“Let’s go on a roadtrip!” she says. “To the Redwoods!”

I met this vivacious and constantly-singing senior when she was a wee baby. Her mom and I fed our babies together while juggling hot potato casserole with corn flakes we brought to our bi-weekly MOPS meetings. Those mornings saved us, exhausted us, and bonded us like no others and as a result, a life-long friendship was established. I’ve watched her daughter climb trees, belt out tunes in the choir, become an expert fire maker (like Bear Grylls), read tons of books, and become a great friend to my sons. She knows I love road trips and adventures so it wasn’t totally crazy that she said to me, “For my senior pictures, let’s go on a road trip. All the way to the Redwoods!”

I live in Orange County and one summer our family loaded all our camping supplies into and on top of our minivan and made an epic trip to the Redwoods. We saw our first giant tree just north of San Francisco and the green and quiet of the forest somehow made up for the seven tortuous hours on the flat, dry, and boring stretch of the 5 Freeway. If you’ve ever driven from the Grapevine to the Bay Area on the 5, you know how desperately long it can take to find the next letter in the ABC game. The Redwoods north of San Francisco are beautiful for sure, but we wanted to get to the heart of Redwood National Park. So we kept driving for another day (yes California is THAT BIG) all the way up to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. It rained on us every day but the adventure and the beauty was just our cup of tea. Although honestly we were really glad that our next destination, Lassen Volcanic Natural Park, was much drier.

Needless to say, I wasn’t ready for another road trip for senior pictures, even though they probably would have been epic! My ears might have died from the singing in the car and I really like to hear things.

We picked a date in early spring to take her senior pictures at O’Neill Regional Park. This park has some of the oldest and largest oak trees in Southern California and was one of our favorite places to explore when our kids were little. We would go on scavenger hunts to find acorns, moss, and other wild things. It would be perfect for this adventurous senior. Little did we know how much adventure we would have!

I was driving back to Orange County from San Diego to meet this senior and her mom at O’Neill. I looked towards Saddleback Mountain and could see a huge wall of dark storm clouds brewing. As I drove up into the hills, the rain started coming down and I honestly got worried. Rain isn’t that frequent in Orange County and my senior was getting her hair blown out and curled. This could be a bad combination!

We met where the road winds its way through large groves of old oak trees and where we used to start our scavenger hunts. I was eagerly checking my weather apps and saw the we had about an hour break in the rain. The road we photographed on has about 1 car per hour and so we started there. When this senior walked forward with her guitar in hand and the light starting hitting her face I got super excited. There is this moment in most photography sessions when the light hits just right, the leading lines fall in beautiful ways, and it feels to me like magic. She started singing old church songs which cracked us all up and this beautiful moment was captured. If I could plan every senior session to have a wet road, a break in the rain, and a song in the air, I would! But this will just be one of those magical moments.

I honestly don’t really plan my photoshoots. I have ideas. I work with my clients to pick beautiful locations. We discuss clothing, colors, and interests. I load my camera with a large SD card and my favorite lens. But the real fun for me comes with letting the session unfold itself. The person or people I’m photographing come with their personality and beauty and I love to see what unfolds. I had my senior lean against several trees but it was this one that jumped out at her. She loved the moss and the colors and I think it might be why she wanted to go to the Redwoods. The combination of her beauty and the moss is what makes this image very stunning to me.

I encourage all of my seniors to bring a prop that represents something of their interest, hobby, or personality. This one loves to read and has a bedroom full of classics, YA, and various genres. She picked a favorite with a beautiful cover to bring, “The Secret Garden,” and it set the mood for the dark forest. Watching her climb up this wet oak tree in her Doc Martens was quite a hilarious situation. It was only her grit and determination, and her mom’s hand, that got her up to her perch to lay down and pose for this image. Forever it will be one of my favorites.

I could have stayed with her in this dark forest capturing magical moments but alas, all good things must come to an end. It wasn’t The Redwoods, but I don’t think we could have actually captured as much magic as we found at O’Neill Regional Park.