Set the Trend: Editorial Senior Portraits Austin, TX
PHOTOGRAPHY · TANYA EIVIN PHOTOGRAPHY
By Tanya Eivin | Austin, TX & New York, NY | June 15, 2025
Set the Trend: Editorial Senior Portraits Austin, TX
Today, a mom of the incoming HS senior thanked me. And we haven’t even had her daughter’s session yet! At the end of our conversation, she said: “Thank you for helping me not to stress about this whole process, for taking it all off my plate.” And I smiled, and said: “I am happy to.” We talked about senior portraits in Austin and how neither of us had that experience back in our own high school days because it wasn’t even a “thing” yet. The only thing we knew was a class picture, and those silly “mugshots” (that’s the best I can describe those, and I bet you know exactly what I am talking about because you’ve been there yourself). Now, the entire graduating year is different. It’s an experience. And if you are a first-time HS senior parent to-be, you are about to step into that experience not exactly as prepared as you may have hoped.
When Should You Book Senior Portraits in Austin?
Senior portraits in Austin should get booked as soon as the school year starts. Don’t the week yearbook forms are due. Once class schedules, activities, and college applications pile on, planning a session becomes the first thing that slips. Book early and the rest of the senior year actually gets to stay fun.
The school dances, the homecoming, the prom, the award nights, the scholarship and college acceptance announcement events, the senior picnic, the powderpuff, the senior sunrise and sunset. The Friday night games, the weekend competitions, the sports, the theater productions, the tech team meets. Scholarships, college applications, and of course, senior portraits! All of that makes for a busy, messy, stressful, high-stakes, emotionally-charged, yet most memorable year of their life.
A Note To Parents
The main challenge for us, parents, is to stay as sane, grounded, accommodating, responsible, and supportive as humanly possible. All while navigating a job, a family, and your HS senior needs. So, it’s no surprise that booking your senior portraits easily slips our mind until we hear that their yearbook materials are due in a week. And at this point, it’s almost always too late. I’ve been there, twice. So I know the feeling firsthand.
I also know how fast time flies. In less than a year, some of them will be heading out the door to go to college or their first adult jobs and first adult apartments. The kids are growing up too damn fast. That mere idea brings a smile to our face, but also tears to our eyes. We want to preserve that time we have with them. We want those memories filling our homes, and incredible portraits on our walls to look at when they leave.
If you start that conversation with your almost-senior, the only sure answer you’ll get is a yes to senior portraits (eventually). Don’t expect them to know or being able to describe what they are looking for, it will get you nowhere and frustrated before they finish the third sentence… “Like that but different” will be the most you can get out of them.
And back to square one you go. Short on time, short on ideas, and possibly short on patience at this point.
Consider It Done
That’s where I come in. These kids want to set trends, not follow what everyone else is doing. So we do a high-fashion, editorial senior portrait session, magazine-style, in the studio. When they don’t know what they are going to wear and it’s driving both of you crazy, I step in and take over. We tour their closet, and I style them head to toe the way they want to be perceived. Between what they already own, what they persuade you to buy, and my beautifully curated studio closet, we are going to make it work better than either one of you could have imagined. Hair and makeup is done for them just the way they want, a total no-brainer for you.
From there, it all starts to take shape. The only thing we need from you and your senior now is to show up and actually have fun. That’s it. The rest is already done, taken care of, planned, scheduled, and styled for you.
When this mom of the HS senior girl said to me that when she was new to it all with her son, and did not know a thing about this whole HS senior experience, I related so wholeheartedly. Because that was me once.
What Makes Editorial Senior Portraits Different?
Editorial senior portraits are built like a magazine shoot, not a quick backdrop session. Wardrobe gets pulled from the client’s closet and my own styling collection, hair and makeup is handled in studio. Every senior walks out with images that could run in a spread instead of getting buried in a yearbook.
Senior portraits are actually a major crisis-inducing, drama-filled, “I do but I don’t” kind of thing no one wants to be responsible for when it’s time to get planning and get ready for it. I can’t do a single thing about the rest of the senior year chaos, the sports schedules, or the college applications. But when she thanked me for taking that entire weight off her plate for her daughter, the circle just closed.
Here’s my hand. Hold on to it, let’s go make it happen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tanya Metaxa is the owner of Tanya Eivin Photography and a self-proclaimed Portrait Maven — because she is one. Based between Austin, TX and New York, NY, she has spent the last five years photographing couples, kids, pets, and the humans behind brands. If not today, when?
tanyaeivinphotography.com · studio@tanyaeivinphotography.com · (512) 866-6565
Look for a studio that treats the session as a real creative shoot, not a quick backdrop appointment, and check whether they handle styling and hair and makeup in-house. Tanya Eivin Photography builds every senior session around wardrobe pulled from the client’s own closet plus a curated studio closet, so nobody shows up guessing what to wear.
Book as early in the school year as possible, well before yearbook deadlines force the decision. Senior year fills up fast with sports, scholarships, and college applications, and photography sessions are usually the first thing that gets pushed off until it’s almost too late.
There’s no need to have it figured out in advance. Wardrobe gets worked out together, combining what the student already owns, what they want to add, and pieces from the studio’s own styling closet, so the outfit actually matches who they are.
No. An editorial senior portrait session is built more like a magazine shoot than a yearbook appointment, with studio lighting, full styling, and hair and makeup included. The final images are meant to hang on a wall, not just fill a yearbook page.
