Graffiti + NO

My favorite wall of graffiti in downtown McKinney is permanent since it appears to have been scratched in pretty deep rather than drawn or painted. Good to know it's available whenever I need it for a shoot.

BUT in the above picture most of the wall is out of focus, making it difficult to know there was any graffiti at all....except for what looks like the  word "NO" behind Sarah's shoulder. 

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Bricks With Character

In downtown McKinney it's easy to find a good place to get a good portrait. You don't need a big space, just enough to fill the background. I would usually label brick walls as slightly cliche, but in downtown McKinney it's easy to find "aged" brick walls. "Bricks with character" is what I refer to them as. Just a small section is all it really takes.  

A pretty model helps too.

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McKinney, TX Senior Pictures

These are some of my favorites from the Class of 2010.

More senior photos 

Info & pricing

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Don't Move

Directly across from the graffiti wall mentioned in the last post. Sarah's best expressions came when she wasn't posing. The only thing I changed was having her hold the flowers instead of Cris's t-shirt. Otherwise she hadn't moved at all.

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Textures

I've never done much with overlaying textures onto a photo, but after capturing this one of Cris I thought some experimenting was due.

As with any picture that has graffiti, the first step was looking closely for any profanity, which there almost always is, and cloning it out. The texture is actually a "wood" texture I found in PhotoFrame, the b&w conversion came from Silver Efex Pro, then back to PhotoFrame to add the border.

The result is what you see above. Below is the original photo (minus the f-bombs). Taken by my favorite wall of graffiti in downtown McKinney.

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Cold Tone

This is a Lightroom filter I've been playing with recently. These were both taken on the square in downtown McKinney. The last of my senior shoots (maybe).

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More Senior Pictures at Adriatica

  

 

More examples of McKinney, TX Senior Photography

Info & Pricing

Still extremely busy doing senior sessions. With less than 2 weeks before most local high schools are having graduation, many folks have realised that they need to get something done fairly quick! The above pic is from a recent session at Adiatica. 

Rumors that Adriatica is going to start charging photographers for doing sessions on their property have proved to be untrue. I spoke with Linda Visser, Chief Financial Officer for the Blackard Group, and she verified that there is not a fee for photographers "as long as you stay out of the buildings," meaning that if you wanted to use the interior of a building or an unoccupied space, there would be a fee. No fee for photographing on the grounds. This is good news, since so many properties these days realize that some  photographers actually make money from the use of a picturesque background...so why not grab a piece of it if you can? I tend to steer clear of such places, but if it's what a client really wants, they'll have to pick up that fee.

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Rain Delays

Seniors have been keeping me busy, and so has the constant rescheduling due to weather. We haven't been getting an unusual amount of rain, but as of today I've had six sessions canceled due to rain. All of them rescheduled, but during senior season and in May, time is of the essence. 

I caught this expression from Sarah earlier this week. Once again, the unposed expressions are always the best ones. The best expressions I was able to get from Sarah came was when she wasn't expecting to be photographed. I was photographing her boyfriend when I noticed her sitting on the steps looking back at him. I shot this through through some railings where the steps were. Taken in downtown McKinney near the square.

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Bridges

Bridges are great places to take pictures. A bridge will force you to look at your scene differently than you normally would and will influence the way you compose your shot. Sometimes your composition will hide from the viewer the fact that your subject is even on a bridge.

Both of these portraits were made on the bridge at the frisbee golf course mentioned in the previous post.  

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Senior Pictures & Frisbee Golf

For one of my senior shoots this year, we went to the Alex Clark Memorial Disc Golf Course in McKinney. Lots of good spots if you can compose carefully. People, traffic and the occasional stray frisbee can get in the way.

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