Christopher | Fluvanna County High School – Class of 2016

I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring! After all of the crazy ups and downs we’ve had with the weather, I’m so glad that it’s actually beginning to feel like spring! My senior portrait sessions are starting up soon but before they do, I’m hoping to get caught up with posting some of my fall senior portraits! Yes, I know it’s a little late but better late than never! 🙂

Today I’m happy to share the session I had with Christopher, one of my senior reps from Fluvanna County High School in Palmyra, Virginia.

I’ve known Christopher’s family for about 15-16 years! Our boys played soccer together back when they were 5 or 6 years old…and he even played soccer at FCHS with them. It’s been so great watching the boys grow up over the years and I even took Christopher’s twin brother’s senior portraits back in 2012!

When I began looking for senior reps for the class of 2016, I was happy to see that Christopher had applied.  There was no question that he was going to be on my rep team!

For our very first session, we started out with the traditional yearbook photo then took a few casual shots. You can check out that session here if you’re interested. Maybe it’s just the haircut but I feel like he looks so much older from July to November…way more than just the four months that had passed!

We spent his session in downtown Palmyra. It always cracks me up to say “downtown” Palmyra. In some cities the downtown area is a collection of buildings and has typical bustle of city life. In Fluvanna County though, the downtown area is a tiny little area that consists of some houses, one or two business and the courthouse. Unless there is a parade or function of some kind, it’s almost always super quiet. I’m not complaining though, I love this place. For such a tiny area, it offers a ton of variety!

We had the session in October and the leaves were absolutely beautiful! Everywhere I turned, there was gorgeous fall foliage…I loved it!

Speaking of love, how adorable are Chris and his girlfriend Lindsay? 🙂 I’ll be taking Lindsay’s senior portraits in a few weeks and I can’t wait!

At the very end of the session, we moved over to the Courthouse to try to add tiny bit of an urban feel to the session. No graffiti unfortunately but I still took advantage of the brickwork and steel door!

Thanks for a wonderful afternoon Christopher and Diane! I’ve loved working with you guys over the years and look forward to your upcoming soccer sessions. I can’t believe the school year is almost over…as is my time photographing your boys!!

CLASS of 2016 – Have you scheduled your cap & gown photo yet? For more info click here or contact me! | 434.906.0418 | photos@alijohnson.com

Ali Johnson is a portrait photographer specializing in senior portrait photography in Charlottesville, Crozet, Keswick, Albemarle and Fluvanna County VA

Sarah | Fluvanna County High School – 2016

I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year! I really enjoyed my Christmas vacation with my family but now it’s time to get back to updating my senior portrait blog posts. This has been my busiest fall ever and I am honored that so many people in the Charlottesville area have chosen me as their senior portrait photographer!

Tonight on my blog we have Sarah, one my amazing senior reps for Fluvanna County High School’s Class of 2016. I’ve photographed her quite a few times before (if you haven’t seen her gold color inspired session or her snow ballet session, you need to check them out!) but this was my first time having an outdoor session with just Sarah as the subject!

Though most of my senior portrait sessions take place in Charlottesville and Fluvanna County, I am always open to trying out new locations! When Sarah suggested we have her session at Maymont in Richmond, Virginia, I was beyond excited!

I hadn’t been to Maymont in years (and that time we mostly stayed in the farm area) so I wasn’t sure to expect. Holy cow, that place is so beautiful…and huge!! I could probably have five or six different sessions there and they’d never look the same!

We started out in the Italian Garden where I was super happy (and surprised) to find many flowers still blooming. Since it was October, I wasn’t sure what to expect but they even had some roses bushes with blooms on them!

I fell in love with the columns and all of the stone work. I probably could have spent hours in just this one location!

Sarah changed her outfit (Thank goodness I had my pop-up changing room with me. It was a long walk back to the bathrooms!) and we continued on with the session. Sarah is such a joy to photograph! No matter where I placed her or how I asked her to pose, smiling or serious, she totally nailed it and looked absolutely beautiful!

Um and speaking of beautiful? Sarah, you are killing me with your gorgeous eyes!! Seriously, you should always wear blue!

I absolutely love my lights and use them at every single session. This was one of the few times that I almost I wished I was a natural light photographer. Beautiful as the area is, there were tons of stairs and no ramps! Super big thanks to Sarah, Cheryl ( her mom) and Erin (her sister and former AJP assistant and rep) for helping me carry all my stuff up and down the stairs!

After walking down what seemed like a million stairs, we were down at the Japanese Gardens. Here it finally looked like fall!

This place was amazing! I was super impressed with how different this garden was from the Italian one. Even though it was fairly crowded, it still had such a tranquil feel to it. Okay, back to Sarah’s eyes. Am I crazy or are they the same exact color as the sky in this photo?

There weren’t any flowers down here and some of the trees had incredible fall foliage on them. It was like we had traveled to another place, not just walked down a bunch of stairs!

Time really flew by and before we knew it, the park was almost ready to close! We rushed over to this amazing bridge so we could get a few shots before closing time. We probably made quite the spectacle of ourselves! Erin & Cheryl were holding my light up as high as they could while I was balancing on a rock at the edge of the water. It’s incredible that no one fell in…especially my light!

It was so worth it though! Sarah, between the bridge, the waterfall and your gorgeous self, this is one of my favorite photos from the session!

Thank you so much for a fabulous afternoon Sarah, Erin & Cheryl! As always, I had so much fun with you guys and it was extra wonderful to get to see you again Erin! I’ve really enjoyed having you as one of my 2016 reps Sarah and I look forward to your next session!

CLASS of 2017 – Have you applied to be an AJP spokesmodel yet? If you’re interested, find out more information here.

CLASS of 2016 – Though I do have a few winter openings available both in the studio and outdoors, if you’d prefer a spring session it’s never too early to get on my calendar. Contact me today to schedule your session! | 434.906.0418 | photos@alijohnson.com

 

Ali Johnson is a portrait photographer specializing in senior portraits in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Louisa and Fluvanna County VA

Brianna | Fluvanna County High School – 2016

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  I loved spending time with my family but now it’s time to get back to updating my senior portrait blog posts! This has been my busiest fall ever and I am honored that so many people in the Charlottesville area have chosen me as their senior portrait photographer!

Tonight on my blog we have Brianna, one my awesome senior reps for Fluvanna County High School’s Class of 2016. I photographed her back in March with the rest of my 2016 reps and then again in June when I took her yearbook photo but this was my first time having a session with just Bri!

I’m not sure if you guys remember but back in September, we had a ton of rain. I mean a TON…it seemed like it rained forever!! For photographers that schedule sessions every weekend, this can be a total pain! Thankfully I have a studio that I can use as a back-up plan.

Though I’m very happy to have my studio as an option, I was a little bummed that I couldn’t photo Brianna outside. That quickly changed though when I saw all of the wonderful outfits she’d brought with her! She was crowned Miss Fluvanna 2014 and has so many beautiful prom/pageant dresses..I was in heaven!

We started out with a casual outfit but then decided to have the rest of the outfits be about glamour and drama!

Seniors often ask me what they should wear for their session and my number one answer is layers!  This is  a perfect example of why…all it took was a quick removal of her denim shirt and we had a different look for Bri!

We upped the glam level with her next outfit by adding in some pearls and sparkly shoes. Bri can totally rock the serious model stare but you can see that she couldn’t hide her true bubbly personality for very long! SO adorable!!

Then it was time for full on elegance with the rest of Briana’s outfits. As she changed into her first gown, I changed up my lighting to have more of a dramatic feeling. Brianna, you are absolutely gorgeous!!

Another thing I love about studio sessions, is that we get a change to play around with my style closet. I had Bri try on a sequined mini-dress that I had. She looked incredible in it, but wanted the photos to have more of an elegant feel to them. We took some black sequined fabric I had, wrapped it around her waist and ended up with an amazing impromptu long dress!  She looked so regal and powerful in it, I had to take one with her Miss Fluvanna crown!

A quick background change as she changed into another fabulous outfit. I love this color on you Brianna and the texture in the dress is fantastic!  🙂

We ended up the session with? You guessed it…another incredible gown! This time though we changed it up a bit. Brianna is an amazing athlete so we wanted to give a quick nod to the sports she plays: softball, basketball and volleyball. Smart, beautiful and athletic? She’s a triple threat! 🙂

When Brianna applied to be one of my senior reps last year, she wrote in her application “I enjoy doing things in our community and helping others. My passion is for children that have had to endure cancer. I lost my very best friend at 13 from cancer and I wish to make a positive impact one day in fighting that dreadful disease.” That really touched me and I thought that this was a very sweet way for her to pay a tribute to the friend she lost.  Brianna recently passed the Virginia state board test and became a registered CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant). I know her family is super proud of her and all the amazing ways she’ll be helping people!

Thank you so much for a fabulous afternoon Brianna and Pam (Bri’s wonderful mother)! I had the BEST time with you guys and look forward to both your color inspired session and the outdoor part of your session this spring.

CLASS of 2017 – Have you applied to be an AJP spokesmodel yet? If you’re interested, find out more information here. 

CLASS of 2016 – Though I do have a few winter openings available both in the studio and outdoors, if you’d prefer a spring session it’s never too early to get on my calendar. Contact me today to schedule your session! | 434.906.0418 | photos@alijohnson.com

Ali Johnson is a portrait photographer specializing in senior portraits in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Louisa and Fluvanna County VA