There are certain photography decisions that sound questionable right up until you see the pictures.
Driving an hour to Maine for a senior session might qualify.
That's what I was thinking as I headed to Fort Foster in Kittery, Maine for Grant's senior photos.
The park charges a $25 day-use fee per car, which is worth knowing ahead of time, but the bigger question for me was whether the location was going to justify the drive.
It did.
Absolutely.
One Location, A Lot of Different Looks
One of the things I loved about Fort Foster was how quickly the session could change without ever getting back into the truck.
We had the pier.
Rocky shoreline.
Beach.
Open water.
Old concrete fort areas.
Different textures everywhere.
Normally when I'm planning a senior session, I'm thinking about how to keep the gallery from becoming 25 versions of the same photo with slightly different facial expressions.
Fort Foster makes that pretty easy.
Walk for a few minutes and suddenly the entire feel of the session changes.
We could go from a clean coastal portrait on the pier to something much more rugged against granite and old concrete, then move down toward the water for a completely different look.
Same senior.
Same evening.
Totally different photographs.
For someone like me who likes variety in a gallery, that's pretty hard to beat.
How Fort Foster Even Got on My Radar
I actually got the idea for Fort Foster after seeing some wedding photos online that had been taken there.
The location immediately caught my attention, so while I was chatting with Grant about ideas for his senior session, I threw it out there to see if he was game.
Thankfully, he was.
So off we went to Kittery.
Apparently, we weren't the only photographers who thought Fort Foster photographed well either. During the session, we ran into two other photographers doing senior pictures of their own.
There Is One Small Problem
Other people apparently know Fort Foster is beautiful too.
Who knew?
Families were there having picnics and enjoying the scenery.
People were walking around.
And with other photographers working nearby, there were times when the best move was simply to wait a minute, shoot somewhere else, and circle back.
The good part was that everyone was respectful.
When one photographer had a good spot, the others moved somewhere else. When the pier opened up, you moved quickly, got your shots and let the next person have a turn.
Nobody acted like they owned the place.
Which is exactly how it should be.
The Pier Requires a Little Patience
The pier was one of the areas I really wanted to use.
It's also one of the areas where you can't exactly tell everyone else at the park:
"Excuse me, professional senior portrait happening here."
So sometimes you wait.
We'd shoot somewhere else, keep an eye on the pier, and then move back when it started to clear out.
That's one of the things I've learned with location photography.
You can have a plan.
You should have a plan.
But the location doesn't care about your plan.
People walk through.
Kids run behind your subject.
Someone decides the exact spot you're photographing would be an excellent place to stand and check their phone.
You adjust.
And honestly, sometimes those little delays help. Instead of forcing every shot in one area, we moved around and found other backgrounds that ended up being just as good.
The Best Part Was the Variety
By the end of the session, we had photographs that looked like they could have come from several different locations.
Some had that classic Maine coast feel.
Some were more rugged.
Some were relaxed.
Some had the pier and open water.
Others used rock, concrete and texture.
We even worked a basketball into a few of Grant's photos, which made the session feel more personal to him instead of just being "stand here and look toward the ocean."
That's something I really try to pay attention to with senior sessions.
Yes, I want good light.
Yes, I want a good background.
Yes, I'm thinking about posing, composition and all the photography stuff happening in my head.
But the pictures still need to look like the person I'm photographing.
Not like I dropped a senior into a location and ran through the same ten poses I use for everyone else.
A Good Location Doesn't Do All the Work
Fort Foster gave us a lot to work with, but a great location doesn't automatically make great photos.
You still need to pay attention to where the light is coming from.
You need to watch the background.
You need to help someone feel comfortable in front of the camera.
And you need to know when to move on.
That's probably one of the easiest mistakes to make at a place like this.
You find one gorgeous spot and think:
We could shoot here all night.
And you probably could.
But then you'd miss everything else.
The goal wasn't to come home with 75 pictures of Grant standing on the pier.
The goal was to build a gallery that felt like an entire senior session.
Fort Foster made that possible.
Was It Worth It?
So let's go back to the original question.
An hour drive.
A busy coastal park.
No guarantee that the backgrounds I wanted would be empty when I wanted them.
Was it worth it?
Absolutely.
The final images came out spectacular.
We had so many different backdrops, textures and vibes that it never felt like we were shooting in just one location.
Fort Foster has easily become one of my favorite places I've photographed this year.
Would I recommend it for every senior?
Probably not.
If someone wants perfectly controlled backgrounds, no people nearby and everything within ten steps of the car, this probably isn't that location.
But for a senior who wants something relaxed, coastal and a little adventurous?
It's hard to beat.
For a senior session with a beach vibe, you can't go wrong here.
And if another senior tells me they're game for the drive to Kittery?
Yeah.
I'm probably going back.