Janie's Photography Blog

Super fun Seniors, Part II

People LOVED the first part of Super Fun Seniors.  Seriously, at church and at my office people had more things to say about these photos than most of my posts.  And how could they not?  This is a fun-loving, good-looking group of friends with a world wide open to them!  Since my last post about them, something very exciting has happened.  Plant High School won the Florida State Football Championship!!!  And it was for the second year in a row and third time in four years.  Both of the boys, Mark and Bradley, play on the team and Rachel, Ashley and Lande are varsity cheerleaders.  Congratulations to each one of you!  Just another thing to add to their long list of accomplishments.

If you are interested in scheduling a senior session with your friends before graduation, don't hesitate to contact me!

 

Super fun Seniors, Part I

I know that some people have been waiting for me to post the rest of the senior photo session for awhile.  I am sorry.  I have been so busy!  Two more weeks of school and then I get a break!  But, no excuses, right?  Sometimes I shoot myself in the foot by taking way too many photos of my beautiful, fun-loving clients, that I cannot narrow it down to just a few to share.   So, here is Part I of these awesome seniors.  

Again, I have to say, how much more full of life could you be?  These seniors are friends for many reasons, but one awesome bond that they have is Hyde Park Presbyterian Church youth group.  They have grown in their friendships with one another and their relationship with God through hours spent having fun and delving into real-life issues together.  Ashley, Bradley, Kayla, Rachel, Mark and Lande- thank you for such a fun photo shoot.  You guys rock!  I wish you all a wonderful end to your senior year!  Follow your dreams and continue to pursue Christ and you cannot go wrong.

 

A World Wide Open

I love high school students.  They are adventurous, enthusiastic and energetic.  They love to laugh and they love to have fun.

They are full of hopes and dreams for their future.

And they have a world wide open to them.

I had to go with these more artistic shots for the teaser.  They somehow capture the essence of what I see in these "kids."  More to come soon.

Caitlin ~ Senior Photos - Tampa Photographer

I had a blast trotting around Davis Island and Hyde Park with this full-of-life, beautiful young woman!  She graduated from high school last week and has an exciting career of college at UNC Chapel Hill awaiting her.  She made the dance team, which is an astounding accomplishment!  If dancing doesn't work out, she could definitely have a career in modeling, as you can see my camera adored her!  Caitlin, congratulations on all of your accomplishments!  Thanks for doing this photo session with me, I seriously had so much fun!

Caitlin fell in this fountain when she was a little girl, so we decided to do a reenactment of her fall.

Preview...Tampa Senior Photos, Caitlin

This gorgeous girl graduates from high school TOMORROW!!  We had a fun, last minute, senior photo session this week so that her photos could be ready for her graduation party on Saturday.  After Plant's graduation tomorrow, Kenzo and I are headed up to Davidson for our friends' wedding.  Since I will be on the road all weekend and away from my computer, I wanted to go ahead and give you a glimpse of this awesome photo session with Caitlin.  I'll post several more when I get back.  Until then, have a great weekend and enjoy!

Plant, Plant, Plant ~ Tampa Senior Portrait Photographer

Plant! Plant! Plant!

Yesterday Joseph received his Florida State Football Championship ring.  I wish we would have had the ring for some of these shots...but maybe he'll let me sneak in a few more.  Although they've heard it a million times this year: Congratulations Plant Panthers!  They won the states this past year in football and it was a blast to be one of their fans.  Several of the players are going on to play in college including the dynamic quarterback-receiver pair Aaron Murray and Orson Charles who will be heading to UGA.  Joseph's going to be heading south to Florida Gulf Coast University and we really could not be more excited for him.  From what we've heard it sounds like a great place.  Plant High School's Baccalaureate takes place tomorrow and then several grad parties before graduation in a little over a week.  Joseph has decided to "take Wednesdays and Fridays off" for the remainder of school to enjoy hanging out with his friends.  (Yep, it's true.  I heard my dad tell him "no" that he had to go to school, but from what I heard he wasn't there on Wednesday or Friday this past week and opted for tubing instead...that in a nutshell is my little brother).  I hope you enjoy the mix of photos we took together.  I love you Joseph...enjoy these last few days at Plant and congratulations on graduating!

this might be my favorite shot from the entire series!

 

this is truly joseph's comfort zone!  he and his friends spend hours tubing out on tampa bay.  while you'd like to think you could take them on and win...i'd put my money on them (with some exceptions.  joseph, do you remember the video of matt felman from the tubing tournament last year out here on the lake?  i probably wouldn't put my money on him.)

Preview...Joseph's Senior Photos ~ Tampa Senior Portrait Photographer

I seriously might cry posting this "preview" of my youngest brother's senior photo session.  He is so handsome and so "old"!  The majority of people who read my blog actually know him, but for those who do not, you're seriously missing out on one of the funniest and coolest people in the world.  His name is Joseph and he's the youngest of four Gonzalez kids.  He graduates from high school at the end of this month, which is just unbelievable for our family, as he is our baby (Jeff was the third one of us to graduate from high school and that was was back in '04.)  Congratulations Joseph!  We are all so proud of you!  More to come later this week, but I wanted to get these two shots up here tonight.  The top one literally makes me smile just looking at it and the bottom one just seems kind of cool with the sun shining in the way that it is.

gorgeous girl ~ Tampa Senior Photos

I remember being in elementary school and getting to watch sweet, adorable Rachel on Sunday mornings in our church's nursery.  While she is certainly still sweet and adorable, she has definitely grown up!  As you can see she's a gorgeous, full-of-life, joyful-hearted young woman.  We had such an awesome afternoon catching up on life as we photographed our way across the Channelside District in downtown Tampa.  I'm amazed by high school students like Rachel who are not only beautiful, but smart, driven, caring and passionate about life, friends, family, and future dreams.  I had the pleasure of getting to spend a week with Rachel in Bolivia during the summer of 2007 and loved seeing her heart touched by the boys we spent time with in the Bolivia Life Center Orphanage.  While Rachel is not yet a senior, she allowed me to "practice" a senior photo shoot.  Rachel- thank you so much for hanging out with me and for being such a beautiful model!  Can't wait to hang out with you again soon!  

PS...This photo shoot was inspired by my incredibly talented friend, Sharon Clark.  She's a North Carolina life-photographer who's committed to capturing the fresh, fun and real moments in people's lives.  I LOVE how she offers high school seniors the opportunity to have beautiful, self-characteristic senior portraits as opposed to the formal, boring, in-door photos they have to take for their year books.  Although Rachel is only a junior, this was just a fun experiment to see how they'd turn out and how I enjoyed the experience...over-all I'd have to say A-W-E-S-O-M-E.  (PS...Kenzo and my claim to fame is that we were Sharon's first wedding.  If you have a second, you should really check out how her portfolio has grown...she's inspiring!)

i LOVE rachel's smile in this photo.  she was laughing at herself after i told her to give me some model faces.  p-e-r-f-e-c-t!

i also love this photo of her...laughing at me because the wind at the top of the bridge made my wrap-around dress fly open and flash all of the patrons at jackson's.  she thought it was hilarious and once i realized i was missing the moment by trying to fix my dress; i quickly picked up the camera and snapped a few of her - still laughing her head off.

i love, love, love the playfulness of the next few shots:

 

okay...turn on "model mode" . . .

um, wow!

thanks again rachel.  you are such a beautiful, amazing girl!