Though I don’t advertise myself as a senior portrait photographer, I do the occasional senior session by request (more so lately as many of my earliest child model clients turn into high school seniors). My session this past weekend with my new friend, Sidney, has me thinking I might like to do more.

We started by dancing in between the raindrops of the PNW, November-style, to capture some shots of Sidney cozied-up in her favorite sweater. You wouldn’t know it from her smile but, in the first picture, we actually wedged ourselves between some industrial sized air conditioners to escape the wind and rain. 

It was Sidney’s idea to shoot in a record shop and my idea to do it at 1709Records in downtown Vancouver, WA where Mikki, the owner was totally welcoming, supportive and enthusiastic.

I learned that Sidney is a major Kiss fan (Paul Stanley, preferred) and she learned (from me, a fountain of music trivia) that Peter Criss was laying flat on his back when he recorded vocals for “Beth.”

Big surprise: I also learned I can’t walk out of a record store empty handed — even though I have, literally, thousands of vinyls in my studio. Sunday’s haul was Stephen Stills classic ’76 long player, Illegal Stills; Duo-Glide, the 1978 follow-up to Sanford Townshend Band’s “Smoke From A Distant Fire;” and a repackaged version of the first album by The Raspberries. Check below for a little sampler and hit me up if you need some senior pix.