Ah, Alexis and Isabel. These ladies are two peas in a pod, having been friends since 3rd grade after meeting through a mutual friend. They currently both work at Raising Cane’s after both applying the same day, having orientation on the same day, and then Isabel starting one day earlier. (Apparently, Alexis’s title is a bird specialist. TBD on Isabel’s.) So all this to say, naturally, taking their senior photos together was a perfect idea. We spent the evening walking, talking, and giggling our way through their senior photos. 

Meet Elizabeth, a class of 2023 senior for East Ridge High School who is currently doing her first year of college thanks to PSEO at the University of Minnesota. We met on a beautiful fall evening with the best weather we could ask for for her senior portraits in Cottage Grove, taking our time to visit two of the parks in the area. As we walked along we talked about some of the aspects of her life – how her parents both work for 3M which gave them the opportunity in the past to live abroad in Dubai, how they loved specifically traveling to Greece for the beautiful food and culture, how she is looking at going into biology with an interest in potentially into forensics, and how she enjoys playing lacrosse.

​Meet Garrett, a Woodbury High School senior. We got to enjoy an amazing night for his fall senior photos and as we walked along in Hastings taking his senior photos, I can tell you that Garrett is very much so an outdoors man. He enjoys trap shooting, but particularly enjoys fishing in his free time. His favorite fish? Northern pike. His favorite place to fish? Forrest Lake. When he is not free, Garrett is in school studying to be a diesel mechanic.
 
Garrett have an awesome senior year! Thanks to you and your mom for making it such a fun senior shoot!

This girl is working hard to take on the world. Meet Anita, a Park High School senior who is busy in student council, National Honor Society, yearbook, random acts of kindness, working, homecoming preparations, and golf this spring. Just the thought of all that brings me right back to my high school senior year – excitedly taking on the world and doing my hardest to prepare for the future. That’s why I particularly loved how we finished her senior photos outside of Geek Haven Coffee in Hastings with her laptop and planner in hand, because how true it photographs this stage of life – working hard and staying organized with all the things.

C​an I say there’s just something added cool about showing up to a senior photo shoot of someone that you personally know? Like maybe you aren’t super close, but you’ve seen the person and had conversations with them multiple times and, so, when you arrive at their senior portrait session, it just feels a little bit familiar and yet different. Different? In a bad way? Not at all. More like when you watch a butterfly emerge from a cocoon. You blink twice and realize rather suddenly that he or she is no longer that “young kid” anymore, but someone emerging and on the brink of adulthood.