2016 Icon Status
Chelsea Taylor
Chelsea Taylor is an award-winning, natural light photographer located in southern Kansas. She specializes in portraits for teen & senior girls and strives to create an experience that makes young women feel beautiful & confident. Chelsea is known for bright, bold, colorful images with lots of sunshine! Chelsea is the wife of a gorgeous bearded man, the mom of a spoiled pitbull and she has a deep love for strong coffee, dark chocolate and the dollar bins at target. Her work has been nationally published in Senior Style Guide, The Twelfth Year & Beauty Revived magazine.
Christina Ramirez
Christina Ramirez operates two studios in downtown San Antonio, Texas. She left a job in corporate banking for photography 5 years ago and has been specializing in senior portraits for the last 4 years. Her love for all things colorful and bold has helped shape the photographic style she is known for yet she’s always seeking ways to grow and evolve and is the first to encourage others to do the same. Christina has a degree in education so teaching photography and mentoring is something she truly enjoys. She has had the honor of speaking at Senior Style Guide’s PUSH conference for 3 years, along with speaking at Conference 12, Blink Conference and Reset Conference. Christina has been published in Senior Style Guide, Modern Teen Style, awarded Hot 100 Senior Photographer 4 years in a row including ICON status the last 2 years. Aside from speaking at photography conferences, mentoring and running her business, Christina is a dreamer, obsessed with podcasts, a travel-lover and married to her best friend.
Cindy Swanson
Cindy is an award winning natural light photographer, based outside of Dallas, Texas. She loves to evolve her photography, continually learn and is known for her beautiful, dreamy light filled images. She loves to bring out her senior’s confidence…and photograph that, and has quickly become one of the most sought after Senior portrait photographers in the Dallas area.
Cindy’s work has won awards including “HOT 100” by Senior Style Guide 2 years in a row, reaching Icon status in 2016, and The Twelfth Year’s Top 25 Up & Coming Senior Photographers of 2016. She has been a platform speaker at Imaging USA and her work has been published in Lemonade & Lenses as well as photography blogs.
Dawn Corwin
Dawn Corwin is a published and award-winning photographer, and lays her head in the suburbs of St. Louis, MO. She is known for her artistic creativity, and an unrelenting modern approach to portraiture. Her style is driven by glamour and fashion, and her clients love the opportunity to feel like models from their favorite fashion magazines. The result is unique pieces of art featuring everyday people. Dawn is the founder and photographer of Dawn Corwin Creative Photography, better known as DCCP. Her goal is to be able to show her clients themselves in the most beautiful way possible, and strongly believes in the empowerment of women. Dawn is driven by the belief that everyone deserves to feel worthy, and honestly and furiously loves what she does.
Jane Engs
Jane Engs is an award winning professional photographer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She specializes in high school senior photography, as well as fine art, lifestyle, and commercial portraits. She began studying her craft in 2000 and has attended dozens of schools, seminars, and workshops. Lately she has focused on innovative lighting techniques and advanced photo editing. Jane started her boutique studio 5 years ago. Each client receives personalized styling to achieve his or her vision. She has quickly become a highly sought after senior photographer in Las Vegas. Jane has also traveled to photograph clients through out the U.S. and internationally. She is a member of PPA and WPPI.
Jenna Wren
I spent 4 years in the high school classroom before taking the leap of faith to pursue the art of photography full-time. And now 2 babies and 3 years later, I am chasing my dream of showing women how beautiful they truly are and worthy of all life has to offer them
I specialize in weddings, elopement, and high school senior girls because I love having the opportunity to show my clients how incredibly beautiful, intelligent, rare, wild and free their souls are. There is truly nothing else like capturing authentic love between a bride and her groom on their wedding day, or those final moments before a senior graduates and enters the world to chase her own dreams. I hope my passion for this art speaks to her wild heart!
Years ago, I would not have pictured myself as a mom to two boys, but their crazy, wild little selves speaks so much to the adventurer in me. We spend so many of our days exploring, going on “adventures” {really dangerous ones according to my oldest Sawyer}, creating artistic impressions from their tiny hands, dreaming and scheming of ways to team up against daddy when he gets home from work.
I absolutely love traveling, laughing, and seeking new paths full of joy and unbridled adventures with the love of my life Steve, our gorgeous boys Sawyer and Spencer, and our faithful lab Mia. I love our industry, and I am so thankful to be working alongside so many other creatives who share the same heart.
Kody Diane Hajda
Kody Diane Hajda (Hi-Duh), owner of Kody Diane Photography is an award winning and nationally published senior photographer based out of Austin, Texas. For the past six years Kody has dedicated her career to making Texas seniors see how beautiful they are inside and out. Kody works exclusively with high school seniors, and routinely has them travel in from across the country for their once in a lifetime portrait experience. Kody’s senior work blends natural smiles and movements with an editorial flare, to truly celebrate what makes each senior unique and also giving them the model vibe every girl desires. Outside of shooting seniors, Kody has contributed several articles to Senior Style Guide and has mentored several up and coming senior photographers from across the United States.
Maxxum Photography
Maxxum Photography is an internationally published and award winning studio in Kansas City that provides senior portraiture, exclusively. Owned and operated by Dave and Jodi Williams, the studio is well known for its bold, creative portraiture including their innovative Sportraits for athletes.
In their free time, Dave & Jodi enjoy getting off road in the wilderness with their customized Jeeps.
Melissa Olson
Hi there! I’m Melissa (aka MAO) a natural light portrait photographer based out of sunny South Florida . I specialize in romantic , whimsical , and light-infused imagery for seniors, teens, and couples. I started my photography journey when I was just 16 , after my dad gifted me with my very first camera. Photography quickly became my passion and my soul and I knew without a doubt that it would be my path in life.
MAO Photography was born almost three years ago out of my love for portraiture, nature, and fairytales. I decided that my mission in life would be to document everyday stories of love, beauty, and courage. To create and share real life fairytales. To me, everyone has a unique and captivating story to tell, whether it’s their love story or their journey to High School graduation and beyond . I strive to create unique and vibrant images that illuminate my clients natural beauty and individuality.
Nicole Cook
Nicole Cook is a senior photographer in Granite Bay, California. Before finding her passion for working with teens, she pursued fashion photography and worked alongside editors of magazines on fashion editorials and a fitness magazine cover. Her shift to portrait photography has earned her a Certificate of Excellence at WPPI, and four magazine covers including Senior Style Guide, Modern Teen Style, Lemonade and Lenses and CHIC Magazine, as well as numerous editorials. When not working, Nicole is happiest spending time with her family, sipping on an iced coffee and reading cookbooks.
Reyanna Jarrel
Reyanna (Rey) Jarrel is a self-taught photographer based out Overton, a small rural town about 70 miles North of Las Vegas NV. She specializes primarily in senior photography, and thanks to all her former seniors who have gotten married, she now has a flourishing wedding photography business as well. Rey is also a wife of 20 years, and a mother of three teenage daughters. She started her photography business five years ago as a side job, and now works full-time in her little studio in Overton. Rey has been nationally recognized for her senior photography work, and has been published on numerous blogs and publications including Modern Teen Style Top 25 Most Influential Photographers in both 2014 & 2015, Hot 100 Senior Photographers in 2015 & 2016 as well as ICON Status winner in 2016.
Sara Welch
Sara Welch is a Southeast Texas award winning photographer specializing in Senior and Lifestyle Family Portraits. She has been working in the industry for the past 7 years focusing primarily on high school seniors. Her style is described as clean, authentic and personal. She creates one of a kind sessions that are true to her client’s personalities and loves capturing real moments that stop time. She has been featured on various photography sites such as Senior Style Guide, Lemonade & Lenses, Seniorologie and Inspire me Baby. She lives in Orange, TX with her husband David and children Emma, Henry and Lina.
Stephanie Coon
Hey y’all! I am Stephanie and I love photographing seniors! I feel so incredibly blessed to have had the option to specialize in this genre. Seniors are so fun to work with and bring out the best of my creativeness. I love the fashion, style, hair and make up, posing, personalities, it’s all just so fun to capture!
So here’s a little bit about me… I currently reside in Surprise, AZ. I was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas, so I do say y’all a lot, but I don’t really have a Texan accent (you can be the judge of that). There are 4 important “must knows” about me.
1.I love God! He is the reason I’m here, he’s the reason our photography business is in existence! All glory to God for opening the doors of opportunity. And also for giving us so much beauty to capture!
2. I love my family! The other half of SMP is my husband Aaron. Without him I would just be snapping pics as a hobby. He takes care of all things necessary to run this business. He really is my everything! We have a baby girl, Aulani, who just turned 3. She is so precious, kind, cute, and fun! We love her and are so thankful that God chose us to be her parents.
3. I love food! I do, I do!!! I love eating and trying new things!!! I think I like sweets the best!!! I prefer locally owned over any chain. I love indulging in chef created dishes that are fresh and delicious!
4. I love travel! Ever since I met Aaron we have been travel fanatics! We enjoy seeing all of the natural beauties that God made with his own hands as well as all the things man has made with theirs. We have been so fortunate to travel the world together and now we get to bring our baby girl along with us.
Zach and Sarah Photography
Zach and Sarah are a husband and wife photography team based in a small town called Cookeville, Tennessee. After dating in high school, they married in 2006. As a teacher during the recession, Sarah decided they needed to branch out creatively and follow a dream of photography (because no better time to start a business that a recession, right?) Their photography career began in 2008, and their business has grown and evolved ever since. They are passionate about photographing couples, seniors, and their adorable toddler, Winnie Kate. They love the relationships they create with their seniors during such a tumultuous time in their lives, and it inspires them to witness a shy, insecure girl feel empowered in front of their cameras. They won the HOT 100 award in 2015, and were honored to be named ICON status in 2016.