Not coincidentally, today is Mother’s Day. That doesn’t just mean remembering one’s mother, but being cognizant that those mothers themselves are remembering how they earned the title.
For some the countdown to having their former little one fly the nest has mere weeks remaining. For others, the next year before their high schooler becomes a senior then sprints to that same finish is imminent, unable to be stopped by any force of nature or nurture.
One of the established rights of passage now is the senior portrait. And, despite the ready availability of smartphone cameras and arguable epidemic of selfies — or is it because of those things? — this work remains purview of the professionals. [1,2]
Local Baby Boomers are likely to associate their own time with a session at Tom Mac’s Photography on West Michigan Avenue. More generically, that meant going to a studio where a roll-down backdrop was selected from perhaps a dozen options, followed by three or four poses before appropriately diffused artificial lighting. “Creative” approaches meant showing something more than head-and-shoulders, holding some prop from stock or something special brought from home.
Nothing like today.
Saline photographer Heidi McClelland typically finds that her clients want portraits that show how they see themselves. This means quite varied and sometimes highly specific. Imagine theater or music students; photographs that can serve additionally in audition portfolios. How would you set something for an upcoming graduate heading into computer science or engineering? or a National Merit Scholar? [3,4]
“I once did work for an Eagle Scout on Mackinac Island,” she recalled. Ask her for his name and it’s still top of mind. [5,6]
“You are about to change everything after this year,” Ms McClelland added more expansively. “Kids can be strategic about that. A lot of them want to do what everyone else is doing to hold onto that a little longer. More often, others want pictures that show what makes you, ‘you.'”
It’s truly fascinating to see her make this happen in practice. Anyone familiar with equipment and technique would readily tag her a pro.
But that’s merely opening ante and far from what makes for excellence in people photographs. Rather, it is her fluid best-friend-like engagement with clients (and anyone else accompanying them), positive positioning directions given as much with her eyes and subtle hand motions as anything she says — and a smile that never panics.
Even the best planned outings have variables. The 2019 senior portrait season has already begun, and will continue at a clip through every imaginable outdoor variation, daytime and dark, fall colors, and snow. Within these contexts, she’s photographed seniors in vintage wedding gowns, students with horses, and those intent on having their favorite trucks memorialized with them as markers for posterity.
“I like to be creative every time,” she told Saline Journal, acknowleding that of the forty to sixty seniors she photographs in any given cycle, most efforts feel a lot like improvisational theater.
But is there a place for Mom here? Not just on this day, but for any given senior portait session?
“Oh, yes! I usually like to have somebody else there,” Heidi McClelland responded, noting that this is not case with all photographers. “I can say something to Mom or a friend that gets a laugh out of the subject. This is also an experience, and it’s amazing how much going through that with someone else can add to it.”
None of it the sort of stuff to be replaced with a camera-phone and selfie-stick.
References
- “People will take 1.2 trillion digital photos this year — thanks to smartphones” Caroline Cakebread (August 31, 2017) Business Insider.
- “Millennials expected to take over 25,000 selfies in their lifetime” Maria Mercedes Galuppo (May 19, 2017) USA Today.
- Heidi McClelland Photography (home page).
- “heidimphotography” Instagram.
- “Saline Boy Scouts Are on Mackinac Island Today Serving in Governor’s Honor Troop” Dell Deaton (June 27, 2011) Saline Journal.
- “High school senior portraits are getting more elaborate — and expensive” Steve Hendrix (October 26, 2013) The Washington Post.
