Luke’s Senior Photo Session at Newcastle Golf Club

For Luke’s senior photo session he told his parents that he had one special request – he wanted to take his pictures with a high-end sports car!  Since Luke’s family did not own such a car it meant that they needed to find a way to borrow or rent one.  Borrowing turned out to be a non-starter since they didn’t know anyone who had a car like this.

So Luke’s mom Trina started doing some research to find out if it was possible to rent a sports car for a few hours.  She found a high-end car dealer in Bellevue who was willing to rent one of their cars for an afternoon, and even had several different models to choose from.  After thinking about the options Luke finally decided on a Lamborghini; nice choice Luke!

At this point Trina contacted me to ask if I was available to take Luke’s senior photos.  She told me about the car, and asked about possible locations where we could go that would give us both good senior photos as well as give us a chance to show off the Lambo.  After going over possible options for a couple of days we finally decided on Newcastle Golf Club, which because of it’s location high on a hilltop offers some of the best views in the Seattle area, and should give spectacular backdrops for the photos.

Working with the Lamborghini

Because the photo session was taking place in February the weather was a big concern.  No fun to rent a fancy car and then have it be too wet to take good photos!  We watched the forecast and decided on what looked like should be a good day and then kept our fingers crossed while we waited.  As it turned out, the weather on our chosen date was pretty classic Seattle winter weather; cloudy and cool, but no rain.

I got to Newcastle early so I could scope out a good spot for our photos.  I wanted good views but without being surrounded by other cars.  I’ve done lots of other photo sessions and weddings at Newcastle and know the area very well, but the car threw in a twist that changed where we could take the photos.  After looking around a bit I decided that the side of the road just before reaching the parking lot looked like a good option, so I waited there for Luke and Trina to arrive.

Luke arrived first with his father Jim, followed by Trina in the Lamborghini a few minutes later.  Because Luke was only 17 he could not legally drive the rented car – what a bummer!  Since the Lambo only seated two this meant that a second car was needed for the whole family to be there.

We got the car set up in the spot I had found and started on the photos.  Luke is a big guy, about 6-6, and the Lambo is a very low car, so when Luke stood up straight the car looked very close to the ground.  For Luke to lean on the top of the car he almost had to squat to get his body low enough.  You’ll see in some of the pictures how he had to scrunch himself a bit so that he didn’t appear to overwhelm the car.

Clothes to match the car!

Luke brought a couple of changes of clothes along for the session.  The car was bright orange, and one of Luke’s outfits was black pants, shirt and jacket with an orange tie and pocket handkerchief.  The combination worked great with the orange Lambo, and gave us some of my favorite photos from the session.