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….

The meaning of 1/1000th of one second and capturing a moment in time

Ears up and alert:

As I was listening to some other photographers being interviewed in podcast interview, I was considering a common thing that happens with my equine portrait (horse portrait) clients. During an equine portrait session at a farm or boarding stable I usually have an extra person with me that is in charge of getting the attention of the horse. Now I have to explain to the person in the portrait that they need to pay attention to me and my instructions and not worry about how the horse looks as that is my responsibility.

Ears are the RADAR animals use to protect themselves

Horses like other animals have ears that can be turned every which way like radar to find out what is happening around them. It is something that God gave them to help them to more effectively deal with predators and dangers. When you are around horses, you will see their ears twitching this way or that continuously. The movements are very quick and effortless.

Client Seeming disappointment

Now as I am taking the portraits involving horses and humans, the person in the portrait hears the shutter firing, then they look up at their horse and they see the horse with their ears in various places, but seldom do they see ears pricked forward and looking interested.  Every fraction of a second that horse moves its ears this way and that as it explores its environment and surroundings. It takes a moment or two (lets say two full seconds) for the human subject to look up at the horse. So the impression they have is that I am capturing portraits of their horse when he looks like a mule (not to insult mules), he looks disinterested or distracted.

Trying to help someone get a better portrait / timing is everything – or at least it is VERY important

I have also noticed this when I’m around a mom or a dad with a camera or a grandma with a camera it’s in my nature to try to help them get good portraits of their daughter or son or gand-kid with their horse. In one case, I even stood behind the person with a camera explaining that I would help them with “ears up” so they could get a better portrait. Every time when the ears were pricked forward, I would say,”now!” and in every case about 3 full seconds later they would depress the shutter button (or in some cases if they had a point and shoot, there was a shutter delay of several seconds). By then the horse’s ears had gone several different ways, but were no longer pricked forward and at attention. From a professional point of view, these would be failed portraits or perhaps what we might call it just a “snapshot”, not a portrait.

It’s the same with other animals. Each kind of animal or breed has a list of things that have to look just so for the image to be outstanding.

The meaning of 1/1000th of one second

Now for the meaning of 1/1000th of one second. When my subject opens their web page at the proofs page from their equine photo session it is not uncommon for me to get an email something like this, “Wow, how did you do that? These are great….oh my gosh.” You recall from above every time I clicked the shutter they would look up at their horse and they saw their horse with its ears back or cockeyed (looking mulish, not to insult mules), but what they did not realize was that I had captured 1/1000th of one second and that was 50 1/1000ths of a second ago. EVERYTHING had changed by the time they turned their eyes up toward their horse.

Choosing One 1/1000th of one second from 7 million 200 thousand others

There are ONE THOUSAND 1/1000ths of a second IN EACH SECOND and I picked  JUST ONE to create an enduring moment that could be cherished by the horse owner for years to come. Think of it just a little more. In a two hour farm call session there are 120 minutes. Each minutes has 60 seconds in it for a total of 7,200 seconds and each second has one thousand 1/1000ths of a second shutter click opportunities for a whopping total of 7 million 200 thousand shutter click opportunities in a two hour session. Not that we need to go there, but my camera has a 1/5000th of one second shutter speed option…Whew!

After about an hour with Kristen, she was exhausted from pulling her horse’s head up out of the green grass an exceptionally green early fall. Every time she looked up her horse was distracted and each ear was going a different direction. Her dad who watched from afar was skeptical that there would be much of anything to look at from the session. Both Kristen and her mom said, “Oh well, we tried (or something of that nature).” I said, “I think you are both going to be pleasantly surprised.”

As you look through her senior portrait session with her horse, consider all the moments that are not recorded. As photographers we have many, many choices as to the exact moment we choose to record. And this is just one aspect of what is important for good animal and animal with human portraits.

To see Kristen’s session with her and her horse and her puppy just click on this link.

As an equine photographer and senior portrait photographer her in SW Ohio (Greater Dayton area including Miamisburg, Springboro, Centerville, Kettering, Oakwood, Beavercreek, Xenia, Fairborn, Troy, Tipp City, Englewoood and Vandalia) I really enjoy combining the two. Other senior portrait photographers, even if they are willing to come to your location, seldom know much about horses. Nothing can ruin a senior portrait with a beautiful young lady more than a beautiful horse that looks like a mule (again, no insult intended for mules).

Also, for those in Tennessee visit my friend JULIE POOLE’s web site. She photographs horses, but along with humans she is well known for portraits of dogs and cats and their humans. Look at how alert they look and consider how many different moments she has to choose from when taking these portraits.

This post is on my web site: http:www.photosbypdemott.com . It will also be on my facebook fan page and on my personal facebook page. It will be linked on my twitter account. You are welcome to follow or friend me in any or all of these locations.

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

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.

A telephoto zoom and kids / I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE natural smiles.

I have to say that I have always liked taking pictures of people with a telephoto lens. It is particularly great for taking pictures of kids with completely natural expressions. In this particular portrait I was at a competitive trail ride near Dayton during the vet check portion of the ride. This young rider is the son of Shannon Loomis. All her children are quite cute and this young man was waiting his turn to show his horse to the vet at the finish of the ride. Natural smile come so easily to young children when they are unaware of the camera.

When I do a kids portrait session there is nothing that can frustrate me more than a parent telling their child to smile. Sometimes this results in a completely unnatural pasted on smile that is unappealing. It is not the smile that comes from delight or finding something funny. It ends up being a false representation of the person. There are two things that can help with this. First it is important to instruct the parents that they may not instruct there children during the session. No instructions like, “Not that smile…you know the smile we want.” There is nothing that will cause a child not to relax more than a parent making them feel selfconscious about how they look or what they are doing.

And second I have had good success doing a “candid” session where the parent and the child play together and I tell the parent to just pretend they are alone and to just forget about me. With the telephoto lens I can walk about looking for those natural moments without being right there close to the action. I can be 15 to 20 feet away like I was with this portrait. As I have posted before (this blog appears on my website and on my facebook accounts) sometimes my best images of children occur in the first few moments or the very last moments of a session either before the children figure out that I am photographing or after we announce that we are all finished. Of course all these things depend on the age of the child.

Here is the young boy I mentioned in the paragraphs above – just too cute. One thing that you will notice is that in all competitive trail rides and endurance rides junior riders are required to wear protective riding helmets. In addition Shannon has protective riding vests on each of her children when they participate in these events together.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Natural smiles.

This portrait was taken from 20 feet away using a 70-200 mm telephoto zoom lens using available light.

Cracked Oats Crunch Endurance & Ctr

Endurance ride photography is both challenging and fun. For endurance rides I have to get up early to find places on the trail where the light is good and that say something about the ride. I want the pictures to bring back good memories of the event. The people in endurance and competitive trail riding are great too. This is a sport for people that enjoy riding their horses. There are no big cash prizes to taint the sport, just lots of competitive spirit and interesting interesting people.

This ride was staged at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and included a 50 mile endurance ride, a 25 mile “limited distance” endurance ride, a 25 mile competitive trail ride and a shorter novice ride on Sunday. The trails were wide and well cared for and the meadow gave us plenty of room for camping. The Appaloosa Nationals were piggy back with this ride with 13 participants from as far away as Canada.

Morning brought some heavy fog and mist until the sun came up.

The mist quickly burned off revealing a horse eating photographer in the woods. I try to talk to people as they approach to help the horses know that I am just another human being. This horse found the large lens interesting indeed.

At endurance rides and competitive trail rides there are vets, timers, pulse checkers, and other volunteers to help things work smoothly. Here Bill Cartwright logs the time in and time out for riders who have arrived at the vet check. Great job Bill.

Below is a special request for a portrait session at the ride. I have decided that I will offer no charge sessions at endurance rides. Of course, it is not exactly easy to find a time between everything that is going on during one of these events, but this one fit right in. Best time for these is evening.

The next two images are portraits of the winner of the appoloosa nationals , Cat Carter, with her horse.

Shannon Loomis always buys a hand full of pictures from each ride that I shoot where she is an participant. This is a picture of Shannon with our horse April. There was a minor problem with her horse and she could not ride him on the second day. Patty had brought April along hoping to find the right person to ride her since Patty would be riding Cocoa. Here April notices Cocoa across the meadow. They are good buddies, so Shannon had to keep April from trotting off to be with our other horse. From the looks of it both Shannon and April had a great time.

Here Patty waits for her out time. Is it time yet?, is it time yet?, how about now?, is it time yet….? as she teases Bill, the ride timer. Bills response was a very low tone, No, not yet, no, not yet, 10, 9,8,7,6,5.4.3.2.1… Okay, NOW you can go.

To see all the pictures taken during this weekend click on this link: Cracked Oats Crunch Pictures.

Equine Portraits of Horse & Rider / Merlot and Patty

Patty had been training (sacking out in horse training lingo) Merlot to the clippers and being the very teachable horse that he is, he let her trim his muzzle and bridle path and even his ears. Patty had been grooming him and working with him for over an hour and she was excited about his new look. “Hey Peter, can we do some portraits?” I said “sure, but we only had light for another 45 minutes.” Patty ran upstairs to put on some nicer clothes and primp herself a little bit, then out we went.

The evening light was just soft and smooth and my wife is gorgeous so it’s not difficult to get good images, but these turned out just wonderfully. We posted twenty from this sesson to my facebook account with the request that people help us select one to be printed as a large canvas print. It will become one of my samples for people to see when they come to my barn studio (still under construction). Even though most of my work is on-location, in the future, I will have a barn studio so that I can do some in studio sessions for senior portraits along with my on-location sessions.

On this portrait you can see some hand motion. I don’t think this negatively effects the overall feel of the image. Because we only had a little bit of light left, I was shooting at a slightly higher ISO setting and pretty low shutter speeds.

This image has what I call a Glamour effect added.

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