Peter DeMott Photography » Senior Portrait Ideas

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.

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

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

This weekend (8/27-28, 2011) I am am at the Abi-Kahn Competitive Trail ride near Caesar’s Creek Park in Ohio

Peter — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 10:15:39 +0000

Flamingos are the theme of the Abi-Kahn Competitive trail ride at Caesar’s Creek Park in Southwestern Ohio. I am shooting on trail for the event, buy when everyone is finished riding I am taking mini portrait sessions for those who want portraits with their horse/s.

One of the girls that I photographed with her horse said, “Do you do senior portraits?”. My answer was, “Yes, I do on-location senior portraits in the Southwestern Ohio area, where do you live?” As it turns out she lives right near me in the Centerville area and she would love to have senior portraits with her horse. I gave her my business card and hope to hear from her soon.

More pictures from this event can be seen and purchased here: Abi-Kahn Competitive Trail Ride

Peter DeMott Photography in Southwest Ohio near Dayton • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

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

Senior portraits in Wyoming a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio

Peter — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:00:43 +0000

Senior Portrait session in Wyoming Ohio

Paul DeMott is a senior student in the Wyoming suburb of Cincinnati Ohio. He is also my nephew. Paul D DeMott is my brother and called and asked if I could come down and take some senior portraits this past weekend. Paul (Jr) invited his good friend Scot to participate in the session.

At Wyoming high school in Cincinnati the boys graduate in white tuxedos and the girls in white dresses.

Big storms were rolling through when it was time for me to leave to go down to Cinncinnati for the session, but the storms seemed to be blowing through quickly lately so I told my brother I was going to come on down anyway. In the summer I can shoot till almost 9pm if the clouds move on through.

Looking for a break in the storms

Paul (Jr.) and his good friend Scot would only have their tuxedos from now to shortly after the graduation so if we were going to get some senior pics in tuxedo, we had to work around the bad weather. Paul’s mom was very worried about the boys going out in the rain in their tuxedos, but we headed on out for the portraits hoping it would clear by the time we reached the park.

As we arrived it started raining again and we had to stop under a park tent for a while until it stopped. The sun started poking out of the clouds and as you can see from some of these guy poses, some turned out quite strong. Paul (Jr.) explained to me that he was not to hot about the senior portrait photographers around town who over process the images so that the look of the skin is too smooth and unnatural. I explained to him that I felt the same way about too smooth skin. I use skin smoothing programs very sparingly and of course I remove blemishes in post processing of the portraits, but I leave enough so that the skin still looks real and natural.

We ran out of light and since they only had the tuxedos for that evening and the next day, I may come back to do some casual portraits as well at a later date.

Paul runs his own lawn care business and intends to go in the entrepreneur track of the University of Cincinnati.

If you would like senior portraits taken please visit my CONTACT/SHARE menu option above and tell me what you would like. If you don’t have ideas for where you would like your portraits taken, that is okay too. We can go with urban, metro park, home. After talking with you for a short amount of time, we should be able to come up with something.

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

Lindsay Steiger senior at Bellbrook High School – great outdoor portrait session

Peter — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:52:13 +0000

Lindsay was concerned about getting some casual outdoor senior portraits that captured her. What we discovered when we were doing the session was that Lindsay had an fun, outgoing, and energetic personality that I was able to capture in beautiful senior portraits.

Lindsay’s mom Norma was there to watch and carry Lindsay’s clothing changes. When Lindsay was off changing clothes we found that Lindsay will be going to Wright State University and plans to study biology. Her mom is a nurse and we wondered out load if their close relationship might mean that Lindsay would be headed in the same direction for her career choice.

What ever Lindsay ends up doing with her life, it was a delight to be able to record this important times stamp in her life. She will be graduating shortly and we were able to schedule the session fairly quickly so that she would be able to place her orders and use express shipping to get them back quickly.

Best wishes to Lindsay as you goes forward with her life. She will definitely be going places.

If you would like to see other photographs from this session go the bottom of this post and click on the link to her gallery. Just for fun, if 15 of lindsay’s friends will post a comment on this page (Not facebook where this will link, but here on this post on my web site), I will give her a bonus credit to use for additional purchases. So go ahead, say something nice, tell he that she is going places or that you appreciate her in your life. Once you have made your comment, it will be approved and show up at the bottom so that she can see them.

Here are more portraits from her session. I hope you enjoyed these examples.

http://pdemott.smugmug.com/Portraits/Lindsay-Steiger

Spring is here and flowers and trees are blossoming. It’s a great time to schedule your senior portraits for 2012 seniors and for others who are in a hurry to get senior pictures that really capture your natural smile and personality.

Peter DeMott • Dayton and surrounding communities • Senior portraits, families, and children • Equine portraits • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

Passion about photographing people

Peter — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 02:15:31 +0000

Doing lifestyle senior portrait sessions is a blast

I have absolutely a great time taking the pictures of people. This summer I did a senior portrait (senior pictures) session of Ceili. She lives out in the country and has a couple of horses and their family has several german shepherds as well. Yesterday I was sharing a few of the images from the session with another photographer and I came across this one.

Even though it was almost 90 degrees out and humid (Ohio late summer weather) Ceili has such an expression of joy hugging her dog. I was almost startled that I had taken the image because it didn’t have the same impact on me when I was preparing the proofing gallery including 30-40 images of Ceili, Ceili and her horse, Ceili in a her cowboy hat, Ceili with her dog and Ceili with her best friend Kim. Now, several months later, when I looked at it… Wow, I am so pleased that I was able to capture that moment.

I take pictures of pets and horses, but I think that my favorite subject is people. If I can capture their emotions in their relationship to their animals, that’s great. I have friends that are pet photographers and they are passionate about taking great pictures of pets. Many times the human owners are not even in the photographs. Their passion for photographing pets shows in their work. But, for me, I love taking pictures of people most and trying to capture the moments and expressions that show us who they are.

Tell me if I accomplished that goal with this image:

Thanks Ceili for letting my take your portrait and capture this moment for a lifetime. It’s a privilege to be a photographer, and I love every moment of it.

Peter DeMott Photography • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com • http://www.photosbypdemott.com