Melissa’s senior portraits from her mom’s perspective

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

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

Fall portraits with color for seniors and families and children

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!

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

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

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

Senior portraits in Wyoming a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio

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

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

Peter DeMott Photography top rated photographer in Dayton

It was a pleasant surprise to find Peter DeMott Photography on a web site called Thumbtack. The heading was Top Rated Photographers in Dayton and as of today it puts my listing as #5. This is just one place that brings together references for various types of businesses.

There are so many places that people can comment on your quality of work and service that it is easy for people to find out more about any business. But, as important as hearing good things is seeing good things. What I mean by that is when you are looking for a photographer it is very important that you connect with the style of work the photographer does.

http://www.thumbtack.com/oh/dayton/photographer/

Enjoying the style and work of a photographer is far more important than price or their rating on one web site or another. I don’t figure that my prices would be considered high for professional quality work, but you sometimes see people making choices purely based on price which I see as a grand mistake. Consider how long you will be enjoying or not enjoying a portrait on the wall of your home, or an coffee table book of portraits from your session.

How much difference does $100 or $200 difference in price make over 10-20 years. Let’s consider that. If you make a choice about a photographer based on a $200 difference in price divided by 20 years at 12 months per year that means you may have chosen a better photographer for about 80¢ per month or you may have chosen a photographer whose work you did not like and will be regretting your choice for 20 years for a difference of 80¢ per month.

Right here on the site you can also click on the menu item “Testimonials” for some ideas about how people feel about my work.

Testimonials can be found here

If you like my work and style, I encourage you to share my web site and also my facebook page with your friends. I frequently post images from sessions on my facebook business page Peter DeMott Photography and it is easy to LIKE the page and share what’s going on with your friends. Horse portraits and horse and rider portraits are also frequent on my site because of my specialty in that area.

If you do a search for Ohio Equine Photographer you will likely see my web site listed number one  or two on the page. A friend, Sally Shaffer, and I toggle back and forth between the top two listings (that is something that can change from day to day). She does lovely work as do many other equine photographers listed on page one of the search results. Of course locality can also be important with Sally being in Columbus and with me being here in South West Ohio (near Dayton). It is easier for me to get to farms and stables around Dayton and Cincinnati for example. Also, some of the photographers listed specialize in stock photography, show photography and other areas whereas I enjoy my horse and rider portrait work the most.

Thanks Dayton for rating me as one of Dayton’s top photographers. I appreciate any comments and connections that come my way.

Peter DeMott Photography • Senior portrait photography • Equine photography • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

Your help selecting the best portraits of 2010 at Peter DeMott Photography

Going through some of the portraits of 2010 was fun. To make it fun for you too, I would like your help me in selecting from some of my sessions, the best portrait of year. These are in no particular order and you can only vote one time for up to 5 different portraits, but there is nothing that keeps you from telling your friends to vote too.

You see, I have decided that after there have been at least 500 votes and on March 1st of 2011, I will award the person in the winning image with a 16×24 canvas print of the portrait of their choice from their session in 2010. I had great fun this past year meeting new people and having portrait sessions of many kinds. Throughout the spring and summer is a great time for outdoor, on location portraits of all kinds. These images are horse and rider portraits, senior student portraits, new born baby portraits with parents, and more. Most were taken in the Dayton, Ohio area, but several of the horse and rider portraits were taken at Endurance rides throughout the region including Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and even West Virginia.

If you know someone in this fun little contest, please send them a link to this page so that they can vote for their image. Let’s have some fun. Each person may select up to 5 portraits to vote on. You cannot vote 5 times for the same portrait. Only one voting session is allowed per computer.

There is a title caption small under each portrait (generic with no names). These match the selection options at the bottom of this post. After you vote you can see the current totals.

Peter DeMott Photograph

937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com

PPA certified judging at PPSO print competition

It was exciting to hear three certified judges assign various images scores to prints presented on a large color corrected monitor. A score of 80 or above is a merit print.

As I said in my last post, I had entered 7 images into the competition. Last night two of those seven prints were judged to be merit prints. There were approximately 50 entries along with 5-6 album entries. Out the fifty or so prints it seemed like there were about 15 or so that achieved merit status. I did not keep tabs on the exact numbers of anything. Each print was scored then one or more of the judges would comment on what they liked and didn’t like about the print. If the judges scores were more than a few points different, then either the low scoring judge would challenge the higher scoring judge or the higher scoring judge would challenge the low scoring judge. They would discuss their differences and then re-score the print. Sometimes minds would be changed and other times the scores would stay the same.

Here is one of my entries that achieved merit status. It is framed in black in a horizontal format to fill the monitor screen during the judging. Suggestions to improve the score on this image (perhaps to a higher merit status)  included completely removing the picnic table and cloning out every small stray hair on the subject. The title of the image was, “The eyes are the windows to the soul.”

I found that sitting through the judging of 50+ images was very instructive and challenging as I knew it would be. This is one of the many ways that PPSO (Professional Photographers of SW Ohio) encourages its members to become better photographers each day. If you are a photographer in SW Ohio (from Troy to Dayton, from Dayton to Cincinnati and throughout the region) I would encourage you to consider joining this group or a similar group in your area. The web site is currently being rebuilt (sorry for the mess) http://www.ppso.org You can also email me with questions if you like.

Last, if you are a photographer and you have entered your work into judged competition, was it a learning experience for you? Were you able to watch the judging? Please comment below (or click on the “leave comment” link near the title.

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