Senior Photography Archives

Anna’s Senior Portrait Session: Santa Ana Art District

You may be asking yourself, what is a senior portrait session all about, and how is it different that plain old school portraits?

Unlike a traditional senior session where you get one image of your kid smiling at the camera, we want to tell a story with an entire collection of images that is personalized to your son or daughter.

Why should you spend the time to do a custom senior portrait session?

There are a handful of events growing up that are milestones and will be remembered for a lifetime. Birth, starting to walk and talk, starting school, turning 16 and graduating from High School. Graduation marks the end of childhood and the beginning of a new journey. As parents, this time is bittersweet. We have done our job and raised our kids to go out into the world and start their own personal journey. But it is a little sad knowing that we will no longer see our kids everyday. High school senior portraits help commemorate who your kids are, where your kids have been and where they are going.

The best senior portraits start with the following:

Getting to know your senior and their style. The images I take should be a reflection of their personalities and capture what makes your senior unique.
Helping you select the best Orange County photography location to represent that style. Urban, Organic, coastal, rustic, etc.
My team will help you put together 3-4 outfits that will look amazing whichever Orange County portrait location you choose.
For the gals- we finish off with professional hair and makeup, that is natural and looks great in photographs.
For the guys, we will help with grooming, and styling so all of the images look natural.
At the session, I will give posing direction so that all the images look relaxed and candid and show your senior having fun.
Finally, we invite your family back to our studio 10 days after the session, to have a custom reveal session of all of the images. We will help you design a custom album, an image box or art for your wall.

Here is Anna’s senior session in the art district in Santa Ana. Congratulations Anna on being a Husky next year! Go University of Washington!

I hope you enjoyed the beautiful downtown art district Santa Ana senior pic session featuring Anna. Contact Blue Sky’s studio for more information on pricing and availability. I would love to show you my Laguna Beach photography studio and show you our custom designed albums, reveal boxes and canvas and metal wall art. Be sure to check out my blog to see more senior sessions.

Also be sure to follow our Facebook and Instagram for updates on the latest Blue Sky’s Studio.

To book a session, click on the button bellow.

Senior Photography

Giveaway time for Senior Pics

Giveaway Time: OC Senior Pics

Celebrate your senior year with amazing High School Senior pictures, at absolutely no cost to you! It is giveaway time! Each year at Blue Sky’s Studio, we plan a fun, creative styled photography session focused on that year’s graduating class. For the class of 2020, we are looking to do both senior pics for guys and senior pics for girls at the fabulous Japanese Gardens in Long Beach.

For our High school senior picture giveaway you will get:

A fully styled senior session with at least three different outfit changes during your session
For the Gals: professional makeup and hair styling services
For the guys, help with grooming and wardrobe
10 custom 8×10 mats with your favorite images from the session
A custom produced slideshow of the session

Total Value of the giveaway: $2299.00

We are giving away 3 senior pics for girls sessions and 2 senior pics for guys sessions. All entries must be received by February 10th.

To enter to win a session, just click here to fill out the entry form.

Here are some of our favorite images from last year’s session:

At the Beach, At the Park, Blue Sky's Promotions, Family Photography, Senior Photography

The Five best spots to photograph around Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach has the very best spots for unique family and senior photography. Since I not only work in Laguna Beach, but also live in the downtown area, I am always keeping my eyes open for the most unique spots to photograph high school seniors and families. Here are just a few of my favorite spots in the downtown area to get amazing, unique shots of your senior or family. And if you book and shoot before the end of September, you will receive 50% off of the session fee.

Heisler Park/ Picnic Beach Area

From beautiful vistas, to unique art pieces, to garden spots and yes even a sandy beach, if you are looking for a lot of variety in your portrait session, Heisler Park is my top choice. Check out a few of my favorite recent images shot in this location.

Downtown Laguna Beach

In just a three or four block area, there are so many great backdrop choices in downtown Laguna Beach. Some of my favorite spots include the red phone booth, the alley behind the Presbyterian Church, the area around the library, the flower stand on Forest Avenue and the rose garden on Forest.

Laguna Beach Neighborhoods

Around the Laguna Beach High School area is a perfect location to shoot a senior portrait session or even a family session. There are some really cool green areas, lots of trees, two small parks and lots of hardscaping with texture and character. Even more important to me and my clients, there is a lot of parking. Here are some of my favorite spots in the neighborhoods surrounding Laguna Beach High School.

Main Beach Laguna Beach

Try to avoid main beach on the weekends, but during the week, especially in the Fall, this is an amazing backdrop for a session. You have the iconic Lifeguard tower, the fun boardwalk, the rocks at the north end of the beach and the open sandy views of the south end of the beach.

Portrait by Brianna Caster and Co of my kids

Alta Laguna Beach and Laguna Canyon Areas

For a more organic background, Laguna Beach has Alta Laguna Park and the open canyon space. This year, with the super bloom, we have been so fortunate to not only get tall grass and open fields, but lots and lots of yellow flowers. Here are just a few examples of the variety of locations in the canyon and at Alta Laguna Park.

Now is the perfect time to book your session. We are office 50% off of the session fee in September as our early bird special. To book your session or to get more information, click here.

Blue Sky's Promotions, In a field, Senior Photography

Orange County Family Photographer: The Super Bloom

As an Orange County Family Photographer, my focus is always on documenting local families throughout the years. That means, often I start photographing a family when their children are young, and then continue the sessions all the way through their high school senior portraits. Sometimes this even includes their kid’s weddings!

This is such a magical part of being a photographer. I love people and creating connections and long term bonds with them. There is nothing better to me than having a Mom cry over the beautiful portraits of their high school senior, Or Dad laughing at a silly face their young child always makes.

Recently, I have fallen in love with moving portraits of my clients. These are small snippets of video that help more completely tell the story of the family as it changes and the kids grow over the years. I only regret that I didn’t think of this sooner (with the help of my videographer Rebekah Pantel), so I could have had these videos for my kids as they grew up.

There is no better place to do one of these session than in the open fields of Laguna Beach, San Juan Capistrano or Upper Newport Back Bay. The yellow mustard is gorgeous and the soft water in the background makes the images really dreamy. All of the rain this year has lead to the “super Bloom” with flowers we may not see again for another 10 years.

This month, anyone that books a portrait session with Blue Sky’s Studio will have a videographer at their session to help tell their complete family/ senior portrait story. This is a $99 value is free if you book by May 30.

Here is a sample of a moving portrait video of the gorgeous Sofie Salvino!

And more favorite still images from the session!

To book your session or inquire about one, and include a videographer, click here or email me at kristin@blueskysstudio.com.

Fashion, Senior Photography

High School Senior Photography: Styling Chloe’s session

Most of you probably know about our annual high school senior photography styled session giveaway. We pile Blue Sky’s team, including Brittany Norton for hair and makeup, Rebecca Pantel for video and Lily Fassnacht for styling and second shooting into a van with the senior portrait winners. Then head out to a destination that we think will make a unique backdrop for a senior photography session. Some recent locations include downtown LA art district, Balboa Park in San Diego and this year Salvation Mountain in Joshua Tree.

High school senior portrait at Salvation Mountain

When I put together the inspiration boards for the 2019 Styled senior session giveaway, I envision a magazine editorial. I want all of the clothing, hair and makeup and styling for the session to compliment the location. As you can see from this image, Salvation Mountain has a LOT of color. Since it is out in the middle of nowhere, in the dusty desert, it almost has an “end of days” vibe. For this session, I mixed bright, bold colored clothing with combat boots and edger accessories. The very first article of clothing I purchase was this yellow dress, from Urban Outfitter. I knew it would look amazing on Chloe with her dark hair and eyes and it would stand out against a colorful background.

Styled high school senior portrait session at Salvation Mountain

One of my favorite things about being a senior portrait photographer is that I get to create sessions that are inspired by fashion. Making a senior photography session feel like an editorial shoot for my client’s favorite magazine, make everyone involved feel great. Not to mention that we create gorgeous images of the senior that their family will enjoy for generations to come.

If you are a 2020 graduating senior and would like to be considered for next year’s session, please fill out the form and we will get in contact with you.

Now just a few of my favorite yellow dress images from the day. More from the Salvation Mountain Senior portrait session to come in the upcoming weeks.