Kristen’s senior portrait session Animoto Video

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

I just remembered that this embedded video will not show up when this goes over to facebook. Here is the LINK to the YouTube video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA2__fOMahQ

This post will appear on my web site: http://www.photosbypdemott.com It will also appear on my facebook personal page and my facebook fan page along with a post on twitter. I am a portrait photographer in the Dayton, Ohio area specializing in on-location portraits of seniors, families and children. I also have a specialty in equine (horse) photography and will come to your farm or stable for your session. If you like my style I encourage you to follow me in any or all the above mentioned areas. If you are a photographer, I enjoy networking with other photographers both professional and amateur.

Trails End Equestrian Center Barn Door Mini Sessions at DLSC show

These are  a couple young ladies that I hope will become the subjects of some of my senior portrait sessions with horses. These are from mini barn door sessions that I took while at the horse show at the Trails End Equestrian Center which is a couple miles down the road from my home.

It’s fun to get professional portraits of kids with horses. At these shows and stables, kids can enjoy horses in a very controlled environment that is fairly safe. Kid’s, children and horses, with great smiles, you can’t beat that.

Sometimes I shoot the local horse shows in the DLSC (Dayton Local Show Circuit). Here are the participating farms:

http://www.trailsend.biz/dlscorgs.html

and the schedule of shows

http://www.trailsend.biz/dlscshows.html

Participating Farms and Stables Listed here. Come and join the fun.

Dancing Horse Farm – Lebanon – 513-933-0343

Greenstone Stables – Germantown – 937-859-1835

The Riding Center – Xenia – 937-767-9087

Shelby Farm – Centerville – 937-886-9230

Stillwater Pony Club – Beavercreek – 937-426-9443

Trails End Equestrian Center – Dayton -937-835-5062

Wetherbrook Farm – Waynesville – 937-885-6328

Whitehouse Stables – Sidney – 937-492-3831

This post will appear on my web site: http://www.photosbypdemott.com It will also appear on my facebook personal page and my facebook fan page along with a post ontwitter. I am a portrait photographer in the Dayton, Ohio area specializing in on-location portraits of seniors, families and children. I also have a specialty in equine (horse) photography and will come to your farm or stable for your session. If you like my style I encourage you to follow me in any or all the above mentioned areas. If you are a photographer, I enjoy networking with other photographers both professional and amateur.

Inspiration for the spring and summer horse show season in the Dayton area

How about we change gears and just get excited for the spring and summer riding season here in the Dayton area. I went through some horse show pictures from a dressage show at Weatherbrook Farm in Waynesville. This leopard spotted horse caught my attention. These were from 2008 in July.

I’ll bet you cannot wait.

This post will appear on my web site: http://www.photosbypdemott.com It will also appear on my facebook personal page and my facebook fan page along with a post ontwitter. I am a portrait photographer in the Dayton, Ohio area specializing in on-location portraits of seniors, families and children. I also have a specialty in equine (horse) photography and will come to your farm or stable for your session. If you like my style I encourage you to follow me in any or all the above mentioned areas. If you are a photographer, I enjoy networking with other photographers both professional and amateur.

Someone I love died and I only have (fill in the blank) pictures to remember them by

This might be controversial blog post, it is one of those elephant in the room discussions with great importance

When I am with my professional photographer friends, this topic comes up from time to time.

I grew up with photography. My mom used to take pictures all the time and we even did the home movie thing, but as a photographer there are so many stories that I have and that I encounter of  how important portraits and connections with people can be. At the same time I see so many people minimize photography. They put off having portraits made. They put things off until it is too late.

Photographer recounts the tragic loss of his father when he was a small child and the ONE photo he has of them together

I’m going to borrow the story of another photographer whom I respect to illustrate what I am talking about. In this short video Dane Sanders explains the importance of the one single 2″x2″ photo he has of his father and himself together before his father died tragically in an automobile accident. I think of the news each night when I think of his story in this short video introduction. Every night it seems there are fatalities from automobile accidents. As an outside sales person, I have more than once avoided a serious accident thinking that had I been in my car 40 seconds earlier that morning, perhaps I might have ended up in the hospital or worse.

http://danesanders.com/#/2×2/

Sometimes I feel that this is the elephant in the room for photographers. We want portraits and enduring moments recorded by photography because we love the people in our lives. We cannot say lets have a portrait made because you might die. If I had a story like Dane’s I could just share that, but in my case I have to share from my experiences as a photographer in relation to other people’s stories. People we love die and it is important that we use every moment available to express our love and live life to the fullest. But, when they are gone photographs are the things that can bring back the precious memories of the moments that made up our relationship. Pictures and portraits become so very valuable. In Dane’s case above, there was just ONE 2×2 inch PHOTOGRAPH of him with his father. This is one of the reasons he decided to become a photographer. He explains that for his own family, his wife and children, he has hundreds and hundreds of photographs of the intimate moments of their lives, the lives of the people he loves. He does not want his family (his wife and children) to have the same experience that he had growing up. And he sees being a photographer as a gift to others in that he can preserve the precious moments in their lives.

Young man reluctant to have his portrait taken at the edge of death in ICU

I was scheduled to make some portraits of a reluctant son. Having his portrait made was not his priority list and was not something he wanted to do. But, his mom insisted and I was scheduled to meet up with this young man for a portrait session. On the day that I was going to take the portraits he ended up in the hospital with serious complications from an common illness (usually just requires rest and antibiotics). I figured I would be taking portraits the following weekend, only this young man ended up in ICU at the brink of death for something like 3-4 weeks. He was so close to death on several occasions and we prayed often for him and his family often. God does answer prayer and after many close calls and a surgery which involved an incision down the center of his stomach, he has fully recovered and will be marrying soon. I took a family portrait of this family that shows such wonderful connections, now more than ever I think.

Husband calls: My wife and the mother of my children is terminally ill with cancer

In another case, I was called by someone to take family and individual portraits of him with his wife and children. We scheduled the session the very next day. The following week might be too late. I found it to be such a honor to capture the connections in this family, capturing significant enduring moments that showed the chemistry of their relationships. These portraits will be in honored places in the homes of each child and this husband for the rest of their lives.

My wife’s mother is seriously ill

On a more personal tack, I have been asked by my wife to gather together pictures and portraits that I have taken during family times over the years. Patty’s mom is ill with lung cancer. Patty is making frequent trips to Cleveland to spend precious moments with her mom. Her mother has been in and out of ICU several times over the past weeks and months. From one day to the next, we don’t know if Donna will be with us for another day or for many weeks or for many more months.

And it is not just people that have significant places in our lives

Several years ago at a horse trail event (an AERC endurance ride) a beloved horse stepped on a long sharp stick while trotting on the trail, it raised up and poked a hole in the stomach of the horse. The horse was taken immediately to OSU veterinary hospital, but since the stick had ruptured the intestine wall, infection had set in so fast that nothing could be done to save the horse. Searching through various events that I had taken pictures for, we were able to find several photographs that the owner eagerly purchased in memory of this charished companion. Up until that point she had no significant pictures of her with her horse.

Last of all, it is important to have your portraits printed for display

In TV commercials I see the the national guard helping families who have experienced disasters. In this one commercial a soldier picks up a photo album which survived and was found and hands it to a mother and child. The mother wipes it off and holds it to her chest. Yet many people only have their pictures and portraits stored on computer that have hard drives that will some day fail. In the case of the mother and child, they had lost their home, but they were able to salvage a precious photo album of important times in their lives.

Help others to preserve precious moments by creating enduring photographs and portraits of those they love

Discuss this elephant in the room. Your comments from your own experiences can encourage others to print out those pictures, to have those portraits taken, and to preserve enduring moments of their precious relationships with photographs and portraits. Perhaps you are a photographer with many stories  or perhaps the story is like Dane’s and it is about your own family, your own husband – wife – father – sister – brother – friend.

Your turn….

Senior Portraits in Snow, Horse and Rider Portraits in Snow & Family and Kids in Snow

Gray and dreary outdoors here in the Dayton area. I cannot wait for Spring and the blossoms and new green foliage.

Right now in the Dayton area, there is not much snow. However the first weeks of February can be unpredictable and we could have what West Virginia is digging out of any time in the next several weeks (first three weeks of February, that is). As it is now, we have nothing but gray and it does not make for beautiful outdoor portraits.

BUT, if the snow flies again consider professional on-location outdoor portraits

If we do get a big dose of snow in the coming weeks, I just want you to know that I am available to take Senior Portraits in Snow. I’ve recently posted some snow portraits with horses along with some tips on how to get great snow pictures and portraits. Lots of white snow is NOT a time when you can just trust you camera to make the right decisions. If you want to take your own pictures in the snow, review my previous posts to get some good ideas, but it you want professional on-location snow portraits of your high school senior or your children (special family time portraits of mom and dad with the kids), don’t hesitate to give me a call when the weather man starts talking heavy snow. If you have a wooly horse that you want portraits with in the snow, I can do those too. If it works out, you will have extra special portraits, completely unique and fun to share. Call me at 937-478-6222 (Peter DeMott). IF the snow comes and IF someone takes me up on this offer, I will share some extra special and completely unique family portraits, senior portraits, or horse and rider portraits here on my blog.

If you missed my earlier posts with tips on getting good snow pictures and portraits with your digital camera, here they are:

http://www.photosbypdemott.com/2010/01/snow-snow-snow-taking-better-pictures-in-snow/

http://www.photosbypdemott.com/2010/01/taking-better-winter-snow-portraits-follow-up/

This post is on my web site and blog here: http://www.photosbypdemott.com . It will also appear on my personal facebook page where you are welcome to friend me: Peter DeMott . It will be on my Twitter account: pdemottphoto . And last it will show up on my facebook fan page: Peter DeMott Photography . You are welcome to share these posts and links with your friends in snowy areas, become a fan or friend or follow my web site by subscribing on the top right of my home page. Thanks, Peter DeMott

Muddy Horses in Ohio and Senior portraits and equine portraits in Spring

Not too many portraits to be made of horses once the snow melts in Ohio winters. Melting snow turns to MUD.

But, now is the time for kids and moms to be looking at the work of various photographers and considering who they want for their senior portraits or not just seniors, but horse owners of all ages who want to capture their relationship with their horse as a beautiful canvas print, you can be looking and considering too.

As you look through my website (you can click on the menu item that says “horse and rider portraits”) you can consider if you want to have your relationship between your and your horse in an art canvas to enjoy for many years to come.

While you are considering, please consider subscribing to this web site (see top right of the home page), or becoming a fan of my facebook page, or a friend of me on facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter. All of these will give you opportunity to see examples from senior portrait sessions, local horse show, endurance rides and horse and rider portraits as I shoot them this spring and summer.

Taking better winter & snow portraits (follow up)

A couple days ago as the big snow was about to arrive here in the Dayton area, I posted about how to take better snow pictures.

Snow is white and bright and it will trick your camera into thinking that it needs to cut down the amount of light coming into the camera. You see cameras are calibrated to average the scene at 18% gray. When you are shooting in snow and most of the scene is white, your camera is programed to make the scene 18% gray. So your camera without a little help from you will severely underexpose your snow pictures. Your white snow will become gray murky snow because not only is it under exposed severely, but because it is underexposed there will be an increase in digital noise (that looks like little specks of various colors sprinkled about the picture).

What needs to happen to make good snow pictures? Most modern digital cameras have a control called “exposure compensation”. If it is in your menu, it will be a marker that can be moved to 1+, 2+, 3+ to add more light or 1-, 2-, 3- to reduce the exposure. With snow, you want to increase the exposure by 1+ or 1.5+ or 2+. This is counterintuitive (it is not what you expect without much thought). But, you don’t want gray snow right? So do it. Now take a picture with lots of snow in it and take a look at the histogram on the back of your camera. The white portion of the scene will show mostly on the right. If the histogram graph shows mostly in the middle, your snow will be gray. If most of the data is to the left your picture will be very underexposed, almost black.

The snow came and I noticed a bunch of dark snow pictures on Facebook and other places. I am sure there are many folks out there, frustrated that their portraits and snow pictures did not turn out very good.

This morning we woke up and saw that there was hoarfrost all over the trees. It was very cold and yet the air had some humidity in it. The humidity frosted onto the branches of the trees as if it had snowed. It’s very pretty. My wife Patty said, “lets go take some pictures of the hoarfrost and the horses. The following portraits are the result of using the exposure compensation adjustment (on my camera there is quick access to the exposure compensation). I tried 2+, but that was a tad too much. When I looked at the image on the back on my camera my over exposure blinkers were showing. I moved it down to 1.5+ and in some cases 1+ and the images turned out great.

Additonal portraits from this morning’s session can be found here: SNOW PORTRAITS

This post will appear on my facebook and my facebook business page. It is also on my web site here. You are welcome to follow my by friending me on facebook, becoming a fan or signing up for email delivery from the front page of my web site.

Kristen Lay’s senior portraits with her horse & her very large puppy/Fall colors

Kristen and her mom Michele have known me for several years. We have met several times at horse shows in the Dayton area. In addition, they attended the same church in Germantown that my son Jordan participated in. In an earlier post I said that Kristen had asked me about senior portraits this spring at one of the DLSC (Dayton Local Show Circuit) horse shows.

We talked about it each time we saw each other at the other horse shows. Michele and Kristen wanted to wait for the fall colors. When I arrived at her home in Miamisburg Michele pointed out one tree that was very vivid and bright. It was a perfect background for some of the images.

Kristen had a real workout trying to keep her horse’s head up out of the grass. I think that both Michele and Kristen doubted that we were going to get ANY good images from the session. I explained that it is always like this and that I have a very quick trigger finger. Even though the ears are perked forward for only moments, I would say, “got that one” to their surprise and we would move on to other poses. As a photographer with a specialty in equine photography (taking pictures of horses) Kristen and her mom chose the right person for her senior portraits with her horse.

When I was processing the images late into the night (some people don’t realize that after taking 200-300 images I have to sort out all the very best images and do my special processing on each image that I plan to show in the proofing ablum) I came across this image. It is definitely my favorite from the entire session. I made a Facebook version of this particular one and tagged Kristen with it on Facebook. Shortly, to my surprise, she replied with,” I know it’s just one image, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!  Now she has all the portraits to look at. I wonder if this one is still her favorite. To see all the proofs from this senior portrait session just click on this link: Kristen Lay’s Senior Portrait Session

Here are some other highlights from the session.

Sarah Wheeler’s Senior Portraits at Dancing Horse Farm

It was fun to create portraits of Sarah with her horse for her senior portraits at Dancing Horse Farm near Lebanon, Ohio (only about a half hour from where I am based in Germantown, Ohio near Dayton,  Ohio). Her mom and her little sister helped some with getting ears up. When shooting horses sometimes the most difficult thing is to get the horses attention. In this case, I think that Sarah’s arms were very tired from pulling his head up out of the beautiful green grass. I’ve done several sessions at Dancing Horse Farm including portraits like these as well as action photography of horses under saddle doing dressage. Here are some pictures of Sarah with her horse, but the last two portraits are her little sister who had been jumping around behind me to get the attention of the horse. I was able to sneak the shots before she could turn away. I think they are very cute. Sarah is in love with her horse and it shows in how she looks at him and leans into him for some of the portraits. I think everyone had a wonderful time and I think they are having a very difficult time not buying everything they see. Should I just show 20 images and make it easier for my clients to choose? I think not. I will just continue to make them work hard selecting their favorites.

Hey, are you taking pictures of ME?  I was able to take several candid portraits before she turned away. How cute is this? To see more portraits from Sarah Wheeler’s senior portrait sessions go to Sarah Wheeler. As a senior portrait photographer and an equine photographer I truely enjoy bringing both of those areas into one portrait. For truely unique senior portraits, wouldn’t you love to have your senior portraits for your cherished riding companion?

Equestrian Sport Photography and Senior Portraits

Since I shoot quite a few equestrian sporting events including some of the DLSC (Dayton Local Show Circuit) shows, I do get requests for farm call portrait sessions in the Dayton area. Michelle Lay talked to me way back in early May about doing her senior portraits with her horse. She wanted to get the fall colors so we just scheduled for a session in a week or so. It will be great fun. We will perhaps be starting at her home, then we may trailer to Germantown Reserve where there are more colorful trees. I will check things out as the date approaches.

Here is a picture of Michelle with her horse at one of the events that I covered this spring.

I have another senior portrait session scheduled at a grandparent’s home. As a location photographer it is fun and challenging to create portraits that have special meaning for the student. Where might you want your senior portrait taken. Would you select a beautiful outdoor setting or is there a place with special meaning for you?

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