Three rules for bringing props to your senior session without inducing awkwardness
We've all seen them... in fact, there are buzzfeed articles, tumblr feeds, and entire websites devoted to them....awkward, over-prop-ed senior pictures! Mountains of unnecessary soccer balls or an uncomfortably held bassoon, and suddenly a senior's portrait is all about how many objects are crammed and awkwardly held in one image. How unfortunate! The focus of a senior portrait should be all about YOU, you amazing senior! And props can be an awesome way to bring personality into your portraits--but the props you choose and the way we incorporate them into your portraits is what makes the difference. How do you know which props to bring to your session and how avoid them looking awkward in portraits? Let's get into it!
#1: You don't have to bring props! But you can! This is the most important thing of all--if you're thinking of ideas for how you want your senior portraits to look and you feel like you probably should bring a prop but you're not sure what it should be... then stop! Don't worry about it--just bring yourself and a killer outfit that you love, and we'll go scope out an amazing location and your portraits will be chock full of style as they are. If you bring props along solely out of obligation, you're definitely setting yourself up for some awkwardness. HOWEVER, if you know that you want to incorporate a prop or two into your pictures, awesome!! That's perfect, you're perfect, and we'll figure out a way to incorporate the prop naturally into your images. Keep reading!
#2: Choose something meaningful. Senior portraits don't happen every day! Just once, in fact!! They're rare and special and exciting, and you'll look back on these images in a year and five years and a decade and remember this time in your life. These images are meaningful, so put thought behind anything that you bring into them. Choose a prop that reflects something important about you, an activity you're passionate about, something you're proud of. In the images above, Annie (in the blue shirt) brought her guitar for some images--that instrument was given to her by a close family member and she had a really personal connection to it. It can be helpful to think beyond "what thing should I bring with to my session" and focus instead on "what about me do I want to celebrate/capture/focus on in my portraits?" At Michael's senior session, he really wanted to include his bike because he spent a ton of time biking around his hometown of Buffalo, MN, and he does a lot of training for triathlons--that's an awesome, unique thing to highlight in a session and I loved it because it really spoke to his personality.
#3. Choose something beautiful. Keep in mind how the prop will look in your pictures, considering the colors/style of your location, your outfits, etc. Will the object/instrument/accessory look nice in your pictures? Think about the style of the rest of your portraits- what you're wearing, where the session is happening--will it make sense for your prop to be in the images? If so, then you've got a winner!
When we were preparing for Jessica's senior portraits(she's the one in black/white sitting on a step), she really wanted to include an important hobby/passion in her life: raising chickens! Jessica lives on a chicken farm and has won awards for these beautiful (and fancy-feathered) chickens that she shows at the local fair. It worked out perfectly--she wore jeans, sneakers, and a colorful plaid top and we got some great pictures of her and her chicken cozying it up while she sat outside of her barn. Would these pictures have worked if she was wearing her prom dress and had brought her chicken downtown? NO! That would have been all full of awkwardness, because it wouldn't make sense in that setting. Here, I loved how unique her story was and how she was able to tell that story through incorporating her chicken into her portraits--and how it looked gorgeous, natural, and story-telling since she was in a place where it all made sense : )