Andrea's Senior Session at a Crowded Old Main

Andrea inboxed me at the beginning of the month to schedule her senior session on Penn State's University Park Campus. We planned our session for a Monday evening on Old Main. As the day grew closer, the weather looked like we were about to about to have a session in windy and rainy, 30 degree weather.... SO, when we saw a nice day coming our way, we quickly changed our plans to work with the unpredictable central PA weather. It was a sunny Friday afternoon, the first one in State College since the fall. This meant that Penn State's Old Main Lawn would be PACKED (Volleyball nets, hammocks, yoga, frisbee, and students EVERYWHERE). Luckily, Andrea trusted us to make the best out of the crowded Old Main area. Using tips that I have learned from experience and other photography educators like Katelyn James, we were able to make it look like we had the area almost to ourselves.

1. Shoot at a side or lower angle

The first two, iPhone pictures were from the surface level, and then from the road the runs parallel to Old Main. By placing Andrea and Tom down the hill from Old Main lawn, I was able to shoot from below, avoid the crowd and still have Old Main in the background. In the last two pictures, we shot from below and the right, to avoid the crowded from of Old Main.

2. Use your subjects to block other people or objects behind them

This one took a little bit of timing, but once the people walking behind Andrea were right behind her, I snapped away! This has to do with proximity to the camera! Since Andrea was close to my camera, she took up the majority of the frame, and the people farther away seemed smaller, making me able to block them with Andrea's body. In order to avoid the other people on the ground to the sides of her, I shot vertically and from a lower angle.

3. Use other parts of the building to your advantage

My college senior sessions are usually one or two hours, and often while every other senior is taking pictures, at the same place, on the same (rare) sunny day, after their classes end. This means we deal with lines. Mad lines. If I have my second shooter with me, this is usually the part of the session where I ask my second shooter to stand in or near the line, while we stay nearby and get some headshots. I don't want either of us to lose our rhythm, and I especially don't want to waste the time my clients have paid for! By doing this, we make use of every minute of our session!

When it was our turn to use the Old Main columns, we were done with Andrea's headshots and ready to rock the rest of the session!

Thank you Andrea for trusting us during a crowded day at Old Main! We loved working with you and Tom so much! Good luck with your new job! We hope you love it and your new home in York, PA!