Trendy Summer Senior Pictures with Olivia
Newbo District | Center Point | Jesup High School
I met with Olivia and her mom at Jam’s Coffee Bar, a new coffee place in Urbana that I had been wanting to try! I still get blown away when I think about my seniors coming from outside of my surrounding areas of Cedar Rapids, Marion, Center Point and Alburnett. It’s always feels a little extra exciting knowing that they SOMEHOW found me through Google and decided to pick me! Anyway! I met with them and the first thing I noticed was Olivia’s beautiful blonde hair. And I felt like I clicked right away with the both of them - they were so down-to-earth and easy to talk to! I was excited to plan Olivia’s session!
We decided on using Newbo for a downtown vibe, and she wanted wildflowers (and she noted that she especially loved purple flowers) and water. So after scouting some locations, I decided to try a new patch of flowers I had found outside the CPU High School and use the boat ramp area in Center Point, too! This worked out extra-well because we got SO much rain leading up to her session that the water was high, but I knew the boat ramp would have treads and a gradually decline so she’d still be able to get IN the water if she wanted to! So we started with hair and makeup at Onyx Salon where Nicole did both her hair and makeup! We LOVED how it turned out! And then it was off to Newbo.
I LOVED Olivia’s outfits and the vibes she was wanting. She had a couple more trendy outfits and a more classic outfit that would fit with a few spots in Newbo that was more casual. We started by exploring one end of the area and slowly making our way to the other with a few outfit changes in the crazy, popup tent in between.
After our first outfit change, and as we were heading to our next location I realized I had left my ladder at our last location. That was a first for me! A big thanks to Olivia’s mom who volunteered to go grab it while we continued on. We were heading to one of my favorite spots at Newbo and knew she wouldn’t have any trouble finding us there - I knew I’d take wayyyy to many pictures.
We walked around a little more in this outfit, heading to the blue and white mural at Newbo for some pops of color!
After changing into the outfit that Olivia seemed the most excited about, we started our last venture at Newbo. We stopped at my last few go-to spots that I thought would pair well with this outfit. And they turned out SO GOOD!
We were perfectly on time the whole day… with a little time to spare thankfully. It was HOT on Olivia’s senior picture day and we had to take some air-conditioner breaks in the car. We left for Center Point to hit up the natural trail first.. and to meet up with Olivia’s dad and KITTY!!! To tell you I was excited for this part was an understatement. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE kitties, and I was SO excited for Olivia to get some sweet pictures with her baby, Millie.
We made it as quick as possible with Millie because cats don’t love new places and there were a lot of walkers/bikers on the trail this day. We probably only had her out there for 10 minutes and we got SO many cute pictures!! We finished out with some more pictures of Olivia in this super-cute outfit, and then some volleyball pictures!
Next up was the wildflower fields. I had happened to find PURPLE flowers, too! Which made me extra excited, but also a bit nervous since I had never used this spot before. We showed up, walked all the way out to the front of the field, started shooting and I realized the sun was still too high for the lighting we were hoping for here. (Although, after some editing tweaks, they were FIRE!!) I knew we had a little extra time to spare, so I had Olivia go get cooled down for a bit in the car. After a few minutes, we used the shaded parts of the field for the pictures were she’d need to be laying/sitting down. The long grass and flowers would’ve been too long anyway. All the while, the CPU volleyball girls were starting their outdoor practice RIGHT next to us. I thought for sure that Olivia would be thrown off her game, but they were hyping her up and she was ROCKING it!
After a little more cooling down, the sun was finally low enough for the PERFECT lighting inside the flower field. So we trekked back out there and started doing our thing! And HOLY COW! It was PERFECT! We are obsessed with these photos!! Isn’t she STUNNING?!
After wrapping up this hot, sweaty part of the photoshoot, we were all looking forward to the water portion of her session. So we headed out to the boat ramp, changed outfits and spent the last few minutes of the sunset taking these images of the gorgeous Olivia looking SO summery in the water. And they are soooo cute!!
Your calendar likely fills up as fast as mine does and it’s SO easy to forget to schedule photos! If you are graduating in 2023 or 2024 (or a parent of an upcoming graduate) - reach out with any questions or to start planning!! Check out my Senior Gallery or contact me for more info!
