What's up in the world of Steely Joe

adventures in photography and other stuff


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NWA Senior Portrait Photographer – Jessie’s cool country session

Wow – can you believe graduation is only a few months away? For those of you who were holding out for a spring senior portrait session – now is the time! When the rain finally dries up here in Northwest Arkansas, it is going to be a beautiful spring. I decided to save doing a blog post on this session till the spring portrait season to schedule a session for your grad before it’s too late.

Jessie was so much fun to work with (and yes, I would think that even if she wasn’t my cousin), and we took the opportunity to shoot her senior portraits after the annual family golf tournament. Don’t ask how I did – it isn’t worth talking about – hehe! Jessie, on the other hand is a gifted golfer who has been making her high school proud as a member of the golf team. The family golf tournament was held in Antlers; a small town in rural Southeastern Oklahoma. We came in from Fayetteville and Jessie drove from Dallas, so a little scouting was in order to find some cool locations. Luckily, my dad grew up in Antlers and had some good tips on where we might look. We found some fabulous locations and had a blast doing these portraits, even though it kind of makes me feel old that my little cousin is graduating high school!

The "downtown" area of Antlers (and I use that term loosely) had some great older buildings that made wonderful backgrounds. The only problem was getting the local guys to quit driving around the block whistling and hooting!

The town also has a historic depot with an old train parked next to it. Too bad we didn't have some cute vintage luggage to use as props - that would have been even cooler.

I tried my hand at a few Banners for Facebook Timeline using images from this session. Although I am not a fan of how the Timeline is laid out, it is fun to have that big space at the top for images. Here are the results:

I put this Facebook banner together with some of the fun senior portraits we did on the train tracks using off-camera flash. What a great look!

Jessie may be from the big city of Dallas, but she is a country girl at heart. We used an old pickup parked next door to my grandma's house for these shots. It was practically buried in pine needles, and the licence plate in front said "Jim's Jem" - it doesn't get more country than that 😉

This old roofless building was so crazy cool, I want to pick it up and drop it somewhere in Northwest Arkansas! It was graffiti and vine-covered and had all these great door and window openings. I love the way these turned out!

To end the session we went down to the river for some sun flare and in-the-water pictures as the sun was sinking. Wow - can you say supermodel!? LOVE the image on the right.

Like I said earlier we had tons of fun doing these images. Jessie – you are a beautiful lady inside and out, and we wish you all the best as you start your college adventures! Thanks for letting us be a part of your senior year experience. 🙂


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NWA Senior Portrait Photography – Katie Class of 2012

I had the pleasure of meeting Katie when I photographed her dad’s wedding to one of my cousins earlier this year. Right away we decided it would be great to do senior portraits together. She wanted something fun and unique, which of course I love to do. Katie is a country girl, and also loves fashion, so we shot with several different backgrounds in the studio, then headed down to Dixon Street in Fayetteville.  After a quick stop at the Greek Theater on the U of A campus, we headed out to a rural swimming hole to do some in-the-water portraits. We had so much fun hanging out! The images below are some of my favorite page designs from her brag book.

Studio portraits

I love the glamorous look of these portraits using sheer curtains!

Country girl!

Portraits near Dixon Street.

The Greek Theatre was a fun place to take pictures, and her outfit was perfect for this location!

Swimming hole portraits near West Fork. I have the inset picture hanging in the studio 🙂

senior portraits at a swimming hole

Even in the middle of a drought, this spring-fed swimming hole is deep enough to jump into. Katie just couldn't resist, so at the end of the shoot she took the plunge!

Wouldn’t you love to have this much fun getting your senior portraits done? See our website for galleries and rates for your own awesome senior portraits!