Senior year is a whirlwind. Seniors are the guests of honor at more events than they can count. Seniors don’t just play high school sports; they are team captains. The college application process can be like adding a part time job. Big decisions abound. Which school? What major? Seniors are busy.

When families ask me about the best time to shoot senior portraits, I always say that sooner is better than later. Sooner ensures that you actually get senior portraits - that they don’t get squeezed out by the other demands of senior year. Sometimes, however, there are valid reasons to wait. Maybe your dream senior portrait shoot has you wearing a sweatshirt for your future college - after you receive the good news that you got in! Yeah, that’s a good reason to wait.

Personally, my favorite time of year for Orlando senior photos is winter. January and February have beautiful mild temperatures and little rain. Some of my favorite locations are less crowded after the holidays than they were in the fall. And by shooting in January and February, you are guaranteed to get all your products back in time for your graduation celebrations.

However, in Central Florida, we have beautiful weather year round, so it’s never too late to celebrate this milestone with artistic images that tell your story. Katie was my final Class of 2021 client last year, and she shot her senior portraits right before her high school graduation. I was afraid we wouldn’t get her photos back in time, but Katie’s family assured me that they weren’t worried about getting the images before graduation. They were investing in these photos for a lifetime. So we got to work planning a photo session that would capture both Katie’s interests and her sense of style as she finished her high school years and prepared to move to college in Colorado.

Katie studied ballet for years, and on the day we shot her portraits, she brought her well-loved toe shoes. Katie wore a great dress for the first part of her session, and just slipping on her toe shoes for a few shots allowed us to capture artistic images that were some of my favorites of the day.