We have been enjoying an unusually cool spell for Arizona spring, with highs in the 70-80 range, and I knew it would be really important to get Natalie’s senior photos done before the heat sets in. Thus it was that on Friday, I scouted what I thought might make for some picturesque location options, and planned for us to head over there on Saturday around supper time to make good use of the golden hour.
The spot I chose was in a brand new community in the southwest Valley, called Verrado, in Buckeye, AZ. Now, I had heard a little bit about it as development progressed over the last couple of years, and expected it to be a swanky neighborhood. However, I was sorely ill prepared for the the reality of it. We drove directly to the center of the Main Street district, and the homes we passed on cozy, tree lined streets, were all gigantic, custom built homes, ranging in style from Tuscan Villa to Frank Lloyd Write inspired. I could barely stop swiveling my head, gaping at one mansion after another, to keep the van on the road! Each was more glorious than the last. It was a real shock to the system, coming from the Maryvale Village, which if you know Phoenix at all, you know is an… interesting… neighborhood. (My kids call it ghetto. I’m not going to argue.) If you visit the website I linked, you wont see these homes. The new homes going up are really nice, but these OG Verrado homes are several cuts above!
Anyway, I felt very out of place, but still hopeful we could find one of the park like locations I’d seen on the google image search. And we did. Right in the heart of the “charming small town” Main Street area. There was a beautiful – small – park with some tiled steps and a really pretty fountain and some green grassy areas around it. Perfect location for photos! Guess how I knew? There were about a dozen other photo shoots going on there at the same time, for Quinces and Proms from the looks of it, with several professional photographers as well as mom and pop taking pics of their kids.
I really was worried I’d made a bad mistake coming in the thick of prom season to such a fancy place, and was not even sure I could make it work finding an angle for photos that didn’t either get in someone else’s way, or have 3 other photoshoots right behind my subject. But then I remembered a video I’d seen from a pro photographer who went to Rome, and did a portrait session by Trevi fountain, with crowds like this:
And he still managed to get terrific shots that looked like he had the place to himself. So I thought, well, this ain’t that bad, I can do this.
So Paul pushed me around the square till I got what looked like a decent angle that wasn’t being used by anyone else, and I got to work.
I was really happy to have Ellie and Ruben along, as well as Paul. Ruben had just gotten his hair cut by Natalie (long overdue), and Ellie had gotten her hair dyed (thanks to Laurent), so I was delighted to get a few photos of both of them too while we were there. Each helped in their own way, with Ellie assisting Natalie with holding whichever shoes she wasn’t wearing at the time, and finding posing ideas to show her. Ruben carried my bag from time to time and cheered us on and was his usual sunshiny self.
I have been sad over these high school years that my handicap prevented me from doing any photography at Natalie’s sporting events – I would have dearly loved to become proficient in that field as well as record her escapades on the court and field. But I am seriously gratified to have been able to do this session, with all the help I had. I was out of my chair for a long time, walking around with my heavy camera, but it was so worth it.
On our way back to town we stopped at McDonalds and got some burgers for the road, which we ate while counting Teslas. Unsurprisingly, we got up to – I think – 48 by the time we reached home.
