot from cheryle ertel on Vimeo.

Senior Teaser Storyboard

Yep, one more teaser - though I need to learn how to tease! Someday, I can maybe not be so excited that I can just post one as a sneak peek and then do the rest, but for now, I am way too crazy excited to show any restraint. :)

Here's a storyboard I made of three cute pictures of Jordan laughing, which is...as her mom says....so her. Jordan laughs! It's what she is always doing. :) I was happy to catch these candid cute moments of her and I thought I would group them to showcase that which is truly her.

Miss Jordan, Senior Portrait Sneak Peek

It's pretty darn freaky thinking about my "little" cousin graduating next year...I remember when she was born - the baby nicknames we all used for her (that stuck) that I will not mention here.. :) I remember my aunt pregnant with her! And now...here she is, getting her Senior year pictures taken. *sigh* - how time flies!

So, here we are...and I am grateful and honored to be the one doing them! What a cool feeling!

We had the shoot in the middle of last week and I was so excited about the way they turned out, I wanted to share a few as teasers - I have not even shown them to her or my aunt yet, so this is their teaser too! I have a few other things to post before I get to this one - and as always, I want to give them first crack at seeing them before the world does! 3 different outfit changes and lots of movement around the yard - I think I can say we were all pooped when we were done, but it was a good kind of tired - we got a lot accomplished!

Here you go, guys - I hope to talk to you soon, since I am so excited to show you! Thanks for being such a great sport, Jordy. :) Hopefully I will have a few more up soon.....

I'm sorry, but is she not gorgeous?! Thanks for making my job easy, dear! :)