Northwest Arkansas-Mellow Yellow Photography

I knew from my first conversation with Melissa’s mother, Vicki, that Melissa was going to be a great senior gal to shoot.  She was excited and ready to book before I could even give my pitch (ha!! as if I really have a pitch.) They were traveling from Sarcoxie MO, about an hour and a half away to have me take Melissa’s photos…at 7 A.M.!!!  You do the math on when they had to start getting ready for that one.  BUT they trusted me when I said morning light was TO DIE FOR, so imagine my terror when the forecast the night before said stormy all day starting at, you guessed it, 7 a.m.  That morning Melissa popped out of the car excited with the biggest most adorable smile, ready to start shooting and assured me that she was willing to sit in mud if it meant I was getting a good shot….dream girl, this one.  The morning started off dry and lovely.  Very heavily overcast, but still enough light to make it work just fine.  Lets get to the good stuff now.

We began at the Compton Gardens trails.  Lovely lovely place.  Come visit, you wont be let down.

BOOM!  Work it, Melissa!!

She said “want me to lay in these?”  I didn’t have to direct this girl a bit.  She. Was. On!

This is right about when it got dark…real dark out and the wind started getting pretty gusty.  Quick snappin’ time.

about 20 minutes into shooting it started pouring hard.  I started to panic inside I must admit.  They had driven so far for this and I couldn’t let them down.  Time for some quick thinking.  Right by Compton Gardens in downtown Bentonville a new little modern art museum/hotel has opened up called 21c.  OH. MY. GATO!!  It’s gorgeous.  GORGEOUS!  I hoofed it inside and greeting me at the door were two gentlemen with umbrellas and large smiles.  I told them what was going on and asked if we may shoot for a little while inside.  They were beyond happy to accommodate us and our drippy selves.  They showed us around and let us go wherever we liked in the downstairs museum area.  I later found they normally ask for reservations and a small fee to shoot there, but they said not a word about this to me and just let me do my thing.  One girl even brought us a large neon green penguin as a prop!I can’t say enough good things about this place.  If you’re coming to visit Crystal Bridges, walk the 10 minute hike up the Compton Gardens/Crystal Bridges trail and go visit this place.  AH-MER-ZIN!!!

hey hey cutie.

in love. look at those perfectly plump and pouty lips!  delish.

We were just about to reel in this sessions when Melissa asked if I would take some of her in the rain since we were about finished and she didn’t care what her hair looked like on the drive home.  I said “well gaaaarrrrlllllyy!  Of course we can!!”  So she put her prom dress back on and out the doors we went…but not before we hit up this sweet installment.

pretty.  pretty. pretty.

These ones right here just get me.  She said she had never danced in the rain before and boy did we ever dance.  The splash pad was on and we got wet!  (no cameras were destroyed in the making of these photos)

Her face on the right….LOVE.  I like, so love it.

Would it be creepy to hang up a 16×20 of this one in my house?  It just makes me feel happy.

Hellloooooo sassy!

And I wanted to end on my favorite.  Melissa, I love your smile.  It is one of those that just warms ya better than a cup of hot cocoa and the light in your eyes, I hope never goes anywhere.  You were truly the ultimate pleasure to work with and I hope to have the pleasure again someday.  Enjoy these and your senior year!!  I know you’ll do amazing things.