Yesterday was gorgeous for a December day in Tennessee. Whitney and I went out and photographed an engagement session, something that we have not done since the leaves have fallen from the trees. We will share these images with you after the holidays, but it reminded me that we have a few family portrait sessions from this fall that we have not shared with you yet.

I would first like to introduce you to my friends the Sandifers. Tim Sandifer was the first person I met when I arrived on campus at Greenville College in central Illinois. We both loved the same bands, had similar senses of humor, had a passion for Star Wars, and were the only males on campus that weighed under 130lbs. He soon became one of my favorite people.

Tim, Susie, & Addie still live in Central Illinois and Tim’s parents live in South Georgia. Every so often they meet each other in Nashville for a family vacation. This year they decided to have Whitney and I photograph their family. It is always an honor when a friend chooses to work with us, not because we are friends, but because they appreciate our work.

I hope you enjoy this collection of photographs of the Sandifers:

Thanks Sandifers! Hope to see you soon!

Finally, it’s time for the 3rd installment of my first attempt at senior portraits. Meet Amy. Amy has always been an adult at heart. One of my favorite memories with Amy is when we first started the youth group at our church. One night, Amy was the only student to show up for Bible study. Amy sat amongst four adults and we discussed the lesson at a different level than we normally do. Maybe it’s because she loves to read so much. In middle school she was reading adult-level theology books. However, Amy still has a passion for really good fantasy novels. The Lord of the Rings is one of her favorites. She also loves The Chonicles of Narnia and everything else C.S. Lewis has written.

So, what else should we do with Amy, but take her to the library and maybe spend a little time doing some fantasy shots.

Of course we had to get in a few images that make Amy look like an urban professional. I love the composition this wall creates.

Thanks Amy for letting me portray some of your personality in these images!

If you want to see the other two senior portraits I photographed this fall, be sure to check out my post on Emma and William.

Let me introduce you to William, the second of the three seniors from my youth group that I photographed.

I know I didn’t take as many photos of William as I did of Emma. This is not because he is a dude, but because he is a very busy dude. Plus, one of my lenses broke down and I got stung by bees during the shoot. So, it was a rather short session, but I am really happy with what we captured. We were still able to achieve a variety of different settings.

William is a very outdoorsy guy. He loves to rock climb, whitewater raft, and play numerous sports. William is a more serious guy who is very social and loves to play the occasional prank. He is also one of the most competitive people I know. He can take the simplest object lesson and turn it into an Olympic event.

Here is William:

Stay tuned to meet Amy!

Here is where my two jobs intersect. You may not know that I am the youth director at The Village Chapel, here in Nashville. Whitney and I started the youth ministry at our church almost four years ago. At that time, three of the students were freshman. Well, time goes fast and now those three students are planning for college. It’s going to be sad to see them move off as I have become close to each of them. So, to capture a special memory of this last year, I offered to photograph a portrait session for each of them. This was also exciting for me as these were the first sessions I did without Whitney.

The first session I will share with you is Emma’s. Emma is one of the sweetest girls you will ever meet. She laughs a LOT. So much that she even types “ha ha” in most of her emails and Facebook comments. She also loves photography. She has been taking a photography class at her school, but I think she enjoys being on the “model side” of the camera a bit more.

This is my favorite one. It looks like she is day dreaming and actually looking at what she is dreaming about.

I also love the left image a lot. I think Emma’s comment was “That’s SO catalog!” The image to the right is totally the Emma we all know and love.

I knew the boys were going to be commenting on her Facebook photos I posted for her, so I thought this image would be appropriate.

This image is actually an idea Emma had when she saw we had red suitcases.

So, how often does a teen get to scale fences, at night, with her youth director for a photo shoot? That’s what happened when we got to Ensworth High and found everything locked up. Our main plan of the shoot was to photograph Emma on the football field at sunset, but things changed when we had to walk down the long drive with all of our gear and crawl over the fence with it. By the time we were set up the sun was down, but we captured a few cool shots on the field before the security guard found us.

Stay tuned for William’s and Amy’s sessions!