Senior Photos Pawling NY

Susannah Pawling HS senior

I met Susannah for the first time when she was just days old so to say I was emotional about taking her senior portraits is kind of the understatement of the year. Susannah and my daughter Olivia were born within days of each other and our families spent so much time together when the girls were little. Sam became everyone’s big brother and when Susannah’s little sisters were born we all celebrated. School and after school activities began to take up more and more time so our interactions became less frequent but that bond remains strong.

Susannah is a dedicated dancer and I was thrilled when she wanted to include that passion into her senior photos. Add in the fact that she had an AMAZING red prom dress that she didn’t get a chance to wear because of, well COVID, and we had our second outfit. Susannah did a little shopping with her mom and we had plenty of outfits to play with.

Fairfield Hills in Newtown, CT is one of my favorite locations for an edgy portrait session. Susannah’s senior photo shoot was scheduled for the same week as the devastating California wildfires and because of the smoke high in the atmosphere we had the most incredibly eerie defused light. From something so destructive and dangerous we were able to create something incredibly beautiful.

If you are able to submit a headshot to your yearbook then we can accommodate that but your senior year is so much more than that yearbook headshot.

I design senior photos around the individual so each session is personal and unique. Let’s plan your senior portraits.

CT Photographer New Milford

River Portraits

CT Photographer | New Milford, CT

I knew the minute I announced the river portraits date for the Planet Photo Tribe that there would be a rush to sign up! There really is nothing better than ending a hot summer portrait session in the water and I am always thrilled when a client wants to do that. We wanted a soft, floaty pink and green theme for our group and I was thrilled when one after another the girls arrived with these wonderful floaty river outfits, we added a couple of things from the Planet Photo Style closet and we were all set. Right at the last minute we added the flower crowns to a couple of images to tip us over the edge 😉

I hope that my clients can use these Tribe group shoots as inspiration for styling and location tips to help create their own individual portrait shoot or if you want to create a group shoot with a small group of your best friends then we can do that too. I look forward to planning every session and I strive to make each one just a little different from the last! I love to incorporate your ideas, your favorite places and to highlight YOU! We are lucky to live in such a scenic part of the country so it is a treat to incorporate some of Connecticut’s natural beauty in each shoot.

Thanks to Kinsley, Olivia, Taylor, Bella, Isabelle and Sam for bringing your “A-game” to our river shoot!

Planet Photo is a portrait photography studio based in New Milford, CT. Senior and Teen Portraits, Personal Branding and Fine Art Family or Individual Portraits are available in the studio or on location.

Serving New Milford, Brookfield, Newtown, Danbury, Ridgefield, North Salem, Redding, Wilton, Westport, New Canaan, Greenwich, Orange, Milford, New Haven County, Westchester County, Duchess County and available for location shoots around the world – I love to travel!

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Game of Thrones Group Tribe Photo Shoot Kent Falls CT

Game of Thrones

Planet Photo Tribe

Photo Shoot Kent Falls CT

I have to admit I haven’t watched Game of Thrones!

I am in love with the styling though and absolutely crazy about the costumes and locations – we actually visited Iceland last year and heard over and over how parts of GOT was filmed there, but I felt like I was just too late to the party. Eight seasons to catch up? That is a lot of catching up!!!

My lack of personal watching history did not stop us for recreating a Game of Thrones theme for our Planet Photo Tribe group shoot. We had the perfect location (OK, I admit that I would have liked to fly to Iceland with the team but that was not quite in the budget….but we had the next best thing – Kent Falls State Park in Connecticut).

The falls usually freeze during the winter but you know what a crazy winter we had this year (do you remember our whiteout shoot with no snow?), so it was actually pretty warm on the day of our shoot. Can you even imagine how nervous I was on the drive up there? I was literally holding my breath when we turned into the parking lot. Thankfully, it was snowy, frozen and perfectly Game of Thrones-esque.

We were so excited to have Sue Snow from Deja Vudu Vintage as our stylist for this shoot. She has an eye for detail and a seemingly endless supply of amazing vintage clothes and accessories so she took our shoot to the next level.

It might have been unseasonably warm but it was still a little chilly standing on the ice waterfall so thank you to our models: Zoe, Sam, Cassie, Madi, Olivia and Julia.

I guess I can’t resist the hype any longer. Game of Thrones is the next thing on my binge watch list.

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White on White group Tribe shoot teen senior portraits

White on White

Group Tribe Shoot

Everyone knows that you can’t count on the weather in New England. You’ve probably heard people say “if you don’t like the weather just wait 5 minutes”. Well we waited for the snow and it never came, but the rain sure did. So we moved our white on white snowy, winter-wonderland group Tribe shoot indoors and made do with pretend snow balls and hot cocoa!

Did you ever read that book about snow, Miss Smilla’s Feelings for Snow? The Scandinavians apparently have hundreds of words to describe snow and frozen water in its various forms, not surprising when you consider that every snowflake is completely unique. I feel like we need more words to describe white… we probably had hundreds of versions between us but they were all beautiful. The Tribe did an amazing job of dressing in shades of white.

Thank you to Madisyn, Taylor, Cassie, Madi, Cadence, Zoe, Julia and Olivia for participating in our latest concept shoot. When you grow up in a small town then there is a really good chance that paths have crossed at some point or another. Have we met at a dance class or toddler program somewhere or have we been in the same school since Kindergarten? The girls love reconnecting with old friends!

Thank you to Seniors Ignite for featuring our shoot alongside some other amazing interpretations of the “whiteout” theme. Be sure to check them all out.

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A New Years photoshoot Times Square NYC

Happy New Year

A celebration photoshoot in Times Square NYC

Almost every country celebrates New Year’s Eve in some way. If you live in the United States then the site of the ball dropping on Times Square is synonyms with the countdown to the New Year. Confetti, champagne, fireworks, glitz and glamour are all part of the New Year’s Eve celebration for many around the world. A time to reflect on the past and prepare and look forward to the future. How many people set New Year’s resolutions? It just feels natural to use the start of a new year as a turning point.

Times Square in December is busy, bustling and ALIVE with all walks of life and for some unknown reason lots of people dressed up as Elmo, Spiderman and Mario….. The famous billboards and signs cover every facade and are all around. Where tourists gather, vendors descend and you can’t walk five feet without being offered a bus tour, a restaurant coupon or discount tickets to a Broadway show. But it is magical and you feel like you are in the heart of New York City! Just blocks from Rockefeller Center, the Christmas tree, the department store holiday window displays and Radio City Music Hall but surrounded by Broadway and the musicals and plays that make it unique.

Madisyn, Julia and Olivia braved the cold and gave each other confidence to “work it girl” – they got lots of encouraging comments from passersby!! We were a few weeks early with our New Years celebration but we had a blast. 3000 pounds of confetti is dropped BY HAND at midnight, we even wrote messages on a couple of pieces.

Happy New Year to you all!

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Candytopia A Planet Photo NYC Photo Shoot

Candytopia

A Planet Photo NYC Photo Shoot

Who says you have to choose a conventional location for your senior portraits?

Candytopia, a pop-up location in New York City is ANYTHING BUT CONVENTIONAL!

Here is how they describe it on the website:

“What if an eccentric chocolatier and a daredevil pop star had a whirlwind romance, got married while skydiving, and had a glamorous, glittering love child who grew up to rule a small nation? Welcome to Candytopia, where colossal candyfloss constructions meld with a tantalizing taffy twistedness!”

I’d seen the pictures on social media and I knew it HAD to be… we HAD to have our NYC photo shoot there! We got the golden tickets and Abbi joined me on an adventure into candy wonderland. It was insane. I can’t even imagine how many 100’s of thousands of jelly beans went into the exhibit, it was a crazy dream world on a massive sugar high and we were going in.

I knew we needed something different and special for this location, but you know when you don’t know what you are looking for until you see it? Well the minute I saw this romper on Fashion Nova, I knew we had our outfit!

Thanks to the amazing staff and crew at Candytopia for their help. We shot during regular business hours using the built in spot lighting. No off camera flash or light stands. But we made it work – you gotta love a challenge.

So where would you love to shoot? Let’s design something completely original. I love street photo shoots, don’t you?

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Photography CT Hamden Hall Skilyn

Photography Hamden Hall CT

Skylin – Class of 2019

The Undiscovered Model Competition Finalist!

The minute I met Sky I knew we were going to have an incredible shoot! She was the sweetest, outgoing girl you could possibly meet with a cute little sister and a really fun mom. When I asked her about her high school experience and interests I was excited to figure out how we could incorporate her love of dance. She wanted a mix of urban and natural beauty so we actually met in Derby, CT. Now Derby doesn’t necessarily spring to mind when you think of a backdrop for a photoshoot…. but it actually was perfect for what we were looking for! Grace and beauty in an urban setting.

All Planet Photo Feature Seniors are invited to submit to The Undiscovered Model Competition and we are thrilled that Sky has made it to the Finalist stage! We find out on Friday if she will be one of the few winners chosen to go to Austin Texas in January for the ultimate destination model experience. You can see all the finalists on The Undiscovered In Print so you can see she is in good company, you might even see another Planet Photo Model – Maddie! Of course I am so proud of them both. All good vibes and luck accepted for both of them!!!

If you are class of 2020 or 2021 then you need to be part of Planet Photo’s model experience! Senior and Teen photography that shows just how unique you are. Drop me a line with Future Planet Photo Model Tribe Member in the subject line and I will make sure you are invited to the informational meetings in the spring.

Now booking Class of 2019 senior sessions!

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Connecticut Photographer 2018 Summer Intern Nathalie

Connecticut Photographer

Meet Nathalie

Planet Photo Summer Intern

I was setting up the studio for the marathon Planet Photo Tribe intro shoot when Nathalie stopped by the studio for the first time. She had a resume in hand and told me a bit about herself…. she grew up near by, she had always been into photography, she was at college studying graphic design and photography. Would I be open to having a summer intern?

To be perfectly honest I was so distracted by the intro shoot that I put the resume on the desk and kind of forgot about it. But guess what? She followed up! A couple of days later she reached out again! So here is the “Lesson of the Day” for all those people out there looking for a job, trying to find more clients or generally just trying to get stuff done. When you follow up you are not bugging the person you are gently reminding them. Life happens. People forget or get distracted. I did and I am so glad Nathalie followed up!

She has been a huge help on shoots and behind the scenes and she also started the new @PlanetPhotoStyle instagram account. If you are not following it then you need to be! Most photographers will tell you that they prefer to be behind the camera but it is really helpful to experience both so we arranged a shoot for Nathalie. Our goal was to head to the fields and do a wildflower shoot but while I was waiting for Nathalie and Taylor to arrive I got distracted by some amazing graffiti shots and we decided we needed to add a bit of that too. She did great! So here she is… meet Nathalie!

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Teen Photography 2018 Sherman CT

Teen Photography 2018

Taylor

Litchfield County CT

I have been longing to do a Free People inspired shoot for a while and when I came across this Free People dress I knew the time was right! A huge thank you to Taylor for going along with the vision and modeling for Nathalie and I on a humid sticky night in Sherman CT. You see I wanted to put Nathalie on the other side of the camera for a few shots, so we came up with the idea of having Taylor come with us so that Nathalie could shoot a bit too. Confused? Don’t worry the images kind of speak for themselves….

We set out with an overly optimistic plan of driving to Danbury to shoot some downtown graffiti shots first but we very quickly realized we were not going to have time to get back up to Sherman for sunset meadow shots. A quick compromise found us trekking under the bridge at Lover’s Leap for some local graffiti. Nathalie took these amazing ones of Taylor and I got a few of Nathalie but you’ll have to wait for the next blog post to see those!

We used a beauty dish to create some drama and shadows. We knew we were going all soft and dreamy for our next stop so it was great to have a little contrast here! On to full-on Free People dreamy natural light. The sun was setting fast so conditions were different for almost every shot!

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Girl Power Tribe Group Shoot New Milford CT

Ocean’s 8 inspired Girl Power

Tribe Group Shoot

New Milford CT

The latest Ocean’s 8 movie builds on the premise that girls can do it themselves. The film follows a group of women, led by Debbie Ocean, the sister of Danny Ocean, who plan a highly sophisticated heist of the annual Met Gala in New York City. Each character brings their individual sense of style, talents and skills needed to pull off the heist. Powerful women who can conquer the world? Now that’s a theme worth exploring!

This was the first group shoot for the 2k19 Planet Photo Tribe. A huge shout out goes to Rebecca Christine’s Consignment Boutique in Marbledale, CT for help with styling our shoot. They have an amazing selection of new and gently worn clothes for exceptional prices and they were so fun to work with!

The bank vault at 19Main provided a unique backdrop for our jewelry stealing crew.

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