Texas Weather, and Keeping Clients Comfy
If you live in Texas you are very familiar with the phrase, “If you don’t like the weather stick around a couple of days and it will change.” It’s literal truth, word for word. We’re the only place you can experience every season not even in the same week but sometimes the same DAY! So being a photographer here in Texas, means you learn to roll with whatever the weather will bring you. Lucky for graduating seniors in Texas is, we can shoot your portraits year ‘round though, and you can get EXACTLY the look you want no matter when.
So, seeing as how I shoot seniors all year, but also roll with all the weather challenges Texas can send, I wanted to take a minute to tell all you wondering just how we keep our clients comfy all year.
Winter in Texas can mean a lot of things. Sub-freezing temps, ice, cloudy days, rarely ever snow but usually it means chilly mornings in the 40s and pleasant afternoons in the 50s and 60s. Winter sounds drab and dull but it’s actually one of my favorite times to do senior pictures. We often have very calm winds, and clients sit cozily under a blanket during hair and makeup changes. We enjoy sunny golden afternoons in grass fields that look like they are made of pure gold with rich green cedar trees in the background. Should the weather be below 50 in the afternoon I always give clients the option to pick for a warmer date or stay as scheduled. Because with graduation still months away, we have the time and freedom to do that!
Nicole’s shoot was a day that the weather through us a total curveball. A cold front was set to come with crazy cold temperatures, but it wasn’t coming until the night of her session. Lucky us it showed up hours early, right when she had finished hair and makeup, and like the trooper Nicole is, she said let’s do it. Instead of using our normal styling chair, Dannie climbed in the car with Nicole to do hair changes and touch up makeup. We kept Nicole bundled in blankets and coats while we moved through poses, tossed them off for the shot and bundled right back up. She ended the day saying she had a blast and loved the entire experience and raved about how you couldn’t see at all how cold it was in her images.
Spring in Texas is basically all over the place. I’m often left thinking, go home mother nature you’re drunk. One day it’s almost 80 the next a cold front comes through and it’s freezing, like colder than most of what the “winter” was. The wind is also almost always gusting too, like 30-40 miles an hour. Sounds like a straight up no go right? Well with graduation weeks away and the fact that the wind never stops, we make it work. Dannie is on the scene and we meticulously pose our girls and place their hair with every shot to completely make you forget about the wind. Girls are always drawn to the springtime for the pretty scenery and proximity to graduation for their senior portraits and it’s a beautiful time to do your pictures!
Holly’s session, for example, had the highest winds of the year, but through posing and moving to work with the wind and Dannie’s expertise she was beyond surprised and thrilled with how her images turned out. It was so windy, Holly’s mom told me she was totally prepared to maybe like 1 or 2 of her images and was blown away when she ended up loving every single one! The wind added fun and carefree feeling to Holly’s images where we worked with the wind, and Dannie did an amazing job of literally holding her hair in between gusts, and then dropping it in place as I took the shot.
Summer in Texas is HOT, like fry an egg on the pavement hot. I usually give girls the same option as I do in the winter. If it’s going to be around 100 degrees with crazy humidity the option to change dates is absolutely there. For the most part during the summer we always end the day going, Oh that wasn’t so bad. We spend the majority of the time actually in the A/C, driving to new locations and changing clothes. We style in between outfits in the shade, where we always have a nice breeze keeping us cool. In the end, we’re left with beautiful sunlit images and happy happy girls!
Julianna’s session was on one of those crazy hot days. The sun was beating down, but we put all our tips in place to keep us and most importantly her cool during the entire shoot. You’ll notice in her pictures there’s not a single drop of sweat or flushed face (on her you should have seen me!).
Now fall is my ultimate happy time. The scenery is GORGEOUS! The weather is LOVELY and the smell of pumpkin spice is in the air. It makes my basic self have all the feels. There really isn’t much that can go wrong this time of year other than it’s when we get most of our rain (lately it seems). If it’s raining that’s an easy fix, we don’t shoot. I always watch the weather leading up to shoot day, and if there’s a chance of rain in the forecast I start communicating with my client days in advance. We talk about the chances, I let them know I’m watching it and we discuss the plan should we have to reschedule. This happened a lot last fall and multiple times to the same girls. The silver lining was when we did get their shoot to fall on a good day, it was always the most gorgeous of days, well worth the wait!