My eight year old son had school pictures this week.  While I am not usually a big fan of the posed studio shots, I did purchase the smallest package I possibly could because I was curious as to how they would turn out.  The fact that I had to purchase the pictures before actually seeing whether my son had an errant hair sticking up or leftover food on his face, is another blog post entirely.  Anyway…..I think back to my own school pictures growing up and I have a distinct recollection of some really cheesy backdrops.  If I remember correctly, there was one (from the 1980′s period, I’m sure) that consisted of neon pink and blue lights as the backdrop – classy!!

For the last four years, I have had the opportunity to photograph the students at Peaceful Pathways Montessori Academy . Not only is this an amazing school with incredible teachers, it is also located on seven wooded acres, with plenty of natural grasses and wildflowers, a running creek, and an old barn. Basically, a photographer’s dream! School pictures are taken outdoors with the fall foliage as a gorgeous backdrop. Because I am able to spend more than a few seconds with each child building rapport, I capture lots of natural smiles and giggles instead of the forced grins of typical school pictures. Here are just a few of the cuties I was able to photograph this year….