I had professional photos taken today and here’s how they turned out!

Today I’m sharing some photos from a shoot that I had on Saturday.

A while back I shared with you a logo design for my friend’s photography endeavor, Lumberjack Studios. I don’t typically do pro-bono or trade work, but I’d been admiring his photos and thought it would be fun to do a shoot with him when he came home to visit from NYC. It was an entertaining afternoon, particularly given the condition of the chosen outdoor trails in the middle of December.

We decided to shoot outdoors because my friend didn’t cart his lighting gear to Iowa (can’t blame him), so I took him to one of my favorite outdoor locations: McFarland Park. It’s always quiet at McFarland Park, and there are a ton of trails to explore. I go there frequently, even in the winter, so it seemed a fitting location.

We hiked around, chatted about life, reminisced about old times, fell a couple of times, and then took some pictures. It was a swell afternoon; we got some great shots, and I was a bit disappointed my friend couldn’t stay and do lunch after.

It is a completely different experience for me to be in front of the camera. I’m usually behind the camera, not taking the photos, but art directing. You can’t exactly art direct yourself, so I was glad that my friend is an expert at art direction. I didn’t have to worry about stray hairs in my eyes, weird folds of fabric, or any of that jazz during the shoot.

Here are some of my favorite shots. I’m interested in seeing which ones he picks to edit. I did some minimal editing on these (mostly for color balance) as they were pretty perfect as shot.

Some of my favorites from the session were what would typically be seen as outtakes. Since I’m not looking to use these photos for professional advancement, I can enjoy these quirky pictures.

Mark suggested that I looked like I was waiting for Jordan Catalano in this picture.

Saturday in Iowa was quite warm at 40°, so I ended up taking off my scarf and sweater because they were getting stuck in the weeds in the field, and the change in clothing added some variety to the shoot. I hadn’t planned to take off my sweater, so my bra of choice didn’t quite match the dress. However, stripes and polka dots mixed pretty much sum up my fashion sense, so it worked.

This one’s my favorite. I’m pretty sure this was taken right after my friend fell on his ass … because I’m a horrible person. 

If only I was a country music star. Not.

This last shot was my friend’s way of making me feel uncomfortable right off the bat. Before we started the session, I jokingly remarked that I wasn’t going to do any of those awkward tree senior picture photos. So, naturally, he made me pose by a tree. The pose is my own signature awkwardly not-so-seductive pose that I do on just about every inanimate object that I’ve found appropriate to molest on film. But my friend liked my eyes in this so much that he kept telling me to do “awkward tree eyes” for the remainder of my time in front of the camera.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the photo shoot, and was glad to spend my Saturday tromping around the woods with an old friend.

Have you ever had professional photos shot? Were you / would you be comfortable in front of a camera?