I was so thankful I got to have my dream photoshoot this summer for my senior pictures. I’d dreamed for the longest time about getting professional pictures in the city and really being thoughtful about my clothes and vision so that the aesthetic would match that of my blog brand. I’ve always loved photography, so getting any pictures of myself was exciting, but when my senior year approached, I knew this was the time I wanted to take the leap and invest in some photos I could use for years to come. I have to give a special shout-out to Justin before we can go any further into this post—he is absolutely phenomenal at what he does and was SO fun to work with!! Driving around Des Moines with him was a blast and also very insightful; he knows the ins and outs of the area, and my mom and I both talked about how cool it was to get to finally see the places we’d only heard about before then.

I put a lot of thought into what I personally could prepare for in this shoot, from the ideas I could relay to Justin about what I was looking for to each outfit I was going to wear. I went through a bit of a process narrowing it all down and thought I would share that on the blog for anyone about to go through either their senior pictures or any photoshoot in the future. I hope to go on many more shoots like these, and with my career aspirations revolving around blogging, design, and media, I’m sure photography will be part of my job one day, too!

Inspiration & Aesthetic

The first thing you want to give some thought to when considering where to begin planning your photoshoot is the overall look and feel of the photos you’re going for. What are you hoping to accomplish with your pictures? What kind of feel do you want them to evoke? For me, I knew I wanted a variety of professional portraits that were also fun and contained all the elements of my personality. I wanted them to have a high-end, editorial look that’s common in the fashion photography world and in urban environments. That was one of the things I was not negotiable about, as I told my mom, since I’m not an outdoors girl, why would I want all of my pictures to be in nature? 😉

I’ve been following bloggers and keeping photo inspiration for about ever, ever since I was at least eleven years old, so I had a solid idea of how I wanted these pictures to look. A couple days before my scheduled shoot, I also emailed Justin my inspiration Pinterest board, which is something I highly recommend you do, is save images you like and that have a general feel you might like to shoot for. I already had so many ideas, so for me I just wanted to compile them in one place. Justin was so good about looking at my board and referencing it for ideas throughout our shoot! Of course, you have to be careful not to feel that need to make your pictures look exactly like someone else’s, as the whole point is you want them to be true to you! But it can be very helpful to get an overall feel you’re going for. Justin chuckled about how most of my pictures were in New York City, but I was like, well, I just need the city. 🙂

Location

That brings me to my next point. Where do you want your pictures to take place? You might have a specific idea or, if you’re getting senior pictures, just think of your hometown. For me, again, I was really looking for a city feel and a way to include that in my photos, so my small town was out of the question. Des Moines is the biggest place we have in Iowa, and I’m only an hour away and have been there numerous times. All the good things in life are there—the mall and hockey, ha. I researched photographers in Des Moines and loved Justin’s style, and with that, we booked my shoot for the middle of July. I’m not sure how every type of photoshoot goes, and every photographer is probably a little different, but regardless, I recommend that any type of photos you plan on having you reach out to a photographer in advance. Justin keeps very busy, and I reached out to him in January/February of my junior year. For senior pics, waiting any longer than that would probably be a lot more challenging to secure a date in the summer. Be planful of what you’re looking for and do your research, is my top piece of advice. Now, to the fun part…

How to Plan Your Outfits to Align with Your Vision

My Personal Process

With all the time between my planned shoot, as it got close, I went through a thorough process of dragging out all my potential outfits and trying each one on, pairing every possibility together. I literally spent a whole day doing this and have about a hundred photos I took of every pairing. You don’t have to be nearly that extensive with it—you might already just know what you’re going to wear or pull some outfits out, but I had a specific look I was going for, and I wanted my clothes to match my branding. That’s not hard because I basically buy my clothes in the same style as the style I design my blog and basically the style of my personality. But I had lots more options with that, too, and seeing as I could only bring along a certain amount of outfits (and after trying on clothes all day and then changing in the car for my photoshoot, trust me, you’re not going to want to get pictures of yourself in 20 different outfits), I had to be selective. If you do feel lost about how to narrow it down or want to see my process of how I did things, I’ll try to summarize…

Laying Out the Clothes

First things first, I picked out my favorite clothes that had styles I liked and that I thought would look great in pictures. I laid them all out on my chair, which is about all I use that chair for, is styling. Of course, I knew not everything I laid out would work; in fact, some things that I tried on I didn’t even bother taking pictures of because I just knew they weren’t going to mix, but that’s okay; it’s just to have a starting point. I had a document with all my ideas for my shoot including clothing pieces I thought would work well, so I referenced that when laying out my clothes, and Willy, as you can see, helped me with that. I also laid out various combinations of pants and brought out all the shoes I was thinking about wearing.

Have fun with this and go all out! I had so many outfits and pieces of stuff I’d never even worn before because, when you live in rural Iowa, you don’t exactly strut around in sparkly mini dresses and stilettos, but your shoot is the time to let your personality shine through! That was one of the most exciting parts for me also, was finally getting the opportunity to break out some of my favorite pieces.

Trying On the Clothes

So here was my tedious process…basically, I stared with a top (or dress) that were all piled up on my chair. Then I would pair that with one of the bottoms I had laid out. THEN, I would pick a pair of shoes to go with that. If I liked it, I snapped a photo to record it. Then, if there were other pairs of shoes that would go with it, I would switch those out and take more photos. Once all my shoes were tried that I wanted to, if I had another pair of bottoms I wanted to try out with the same top, I would then do that and then repeat the process of trying on the various shoes. When that was done, then I would change my top. To show visually how that works, this was the first outfit I tried on that I recorded and, as you can see, the pink sweater is the constant. The black mini skirt is also a constant for awhile with various shoes, until I swapped that out for the white shorts.

Knowing Your Goals

So, you don’t need to make the process nearly that tedious if you don’t want to; I just chose to do it that way because I really wanted to cover all my bases. Also, since I knew I was going to be able to have numerous outfits, I wanted to mix and match effectively, which I’ll get to also. Anyway, once you’ve gotten a variety of outfits planned out, how do you narrow those down? My biggest advice is to again refer to the look you’re going for. I wanted to infuse as much girliness and bling into my photos as possible, so outfits like the one below I ruled out. It was a nice outfit, but it was a little too bland given that I had other outfits where I could incorporate more pink and sparkles. When you know the personal style you’re going for, you can more easily rule out outfits you might like but that don’t fall in as much with that style.

Be Selective

Expanding on being selective, unfortunately, probably not every single outfit you have that you like you’ll be able to get photographed in. Again, you don’t need an excessive amount. I ended with six outfits and thought that was plenty, but you could easily get by with less. That means you’ll have to choose which looks best given the occasion and also on-camera. As an another example of what I mean by this and how to narrow things down further, I loved the outfit I was wearing pictured below. It was totally my style and the look I was going for. However, I knew I also had other tops I wanted to wear that were more form-fitting (which do look better in photos) and that were similar in style. So, because I was wearing this sheer sparkly cover-up that was more loose fitting over a cami, I decided to rule it out.

Pay Attention to Details

Lastly, to narrow things down ultimately and choose my six outfits, I looked at the details: I tried as hard as possible to not wear the same pair of shoes or bottoms twice, though inevitably that did happen just because of their versatility, but I tried to switch things up as much as possible to maximize different variations on my style. This meant that the outfits I’m showing you pictured below, for instance, I ruled out, because I knew I was going to pair a black bodysuit with my pink mini skirt, and rather than pairing another black top with this skirt, I opted for a grey top I had. I wore a different pair of bottoms with this button-down instead. I also tried to divide my shoes up so that each outfit got a different look. Like I said, for me it’s not too hard to combine things, since basically the colors of my life are pink and black. 🙂

My Outfits

With that all being factored in, here are the outfits I decided on. I also tried to choose a mix of fancy ones (the ones with the dresses), some in-between (like with the skirts), and then a more casual and basic outfit for good measure, but all still included my signature style.

Jewelry

I almost forgot this important part—to go along with your outfits, you’ll want to decide which jewelry you like and that best complements your outfits. I almost forgot it because honestly, I’m not huge on jewelry, either; I guess most of my focus and what I want to showcase are my wardrobe and clothes. However, I do like subtle accents; I love stud earrings, so I wore a sparkly pair that goes with everything. I did wear a heart necklace to match the silver accents on one of my dresses and a beautiful cross necklace I had with another outfit to incorporate a symbol of my faith. Other than that, the only thing I wore with every single outfit is a rose gold tiara ring my mom got me for Christmas that I absolutely adore and do love to wear with anything. I would just be mindful, again, of what is naturally you and what you’re trying to draw attention to. Don’t feel like you have to go overboard on jewelry because, just like with too many outfits, it’s inconvenient to change it all the time and can be hard to remember what goes with what outfit. Pick out what you love and what blends effortlessly with your outfits and personal style, and try not to overthink it beyond that!

Makeup?

The last thing you will want to consider in preparation is if you want to get your makeup done or apply any at all. For awhile I thought about getting my makeup professionally done, but ultimately I decided to let it go. I experimented with some of my own makeup products before my shoot, but I wasn’t a huge fan of it. When the day came, I just put on some mascara, a bit of lipstick, and some powder to prevent shininess. If I could do it again I don’t think I would change that; I’ve never been big on makeup before this, so I think having a bunch of shots of me caked in makeup wouldn’t be natural. I’ve never gotten to the point yet where I feel comfortable putting on a lot of makeup because (a) I’m always running short on time in the mornings and (b) again, I live in RURAL IOWA…I just don’t feel like there’s a lot of occasions where I would want to wear makeup. I guess I’m not one of those girls who feels the need to wear a face full of makeup to the grocery store.

Ha, I tried putting on this foundation, but it didn’t match my skin tone that well because it was too tan, so that didn’t look too stellar, and then blush… A word of warning to my girls who flush easily/have redness in their cheeks: I don’t think you need blush. Like at all. Perhaps I put too much on, but I literally looked like a clown when I did because my cheeks already have a reddish flush to them as it is. I’ll stick to highlighters and bronzers, I think, lol.

Whatever you do decide, though, I would recommend if you are new to it or are using a new product that you try it out a week or so in advance! You want to feel confident and at ease when you’re getting your pictures, so don’t feel like you have to force a certain look if it’s not yours or become this whole new reinvented person.

Words of Advice on Stress

Before I show you a sample of how my actual photos turned out, there’s one last thing I want to cover on preparation. Now that we’ve considered all the logistics, you have to consider the mental aspects. Maybe to some this may seem kind of silly, but I definitely think I need to say something in regards to not getting anxious about the pictures. Unfortunately, we live in such a digital age that, especially for younger people, the “stress” or pressure to look amazing in photos or post all these spectacular and envy-inducing pictures can feel debilitating. That’s not what they’re about, regardless of the type of photoshoot you are having. I remember before my shoot, I had read this blog post by a blogger whose photography I adore, and it was about her engagement photos. At the end of her post, she had a really nice bit where she came out and said that when it comes to the shoot, to just enjoy it and not worry about how perfect the photos are or how they’ll look on social media. I needed that reminder.

As a perfectionist, it was too easy for me to get so stressed about this shoot, fun as I knew it would be. I would be lying if I said there wasn’t (and still isn’t) a part of me that wanted to have the best of the best photos and be able to show them off online and compare them to other people’s and what not. I’ll just be honest about that; it’s kind of the world social media has created, but I’m working hard and praying to God to destroy that mindset. My pictures are special because they’re mine, just as yours are special because they’re yours. I’m so thankful to God He worked this all out for me, but I know He didn’t do that so I could show off or feel bad about my photos in comparison to someone else’s or whatever, and that’s not my intent in showing you my pictures.

Find your identity in Christ and let Him shine through you. When it comes to beauty, to fashion, to getting nice pictures, really it all ties back to Him. It’s not sinful to partake in any one of those things, but when we live in such a self-centered world where the sole focus of those things becomes about satiating one’s own ego/esteem or trying to get attention, you’ll be playing a game you’ll never win. Let Him take care of your life, including your desires for approval, attention, etc. The world is fickle and digitally saturated with everyone trying to play these comparison games; don’t let your worth come from that. Otherwise, we’re all just reaching for these grasps of fleeting pleasure and just as insecure as the person we’re comparing ourselves to. Believe me, I play this game all the time, and I wish I didn’t. I wish it wasn’t so hard to just stop. But there’s where focusing on Him is crucial. I was so stressed leading up to my pictures about looking good, and then I got stressed about feeling stress, because stress itself can cause skin flare-ups and what not. The moral of the story truly is to just trust God. Have expectations and dreams, but don’t let your world revolve around their outcomes. You will live such a happier and more fulfilling life when you just make Him your everything and don’t place your life in such temporary and shallow things.

Just enjoy life! Enjoy what He’s given you! I tried not to have such rigid ideas of what I wanted my pictures to turn out like. I knew they were going to be in Des Moines, I had planned some nice outfits, and I trusted my photographer. I tried to just go with the flow on the rest. I can honestly say they turned out better than expected. Justin knew so many cool places and had great ideas, and I’m very happy with the photos and thank God for them.

Results

Justin was also so good about knowing what outfits I should wear and what locations he would pair with them. Here’s a photo of me in each of my six outfits:

We did incorporate some nature elements in the shoot. Just a little 🙂

See, now that is the background I came for.

There was a storm coming in that night we had just finished shooting before, but this was when the wind really came up… I wish my hair would’ve cooperated a little bit more, but I still like this shot anyways!

I hope these tips and advice are helpful for you in planning or preparing for a photoshoot! I would love to hear your experiences about getting your senior pictures done or any other type of photos. Thanks for reading! xoxo Ashlee