Megan models for the Senior Portrait photography workshop
I had a great time at the senior portrait workshop sponsored by PPSO here in the Dayton area. There were about 30-35 photographers from Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky here for a full day of learning. My son Evan and his friend Megan were two of the three models for the event.
Today, I thought I would just share a couple senior portraits of Megan. Although she was nervous at first, it was a really fun experience and she did a great job.
Many of the photographers talked about Megan’s beautiful eyes. Actually everything about here was lovely, but my gosh those eyes are something, wouldn’t you say. Creative pictures for girls involve softening whatever they do by bending in as many places as possible and shooting at an angle from the body rather than straight on.
Megan’s lovely smile was also a hit with all the photographers participating in the workshop.
This girls senior portrait has a secret garden sort of feel because of the leaves that I am peeking through to get the picture.
I got to meet several photographers that will be joining PPSO because of the great day they had with us learning to take better senior portraits. I enjoy friending other photographers as well as people who enjoy my style and are considering me for their senior portrait sessions. A phone consultation is the first step in scheduling your senior portrait photography session here in the Dayton and surrounding area. Peter DeMott 937-478-6222
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.
Prom night Pictures for Evan and Friends
Evan had prom at Miamisburg High School. As a professional photographer, he has a bit of advantage in that I provide my services to him on prom night at no charge. Great deal eh?
Cox Arboretum was soon teaming with groups of kids with various people taking their pictures before going off to prom. As I watched there were people with small point and shoot cameras, Kodak one time use film cameras, and some others. Seems to me though, that there are so many once in a lifetime events as kids mature and finish High School and move on to bigger and different things in their lives. Since Evan is my last one in High School, that means that I would be available for the next prom night (or other important event) in the life of some other high school students. Just give me a call to discuss your thoughts: 937-478-6222.
Next week I have a senior portrait session scheduled for Cox Arboretum for a young man that is thinking of headed into the military for some time before heading for college. He is doing the session for his mom who wants portraits outdoors. They already took care of the “yearbook” portrait with the contracted photographer, but mom wanted something a little more natural and relaxed for making up some nice desk and wall portraits. What a nice thing for this young man to do for him mom as he perhaps heads into what could be a very dangerous profession.
Back to pre-prom portraits and group photograhs. Here are some portraits and fun that we had photographing Evan and his friends.
Touching image taken with iPhone
There is a book out about the BEST CAMERA, that being the camera that you have with you at the time. In this case the book and web site are about the iPhone as your best camera. That is if it is the only camera you have with you. Just knowing that there is a book and web site about the BEST CAMERA has opened my eyes to being ready and willing to use my iPhone more often.
This has inspired me to take videos and images with my iPhone. Just recently, I was at my mother in-laws home. She was dying of lung cancer and they had moved her from the hospital to her home under the guidance of Hospice. Patty had been there since Thursday and my boys had arrived Saturday. My daughter and I were able to arrive on Sunday.
My wife sat at Donna’s bedside reading Bible passages to her, then I saw this. I did not want to go out to the car and bring in my big professional camera as it would seem very inappropriate, but walking up behind Patty I took this image with my iPhone. I showed it to her and it brought tears to her eyes. Later she asked me to share it on facebook. Others who have seen it, have said that even though they did not know Donna, that the photograph brought tears to there eyes as well.
I’m sure that when I have a print made of this for Patty, that she will cherish it.
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.
Environmental Family Portraits at Christmas
Patty and I and our family had a lovely time with Pam and Andy and their family Christmas day. In the morning we opened presents at home with our kids here in the Dayton area, then we drove to the Cleveland area first to visit my wife’s parents who are currently both in the hospital. After our visit, we went to Pam and Andy’s (Pam is my wife Patty’s older sister) for a beautiful visit and dinner. But, before dinner they had asked if I would bring my camera and take some family portraits for them.
I think the hint of Christmas is a wonderful way to be in the mood for Christmas year round. Since the portraits were taken in their own home, they will also have a more special meaning. I also took some in their formal family room without Christmas decorations showing.
I showed them a stretched canvas print that I had made for one of my senior high school student portraits so they could see what it might look like as a canvas print. It can make portraits like these into wonderful works of art. I also like to show samples so that people can understand size a little better. The canvas print that I showed them was 16×24 which is a nice starter size for framed display on a wall. It is very common for people to think that an 8×10 or 11×14 is a large wall portrait, but those are considered more for desk and bookcase display and usually look very small once held up to a wall. I even lend various sized print samples to people to allow them to hold them up where they intend of making their display so that they can see how various sizes appear. It is not something that you can do from memory. It’s kind of like bringing paint samples back from the store to hold up against various pieces of furniture to make sure they compliment what you already have.
This is Pam and Andy.
This is their lovely family.
The other images from the session can be seen here: Pam & Andy Family Portraits
HELP PORTRAIT Dayton was fun and a great learning experience for all involved
December 19th was the date for HELP PORTRAIT Dayton. As this was the first time for Dayton and the rest of the country, we had no idea of how many people might show up. Would we be completely overwhelmed? Would there be people waiting out the doors or would we be very slow. As it turned out, we were very slow until after 12 noon. So after three backdrops and light set-ups were in place, and tested we sat about for a while wondering what to do.
After about an hour, we just started to play. First we took a group shot with someone’s fisheye lens:
This is everyone that was there at the time including helpers, photographers, make-up and friends.
I took some more portraits for fun trying out the light set-up and thinking about what I would need to set up the same sort of portrait lighting set up in my country barn studio in the future. We had a white seamless paper background and two black backgrounds. At about noon people started coming in for portrait sessions. First one family, then a couple more and then several more. We all had great fun creating and GIVING the portraits away with no payment expected whatsoever. One father grabbed Jordan Begley as he was about the leave, “Hey, I want to thank you folks for doing this, this is our first family portrait….we’ve never had one and this means a lot.” Jordan came over and shared his conversation with me saying that the oldest boy in the family was 9 and he was so surprised and touched by the conversation.
Well as it turned out we had about, I think 50+ people representing 6-8 different families and since we were by no means swamped, we were able to come up with variations and sub-group portraits of each family. But, the originator of this event suggested that we not publish actual families from the event to respect their privacy.
The following images are portraits of photographers and friends helping at the event before actual families started showing up. The beginnings of some good friendships were started and everyone helped everyone else try out various lighting set-ups and learn more about photography together. Some of us were outside of our comfort zones and it was a great experience for all. THANKS everyone who helped and for all the sharing of knowledge at the event.
HELP PORTRAIT initiated by Nashville-based photographer Jeremy Cowart
I was reading my recent issue of Professional Photographer magazine and on the last page they have a new thing called “good works” where they tell about photographers that are giving back to those in need. The reason that I am posting this here is to pass along the idea to my many photographer friends who may read this blog. I was able to look up Dayton and there are about 4-5 people discussing ideas for Dayton already. I joined that group and I will see if I can participate in what they are planning. If not, my wife Patty suggested that she could find some people pretty easily through her connections as a teacher.
Here is the concept quoted from the first paragraph of the last page of Professional Photography Magazine Nov. 2009:
“Help Portrait has a simple premise–just connect. On December 12, photographers will grab their cameras, photograph people who cannot afford a portrait session, print the images, and deliver the prints to the subjects free of charge. That’s it. Pick a population. Take pictures. Give away the images.”
Here are a couple of links to the Help Portraits web site and some example videos that I found inspiring. This is not about making an event to promote any one photographer and it is not limited to professional photographers. Anyone who enjoys photography can participate in the project. In fact in the one video they show make-up artists and others helping in the project. Watch the videos and consider if you would like to participate.
http://help-portrait.com/#/about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3BFwgf1f2I&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9tu1XrBn3A
It’s easy to join the NING website to begin to connect with others in your area that are interested in this project. I was able to search for Dayton and found this discussion group already going.
http://community.help-portrait.com/group/daytonoh
Update: The group for Dayton is also now a GROUP on Facebook. If you want to help in any way visit the group page here:
Help-Portrait Dayton on Facebook
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.
Session books can be special keepsakes for seniors and others
I spent the evening preparing a book to be sent off for printing. It has a hard cover with a portrait wrapped onto the front cover. Inside there can be 20-40 pages of pictures from the session.
My first sample book is of my client Jennifer Truett and her horse Lydia that she lost earlier this year. On Facebook she had posted about her prize show horse and companion and that she may have to put her down due to a severe founder from getting sick. She would know within the next two weeks if the horse could survive or not. I had gotten to know Jennifer while taken pictures at a couple of horse shows at the Dancing Horse Farm which her and her husband, Lenny, own and operate in Lebanon.
I called by phone her the next day and said that I wanted to come out that weekend to do a portrait session (No charge for this one as I wanting to give her the session). Weeks earlier we had done a session under saddle and conformation with some other horses. We were supposed to do portraits of Lydia at that same time only she was at the equine hospital at the time and very ill. It was the aftermath of that illness that caused the severe founder. So I called her and we selected a time and I explained that we could do the session in their soft grass. It would be portraits of Jen with Lydia and anything else she wanted to do.
When I arrived Jennifer told me how difficult this might be as she was not sure she could keep her composure. Jen had to wipe away tears several times during the session and Patty (my wife assisting) and I also got choked up. At one point Jennifer, she told me later, said that she had almost called to cancel the session because she was so upset, but we proceeded and had a very lovely session not knowing if the news in the following weeks would be good or bad. Lydia’s last day was only a week away as it turned out.
Jennifer, Lenny and Lydia photo session (click here)
I sent a link to the proofs within a day or so. Many tears later. This was still before Jennifer found out there was no hope and Lydia had to be put down.
Jennifer made a long post on facebook about that last day explaining that it was the most difficult thing she had ever done in her entire life. Jennifer made it a very special day for Lydia with a bath, flowers braided into Lydia’s mane and other special moments photographing the entire process. They had many special moments together before walking to where Lydia would be put down at the remoted farm graveyard down a tree lined path.
This is the cover and back cover. On each page within the book I placed a word to try describe her horse and her relationship with her horse. Beauty, Affection, Memories, Honor, Grace, Laughter, Passion, Pride, Partnership, Whimsy and others.
Jen brought her horse out very carefully and slowly. She was so sweet with Lydia and it was very touching to watch and photograph.
I sent the computer files showing the insides of the book and this cover to Jennifer to review and so that she could request to perhaps add some additional pages with additional words. Then I will send it to the book company so that can put it together and print it and ship it back to me. I will finalize pricing for this type of book once I see the finished product. This particular book is 13″x 11″ so it will be rather spectacular in my estimation.
(Update) Jennifer loved the pages of the book and we decided that we would be adding some photographs from shows in the book along with the narrative and pictures from Lydia’s last day on this earth. In addition we will be adding many letters of condolence which poured in after Jennifer made the facebook post about Lydia’s last day.
They are available in 7″ x 7″ , 8″ x 10″, 10″ x 8″, 13″x 11″ and 12″ x 12″.
Tell me what you think.
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).
