Investing in my photography business with training in Senior Portrait photography

Jen Hellinga all day workshop sponsored by PPSO

I just finished up an all day workshop learning more about running an effective and popular portrait studio. Our workshop leader was Jen Hellinga (pronounced Hell-ing-gay with emphasis on last syllable). She also has the business JensFabulousStuff.com which sells templates and textures and many other tools for portrait photographers to use with Photoshop. This is the third PPSO all day workshop that I have participated in since joining PPSO as a professional photographer. Hands on training, in my estimation is 10-20 times more effective than the same time spend reading books or exploring online sources for information.

Jen has a very successful studio and does children, families, senior portraits and more. She shared with us about how she got started in photography and about going through several studio disasters before landing where she is now. She has a business partner that does the business side of the studio while she stays in the creative and photography side of the business. They both agree that if they wonder into the other person’s area or tried to run the business alone, they both would struggle, but together they do great.

It was really fun trying out some new posing and seeing Jen interact with the seniors as she might on one of her own senior sessions. We also spent some time indoors using studio lighting and discussing posing there as well. One of the models was a senior that I had photographed earlier. The other two were two of three triplets who had been photographed earlier for their senior session by another one of our photographers, Toni Forgue. I have to say everyone did great and they were all great fun to photograph.

Here are some of the portraits that I took during the workshop.

Senior picture ideas are many times about posing the person so they look great, rather than having dated props that will make the senior portrait seem dated within a year or two.

Senior picture boy posing is about strength and making the kid relax and enjoy the session.

For girl senior pictures, creating an “S” curve in the image is a great want to add motion and interest to the image.

Messing up a girl’s hair can add some pizzaz to the image for sure.

In this senior picture reflections and lines on the ground add interest. Again the “S” curve gives this image motion and emotion.

Spending more money on your training, and your equipment, and computers can mean much better images for your clients, but they also have to know that your prices have to generate a profit. Today, many people are satisfied with “it’s good enough” images of the people they love, but we have to show them portraits that are far better than “it’s good enough” so that they will be willing to invest in photographs that capture cherished moments for a lifetime.