Have questions about planning your senior session? Coco Alley Photography provides senior photography sessions for high school seniors in Alpharetta, Cumming, Milton and the surrounding North Atlanta area. From choosing the perfect location and outfits to deciding when to schedule your session, we are here to help make the experience fun, relaxed and personal!
Already ready to book a session?
If not, we got you!
Read on for the most common questions we get!
The best time depends on what you plan to use your senior portraits for! If you need an image for a yearbook senior ad, we recommend scheduling your session during the summer or in the early fall of senior year. Every school has its own yearbook and senior ad deadlines, so be sure to check with your school for the exact cutoff date.
If you’re planning to use your images for graduation announcements, party invitations, or simply to celebrate this season of life, you have much more flexibility. You can schedule the session anytime! We photograph seniors all year!
We typically recommend two main looks, with a possible third if time allows. This gives us enough variety without spending the entire session changing clothes. We love a combination of something that feels a little more dressed up and something that feels more casual and authentic to them. Think favorite jeans, a dress, school colors, a favorite jacket, or anything that makes them feel confident.
Not at all! But we do love incorporating them when you have them! The cap and gown can be included as just one small part of the session rather than making the entire shoot feel like a traditional graduation portrait. A few fun & natural images is a wonderful way to document the accomplishment.
If your senior has committed to a college, absolutely! A college sweatshirt, T-shirt, pennant, hat, jersey, or other school gear can be a fun addition. It doesn’t have to take over the session, but simply weaved in as one piece of their story.
YES! This is one of our favorite parts of senior sessions. If your senior plays soccer, dances, acts, rides horses, makes art, plays an instrument, loves the lake, spends weekends at the ball field, or has another hobby that is a big part of their life, we’d love to hear about it.
Sometimes that means bringing an instrument or sports equipment. Sometimes it means choosing a location that naturally fits their interests. And sometimes it’s simply incorporating little details that make the images feel uniquely theirs.
We love locations with beautiful natural light, texture, movement, and variety, and we’ll help choose a setting that fits your senior’s personality and the overall look you’re going for. A field at golden hour might be perfect for one senior, while another might feel more at home downtown, at a favorite outdoor spot, around their school, near the water, or somewhere connected to a hobby. We can talk through what you envision and help narrow down the possibilities.
Nope! And this is probably one of the most important things to know about us, we would rather they didn’t 😂 ! Our style combines traditional portraiture with a natural, documentary feel. We’ll absolutely give direction when it’s helpful, but we’re also looking for the little moments in between. Their laugh, movement and the way they naturally interact with their surroundings. All of the expressions that make them, them. Our goal isn’t to make your senior look like a model they’ve never seen before. The goal is to photograph the person you already know and love.
That’s completely normal for some teens! Honestly, some of our favorite sessions begin with a senior telling us they are terrible at having their picture taken. 😂 We’ll guide them through the session, keep things relaxed, and give them opportunities to move, interact, laugh and simply be themselves. We aren’t expecting them to show up knowing how to “model.”
Absolutely. A few photos with parents, siblings, grandparents, a best friend, or even a beloved pet can be a really meaningful addition. We just recommend keeping the focus primarily on the senior so we have plenty of time to tell their story.
Whenever possible, we love working with beautiful natural light, especially the softer light later in the day.Golden hour is one of our favorites because it gives us that warm, dreamy light that works so beautifully with our lifestyle style. The exact timing will depend on the location and season.
We’d rather choose one location that gives us a variety of backdrops than spend the majority of your session driving around. We can discuss this in more detail while planning your session.
Yes! If there is ever a time for props, it’s now. We just recommend choosing things that genuinely represent them rather than bringing props simply because they look good in pictures. *There are a few venues that do not allow props but they are few and far between.*
Don’t wait! Senior pictures should document this season of their life. If they happen to have braces, that’s part of their story. And they’ll be gone soon enough!