Senior Pictures

STORY BY BREE MOORE »
It’s that time of year when seniors
are starting to get all dressed up
to take their senior pictures. Senior
portraits are probably the most
individualized and personal photos
in the yearbook, and they represent
a specific moment in the life of each
student – a memory that will last
forever.
Senior Maizlyn Sterba had her
senior pictures taken at the start of
her senior year by Alisha Stroup with
Rockin R Photography. Sterba was

very pleased with the whole experi-
ence and strongly believes that the

photographer did a fantastic job.

“I think I enjoyed the different pos-
es and the fun we had while doing

them,” Sterba said. “Not to mention
I took my puppy with me so it was
pretty fun taking them.”
Sterba is actually having her
senior photos taken in two sessions,
the first one was a couple of months
ago to get the sunny warm weather
and her next one is she planning to
get in the fall to captures the warm

fall colors.
To some people,
the experience is a
complete unknown.
They don’t know
what senior pictures
are even for. Are they
just for fun? Are they
for your family and
friends?
Sterba said that, for

her, senior pic-
tures are kind of a

remembrance that
seniors will get to
keep forever of their
high school days.
She likes that you
can look back in 30
years from now and
just about everyone
will have flashbacks

on all the fun expe-
rienced throughout the four years of

high school.
Katelyn Ormsby, class of 2017
alumna, has taken on a new title as
a senior photo photographer. In high
school, Ormsby started taking photo
classes when she was a sophomore
and fell in love with being behind the

camera and capturing special mo-
ments. When Katelyn started taking

photos she never thought it would
turn into a daily side-job.

“I started senior pictures the sum-
mer after I graduated because my

brother was a senior and I started
with him,” Ormsby said, “then all his
friends wanted pictures and it turned
into an actual thing. I fell in love
with it fast.”
Ormsby took photo classes from
Mr. Musser at EHS for several years.
“I actually remember him telling
me one time, that… yes I had a good
picture but he knew that I could do
a better job so he wouldn’t accept
one of the pictures as my ‘best of’,”
explained Ormsby.

Editing takes hours for Ormsby.
She is a full time student and works
full-time at a preschool, so on top of
lesson plans and homework, editing
often means staying up late. But she
gets so excited to sit down and start
editing, that the day of a photo shoot
she ends up spending hours just
going through and picking out the
pictures she likes.
“I love the one-on-one time I get
to have with the seniors,” Ormsby
said, “Senior year is a CRAZY year,
and I love getting to be a part of
someone’s memories and help make
one step of senior year easier for
them.
“After leaving high school, I really

started working harder in photogra-
phy. I still think of Mr. Musser every

time I see a picture that I like and try
to think about what he would say so
I can always keep improving.”
When Ormsby is taking the
seniors’ photos, she really tries to
give her clients the options that they
are looking for. She offers up to
three locations, as many outfits as

they would like and a wide variety of

props. Her goal during senior ses-
sions is to capture their high school

career the best way she can – so
she really leaves it up to the clients
on how they want their sessions to
go. Sessions cost anywhere from
$110-$175 depending on the type of
package deal.
Some seniors can’t wait to take
their senior pictures and look forward
to seeing the outcome, but others
don’t plan on taking senior pictures
at all.
Home-schooled senior Sydney
Wilkins, originally from EHS, plans
to not have her senior pictures taken.
Wilkins says that senior pictures can

get pretty expensive. She felt conflict-
ed. Part of her really wanted to take

pictures and the other part of her
didn’t want to take pictures because
she was worried that they might not
turn out.
To her, having senior pictures taken
means that you’re graduating and
you’re finally getting to make the
decision of college and what you’re
doing after high school. She feels that
their purpose is to capture a memory
for students and their families to look
back on in future.
“I think the school requests them
because it gives you the freedom of

picking a photo you like and cele-
brating that you finally made it. It’s a

memory that you finally get to keep”
explained Wilkins.
Wilkins transferred to online
school after her junior year because
she said there was a lot of drama at

Eudora and she didn’t want her se-
nior year to be full of drama. She just

wanted to focus on herself and get
her school work done.
“I do enjoy online school because
it gives me the chance to work at my
own pace but it becomes difficult
when you stop becoming motivated
to do your work,” said Wilkins.
She definitely doesn’t want to
let laziness get in her way. Wilkins
plans on walking across the stage on
graduation day and graduating with
her class in May.

While some people shy away from
drama, professional photographers
have learned how improve the senior
portrait experience by adding a little
into their work.
Carmen Jackson from Reflections
Photography in Wamego, KS has
been taking photos for over 15 years.
At Reflections Photography a session

is ‘a creative time’ for the photog-
rapher. Their busiest time of the

year is from August up until around
Christmas time. It can also depend
on each individual school’s yearbook
deadline. A lot of the schools have a
deadline before the winter holidays

so the beginning of senior year be-
comes crunch time when it comes to

scheduling photos.
Each session is 1 hour long and
consists of 2 outfits and 1 location.
They have several locations you can
choose from, but if you don’t see one
that fits your style, idea or concept

then you can choose your own loca-
tion. You can also choose how many

different sessions you would like to
do. If you do more than one, then you

will have more outfits, different loca-
tion and more images to choose from.

The typical sessions that they offer
are located in Wamego, KS. Each
session is $65. Prints are in addition
to the session fee. Reflections have
packages that start out at $159 and it
goes up from there.
“I really enjoy getting to know
each senior.” Jackson said, “I love
being creative and trying new and
different things with my seniors. I
alway photograph with parents and
grandparents in mind but I also like
for it to be a unique experience for
the senior.”
Jackson knows that each senior
wants their senior pictures to be
different than their friends senior
pictures, so she tries to keep that
in mind when photographing each
senior.
“I also love making the senior feel