Peter DeMott Photography » Environmental Portrait

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

Melissa had great fun at her senior portrait session in Dayton

Peter — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:08:42 +0000

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?

Peter — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:37:30 +0000

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

Peter — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 03:14:06 +0000

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!

Peter — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:54:06 +0000

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

Equine retail supply company buys photos with unique feel and style from Peter DeMott Photography

Peter — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:17:33 +0000

Capturing the emotion of the moment

When I do portrait sessions or take pictures of people with their horses I do my best to capture the emotion of the moment. If I can capture JOY or LOVE or COMPANIONSHIP in that photograph I consider that a win for everyone involved.

This week I sold images from a senior portrait session (with permission of the young lady who wants to become a model) to a large retail equine supply company to be used in consumer promotions in late 2011 and early 2012. Another image that was purchased was from a session that I did with Patty and her horses (Patty is my wife and we have 3 beautiful arabs). But, in both cases it was not just the image, but the emotion expressed in the image that caught the eye of the business.

I’m looking forward to sharing the images and where they will be published once I have samples from the promotion. That will be fun to show you.

In the mean time, fall portrait time is now. For seniors and for seniors with horses, this is a great time for those cozy outdoor portraits in sweaters, scarfs, jeans, etc. For the horses, there are fewer flies and everything has greened back up in pastures and farms again with all this rain in mid September in our area.

For seniors wanting to consider modeling, having a good mix of styles of images for your portfolio is important. As you can see from my news above, my style and photography capture attention and show personality a little differently than the glamour and glitz that some photographers are known for. I hope you will consider me in the coming days and months as you consider where you will have your horse and rider portraits made or your senior portraits. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about your portrait session.

Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • Seniors, families, equine, and children • Greater Dayton area and the region • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

Royal K Horse Show Pictures September 11, 2011

Peter — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:12:32 +0000

Royal K Horse Show pictures are available for review here: Royal K Horse Show . There are over 1000 images and the gallery displays the pictures in order of go. Please order pictures within 30 days. Share this post and link using the buttons at the bottom of this page.

The Royal K Open Horse Show is a fun and well run one day show

This open show had classes for all ages and levels of experience. Each year The Tacky Horse is the major sponsor and puts together a charity horse show. The show had 45 classes and occurred on Sunday September 11, 2011. The address of the barn and The Tacky Horse is 185 N. Alpha Bellbrook Rd. in Beavercreek, Ohio.

The show lasted from about 10am to about 6pm and the last three classes had some rain to deal with.

After the show, I did some Mini Portrait Sessions with a couple of the participants and boarders at the barn.

I also do farm or barn calls to capture portraits of you with your horse, senior portraits with horse, or horses alone. If you are interested in a farm call session please call to schedule.

Peter DeMott • Peter DeMott Photography • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com

Early Fall is another great time to have horse and rider portraits made in Ohio

Peter — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 10:37:27 +0000

This spring I mentioned when to have horse and rider portraits made in Ohio. That was when there was still lots of mud and I suggested two things. First that you wait for your horse to shed out his winter coat of fur, then to wait for the foliage to get green and the grass to look nice.

Well early and late fall can also be a great time for horse and rider portraits and senior portraits with horse as well. Evenings are cooler now and the flies are less of a problem. It is more comfortable for both horse and rider.

If you want color in your portraits, please call and schedule with me early as this is a fairly popular thing to do in the last week of September and the first couple weeks of October. Since it starts getting dark sooner in the evening we have to schedule a bit earlier in the evening than when I was taking portraits this summer. Sometimes if things get timed perfectly, there are colorful leaves in the trees and on the ground, but this can be difficult. One year I took some lovely fall portraits and there was a carpet of colorful leaves on the ground and still in the trees as well, but twenty minutes after the session it became blustery and the wind blew all the leaves from the ground and the trees became almost bare of any color.

In early fall, when there is color in the trees is easier to time than trying to plan for a carpet of leaves on the ground. Also, there are fall foliage color calculators on the internet which will tell you when to expect the most color in the trees.

If you want fall color in your horse and rider portraits or in your senior portraits call me now.

Peter DeMott Photography • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com

Morgan’s senior portraits and mom’s friesian horse portraits combined into one session

Peter — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:05:36 +0000

I had a lovely portrait session with Morgan last week. Her mom had been discussing having portraits taken of her Friesian horse and was hoping to convince Morgan to do senior portraits too. As it turned out we had time to do both. It was great fun and I think Morgan was pleasantly surprised that she had so much fun.

Morgan goes to Beavercreek High School and enjoys horseback riding, softball and volleyball. Her plans take her to Wright State University next fall.

Capturing natural expressions is very rewarding to me because it means that my subject has become comfortable with me taking their pictures. Morgan had several changes of clothing so after taking several portraits we would send her off to change into one of her other outfits. We were able to do some pictures before bring the horse out, some with the horse and some after we finished with the horse as well.

After we finished with the horse, we found this area back behind the barn. There was a red shed with ivy growing up it. It gave a rustic feel and the light was very soft and pleasing.

With the weather starting to cool off, evening sessions are very comfortable. The frustrating part is that it starts getting dark sooner now. I have session times available at 6pm most evenings including Saturdays and Sundays. Please call me to schedule your session in a location of your choosing. If you don’t know where you want to have your portrait session I can help you make a selection that is right for you.

Peter DeMott • 937-478-6222 • Peter DeMott Photography in the greater Dayton area • peter@photosbypdemott.com