Collaborating with local boutiques is a great way to create a fun model experience for your senior spokesmodels.

In the session below, Allison Van Zanten of Allison Van Zanten Photography in Gresham, Oregon collaborated with five of her 2016 Senior Spokesmodels to model prom dresses, jewelry and shoes for a local boutique, Glass Butterfly, for a “Winter Holiday” inspired session.

Check out this fun session below and read what Allison had to say about it.  Thanks for sharing your work with Seniorologie.

Website:  www.allisonvanzantenphotography.com

Blog:  www.allisonvanzantenblog.com

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/allisonanzantenphotography

What was your inspiration for this photo shoot?

Portraying a winter holiday spirit while modeling prom dresses and “cozy clothing” for a local women and juniors boutique, Glass Butterfly.

For the prom dresses, I was inspired by a backlit shot of Taylor Swift on the cover of Cosmopolitan UK December 2014, as well as Elsa from Frozen. I wanted to portray an elegant “ice princess” look with the backlit snow and whimsical dresses. For the comfort clothing we tried to achieve the feel of lounging with friends during the winter holiday season with a cup of hot chocolate and snuggly socks, scarves and sweaters. We also collaborated with a local coffee shop, Cafe Delirium, to feature their mugs in the session as well.

Where did this photo shoot take place?

Buck East Studio in Portland, Oregon

Did you collaborate with this senior to come up with the clothing and/or concept for this shoot?

One of the senior models for this session assisted in picking out clothing and accessories at the boutique.

I also collaborated with Hair and Makeup artists Shannon Bolt and Amanda Fortin for all of the models’ hair and makeup as well a couple of photography assistants who helped with the styling of the scenes on the day of the shoot.

What camera, lens or other equipment was used for this shoot?

Canon 5D Mark III, the 85mm 1.2, 50mm 1.2, Reflectors, occasionally 580EXii flash bounced off a reflector.

What time of day were these taken?

1-4:30pm

Can you share any post-processing techniques used when editing this session?

Lightroom, imagenomic, and some light touchup in photoshop with a couple photoshop actions by Alex Beadon

What is your favorite thing about this session?

Spending time with some of our 2016 Senior models! Collaborating with my assistants, hair and makeup artists and the senior models to create such a fun winter holiday stylized session while modeling beautiful clothing! Everyone on the shoot had a fabulous time and I can’t wait until our next group session modeling this year’s upcoming Glass Butterfly prom dresses in March!

What do you want this session to convey about this senior and about your senior photography style?

We love having a ball with our seniors at Allison Van Zanten Photography and whether they are modeling casual cozy clothing or fancy prom dresses they all exude an incredible inner beauty that shines through in their pictures!

What is one tip you can share with other photographers regarding photographing seniors?

Have a fun time and get to know each senior at their sessions- they are each uniquely beautiful people and it is such a privilege to be able to capture this time in their lives!