Location Senior Portraits with a 40th Anniversary Ford Mustang

West Central Senior Brandon brought his 2004 40th anniversary Ford Mustang for his senior pictures. He takes great care of his red pony car and it sounds as good as it looks. Since we had a beautiful June morning for outdoor senior portraits, we started on location with Brandon and his car.

Ideal Location for Car Senior Portraits

40th Anniversary Mustang Senior PortraitsWhen looking for the ideal spot to take car photos, it’s important that there’s no traffic, that the background is well groomed and there are mature trees to shade the car. Then we use off camera lighting to fill in the shadows on our subjects so they look natural.

With the recent flooding in Luverne, my usual location for car photos was underwater. So after a little quick searching we found this wonderful background. The surprising part about this great location is that it’s a cemetery just outside of Luverne. It has a mix of mature trees and new trees. The grass is well kept and the traffic is nonexistent. This image was composed so that the trees didn’t break the lines of the car yet created a natural frame for the subject.

Since Brandon was on the 2013 Class A Champion West Central Trojans football team, his mother wanted his jersey in some of the car photos. The combination of his jersey and his car is going to be a great memory of this time in his life, his senior year at West Central High School.

Natural Looking LocationĀ Senior Portraits with Off Camera Flash

I just started using a new light modifier for my outdoor off-camera flash. This Wescott Rapid Box 26″ Octa Softbox is lightweight and well made. It has a bracket that fits on a light stand and holds a standard speedlight flash. It does a great job of softening the light and filling in the shadows so it looks natural without the fake look of an on-camera flash. The wind in the Midwest can quickly turn a softbox into a sail. One gust of wind can send your whole rig crashing to the ground. I’m thankful for my assistant Stephanie who helps with the lights and also makes sure that our senior’s clothing and hair are in place.

Brandon Location Senior Portraits

Behind the Scenes Off Camera Flash Senior Portraits

Stephanie steadies the off camera flash.

I’m thankful that Brandon was able to squeeze me into his busy schedule this summer. He just got back from a week long mission trip to Alabama and has plans to not only attend Camp JudsonĀ in the Black Hills but also be a camp councilor. This is his second year as councilor and by the sound of it, his fourth through sixth grade campers are excited to have him back.