Peter DeMott Photography

Advertising and marketing your equine photography business online course

Peter — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:45:53 +0000

As a member of the Equine Photographers Network I participate regularly in the forums there. For the past several years I have offered an online course about advertising and marketing your equine photography business.

This year the course will be 6 weeks long starting with Monday April 12th. You do not have to be a member of the Equine Photographers Network to participate in the course and it is not a course that requires you to be at your computer at specific times. Materials are presented in a forum format and then you work through them and respond back to the forum and participate in discussions there.

Here is a description of the course:
http://www.equinephotographers.org/courses/advt4.php

This is my profile page on EPnet:

http://www.equinephotographers.org/members/photog.php?id=1493

This is a small portfolio of images that I have there:

http://www.equinephotographers.org/members/portfolio.php?id=1493

If you are interested in taking pictures of horses there are two areas in the forum. One is for professional equine photographers and the other is for people who just love to take pictures of horse. You can sign up for the email newletter or you can join the forum with a FREE 30 day trial membership.

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.

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

Peter — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:26:28 +0000

I’m really pleased with some pictures that I took this morning at my church. I have gone to the pastoral staff and volunteered my “talent” in photography for anything church related as one way of giving back. Sometimes if there is something special going on, I take pictures. Children’s choir, Christmas, Easter, Palm Sunday etc. Gradually some of the pictures migrate to the church web site and printed materials.

Fairhaven is a wonderful church. Check out this web site if you don’t have a church home: http://www.fairhavenchurch.org It’s the church you can see the steeple of from I-675 as your go around Dayton and it is located on Whipp Rd. at Marshal Rd.

Here are just a few of the pictures from this morning:

Kristen’s senior portrait session Animoto Video

Peter — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:59:54 +0000

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

Peter DeMott Photography in Dayton, Ohio specializing in on-location environmental portraits

Always in learning mode to be a better photographer at the PPSO monthly meeting

Peter — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:47:06 +0000

Learning together to serve our customers better

Tonight I spent from about 5:30pm to about 9:45pm with a great bunch of professional photographers at the monthly PPSO (Professional Photographers of SW Ohio) meeting. Each first monday we have some time together having diner together, then we have a speaker present something relevant to us as business people and photographers.

Sandra and Shad Reed Present “workflow solutions” from their experience as wedding photographers

Today Sandra and Shad Reed spent the evening sharing their “work flow” which means how they automate and at the same time customize every image from the 35-40 weddings they do each year. Shad has a background in engineering so creating processes was right down his alley. But, not only do they photograph 30-40 weddings each year, but the wedding party gets to see a slide show at the reception of the wedding day pictures AND they deliver a complete album proof to the newlyweds within two weeks of each wedding they do.

What I like with this group is their openness and willingness to share and learn together. This is just a little shot from my point and shoot canon camera at a low shutter speed.

Shad and Sandra played off each other quite well to keep us entertained and learning throughout the entire seminar as you can see from the expressions of the people here. Earlier we had a small print competition which is rather informal offering both comments about what we liked about images shared and what we think would improve the images. My own image was a second place this month (out of 5 entries).

Come visit a PPSO meeting

If you are a professional photographer you are welcome to come visit the group. I think that you will find a great place to learn and grow. For more information visit the PPSO eNewsletter where the topic, location, date and time for each meeting is announced. There is a picnic and a full day seminar planned each year, but most meetings are the first Monday of each month, so plan to have an evening learning and growing. Bring enough to pay for your diner and you are welcome to come for a visit to get an idea of what it’s all about.

February meeting was fun too

Last month we had some lighting demonstrations. Yes, I was one of the “models”, but the other ones were much more pretty for sure. This is the first line from the PPSO eNewsletter regarding the February meeting: “If you missed Monday’s monthly meeting with Lew Everling, you missed one heck of a lighting program.”

Patty is greeted by our Chihuahua after a long day alone at home

Peter — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:18:19 +0000

I want to ad some videos to my blog so I am going to try doing it a couple different ways. Facebook compresses the videos so the run pretty quickly. I will be trying out Youtube as well. This is what happens in our home when Patty comes home from work and our Chihuahua has had a long day alone at home.

Facebook link

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1361710048613&ref=mf

Youtube link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD8IBdiChj8

Youtube embed

Facebook embed

Facebook link

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1364684922983&ref=mf

Youtube link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8R4IaIzTCM

Youtube embed

Facebook embed

Trails End Equestrian Center Barn Door Mini Sessions at DLSC show

Peter — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 03:57:29 +0000

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

Peter — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:41:42 +0000

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

Peter — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:53:03 +0000

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….

Snow day pictures in Dayton, Ohio: horses, snow and people, how fun!

Peter — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:05:10 +0000

My wife, Patty is a teacher at Miamisburg city schools. There is nothing more fun than a snow day and today would certainly have been one, except for the fact that they already had the day off for presidents day.

Riding horses in snow is great fun and with the snow coming down throughout the day Patty could not wait for the snow to stop to get out and ride. Patty does endurance rides and competitive trail rides in the summer and this was a great opportunity to exercise her horses. The snow was so deep that it was like riding through deep sand. However before she could ride, she thought it was wise to lunge the horses. They were very excited about all the snow coming down as you will see in the pictures.

As you can see the snow was quite deep. The next image shows Merlot putting his nose down in the snow as he continued around Patty.

Patty laughs as Merlot’s nose is covered with snow.

Below is Cocoa being lunged before his ride. I was too exhausted from clearing the snow from the driveway to trudge out to the pasture to take pictures of them riding, plus the snow was coming down so hard that my camera would have been soaked in no time. Now it is official. Another SNOW DAY with school canceled for tomorrow. More fun in the snow, more riding horses in the snow, how fun is that? Our neighbor was nice enough to run his tractor mounted snow blower up our drive earlier, but I was the one who had to dig a path to where we dump our manure so that the horses could have nice fresh new bedding after their ride in the deep snow of the 2010 winter here in Dayton, Ohio. The snow has not quit and it is now dark.

Cocoa is such a good boy. He gets a pat on the head before headed out for a ride with Patty.

With all the snow, now our third major snow fall in the last couple of weeks, I’ve listed several posts about taking better pictures in snow. You can find them linked to my home page on this web site: http://www.photosbypdemott.com This post will appear on my notes page on my facebook personal page. It will also appear on my wall on my photography business fan page on facebook and it will be tweeted on my twitter account. Please feel free to follow me in any of these locations.

Taking better Snow pictures

Peter — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:11:17 +0000

I’m not sure if this video link will work, but it is funny. It is a Balimore weather man talking about the snow that is coming this February 6th, 2010. Click on the link and see if if works and have a chuckle before I give you some tips on taking better pictures in snow.

Baltimore weather man

With so much heavy snow throughout the region I know that photographers will be out in droves trying to take some lovely snow pictures and portraits. Horses in the snow, kids in the snow, trees covered with snow and everything else will be photographed by everyone who enjoys photography. Many will be frustrated with their snow picture results. My professional friends, people who just got a great new digital camera for Christmas, and people who just take a few pictures now and then will be wondering if their camera broke.

Why are my snow pictures always so dark? I don’t want any more gray snow pictures

Camera meters which determine the amount of exposure that comes into the camera are based on average lighting situations. In most average situations 18% gray is what your camera wants to record. There are some dark areas, some lighter areas and some mid-tone areas in almost every image so your camera sets the amount of light exposing the film or sensor to that reading. The problem with snow pictures is that they have very little mid-tones and dark areas. Most of the image is white with snow. Your camera although quite sophisticated does not have a brain of its own and needs a little help from you. Without your help it will do what it knows to do and create an average 18% gray image. Your snow pictures will not have white snow, but will be VERY underexposed and dark. With digital cameras underexposed images also show a lot of noise or grain and so not only will your snow pictures be darks, but they will also be murky.

What is the solution to my dark, murky snow pictures?

Since you want your snow to appear white in your pictures, you have to take control of the situation and make some adjustments. The solution is fairly easy. If you are on one of the automatic exposure settings, that’s fine. You can stay there, but you need to find a menu setting called EXPOSURE COMPENSATION. Usually it is a little table with a plus + and a minus – sign showing. The normal setting is “0″. You need to tell your camera you want MORE LIGHT even though it may be very bright outside with all that snow. Remember, your camera wants to create an 18% gray scene so it will set the camera shutter speed and aperture to allow less light in turning your snow to 18% gray. Now more gray snow. Move that compensation setting to +1 and give it a test. Still dark? Then move it to +2 and take another test image. Oops, too bright (if you have your highlights warning on you will see the snow flashing in red perhaps), then try +1.5. Good, that looks great.

What should my HISTOGRAM look like?

If you are used to checking your histogram to confirm good exposures, you will be used to something that looks something like a bell curve. There is some data showing on the left and a big hump somewhere in the middle and then some on the right. A big hump in the middle USUALLY works good, but not with snow images. Average images show up that way because they are average with some dark areas, lots of mid-tones and some bright or highlight areas. With snow you do not want your histogram to look that way. With an image that is dominated with white snow, you histogram will be a hump toward the right of the graph. In fact it will be a big hump and very to the right of your viewing window. However, you don’t want it to be up against the right wall of your histogram. If your histogram looks like a graph that would continue to the right (not a spike or a hump but a wall), then it is likely you have over compensated and you will lose some detail in the bright areas of your image. If you have an image program like photoshop, you are welcome to drag these two images to your desktop and check the histogram of both. The dark image below has a middle hump histogram. The correctly exposed snow picture show a spike or hump to the right (the brighter side of the graph).

Histogram of darker image showing most data in the middle. Most of the data is toward the middle of the histogram where your mid-tones would normally be showing. What that means is that your camera is recording your snow as a mid-tone and you will have gray snow :

Below is the histogram of the image with proper exposure for snow images. Most of the data (the snow part of the image) shows up on the right side of the histogram where the white part of your image should register:

This last histogram shown below is overcompensated. You are too high on the plus + and the highlights will be “blown out” which means that the data about the texture of the snow will be lost. Do you see what I mean by the data is up against the wall of the right side of your histogram. There is more data to the right, but it is off the graph and is not being recorded by the camera. It is lost information and you cannot fix lost information.

Here is the image that you would normally get without compensating for all the bright snow. This is the first exposure and histogram example:

Below is an image with exposure compensation of +1.5 set on the camera before taking the picture. Remember, if you don’t make the change, your images will be very under exposed and this cannot be corrected with your image program because it will look murky and noisy from the lack of proper exposure. This is the second histogram example.

Manual mode as an option

Some folks like to know exactly what their camera is doing all the time and they want to set all the exposure settings manually. However, the outdoors is not a studio where everything will stay the same. One minute there may be an opening in the sky and it could become much brighter. Another minute another brightness level. If you are in full manual mode, you will need to be checking frequently for changes in the amount of light in the scene. Personally, I would prefer to be able to concentrate on my subject after once making the adjustments in the camera to correct for all the bright snow. BUT, if you are a die-hard manual shooter, just overexpose by one or two stops and check your histogram to make sure you are not clipping the highlights.

LAST—Big caution–YOU MUST DO THIS–Remember this!!!!!

When you are finished shooting in a snowy scene. YOU MUST SET YOUR CAMERA COMPENSATION SETTING BACK TO “0″. If you leave it at plus +1.5 then when you encounter a more normal scene all your images will be over exposed.

I hope this helps you to have some great photography fun in the snow and get spectacular results. Go out and take some pictures and make some comments here.