I'm an amateur and rarely do any 'official' photos for anyone I don't know, but some of my friends' daughters prefer me because they are camera shy - they don't know what to do when it's not a selfie, and I've been taking pics of them their whole lives, so they feel a little more comfortable, knowing I'll delete anything they hate. I also work really hard to get the angles that downplay whatever it is that they don't like about themselves, which I already know walking in. So because my 'clients' are girls I've been taking photos of forever, from childhood up, homecoming, prom, graduation, all those things, I have used my pretty limited posing ideas many times. I ran into your videos and watched them through several times before taking my goddaughter for her senior photo shoot. The night before we were scheduled to go, she told me she didn't want to be a bother, but she's 'not basic' and didn't want 'basic' pics, no fields, no park, no flowers, nothing anyone else had, which blew my plans out of the water. But she also couldn't tell me what 'not basic' meant to her. 🤷🏻‍♀️ We finally wound up by a local graffiti wall in an urban area not far from us, and also utilized the nearby rusty train trestles with weeds sprouting up and kind of grungy feel in evening light, and the riverfront all in the same area. I was looking forward to using your dress tips and poses and she showed up wearing a giant Harley Davidson t-shirt (she's tiny), super ripped jeans and pearls. Lolol. Love that kid! So all the dress poses were out. But I absolutely made use of getting her in one physical position, getting the light right and then having her move just her head, her eyes, her arms, twist her body ... just planting those feet or her body and making small adjustments. Then I zoomed in and out on those different facial expressions and the angles it put her face in, using different focal lengths of the same pose. She actually wound up saying she looked ok in some of them! (Which for her is the equivalent of jumping up and down and squealing in delight, rather than admitting she's beautiful.) So thanks for putting these vids out here! I used A LOT of your tips and really appreciate them. BTW, I always recommend first that people use a professional photographer for important life events, but sometimes they don't have the financial resources or comfort level. I figure my stuff isn't perfect, but something's better than nothing or a friend's cell phone. 😁

@@Melly01 you are amazing!!! These girls are so lucky to have you.

So great to hear!!

You are so sweet!

Thanks so much!

Love this

We definitely see ticks here and warn our clients to check. We also recommend talking to an insurance agency with what coverage is best for you.

You Bet!

Thanks so much! We sometimes use a reflector, but more so to shade ourselves while taking the backlit photos.

Nikon z7 or d750 and our 50 mm 1.8 :)

@@esquared.photography Thank you so much!

The seniors find some of them and we ask permission for a lot of them too!

We love our 50 mm and 85 mm