How far in advance should you book your senior photos?
There are many factors that will determine how far in advance you should book your photos! Seniors have a thousand and one things to do and taking photos often gets procrastinated. In this blog post, I am going to talk about a few considerations that you need to keep in mind when scheduling your senior photoshoot! Things like: Choosing your photographer, best time of year, weekends or weekdays, weather, rescheduling, cap and gown deliveries, and prints and delivery time.
High School senior girl dressed in blue jeans, black top, and graduation gown and stole standing in front of her high school letters in El Paso, TX.
Choosing your photographer!
My biggest suggestion is to know who you want your photographer to be. The photographers popularity, style, and availability will dictate how far in advance you need to book your senior photos. You will find that some photographers are booked out a YEAR in advance. While others can take you on in the same week. My suggestion is to reach out to the photographer to start collaborating on a time and date as early as possible! It may take some compromise and planning to get the date and time figured out. Agreeing on a date and time can depend on the photographers style as well. For myself, I like to shoot at golden hour (1-2 hours before sunset or 1-2 hours after sunrise). There are only 2 times a day when golden hour happens, early morning and late afternoon, most people do not like to wake up early which leaves only one option… Sunset.
“Best time of year”
There is no “BEST” time of year to take photos. There are sunsets everyday. This depends on what you want your senior photos to look like. Do you want fall vibes? Winter vibes? Spring vibes? Summer vibes?
This is a shameless plug for my senior content team. You will get photos and video of all these times of year on my team!
Ok, back to your regular programming.
Start to plan your vibe about 2-3 months in advance. The next point that I have for best time of year is dependent on the time change. Realize that photoshoots in the summer are late in the afternoon and winter photoshoots are early afternoon photoshoots due to the sunset. Summer sunset can be as late as 8:00pm! Winter sunset can be as early as 5:00pm! So photoshoots can begin as early as 3:30 and as late as 6:00pm.
High School Senior girl dressed in white with gold graduation cap and gown standing against brick and ivy.
Should you book on weekends or weekdays?
Weekends will, inevitably, fill up quicker than weekdays. Each has their own set of problems. The overarching theme of scheduling is DATE, TIME, LOCATION!
Weekends - Prime senior photo times from Friday, Saturday, Sunday afternoon. Best in term of availability for both parents and student. Probably one of the worst in terms of crowds and other grads getting their photos taken at the same place at the same time.
Weekdays - Lesser scheduled dates but one of the best times for no crowds. Worst in terms of availability of the photographer, parents, student schedule. It is more difficult to schedule around life events but it is possible.
Weather considerations
The weather in El Paso is usually predictable…. You are going to experience the sun. The nickname of the “Sun City” definitely gives it away. But, there are very random times that we will be hit with cold, wind, rain, and a random snow storm. Since we live in the desert, these few days we experience weather can be quite dramatic. Just this past year, we had a few Haboobs that come on quickly and coat the entire city in dust. What is the point? I suggest that you book early enough that you have the option to reschedule with enough time to complete the photoshoot and give yourself time to deliver them to friends and family after the photographer has edited the session. Which, seamlessly, leads me into my next point…
High school senior boy wearing black dress pants, white dress shirt with a black tie leaning against a rock wall peering into the distance with downtown El Paso in the background.
Rescheduling
Photographers do reserve dates and times for rescheduling due to weather and life related events. I would kindly ask if they had rescheduling dates available in case of weather or life related events that come up. Rescheduling is difficult for photographers because we need clients to make a living. If one client is constantly rescheduling, this costs the photographer time in potential client books and money in one client taking multiple dates that could be used for multiple clients. Often, you will find that photographers will have a rescheduling fee. For myself, it depends on the situation. I may terminate the project all together because I do not ask for money upfront. I expect the same courtesy from my clients about payment after services and products are rendered as they do from myself regarding professionalism.
Cap and Gown considerations
Now I understand that it may be difficult to get senior photos in the fall and winter with your cap and gown. Most caps and gowns are delivered in the spring. Scheduling your senior photos may be dictated by the expected delivery of your cap and gown. The next issue that may arise is the student’s graduation rank. Top 10 and Top 10% is usually determined near the end of the year. Why do I bring this up? Because it’s a big deal to graduate top 10 or top 10% in your school and get to wear a different color than everyone else! I am much more lenient on graduates at the end of their senior year who are graduating top 10 or top 10% because the school will swap out their cap and gown for a different color. Then we can take photos! I promise to get these images to the student ant their parents as quickly as possible! It is a great accomplishment and I will work to make sure their accomplishment is celebrated!
University of Texas “Gone to Texas” with orange roses and baby’s breath laying on top.
Prints and Delivery
The last point I want to make about booking your senior photoshoot is the amount of time it will take to schedule your photoshoot, allow the photographer to edit the photos, order prints and invitations for friends and family, and waiting for delivery of those products takes anywhere from 1-3 weeks. Just for delivery. You want to be courteous and respectful of people and their time. Allow them enough time to put you on the schedule and make you a priority to attend your graduation and party!
Conclusion
There are so many points that can be made about the timing of your senior photos. And, technically, you can do whatever you want. But there will be consequences to whatever you decide. Good or Bad. But in order to have the best outcome and give those that care about you enough time. You have to start early. I don’t want to overwhelm you with barrier after barrier. Just know that senior year is filled with events and the year flies by! So the answer for “how far in advance should you book your senior photos” is sooner than you think and sooner than you are ready! I strongly suggest you reach out to 1,2,3 photographers to begin the collaborative process!
