At the beginning of this school year, the Huffington Post put out a “last call” list for parents for their child’s senior year. Stephanie, proud mom of an Alexandria, Virginia high school senior, was following along those lines when she sent me this e-mail in January:

“I want to schedule senior portraits for my daughter,”

And when we chatted on the phone, Stephanie said:

“Your use of light is really beautiful, and I like the poses of the young ladies and how you bring out their personalities in their senior portraits. I gave my daughter three options for photographers, and she liked yours the best. Plus, I’m a musician and music teacher, and I’ve also worked with several photographers. I appreciate and would rather invest in fine photography.”

And over the following months and over the course of photographing Emily’s senior portraits, I got to know both Emily and her mom. Emily follows after her mom, violinist and violin teacher Stephanie Flack. Such a musical and artistic family! Emily also plays the violin … and sings and acts … combine the two, and you get a young lady who will be double majoring in musical theater in college this coming fall! Emily’s younger sister does ballet and they already have a beautiful ballet canvas of her sitting on the mantle, and Stephanie wanted a canvas wall portrait of Emily to match. Emily also needed new acting headshots of herself for both her college applications and for musical theater show auditions that her publicist/agent can use.

Neither had a preference over whether Emily’s senior portraits were outdoors or indoors, so they decided to drive to our Germantown-Clarksburg, Maryland photography studio from their home in Alexandria, Virginia, for Emily’s senior portraits. It turned out to be a great match, because several of Emily’s favorite colors are featured in our photography studio. Plus, Emily and Stephanie both loved the bling in our decor! Emily loves lace (as do I), so she brought two outfits, a cream top and a gorgeous emerald dress, both prettily lacy. Emily’s favorite book is Peter Pan, so we had to include a green & gold leather volume in some of her senior portraits!

Congratulations to Emily, graduating senior, Class of 2015!