Alex is a senior at Ida B. Wells High School in Portland. And he’s my kindred spirit—only way cooler.

Alex and I both share a love of the outdoors, He loves backpacking, skiiing, climbing, mountaineering and generally enjoying nature.

He also has my dream job (next to photography of course). He works at Next Adventure and I admittedly spent a good part of Alex’s senior portrait session pressing for information about what it’s like to work there and whether he could get me a sweet discount (spoiler alert, unfortunately he can’t)! 🙂

When he’s not spending time in the woods or skiing down the mountain, Alex is a guitar player — he’s been playing for 8 years and also “dabbles” with a number of other instruments. He says he likes all sorts of music, but “I relate the most with acoustic music,” he says. “I am a huge fan of improvisational acoustic jams, which captures many genres of music. I listen to everything from modern John Mayer releases to Jerry Garcia and David Grisman unplugged sessions. My favorite song at the moment would have to be Brown-Eyed women by Grateful Dead.”

Alex also plays soccer and and enjoys spending time with his friends. He says “I am outgoing and easygoing, and I enjoy being around other people. That said, I am very comfortable spending time by myself and getting lost in my own activities.”
Of course his mind isn’t always far from the mountain. Right now he’s reading a book about how to stay alive in avalance terrain. Alex says he “wants to do more backcountry skiing in the future so I want to broaden my knowledge on avalanche safety.” Gotta keep those skills sharp, right?

So naturally, we chose an outdoor theme for Alex’s senior portraits. He really wanted to have his senior portraits taken on the North side of Mount Hood iwth the orchards and fruit farms, but he called me a bit too late in the season. No sweat, I said – we’ll just do two senior portrait sessions and he and his mom agreed! We decided to do a shorter session now to capture some great images for his yearbook, and we’re planning another session on the Mountain later this year (so stay tuned for more!)

For now, we decided on Mary S. Young Park in the City of West Linn. It’s a great park full of forests, beautiful trails and access to the Willamette River. Alex loves his flannel shirts. He wore a blue flannel and a yellow flannel for his session, along with some versatile jeans or pants make for the perfect outfit.

Do you love the outdoors and want to create senior portraits in your element? Learn more about senior portraits with Brian Pasko Photography at https://www.brianpasko.com/seniors!