My Experience

It is not just tradition; it’s ritual, at my suburban Saint Louis high school to rush out at the beginning of senior year to have your senior portraits taken. Then, you have to order as many wallet size photographs of yourself lying next to a giant 2005, wearing your cheerleading uniform, with your head propped up on your fist, as humanly possible so you can pass them out to all friends, family, and minor acquaintances before graduation rolls around.

As fascinating an experience as that sounds, I decided to have my pictures taken by a friend of a friend, a college student with a budding photography business. This was all I could think about as I read LaBelle’s tutorial and looked through Snider’s photos.

Katie, the photographer, sat down and talked with me before she even took one picture. Nothing formal or planned out, in fact, I didn’t even realize she had done it until now looking back. She was doing her research, being ‘curious’ as LaBelle would say. She knew before taking a picture what I would like and what I wouldn’t, what she could say or do to make me smile.

What surprised me even more about our ‘shoot,’ and what made me think of her when I look at these two photographers, was that instead of posing me on a white sheet, we just walked around the quaint downtown of Webster, Missouri. She told me to just be natural walk around, talk to my mom, who was along for the ride. Of course, she did give me some direction. At times, she would tell me to stop and look at the camera or look over my shoulder and smile, but for the most part it was a completely organic experience.

Yes, Katie declares herself a photographer, but now, after hearing from LaBelle and Snider, I see that her ‘techniques’ were that of both a ‘feature photographer’ and ‘street photographer.’ She hunted for my photos, just as LaBelle says great feature photographers do, and like Snider’s street photography, the real moments she captured were more compelling than any of my other friends’ cheesy ‘hands in the pocket-leaning against a door’ poses.