McRae | McCallie School | Chattanooga Senior Photographer

This month marks my 20th year since graduating high school. So when Caroline contacted me about senior photos for her son McRae, I couldn’t help but think how serendipitous this session would be. In Chattanooga, where I am from, there are two schools whose founders are brother and sister. The all girls high school I graduated from, Girls Preparatory School is the sister school to McCallie, the all boys high school. When I arrived early on campus for McRae’s session, I started taking some photos of just the chapel, where we would start our session. Memories of being on campus came flooding back, and I remembered all the good times of being an 18 year old, excited about what the future would hold for me.

I love shooting high school seniors and was looking forward to my first male senior session in four years. Most senior guys don’t enjoy getting their pictures taken, but McRae was super cool and we had fun shooting his photos! As part of my client experience, I always have a music playlist ready to go for my seniors to help them relax during their session. McRae loves rap and country music so as I started to play some songs for him, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud and talk about how I listened to a lot of *NSYNC in high school LOL.

McCallie’s campus has changed a lot over the years, so I made a visit a week before to do some location scouting. The weather was absolutely gorgeous for McRae’s session! There are so many great spots on campus for photos. One of the best features about McCallie is that it is set atop Missionary Ridge, an area of Chattanooga that is known for an important battle during the Civil War. The higher you walk on campus, the more spectacular the view of the city and Lookout Mountain becomes, especially when you are a shooting on a clear night with a spring sunset.

McRae plans on attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a few hours where he is from and will be studying business. His family is so special in that his parents adopted a group of four siblings when McRae was 14 years old. He loves being involved in lots of fun activities such as soccer, beach volleyball and sailing. And of course, high school isn’t complete without spending time with a great group of friends!

Congratulations, McRae on all of your accomplishments! Here’s to the Class of 2021!