Senior portraits should reflect who you are during this chapter of your life — and for Theresa, there was no question that her horses needed to be part of hers.
Theresa is an old family friend, and our families have been connected through horses for years. She used to board her horses at my grandfather Allen's barn, so getting to photograph her senior portraits with Bae and Bullet at Dunlookn' Farm in Dawsonville, Georgia made this session especially meaningful to me.
And these weren't simply horses we added to a few photographs.
They're a huge part of Theresa's story.
MEET BAE & BULLET
Theresa competes in barrel racing with Bae, making the two of them partners both at home and in the arena.
Then there's Bullet.
Bullet is a Mustang whom Theresa has raised since he was a colt, giving the two of them a relationship that goes back through so many different stages of his life.
That's one of the things I love most about incorporating horses into senior photography. The photographs don't just document what someone looked like during their senior year.
They document who was beside them during it.
EQUESTRIAN SENIOR PORTRAITS AT DUNLOOKN' FARM
We photographed Theresa's senior session at Dunlookn' Farm in Dawsonville, Georgia, surrounded by the kind of North Georgia farm setting that feels completely at home in equestrian portraits.
Rather than choosing between traditional senior photographs and photographs with her horses, we were able to create both.
That meant capturing Theresa as the beautiful young woman entering a new chapter of her life while also documenting the horses that had been such an important part of the chapter she was leaving behind.
For equestrian seniors, I think that's incredibly important.
Your senior year is already filled with change. Graduation is coming, plans are being made, and life may look completely different a year from now. For riders especially, that can mean changes in where you live, where you ride, how often you compete or even which horses you're able to see every day.
Photographs give you a way to preserve what life looks like right now.
FROM THE BARREL RACING ARENA TO SENIOR PORTRAITS
I love photographing the athletic side of horses, especially barrel racing, but portrait sessions allow me to show a completely different side of those partnerships.
Bae may be Theresa's barrel racing partner, but their relationship exists far beyond the few seconds they spend running a pattern.
It's built during all the ordinary hours nobody sees.
And with Bullet, there are years of history behind the photographs. Raising a Mustang from the time he was a colt creates a story that simply couldn't be represented by leaving him out of Theresa's senior portraits.
Both horses represented something different in her life, which is exactly why both belonged in these photographs.
WHEN CLIENTS BECOME PART OF YOUR STORY
This session also has one of those connections that makes my photography career feel wonderfully full-circle.
Theresa and her family have been family friends for years, and her sister, Maggie, is someone I've also had the opportunity to photograph — years later, I photographed Maggie and Eric's wedding.
Getting to document different milestones for the same family is something I never take for granted.
From senior portraits with horses in Dawsonville to a wedding day years later, photographs become little pieces of a family's history.
And I'm incredibly grateful when I'm trusted to preserve more than one chapter of it.
NORTH GEORGIA EQUESTRIAN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHY
If horses have shaped your high school years, they deserve to be part of your senior portraits.
You don't have to choose between beautiful senior photographs and an equine portrait session. We can create both during the same experience.
Whether your horse is your barrel racing partner, show horse, trail horse, pasture companion or the horse you've raised since they were young, the goal isn't simply to take photographs with them.
It's to capture the relationship you've built together.
I offer equestrian senior and horse-and-rider photography throughout Dawsonville and North Georgia, creating portraits that celebrate both the person you're becoming and the horses that helped get you there.
