Peter DeMott Photography

Brian “Head” Welch came and spoke at Fairhaven Church on January 29th

Peter — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:08:04 +0000

The church (a very large church) was packed to the gills with people of all ages who came to hear Brian “Head” Welch speak about his life as a heavy metal rocker. I’m not sure how it all got worked out, but it was a part of the Next Generation Ministries at Fairhaven Church. Most of the Next Generation events occur in a meeting area called the Mac at the church, but it quickly became clear that this would have to be moved to the main sanctuary.

After telling his story he explained that all the money and drugs and fame had left him feeling like an empty shell. Then he explained how he was drawn to Jesus and his life was changed from the inside out.

Here is the Facebook Page for the NextGen ministries: Don Solin on stage with Brain “Head” Welch formerly from KORN

Sharing talent, putting music together with photography at Fairhaven Church in Dayton Ohio

Horse and rider portrait gallery

Peter — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:23:30 +0000

Some of these are senior portrait sessions with students that own a horse. Others are portraits of horses with their owners at local boarding stables. It’s always interesting to try to find the best place to set up the portraits. Each stable has its own flavor and areas that will work well.

One of these girls is looking toward a career in horse management. She is also trying out modeling as well. Several pictures from her session became the building blocks for addition modeling work.

Schedule or Discuss your Horse and Rider Portrait Session

If you would like to discuss scheduling a portrait session with your horse, please send me a note or give me a call. For senior portrait sessions we can do some with your horse and some without so that you have a nice variety of meaningful portraits. For Megan, she wanted some portraits in her prom dress and I thought it would be really fun to have some of those with her horse. I think they turned out lovely and she selected one to make into a framed canvas print for her home. She picked others from the session for wallets and gift prints and of course I included some Facebook images with her purchase which her friends on Facebook went nuts over.

At liberty and Under Saddle

Although I am not showing any here, I do photography of horses at liberty and under saddle as well. Go up to the menu of this website and explore some of the other areas to get a good idea of what your horse and rider session can be. And since I have horses and I know horse photography, not only will you look good, but your horse will too. There are senior portrait photographers that will come out to your boarding stable for part of your sessions, but sometime they look at your horse more like a prop, similar to a basketball, a football, or a musical instrument. They don’t understand that if a horse is photographed with the wrong angle or the wrong lens it just won’t be pleasing to the horse owner’s eye. If you horse’s ears are back like he is angry or he looks bored and uninterested (ears every which way and eyes half-shut), it doesn’t matter how good you look, the portrait becomes average and a disappointment to you, the horse owner. I guess I look at your horse as your companion or your friend rather than as a prop and I think that makes a difference in the end result.

Peter DeMott Photography • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222 • Located in Germantown, OHIO • Serving SW Ohio, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Eastern Indiana and NW Kentucky.

Learn how to run a Groupon deal for photographers that works

Peter — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:23:01 +0000

Sherri over at The Business Lens posted a new Groupon Disaster example. Then she listed out what she expected would be the time needed to complete the 1200 plus portrait sessions, how much was given to the photographer as a result of the deal and, in the end, how much the photographer would be making from the deal.

Go take a look HERE: http://thebusinesslens.com/2010/09/15/groupon-photography-sessions-vs-working-mcdonalds/

It just took her a few minutes to realize that this was not going to be pretty. One legal pad and a calculator and a few minutes of thought can help you not to make a huge mistake with your business.

Now, if you are considering running a Groupon, Living social, or other similar buy it now online and save type deal, go to the bottom on here post and click on the link about “How to run a Groupon for photographers that works.”

Melissa’s senior portraits from her mom’s perspective

Peter — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:52:22 +0000

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

Peter — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:13:17 +0000

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

Living Social photography deal explains “professional photography is really expensive, I’m not very professional”

Peter — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 03:29:58 +0000

“Photographer’s” Living Social Deal leaves me wondering

In the past I wrote about a Groupon deal by a photographer that left me thinking, “What is this photographer thinking?” This time it is a Living Social deal, but I cannot say,”what is this photographer thinking?” because she explains right on her web site that she doesn’t think she is very professional.

Let’s unwrap the deal first

So, lets start with the deal being promoted on Living Social. Her regular rate for a session is $150. With this deal you get the session for $75 which will include 25 color and 25 Black and white images full resolution with no copyright restrictions on a CD. Now, Living Social runs this promotion at not charge to the “photographer” until deals are sold. But, when the deal is sold online Living Social takes between 40% and perhaps ups to 60% (not sure what their actual numbers are, but somewhere in there) on the money paid for the service. Now the photographer is getting let’s say $37.50 for the session fee including the delivery of 50 images unrestricted on a CD.

The “photographer” has a Dayton phone exchange number, but in the ad it clearly says that the session could be in Columbus, Dayton, or Cincinnati. That means that this “photographer” may need to drive an hour and a half or more each way to the location for the session. But, for the sake of argument, lets say that only people from greater Dayton respond to the promotion. Lets say she lives in Centerville and gets a session in Troy for about a 30 minute drive each direction. Gasoline expense is going to be $4 to $10 perhaps. The one hour drive time has no value and the photographer is not compensated for it.

If she had to drive to Columbus and back it might cost between $30 and $50 is gasoline and about 3 hours total drive time, not including the session time at all. But, wait, there is more (as they say on the TV “buy it now” late at night commercials ). The photographer will go to as many as three locations for the session time. This “photographer” will be paying her clients to take their “pretty pictures”.

Lucky for consumers that they are doing their due diligence and checking to see what this “photographer’s” portraits look like and what is on her web site. As of this point only one deal has been sold which is a good thing for the “photographer” and for the public.

Here is what you find on her website

You get to buy “pretty pictures” from this “photographer” and oh, wait, her session fee is really $125 (not $150 as stated on the ad) for a session that has NO TIME LIMIT. And this “photographer” carefully reserves and preserves the rights of humans and animals (Okay, not sure what that means…other professional photographers torture animals and infringe on human rights I guess). She also offers packages for weddings… Really! There are no wedding “pretty pictures” on the site at all. There are a few bride in dress images with bad color correction.

At one point in her pricing pages she states that “professional photography is really, really expensive…. I’m not that professional”. On this page she explains that she has NO TRAINING.. “none” was her answer to the question, “What type of training do you have in your field?”.

Based on the images throughout the site, it appears that she doesn’t do any color correction. Shadowed areas in prints are purple (see bottom left images on page above) and in some images people are even purple. But in question three she explains that to receive these images on a CD may take up to three weeks from the time of the session. I’m not sure why it would take so long given that it appears that she does nothing to the images.

Why you would want to order “professional prints” directly from her when you have an unrestricted CD of all the images from the session baffles me, but looking at the prices it is clear that no professional could survive on print sales at these rates and that she values her own work very little.

The last image that I want to show you is typical of the color correction that I found on other images throughout the web site.

Well, I just don’t know what else to say, except that I am glad for this “photographer” and for the consumers that only one person had put their money down. Imagine if she had gotten 20 or 40 or 60 responses. It would have been another disaster in the making. Living Social Deal Disasters and Groupon Deal disasters. These are photographer disasters right here in Dayton, Ohio. I can only imagine what is happening throughout the country. There are a whole bunch of people who received digital SLR cameras for Christmas, so don’t be surprised at what you see in the weeks to come. If you received a digital SLR, please read on.

I am supportive of people who want to learn photography, portrait photography and even the business of photography

I consider photography to be a lifelong learning experience. I learn something new each day. I am not saying that my photography is perfect and I know there are professional photographers that are better than me. I am very supportive of people learning photography, but I also encourage people not to start charging for photography until the quality of their work and service to the client is of professional quality. Learning best practices of photography as a business is also important BEFORE putting your shingle out and soliciting business from consumers.

What do I say when someone says right on their website “I’m not very professional?” There is a difference between charging low fees to practice on family members, but that is far from offering your services on a nationally known website as a professional. Before “going pro” or publicly promoting your photography, join some professional photographer forums on the internet. Put your images out there for critique and suggestions and learn about professional best practices. I think that the “photographer” above is a teacher. Teachers are encouraged to use best practices as they teach their students. There is nothing wrong with a teacher being a professional photographer, I know a teacher/photographer that is exceptionally talented and always seeking to grow as a photographer and business owner, however the above example is not an example of how to do it.

It would be impossible for this person to actually make money based on the deal presented. In most cases she would be paying the client to take their pictures (based on gasoline, time spent during and after the session (if she were to do proper color correction), delivery of CD, paying taxes, paying for insurance and so on). There is no opportunity to up-sell and there would clearly be many customers disappointed with the results from their un-color corrected, faces blocked and cut off images, in one of her unlimited sessions. Understanding the business of professional photography is also important if you are going to present yourself to the public for hire. Saying “…I’m not that professional” right on your website is no excuse.

Feel free to make your own comments below (or sometimes at the very top) by clicking on “comment”.

How to Christmas family portrait, the little things that most people don’t do that can improve your family portraits

Peter — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:43:02 +0000

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

Peter — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:10:08 +0000

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.

http://www.megbowman.com/

Here is her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MegBowmanPhotography

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HELP PORTRAIT Dayton 2011 was a great opportunity for photographers to give back

Peter — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:42:24 +0000

HELP PORTRAIT Dayton 2011 was held on December 10th on North Main Street in Dayton, OHIO

Although I was not able to participate this year, I want to continue to support the efforts of photographers and other creatives to give back with their talents and energy through HELP PORTRAIT Dayton. This is the third year for HELP PORTRAIT Dayton with new ideas and the experience of the photographers from prior years, it seemed to go off without a hitch.

Josh McDarris put together this video explaining what HELP PORTRAIT Dayton is all about:

If you would like to support or participate in organizing and photographing HELP PORTRAIT again this year be sure to LIKE the HELP PORTRAIT Dayton page on Facebook so that you can stay tuned to meetings and plans for the coming year. There are lots more photos from the event and videos posted here as well. Thank you HELP PORTRAIT Dayton photographers, creatives, and helpers as well as other supportive groups.

As in past years, getting the word out so that people come in for their portraits is even more challenging than organizing the photographers and creatives to provide the portraits. If you would like to help in the promotion or you can provide media support prior to the event date, we are looking for your help. Everyone is welcome to join in to help in many ways. So join us and grow and you give to others.

http://www.facebook.com/HelpPortraitDayton

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AERC Endurance ride photography as Christmas Presents for riders

Peter — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:02:38 +0000

I’ve been noticing a lot of activity on my web site and my photo galleries with the purchase of trail event images in 5×7 and 8×10 sizes. My guess is that because this is occurring in early December it is because people are buying prints of friends and riding buddies as gifts for Christmas.

My galleries allow for purchase of any sized prints including various types of surfaces. Lustre is the most popular because it does not show finger prints much. Realize that a prints up to 8×10 are strictly for a desk or bookcase display. A small wall print could be an 11×14 or 16×20, but getting these framed brings up the cost quite a bit. If you want to give something really special to someone consider getting a CANVAS on board. These look like paintings and have a very rich feel to them.

If you are willing to spend more for a wall portrait or photograph, take some paper and tape it to the wall and keep adding paper (making it larger) until it looks about the right size for that spot on the wall. You will find that, for example, an 8×10 looks exceedingly tiny when taped up to wall. Then measure the paper. You will likely find that the paper is 16×20 or 24×30 or some larger number that you would never have thought to consider.

Small prints can be lots of fun too. How many people want to tell their co-workers about the sport they participate in. Getting a good trail image that shows some speed or a water crossing can be fun to have at work to share.

To find the trail events that I have photographed go to the menu item at the top of the page that says GALLERIES/PROOFING.