The Pittsburgh City Lights and a Senior from Greater Latrobe
The perfect combination- city lights and a senior at sunset!
Downtown Pittsburgh is one of the most popular spots for senior portrait sessions but that doesn’t mean that your session needs to look like every other senior. Your session will be uniquely you for a variety of reasons – the time of year and time of day your choose, your specific locations, and YOU! You are a unique person and my goal is to help to create a senior session that’s uniquely you too!
One way that I keep my sessions fresh is by spending extra time walking around and looking for new nooks and crannies that will work for portraits.
And when this senior from Greater Latrobe (my alma mater) reached out for scheduling her session downtown, I knew these spots would be perfect for her.
The Lights Around Ft Duquesne Blvd
I love that golden hour light, especially downtown! For those not familiar, the golden hour is the hour before the sunsets. If you watch, you can see how the light has a beautiful golden glow. It’s a favorite time for many photographers. With downtown, you have the combination of the sun setting and the street lights, headlights, and other fun lights in the area.
Our first stop has a light display that’s up on one of the apartment buildings downtown. The lights flicker through solid colors and rainbows and white lights.
Her blue top perfectly coordinated with this location!
That gorgeous golden light
After a quick change, we decided to capture some of the natural light down towards Point State Park. The area can definitely get a bit crowded but that golden hour light is just lovely. And we were still able to find some spots.
And when we couldn’t find open spots, I worked my photoshop magic to create them myself.
The Pop-up Park on Ft Duquesne Blvd
It was time for one more change and then back out to find more lights. This time we stopped at the pop-up park on Ft. Duquesne Blvd. From May until October, the southbound lanes of Ft Duquesne Blvd were transformed into a lovely outdoor space with twinkle lights, a stage, picnic tables, and food trucks. They even managed to include a street mural in the planning. This was one of those magic spots that I was excited to share with a special senior and I was thrilled at our results.
Sadly, I’m not sure if the park will be back this year but I”m keeping my fingers crossed. I love living in a city that recognizes the values of these creative spaces.
But we weren’t done with the lights yet.
The Bridges and the City
We headed across the bridge to get some final images of the city as the sun was setting. Our goal wasn’t just to get the city but to specifically get some images with the Highmark Building in the background. Her grandfather worked there for many years and had passed away recently. Having the building as part of her sessions helped to have him as part of this milestone. These are the connections that I love to encourage my clients to consider when choosing a location for their sessions. It turns the photo into the illustration of a story. “Remember, that’s building? That’s where Grandpap worked. Remember when we would visit him?” And then the memories and stories flow.
Then it was time to head back to our cars but we were still able to enjoy the bridges and lights of the city with the cars passing.
This girl (and her family) were amazing!! They walked all over the streets and bridges, with trips back to the garage to change in my changing tent. And to see these smiles at the end of the evening when you’re tired and ready to be done… such a rockstar!
MIss A, I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you! I know you’re headed for great things!
