A Free Guide for High School Seniors

Your Magic Year™

How to Prepare for Senior Photos That Feel Like You

We are not just taking senior pictures. We are building a monument to this wonderful year.

Why This Guide Exists

Most senior photo advice starts with clothing colors and the best time of day. That matters. We will get there. But I want you to start somewhere more important.

First, I am a photographer. That is the work you are hiring, and that is the difference that matters on session day. I have spent a lifetime around high school seniors — as a student photographer, as a trained photographer, as a television producer, and as a novelist who wrote a coming-of-age story. I tell stories from the perspective of young people. That is who I am, and that is how Your Magic Year Photography works.

I am also a writer. I write novels. I write songs. I tell stories. The writing is how I listen. The camera is how we keep what we find.

Other sessions can give you pretty pictures. This session is built as a photography experience that still makes sense ten years from now — a monument to this wonderful year, made from your life rather than from a Pinterest board.

This guide will walk you through that thinking. Read it once. Then fill out the worksheets and bring them to our planning conversation. That is how we build a session that belongs to you. Visit www.magicyearphotography.com when you are ready to begin.

Start With Your Story, Not Your Outfit

Before you open your closet, sit down for twenty quiet minutes. Phone face down. Ask yourself the questions below. Write actual answers. Incomplete sentences are fine. Honesty is better than polish.

The five questions that matter

• If someone who loves you had to describe you in one sentence, what would they say?
• What are you most proud of from the last four years — not what looks good on a résumé, but what still makes you sit up a little straighter?
• Where do you feel most like yourself? A court. A stage. A kitchen. A trail. A shop floor. A classroom after school.
• What do you not want to leave behind when you graduate?
• When you look at these photos at 28, what do you hope you can still see?

Circle the answers that make you feel something. That feeling is the beginning of your theme.

People, Places, and Things

Every good story has three ingredients. Yours does too. We will use them as the backbone of your session.

People

Who belongs in the frame of this chapter of your life? You do not have to photograph every person. You do have to know who shaped you.

• A parent, grandparent, or sibling who has been in the stands, the audience, or the kitchen at midnight.
• A coach, teacher, mentor, or boss who saw something in you before you saw it yourself.
• A best friend you have grown up beside.
• A teammate, bandmate, or coworker who knows the version of you that school pictures never catch.

If you want a few frames with family or a friend, tell me early. We can build a short, natural moment into the session without turning it into a group shoot unless that is what you want.

Places

Place is character. The Eastside is full of places that already hold your story — wooded parks in the East Renton Highlands, water and trails around Issaquah, a high school field after practice, a shop, a studio, a church parking lot at dusk, the stretch of road you have driven a thousand times.

• Where did the important things happen?
• Where do you go when you need to think?
• Is there a place that represents the work you put in — a pool, a track, a court, a stage, a job site, a barn, a kitchen?
• Is there a place that represents who you are becoming?

You do not need a dramatic landscape. You need a place that means something. Meaning photographs better than scenery.

Things

Objects are shorthand for years of effort. Bring the real ones. Worn is better than new.

• Jersey, letterman, cap, or uniform — especially if it has been through a season.
• Instrument, camera, sketchbook, laptop, tools, or work badge.
• Medal, program, yearbook, acceptance letter, first paycheck stub (yes, really).
• A book that changed you. A pair of shoes that covered a lot of ground.
• Something from a job you are proud of: apron, hard hat, name tag, keys.

We will not pose you like a catalog. We will use these things the way a novelist uses details — sparingly, and only when they tell the truth.

Building a Theme From Real Life

A theme is not a costume. A theme is a sentence. Here are examples so you can see how simple this can be:

Sports and performance

• Basketball: grit, late nights in an empty gym, the quiet before the first whistle. Location might be a court at golden hour, a worn ball, warm-ups over a clean shirt.
• Cheer: power, timing, the face the crowd never sees between counts. Think motion, confidence, and one still frame that looks like leadership.
• Swim: discipline you cannot fake. Water, early mornings, the calm after a race. Wet hair can be a story, not a problem.
• Track / cross country: solitude, repetition, weather. A trail, a starting line, the shoes that did the work.
• Soccer, volleyball, football, wrestling, tennis: same idea. Show the sport as part of your character, not as a yearbook cliché.

Arts, music, and making things

If you sing, play, write, dance, paint, film, or build — that is already a theme. Bring the instrument, the script, the camera, the calloused hands.

I am a songwriter / musician. I know what it looks like when someone is more comfortable with a guitar than a pose. We will use that.

Work you are proud of

A job is a story. Coffee shop. Grocery. Farm. Shop class that turned into real work. Babysitting that paid for your first car. If you earned it, it belongs.

We can photograph you as the person who shows up — not only as the student who graduates.

Academics and quiet accomplishments

Honor society. Robotics. Debate. ASB. The class you almost dropped and then mastered. First-generation college plans. A scholarship letter.

We do not need a stack of trophies. One true detail is enough: a lab coat, a marked-up book, a laptop covered in stickers from the competitions that mattered.

Faith, family, and the quieter plot lines

Some of the strongest senior photos have nothing to do with a sport. They have to do with who you take care of, where you worship, the land your family works, the cabin you grew up visiting, the sibling who still looks up to you.

You can combine two of these. Most real lives do. The rule is simple: pick the thread you would still defend if no one else clapped for it.

What to Wear (After You Know the Story)

Once the theme is clear, clothes get easier. You are not dressing for a trend. You are dressing like the main character of your own story.

Practical rules that still look like you

• Bring two to four outfits that already live in your closet. New clothes often look like new clothes.
• One look should feel like everyday you. One can lean a little more dressed. If we have a sport or work theme, that outfit is its own look.
• Solid colors and simple textures photograph better than giant logos and busy patterns. A small logo is fine if it is part of the story.
• Fit matters more than fashion. If you keep tugging at it, the camera will notice.
• Layers help: jacket, flannel, letterman, clean hoodie, simple jewelry you actually wear.
• Shoes tell the truth. Wear the ones that match the scene, even if they are scuffed.
• Avoid brand-new white sneakers that have never touched dirt, unless that is honestly your style.

Hair, skin, and the night before

• Get a haircut one to two weeks before, not the day before.
• Sleep. It is the cheapest retouching there is.
• If you wear makeup, wear the version of it that still looks like you in daylight. I would rather see your face than a mask.
• Skip heavy self-tanner experiments the week of the shoot.
• Start taking care of your face at least a day before. Keep it clean. Avoid last-minute experiments that leave marks or new irritation.
• Young men who shave: shave. Come clean-shaven if that is your look. Shave as close as you can on the morning of the session so we are not editing out single hairs later. If you wear a beard or a kept mustache, trim it the day before so the line is clean.
• Bring a lint roller, a hair tie, blotting papers, and a bottle of water. That is the whole emergency kit.

How We Will Work Together

You do not have to arrive with a finished concept. You do have to arrive having thought. Here is the process:

• You read this guide and jot notes on the worksheets.
• We talk. You tell me the sentence. I listen for the details you almost skipped.
• We choose locations that serve the story — often one main place, sometimes two nearby spots in the Renton / Issaquah / East Renton Highlands area.
• On the day, bring a friend or a family member with you. That person is part of the session plan. They keep the afternoon easy, help you feel like yourself, jog your memory when we are choosing looks, and can offer a good suggestion from just off camera. I will still direct the photographs. You will simply not be out there alone.
• I will direct you with simple prompts, not stiff poses. Think conversation more than portrait factory.
• You will leave with images that can live on a yearbook page, a dorm wall, and as a monument to this year — not only a set of files.

Bring someone with you

Please plan to have a parent, sibling, or trusted friend come to the session. This is a standard part of how I work, and it makes the day better.

A familiar person nearby helps you settle in. They remember the jacket in the car, the story you forgot to mention, and the expression that actually looks like you. They can offer a quiet suggestion while we shoot. It is also the simple, smart way to work outdoors together — two of you, one photographer, a good afternoon.

If bringing someone is difficult, tell me when we plan the session and we will make a clear arrangement.

A note to parents

Your senior may shrug at some of these questions. That is all right. The point is not a perfect essay. The point is a few honest details we can build from. If you know a place, a teacher, a job, or an accomplishment your student will forget to mention, write it in the margin. You have been watching this story longer than they have. If you can come to the session, even for part of it, you are welcome. Your presence often helps more than a packing list.

Worksheets — Fill These Out Before We Talk

Print this page or copy the questions into your notes. Short answers are enough. Keep this page together as one sheet. (You can also fill these out online — see the link at the top of this guide.)

Session-day checklist

• Worksheets filled out, even roughly
• Two to four outfits on hangers, not crushed in a bag
• The objects that tell the truth
• Shoes that match each look
• Hair ties, lint roller, water, phone charged for reference photos only
• Any yearbook specs from your school
• A parent, sibling, or friend to come with you
• If you shave, a close shave the morning of the session
• An extra 10 minutes of calm before we start

Your Magic Year Does Not End With One Session

Senior portraits are the beginning of the year, not the whole year. If you want other photographs along the way — a birthday, a graduation party, a last game, a send-off, a quiet family evening before everyone leaves — we can talk about that.

Because you did your senior session with Your Magic Year Photography, I can make arrangements to photograph those later moments at a planned rate and a time that fits. That is why this is called Your Magic Year. One story. Several pages, if you want them. We are building a monument to the year you are about to live, not a single afternoon.

You do not have to decide any of that now. When something is coming up, reach out through www.magicyearphotography.com and we will talk through what makes sense.

A Last Word From Me

You do not have to be the loudest person in your class to have a story worth photographing. You do not have to have a championship, a lead role, or a perfect plan. You only have to be willing to look at your own life long enough to name what mattered.

Bring that. Bring someone who knows you. I will take care of the light, the direction, and the craft. Together we will make photographs that do not just look good. They will stand as a monument to this wonderful year.

When you are ready, start at www.magicyearphotography.com or send me the notes from this guide. That is enough to begin.

Bring this guide — and the signed release on the next page — to your session. It is yours to keep.