Seattle senior portrait session at the Washington Park Arboretum

Last week I got a phone call about a senior photo session.  This time of the year that is certainly not unusual, but the circumstances of this request was a bit different.  The callers name was Stephanie, and she was currently visiting relatives in the Seattle area and wanted to have her senior photos taken while she was here.  She had done some web searches for local senior photographers, and had liked what she found on my website.  Stephanie is from Fort Bragg in California, which is located along the coast about 180 miles north of San Francisco.  Stephanie wanted to have senior photos that looked different than those of her classmates.  She told me that nearly everyone there has their senior portraits taken at the beach or in a studio, and wanted to know what I could suggest that would give her something that none of her friends would have.  We talked for awhile about different options, such as Pike Place Market, the Seattle waterfront, Seattle center and various parks.  When I mentioned that I had done several other sessions recently at the U of Washington  Arboretum and that the fall colors were quite good at that time, she opted to go there.  She told me that they just didn’t get fall colors where she lived, and that this should give her just the look she was after.

We met at the Arboretum visitor center the next day in the late afternoon.  Stephanie was accompanied by her mom and dad, neither of whom had ever been to the Arboretum and who wanted to see the park.  Because it was a Wednesday, the number of visitors to the park was fairly low so we did not have to deal with too many unintentional photo-bombers.  The weather was nice and sunny if a bit cool, and we spent about an hour walking the trails and looking for good backdrops that would give us some nice fall colors for Stephanie’s photos.  Here are a few of the photos from the session, I hope you enjoy them!