Colorful Hometown Senior Photoshoot with Chelsea
Wapsi State Park | Stone City | Anamosa High School
Chelsea was one of my FIRST seniors to book this year! We chatted wayyy back on one snowy day and when we met for our consultation in June, I learned that the two things she wanted for her senior session were: 1. golden light and 2. to use the areas around her hometown that she grew up in, because they were really special to her and her family. I LOVED the idea and they were places I’d never photographed before - so I was excited! When I sat down to make her schedule for her photoshoot - our timeline was TIGHT! We had a lot we wanted to squeeze in and I wasn’t really sure how accessible each location would be or how it’d photograph so I knew it would take me a little extra time at each new spot. We decided to give it our best shot!
We met at Onyx Salon on photoshoot day for hair with Nicole (she owns the salon) and makeup with one of my makeup artists, Angie. Chelsea’s dad actually brought her while mom got ready at home, prepping for their family picture we had scheduled into the night. (A family picture is one of my bonuses you can choose from for pre-paying for your photos.) I thought that poor dad would have to sit through our girl talk feeling awkward but he used Onyx’s cute screened in porch to get some work done while we got Chelsea ready for her big day! Then it was off to Anamosa!
First stop: downtown Anamosa to explore for a city-look. I had previously Google-mapped out this area and had pinpointed a few cute areas and Chelsea’s mom met up with us and had some ideas too. There’s 2 big murals on one road in downtown Anamosa and everyone does their senior pictures there, I’m told. We opted to do the less popular, bright one and do the soft, original mural instead. Which happened to match Chelsea’s shirt perfectly and I loved that choice!
After I spent wayyy too much time in this area (it was so dang cute and Chelsea was ROCKING her session), we decided we better start looking around for more spots. I spotted a few I had seen on Google Maps and we stopped at those!
And right on the main street were these CUTE pink doors. And Chelsea’s next outfit was a pink dress… we had to do it! So we snapped a few in her pink dress and ran out of time! We didn’t have much time to spare so we headed to our next stop - Chelsea’s house for a quick family photo in front of their gorgeous house!
We only built in 15 minutes for this, which was plenty of time! We changed outfits and left for Wapsi State Park - a MUST visit when you’re in Anamosa and a special location for Chelsea and her family. There were several places we wanted to stop at here - first up, one of the cute bridges. Umm, perfect location with these wildflowers!
We drove up further into the park to our tree location, which turned out better than I expected (the lighting was tricky)!
For our last stop, we change outfits and when we showed up to the tall grassy field, it was beautiful. We were racing the clock and as we walked out there we realized the grass was SOOOOOO tall. Probably the tallest grass I’ve ever trekked through. It was quite comical to watch us, I’m sure! But I’ll do pretty much anything for that perfect lighting. It was WORTH it!! Gosh!!!! Isn’t Chelsea just GORGEOUS?!
This was DEFINITELY the spot that put us behind our time schedule, so we rushed out and met up with her dad to head to Stone City. There are several really cool historic buildings there and the quarry (that we had special permission to use). The lighting at the quarry was AMAZINGLY pretty!
We stopped at the old building that was just at the entrance to the quarry as the sunset. We tried to chase it up to the top of the hill, and caught a few images (I mean, just a few, we probably had 3 minutes of pictures here) and knew we had to be quick to wrap up the night before there was no light left at all. We stopped quickly at the rock/sand pile on our way out because it’s a concept I had always wanted to photograph (so thank you guys for letting me) and then we decided that the gorgeous old church would be our last stop.
The church is a well-known historic landmark in Stone City and incorporating some of the old buildings into her photoshoot was important to Chelsea. I’m so glad they chose to keep this image, because not does Chelsea look perfect, but it really shows off the cool architecture and windows of the church. How cool!
We were ALL ready to wrap up the crazy night! But we had a blast and I hope it was something Chelsea and her family will never forget!
Your calendar likely fills up as fast as mine does and it’s SO easy to forget to schedule photos! If you are graduating in 2023 or 2024 (or a parent of an upcoming graduate) - reach out with any questions or to start planning!! Check out my Senior Gallery or contact me for more info!