Melissa’s senior portraits from her mom’s perspective
I was pleasantly surprised by a lovely testimonial this evening on one of galleries of a senior portrait session.
Here is Melissa gallery from our session together (Melissa, her mom, my assistant and me) at Cox Arboretum near the Dayton Mall. Melissa’s Gallery Click here
Melissa is a lovely young lady and was delightful to photograph. She has been posting about her plans for the future on her Facebook wall. College will be here in no time at all for sure.
Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • Greater Dayton area • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222
Megan’s senior portraits created a dilemma for her and her mom Lori
After having several conversations with Megan’s mom, Lori, Megan and Lori were finally able to placed their order for her senior portraits taken this fall. Their order is arriving within the next couple of days and they are very excited to see everything and get their canvas image framed and hung.
Megan chose several different images for wallets to give friends.
Here is the image they chose to make into a canvas print. It was fun to have a Megan in her prom dress with her beautiful horse.
It was fun talking with Megan’s mom about the portraits because she and Megan were having such a difficult time narrowing down their order. I said, of course, that they can order everything if the wanted. But, they didn’t take my advice and order lots of prints of every portrait. That was their dilemma, how to narrow their order.
Here is a link to her gallery. Megan’s Senior Portrait Gallery
Seems like spring will be here soon. If you have a horse and it is time for your senior portraits, remember that many photographers don’t know much about photographing horses. Since I do senior portraits and I am an equine photographer here in the Dayton, Ohio area, I can give you the best of both worlds.
Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • Located in Germantown, Ohio near Dayton • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com
How to Christmas family portrait, the little things that most people don’t do that can improve your family portraits
Christmas gatherings are great times for group portraits
This year we had several families on my wife’s side gather at my wife’s sister’s house for a nice Christmas party. Of course I brought my camera and a few other things as well. Usually I don’t make it into too many pictures at these events, but this was a lot of people who had come a long way to be together so I figured I would be taking a group picture.
Prepare to take the portrait
Here are some things that I did in preparation for the image. First, I set up my camera on a tripod and pointed it toward the fire-place and chair that I thought would make the most pleasing arrangement. I took some images and determined that I could get away without using my flash (however, in retrospect I think that the flash would have helped and if I had been working on a professional basis, I would have devoted much more time to determining lighting).
MOVE THINGS and get rid of clutter
MOVE FURNITURE… There was a coffee table in front of a sofa facing the fireplace. Rather than have them show in the pictures, go ahead and move things around some to PRE-COMPOSE the shot without distracting elements like coffee tables in the image.
While checking composition of the background look around for other things that can be removed from the picture. In this case, there wasn’t anything else that needed to be moved out of the view of the camera. I took a couple of shots to test out the auto timer on the camera. There was the short one and the long one. The short one would not give me time to get into the picture in time, so I set it to the longer timer and that looked like it would work fine.
Start with the key people then gather others around
Now I started moving people into the frame. First grandpa who would be on the large chair, then is daughters and their families grouped somewhat together.
I made sure there was a pathway for me to get where I was going to stand then I explained to everyone that I would be taking 10 pictures. When shooting a group it is very common for someone to blink each time the camera fires. In this case, I had a very slow shutter speed of about 1/20th at f4 with an ISO of 1000. Again, I would certainly not use ISO 1000 on my current camera for professional portraits (there is a certain amount of digital noise at a higher ISO and this is an older camera / Canon 1D mark IIn). But, for a quick family portrait on a non-professional level, this was going to work fine. I explained to look toward the camera and that as the red light flashes quicker, the camera will fire. After about 4 shots, I checked the images and found that my son was making faces each time. After several people explained to him scornfully that this is something that everyone wanted to be nice, he relented and I took about 6 more shots of the group.
Don’t forget to have some fun
Now for some fun. “Okay, everyone do something cooky for this picture.” Here is what resulted. With family and even professionally, why not have some fun with the people you are photographing. Make is something to remember.
With a little further investigation on your part you can see that I was not quite able to move the coffee table out-of-the-way enough to completely remove it from the portrait. However, with a little Photoshop stamping I was able to use the open area of carpet to cover up the coffee table in the top final image.
What might I do to improve these images. I would have attached my camera flash and pointed it up into the gabled ceiling to my right. By bouncing the flash off of a wide area the light would have been soft and pleasing (Never use on camera flash directly pointed toward your subjects if you can find something that you can bounce it from). I would have moved the sofa and coffee table some more so that I would not have to do Photoshop work on the image.
Did you take any family portraits at Christmas time? Did you have some fun with it? I hope so.
An 8×10 is not a wall portrait…and size does matter
It’s fun to surf Facebook and see what other photographers are up to and I like to promote other photographers by blogging about them and what they are doing.
Yesterday, I found a side by side photo of a gallery wrapped canvas mounted on a wall. The first pictures shows an image that is not 8×10, but is even bigger. It is an 11×14 print. Some would be so impressed that they invested in such a large wall print, that is what they are thinking. But, as you can see this 11×14 portrait is way undersized for the place selected for the image. The photograph next to it shows what a 30×40 gallery wrap looks like in the same space. Now we are talking. The image fits the space.
This picture is a great idea to help people see that an 11×14 is really a very small image depending on the space that it will be displayed in. The 30×40 portrait matches the space much better.
Meg Bowman Photography does lots of small children, but she also seems to work with seniors and wedding photography as well. If you live in Wooster, Ohio visit her web site and be inspired by her work.
Here is her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MegBowmanPhotography
Some very cute baby portraits for inspiration – SKNY Photography
Just sharing this as inspiration. I thought this was an outstanding baby session including the photographs of the big sister and mom with the baby as well. This is not my work. If you click on the image you should be taken to the photo album where there about 5 more rows of pictures to enjoy.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150359065314144.366005.666189143&type=1
I ran across this photographers personal profile and photo albums while looking around on Photographers Unleashed a place to share and grow and make mistakes together. http://www.facebook.com/groups/photogsunleashed/
Unfortunately I could not find her Facebook business page or web site. If she sees this, perhaps she will email it to me so I can add it to this post.
Time for Christmas cards for the Knoll family
Portraits of the girls for their Christmas cards
Christmas cards are the excuse so that mom can make this happen. Once each year for the last three years, Karen Knoll has asked me to photograph her two daughters. Lizzy rides at Trails End Equestrian Center and we usually take the pictures at this facility so that Lizzy can get some photographs with their horse.
Senior portraits are not the only time to get portraits made
Even though we only spend a little time together each year, I feel like I am ever so slightly getting to know these two girls, but that isn’t as important as the fact that Karen has some lovely portraits of her daughters as they grow and mature each year. As they become more comfortable with me taking their pictures (even though it is just once each year), I feel that I am getting more natural expressions. I’m learning what it takes to get them to relax and enjoy themselves while being photographed.
Here are a few photographs from this year’s portrait session at Trails End Equestrian Center:
Lizzy and Allie portraits for 2011
Here is my blog post from last fall 2010.
Peter DeMott Photography • Germantown, Ohio • 937-478-6222
Melissa had great fun at her senior portrait session in Dayton
I had done her older sisters senior portraits and Pegge called to say it was time for the younger daughter to have her senior pics made as well. My wife Patty and Melissa’s mom helped with the session carrying clothing and holding reflectors as we walked through the park looking for the ideal spots for Melissa’s portraits.
It was great fun and Melissa took instructions very well. She said after the session that it was great fun. As I was shooting, from time to time, I would give Pegge and my wife a sneak peek or two on the back of the camera. “Oh my gosh!” was usually the words that I heard as we progressed.
Melissa is a senior at Archbiship Alter High School. Her mom says she is a free spirit girl. She wants to go to a college of nursing and eventually become a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She has applied at the Air Force ROTC and hope to get a scholarship for school. Her dream right now is to retire early and be a nurse in a 3rd world country. She is excited about getting married to the right person, but she wants to have some time in her career and save money so that when she does have children, she will be able to stay at home and raise them before going back to work.
Melissa would love to go to college in Colorado.
Melissa has been a very active high school student and before. She competed in gymnastics for 7 years. She runs track and has run cross-country as well. Have you seen Melissa climb before…she loves climbing walls, and she climbs lots of trees for fun. She also devours books and just loves to read, but she does not like smelly old books. She likes to buy new books to read.
She has been on 3 Mission Trips and loves being a part of the St. Mary’s Catholic Church Youth Group. She is a leader too, being selected to be a leader on the Kairos religious retreat for her peers.
Melissa has worked at Miamisburg Parks and Recreation since she was 14 and has been a life guard for the past three years at the Sycamore Trails Aquatic Center. She also teaches swimming lessons and life guards at West Carrollton YMCA as well.
At one point, Pegge said she wanted a picture of her with her daughter similar to the one I had taken with her older daughter.
Casual business portraits – what does your Linked In or facebook profile image say?
Does your Linked In profile image say, boring, uninteresting, average or worse?
Every day I see stodgy and stiff portraits as well as just plain bad photos or snapshots of people on their Facebook profiles, on Linked-In profiles and on business websites. Everyone has heard the old saying that a picture can say a thousand words, but what words is your picture saying about you and your business?
Here are recent portraits taken for Danielle Deramo, the owner of Just Say It. She is a marketing and branding consultant here in the Dayton area. She has a great outgoing personality, but she has been using snapshots for her web site and other business networking websites. She almost canceled this session because she just does not like to have her picture taken. I encouraged her to go ahead with the session, which normally only takes about 30 minutes, because she needed some nicer pictures for her Linked-In profile and other internet business networking venues. These were taken conveniently at her home. She likes the middle image best because she says she looks happy. I am pleased with several of the portraits.
Upgrade your image on-line business networking sites
Is it time for you to upgrade your image on business social networking venues or even on your own website? Rather than a formal business portrait, would you like a casual setting and a more relaxed portrait? Maybe it is time to call Peter DeMott Photography.
Learn more about casual business portraits made here: Business Portrait Photography
Peter DeMott Photography • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222
Now go to my Facebook page. Click here to go to my Facebook page and join the conversation.
Or you can go to my Testimonials page and see what people have to say about their portraits and their session.
You can also join me on Linked In
Fall portraits with color for seniors and families and children
Gone are the days of 95 degree heat with 90 humidity here in the Dayton area. Suddenly the crops and the trees are showing us that fall is here with small bursts of color. Because of the heavy rains over the last two weeks, the grass is all greened up again too. Good grief, I had to mow my grass twice already even though its cool outside.
Time for fall portraits with horses
If you have a horse and you want fall portraits, act now before they start getting their heavy winter fur. Actually, I’ve seen many great portraits with horses and their human companions when they have their winter coats. Cool evenings make for some more interesting clothing choices like sweaters and scarfs and hats. Perfect weather for something different for senior portraits as well with furry hooded coats, scarfs, and long-sleeved sweaters.
Time for family group portraits
Cool evenings make for some good family group portraits. However, the days are shorter so scheduled times are more limited.
Like the slogan of a major manufacture of athletic shoes
I was just talking to a woman today about having some portraits done. She has seen my work and knows she will love her portraits, but she dreads having her picture taken. My job is going to be to get her to relax and enjoy herself so that I can capture, not the stiff and fearful person, but the wonderful outgoing person that I know her to be. She even was considering canceling her session, but with some gentle prodding, and the “JUST DO IT” attitude she is going forward with the session.
So many families have very few portraits of themselves in relaxing outdoor environments and enjoying each other. Is it time for you to “JUST DO IT!” ? Time moves so fast in families and in no time you kids are going to be going off to college and starting their own families.
Peter DeMott Photography • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222
Let’s do the red prom dress with your horse! Wow Megan, that looks fantastic!
Sunday afternoon senior portrait session near Columbus, Ohio
I had Megan bring a couple of dresses, a casual outfit and a riding outfit to the senior portrait session. As we started the session, she said, let’s do the dresses first so that the horse does not get me messy for the portraits in the dress. But, I suggested that we do the horse with the red prom dress. I’m sure Megan was not thinking that she would be in a dress with her horse, but her eyes lit up and she said, “really?”. I said, “yes, are you okay with that?” and off she went to get dressed and get the horse. You tell me what you think. Did it work out?
Megan is both an equestrian athlete and a soccer player and is very active with both. Megan is a student at Upper Arlington High School in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington. It is where I graduated from in 1975. If you like my portrait style and want a portrait session in the Columbus area, please feel free to contact me using the contact/share menu item above or the email or phone number at the bottom line of this post. I would love to have comments at the end of this post by friends of Megan DeMott (all comments are reviewed before they post). Just click on the comment button and leave you input and comments for all to see.
You can also “LIKE” Peter DeMott Photography on Facebook. I will be posting a link via email to Megan with the rest of the images from this session. With her permission, I will then post that on the Facebook images that I have already posted onto Facebook. By the way, if you are a friend of Megan, you are welcome to download her sneak peek images to your Facebook page (but please do not print them out #1, they are copyrighted #2 they will not look very good because they are screen resolution only. I appreciate your cooperation on this).
Her mom was there and helped me some with holding a reflector. Her grandmother was also along for the ride. They were both excited about the little sneak peaks that I gave them while I was shooting. Megan is lovely and she has a great smile.
Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com