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.

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

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW…taking better pictures in snow

Snow is on its way to my area here near Dayton, Ohio. It seems from the news that there is lots of snow in lots of places all over the country. I thought I would put up a blog post to help people take better pictures in snow.

Here is the big problem with snow. Your camera light meter is tuned so that it will take an average scene that has some white, some gray, and some dark tones. It tries to find an average for the scene. Average gray is 18% gray and this is why photographers sometimes take meter readings from a “gray card”. But with a snowy scene, you don’t have grays and darker tones… everything is white. Therefore your camera will take all that white and try to average it down to a medium gray by underexposing the white snow. When your pictures come back you have gray snow. If the processor does a good job, they will try to make it white for you, but it is very under exposed and will be very grainy looking even if it is processed so that it looks white. In other words all your beautiful snowy pictures will be yucky and gross.

The solution is counter intuitive. Because everything is so white, you might think the way your camera does and think that you need to reduce the exposure. Actually what you need to do is add exposure. Most cameras have some sort of exposure compensation option. It shows as plus or minus exposure (+ or -). What you will do is to give the exposure a +1 or + 1 and a 1/2 compensation on the exposure. If you have an older camera you want your needle to be be plus one or one and a half stops.

Next you will want to check the histogram of some images. Most of the data needs to be toward the right (lightness area), but not completely to the right. The right side of your histogram is an illustration data showing the amount of white in the scene. It  is where the white portions of the scene would normally show up in and AVERAGE image. In an average image you would see some data on the left (darker portions of the scene), some data in the middle (the average gray portions of the scene) and some on the right (the whiter or brighter portions of the scene). If all your data is in a big hump in the middle of the histogram, your snow is being metered as average gray and not as white (you need more exposure to move the data to the white portion of the histogram). If it is completely against the right wall of your histogram then you are over exposing the snow and it will not have any detail (you have over exposed and you need to bring it back some). It will be white, but it will not seem visually pleasing because of the lack of detail.

So what do you do in bright snow? You tell your camera you want it brighter so that the bright white snow comes out nice a white rather than middle gray.

We just watched the news and schools are already showing delays for Thursday, January 7th even though the snow is not supposed to show up until late morning. Here is Dayton we so seldom get PRETTY snow. What we get is freezing rain, dirty and salty snow, and all that nasty stuff. Even when it comes down nice a pretty and white, it is usually wet and dirty snow in no time. Your opportunities to take pictures and portraits in snow are limited. Take advantage when you have the chance.

I mentioned on my FACEBOOK business page that I am offering a special if someone wants to do their senior portraits, family portraits, animals or perhaps their horse in snow. If you are in the Dayton area and you enjoy my style and artistry in portraiture, I would encourage you to become a fan of my business page and also become a FACEBOOK friend. You can also sign up to receive this blog via your email in-box by visiting my website home page.

Hoping you have the opportunity to enjoy some pretty white snow.

What do you do if someone “hates” to have their portrait taken

As a photographer here in Ohio doing senior portraits, equine portraits of horse owners with their horses, and children and family portraits I have found a couple of things helpful in making people more relaxed in front of the camera.

1) Most of my work is location photography so I am at a park or home or stable chosen by the person I am photographing. Whenever I feel that someone is becoming uncomfortable we change up what we are doing. In a park, we walk to another location. At a stable we do  some walking shots with the horse and owner. Moving around is a great way to help people feel less confined and stiff.

2) As I am shooting, I look at the back of the camera and comment about how great the person looks, and that I am getting some great stuff. These are honest comments based on the fact that I have captured some great images with relaxed smiles. Sometimes it’s good to ask them for “no smiles for now” and that takes the pressure off them trying to be so perfect, then a little joking and on comes that perfect relaxed smile.

3) Working on location I shoot with a long lens. I have a 70-200mm F2.8 lens that is my work horse. Because I am not in a confined space of a studio I can shoot from a very comfortable distance of 15 – 25 feet away.

4) Rather than move people around much, many times I demonstrate the approximate pose that I want them to take. Then I say can you do that for me? If it seems awkward I suggest that they strike a pose that feels comfortable to them, then I can fix little things with some simple instructions.

5) Sometimes a little activity can take a persons mind off having their picture taken. At the PPSO picnic we asked this young lady to sit on the swing and just relax and do whatever she wanted. As I was shooting, I was commenting on the back of my camera. The combination of the distraction of the swing and the frequent comments about how lovely the pictures were turning out created an atmosphere where she could be herself, have fun, and provide us with great portraits.

6) I like to shoot portraits at my slow motor drive speed and fire off several shots in a row when expressions are changing naturally. Later I can pick out the images that, to me most accurately depict the persons natural expressions.

Daniel Goffe Senior Portrait Session

I know Daniel’s mom and dad from church. Daniel and his mom and dad are all very active at Fairhaven Church. One time I saw one of his Facebook updates and I sent him a friend request. I was impressed that Daniel was informed about politics and did not have his head in the sand as many do. His mom Sueann called and we set a time for some fall portraits, however about that time Daniel got the Flu so we had to postpone things for a week. That was after the windy weekend that brought most of the leaves out of the trees. Furturnately there were some trees at Cox Aboretum in Centerville that still had some color.

For the photographers among my readers here, I shoot with a Canon 1D Mark IIn digital camera using a 70-200mm f 2.8 lens. My wife Patty helps me with a large silver reflector to bring some extra light to my subject so that I can create the portraits mainly in the shade. Portraits are bets in open shade because the light is even and the variations in brightness are all within the digital camera’s range of sensitivity. In bright noonday sun you will bet burned out areas and harsh dark shadows in the eye sockets. In the summer I shoot just when the sun is going down. Now in the fall that is much earlier so most of my sessions will now have to happen on weekends. I shoot RAW format (not JPG) which requires processing of the images in photoshop. I also shoot a gray card a couple of times throughout the session for color calibration when processing. The card I use gives me good whites and nice warm skin tones. If you like my photographic style and you have questions about photography, I am certainly open to sharing my thoughts with you. I would also encourage photographers in SW Ohio to join PPSO (Professional Photographers of Southwest Ohio). We meet monthly and have outstanding speakers and trainers come each month. Not only that, but I get to talk with other professionals who are also open and willing to discuss what they know with me. You can’t beat that.

Back to Daniels session. Here are a couple of highlights from the session. At the bottom of this post I have a link to the rest of the portraits we created.

Here is the gallery of images, just click on this link DANIEL

I’ll be sharing some environmental pet portraits soon. If you would like some portraits of your pet at your home or some other special location, don’t hesitate to give me a call so we can discuss your ideas.

Evan & Kyle’s Senior Portrait Session

So what happens when two moms who were best friends as kids grow up and both become teachers. What happens when they move to the same city and just happen to become teachers at the same school? Well, there youngest sons become best friends through elementary school, through middle school and through high school. It was pretty fun doing their senior portrait session and seeing just how comfortable they are in their own skin. Still clowns and always having fun.

Here is some history for you to enjoy, then I am going to share some of my favorite images from the session.

Two mom’s and two kids on trick or treat night long, long, ago. Patty DeMott, my wife, on the left and Jennifer Damon on the right. Our Evan is Santa. Kyle was the head elf.

Patty, Evan, Kyle and Amy (another teacher in the fifth grade team)

Here they are today, both seniors getting their portraits done. As a High School Portrait Photographer, I can play around as much as they do. It was actually quite fun because these two young men are completely comfortable in their own skins. Letting they play around a bit, and even showing them a couple of these goofy images helped them to relax and have a great time.

Still Clowns and a couple of nuts when they are around each other, but getting more serious about life too.

Enough to make two mom’s cry. To see more images from this session click on this link Evan & Kyle .

Evan and Kyle are seniors at Miamisburg Highschool in Miamisburg, Ohio.

I’ve love to hear what you think of these images. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Kristen Lay’s senior portraits with her horse & her very large puppy/Fall colors

Kristen and her mom Michele have known me for several years. We have met several times at horse shows in the Dayton area. In addition, they attended the same church in Germantown that my son Jordan participated in. In an earlier post I said that Kristen had asked me about senior portraits this spring at one of the DLSC (Dayton Local Show Circuit) horse shows.

We talked about it each time we saw each other at the other horse shows. Michele and Kristen wanted to wait for the fall colors. When I arrived at her home in Miamisburg Michele pointed out one tree that was very vivid and bright. It was a perfect background for some of the images.

Kristen had a real workout trying to keep her horse’s head up out of the grass. I think that both Michele and Kristen doubted that we were going to get ANY good images from the session. I explained that it is always like this and that I have a very quick trigger finger. Even though the ears are perked forward for only moments, I would say, “got that one” to their surprise and we would move on to other poses. As a photographer with a specialty in equine photography (taking pictures of horses) Kristen and her mom chose the right person for her senior portraits with her horse.

When I was processing the images late into the night (some people don’t realize that after taking 200-300 images I have to sort out all the very best images and do my special processing on each image that I plan to show in the proofing ablum) I came across this image. It is definitely my favorite from the entire session. I made a Facebook version of this particular one and tagged Kristen with it on Facebook. Shortly, to my surprise, she replied with,” I know it’s just one image, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!  Now she has all the portraits to look at. I wonder if this one is still her favorite. To see all the proofs from this senior portrait session just click on this link: Kristen Lay’s Senior Portrait Session

Here are some other highlights from the session.

Autumn Cates Senior Portrait Session at her grandparents home in Farmersville

Autumn called me about senior portraits a couple of weeks ago. When I asked her if there were special places or things she had in mind she explained that she would like her portraits taken at her grandparent’s home. They live out in Farmersville and their neighbor has a horse she wanted me to take her portraits with. In addition they had the restored hotrod Charger SS that used to belong to her dad.

I have other posts of people with their horses and I thought that these portraits with a car that has special meaning for Autumn turned out great so I am sharing a few here. To see other images from the session you can go to the proofing gallery Autumn Cates.

New Logo for Peter DeMott Photography

I am excited about the results of working with Zac Henne or Henne & Associates, LLC graphic designers. I met Zac through Rainmakers Networking group here in the Dayton area. It took us three design tries to come up with the new look. After the second group of ideas, I said I had to see something that made me say, “Ooooh, I like that” because I will have to live with this for a long time. Thanks, Zac, for your willingness to go to bat three times to come up with that “Ooooh, I like that” design for me.

I also changed the header of my web site to show my current work in senior portrait photography here in Dayton. I’d love to hear what you think about my new logo and the new header.

Here is the new header which shows some of my most current work. I will also include this as part of my signature file when sending emails.

I still do equine photography. That means if you are a senior high school student and you want portraits with your horse, I’m still here for you, but I am going back to my first love in photography which is people. Pet photography on location at your home or in a nearby park is something that I am also open to. All of my sessions are guaranteed so even though I don’t have samples of work with other pets right now, there is no risk to you if you like my style and want to give a pet session a try (Money back, no questions asked guarantee on the session fee if you are not happy for any reason or a reshoot of the session if you like).

Sarah B.- Senior Portrait Photography Session on location at Cox Arboretum near Dayton

Pegge is a close friend to my wife Patty DeMott and had seen some of my photography work. She asked if I would do a senior portrait session with her daughter Sarah so we scheduled something toward evening. We almost rescheduled because there was a little drizzle when we arrived, but we decided to go ahead and do the session. I figured if we got rained out, we could just go the rain date later in the week. Sarah and her mom have a great relationship and between my wife and Pegge they kept Sarah smiling. A couple times we had to stop talking for a while so that Sarah could relax her smiles a bit, but it was great fun. Here is a portrait I took of the two of them together.

To see more portraits from this senior portrait session go here: Sarah

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