Nicole’s Senior Portraits on Lake Superior
On this year’s North Shore Weekend, we created our adorable niece Nicole’s senior portraits on Lake Superior! Nicole is a senior at North St. Paul High School. Nicole shared her North Shore senior photo session with two other seniors, Hannah and her lifelong friend Brianna.
We started their fun, triple session at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. We alternated with each of our seniors at each location on that sunny Sunday afternoon. It was the first time in our 22 years of our North Shore Portrait Weekends, that we’ve ever done three photo sessions at the same time. I’m very pleased to say that it went very smoothly!
My brother Roger made the day trip with Nicole, and even though they got back to the cities at about 1:30 in the morning, Joannie & I are so glad they made the trek up north!
Split Rock Lighthouse State Park
Just like the day before, Sunday was another sunny, warm & humid day for Lake Superior senior portraits. It was very un-North Shore type weather. Because of the sunny conditions, we employed every bit of our lighting magic for these three girls and their senior portraits on Lake Superior.
My brother Roger, helped us a lot by shielding the girls from the sun with our giant six-foot translucent umbrella. While at the same time, we were putting nice, soft portrait lighting on them with one of our high powered WITSTRO MoLight AD360II-C strobes along with our four-foot softbox. We also employed one of our MoLight V860II-Canon Speed-lights that we used as a kicker and hair light at times.
Black Beach
While we were at Split Rock, Hannah’s mom told us about a place that we’ve never been to before, Black Beach in Silver Bay. She suggested that we go there and take a look around, and so we did.
It was a pleasant surprise to find a new location for Nicole’s senior portraits on Lake Superior. It was pretty sunny there, but we still managed to create some pretty senior pics of the girls. Nicole got lucky in that for just a few seconds, a tiny cloud blocked the sun for us right while she was in the water. The resulting image is very pretty!
Iona Beach
We departed from Black Beach and headed south towards Two Harbors with a stop at Iona’s Beach. When we got there, the sun was starting to get pretty low in the sky and the resulting softer light was very welcome. We kept using our big 48″ softbox, but now it was used as a fill light instead of the main light.
The images we created in the forest and on the beach are so pretty and so much fun too! The girls even stood in the cold water of Lake Superior for a few images!
Gooseberry Park Cottages & Motel
Josie, Hannah, and Brianna were staying at Gooseberry Park Cottages & Motel for the weekend. Josie told us that they had a pretty garden there and so that was our next stop. The sun was almost set, and so it was going to be our final photo stop for the day too. And we really made the very best out of it!
We created several really pretty senior portraits of each of the girls in the pretty garden, with Roger holding our MoLight V860II-Canon Speed-light high above the girls on an eight-foot light stand for a nice hair light. Thanks, Roger!
What A Sunset!
Our closing sunset portrait of Nicole is so stunning that it actually looks like it might be fake! There are no Photoshop tricks being played here, just great lighting equipment, and being at the right place at the right time for a very pretty sunset.
Afterwards, the girls all changed into comfortable clothes and we drove to Two Harbors, MN for a nice dinner together at Black Woods Grill & Bar. It was the perfect ending to a really great day!
Joannie & I want to thank Nicole and Roger (and Josie, Hannah & Brianna too) for making the trip up north for our 22nd annual North Shore Weekend. We had a great time with you guys and we are grateful that you asked us to create Nicole’s senior portraits on Lake Superior. – M&J