Senior Portrait Tips

Here are some tips for ensuring your high school graduation portraits turn out amazing!

1. Bring examples of things you'd like to try in your portraits. Magazine clippings, year books, catalogs or anything else with examples of poses, styles, or effects. We can combine these ideas with our own and create a truly unique portrait that captures your personal style.

2. Give your hair time to grown in after a cut. Don't get a fresh cut the day before your portrait session, a minimum of 5 days is needed for the cut to look natural. The same goes for tanning, don't get a fresh tan the week before your session, and definitely don't get a sun burn.

3. Makeup should be applied normally. Use a mirror as a guide, if it looks good in the mirror it will look fine for your portraits.

4. Simple, solid outfits work best, especially in the studio. More formal attire is also very common in the studio. Outdoor poses work well with jeans or khakis and simple solid shirts, especially muted colors. Blue, green, tan, and many more work better than glaringly bright colors such as white, yellow or red or anything neon.

Follow these tips and make sure to get a good night's rest and your graduation portraits will be something you'll be proud of for years to come.

Austin Foreman - Lewis Cass Class of 2012

Had an epic marathon senior session with Austin this week. Took over 450 shots over the course of just a couple of hours. We started out with some casual poses in the studio followed by some sports shots on a black background for some montages. Then we headed out to Lewis Cass to get some shots on the ball diamond and football field. Got tons of great shots, the lighting really worked with us and we finished up just as the sun went behind a big cluster of trees. Not to admit defeat, we went inside the locker room and took another dozen or so shots at his locker. Very productive day and tons of great shots to choose from, check out FB or my gallery for more samples.

Pet Food UK

Got a message from a buddy asking if I could plug his new pet food store in the UK. Pet Supermarket has everything for your pets, they've got all the top brands including Royal Canin, Burns Dog Food, James Wellbeloved, Iams Dog Food, and Hills Science Plan. If you're a pet lover in the UK check them out and send him some business!

Scott and Sarah Shepler

Did a double portrait session for Scott and Sarah Shepler this week. Turned out really nice, for some reason Scott didn't like that the lights were out in the studio and he was just generally not into the whole process, so we sort of took it slow and worked with him, then after probably 20 minutes of playing with toys and talking about pictures, he jumped up on the chair we had and started posing like a little pro. I've never seen anything quite like that, it must be fascinating to hear what's going on inside little one's heads.

Kokomo Shopper!

Ok, this is cool! Just found this site, hasn't even launched yet, called Kokomo Shopper that is planning on having over 500 coupons from local merchants. They launch August 15th and I for one cannot wait to use it. In today's economy saving money is almost as good as earning it, so coupons can go a long long way. Check it out, it's going to be an amazing resource.

Down Week!

Got a bit of a slow week this week to recover from the fair last week. I have a lot of tasks to get caught up on including some phone calls I need to return and some orders that need to be placed. Then I'll be using the rest of the week to work on some designs that are in the queue. Next week I'll be fully rested and ready to tackle the sessions that I booked at the fair.

2011 4H Fair

I had an absolute blast last week at the 4H fair. I got to talk shop with all of the my other photographer friends and I got to answer questions about my work with several hundred customers. Over 300 people entered my drawing to win $25 gift certificates. I selected 10 winners and they are as follows:

Meghan Schroder
Tina Spencer
Della Livesay
Jessica Spradling
Jeff Fording
Kevin Vasquez
Amanda Birkenstaff
Amber Maggart
Vicki Miller
Jaime Zaragoza

Thanks a million Cass County, I will see a lot of you in the coming months for portraits, everyone else I'll see you next year.

Sculpture Trails in Solsberry Indiana

Just found the website of an awesome outdoor museum here in Indiana, Sculpture Trails. They have over 60 large scale sculptures deep in a hilly forest. All through the month of July they will be featuring sculptors working at casting new works. They even have after dark exhibitions which sounds amazing! You can also carve your own work and cast it yourself to take home. What an awesome way to spend a summer day.

Busy weekend.

Had a super busy weekend with multiple portraits on each day, did a super super large family portrait in the studio and this really nice gift portrait for an upcoming anniversary. Add in a couple of babies and you've got yourself a weekend. Check out my facebook page or gallery to see more of our samples from the last couple of days.

Coupon Site

Just started using this new coupon site for portrait deals. Local Pinch has deals for all sorts of local businesses from Yoga Studios to Closet Organizing Companies. My current deal is a studio portrait session with no sitting fee and a $50 gift certificate for just $25. Buy it right on Local Pinch's website and then give me a call to schedule your session. Don't forget to check out the other deals when you're done.

Kelsey and Michael Miller Wedding

Had a great time last weekend with Kelsey and Michael. I especially loved the tuxes and the bright colors everywhere, it really made their portraits pop. Check out the rest of their pictures in my gallery or on facebook. I'll be starting the design work on their coffee table book here pretty soon so stay tuned for that, I am very excited about that, there is nothing that gets the creative juices flowing better than designing a digital wedding album.

Tanner Prentice, LHS, Class of 2011

Here is the final Grad Show for Tanner Prentice. Make sure to check out the third section, it's quite good.

Kristie Wright School of Dance 2011 Recital

Had a great time watching the dress rehearsal last night. Took about 1700 shots which are available for purchase on my Proofing Site. I will be at the first performance tonight getting shots backstage and of the dancers from the sides of the stage. I'm going to spend all day working on cutting up the formal portraits from last week so I can get them back to Amii no later than Monday.

Laura and Brent Engagement Session

Had an awesome time on my first outdoor portrait session of the year. The weather was amazing and we took our time strolling from spot to spot getting lots of different poses. They got lots of really great shots, more are posted on my facebook page, but this one of them kissing around a tree was my favorite from the day and I just had to share it here on my blog.

Jewelry?

Was researching jewelry photography on the web today and found Jody Coyote. Not only is the photography really excellent, but the jewelry is amazing. There seem to be a million people making jewelry now adays and it always looks like the same old stuff, but Jody Coyote is really unique. Check it out!

Kristie Wright School of Dance

Had another awesome time photographing the dancers from Kristie Wright School of Dance in their recital costumes. It was a long day, took over 400 portraits, but there really were no snags at all, the day hummed along beautifully. Working on edits now, will probably take me 3 or 4 days to get everything ready for print, then it should be about 2 weeks after that.

Amazing document repository!

Needed to find the manual for my camera today to look something up and found an amazing site called PDF Stack. They seemed to have every imaginable document you could think of. I found the manual for my camera, then found almost every manual for every other camera I've ever owned. I found the manual for my current studio lights and also the older ones I used to use. Very impressive assortment of documents. I highly recommend checking this out, super handy resource.

Excellent gift site

Just found an awesome site with hilarious gag gifts called Fun Slurp. I am definitely getting a package of dill pickle flavored mints. That's the most hilarious flavor of anything I've ever heard of. Of course the WTF stamp is going on my must have list as well. Check it out if you're in the market for unusual items especially if you have a hard to buy for person with a birthday coming up.

Class of 2011 Slideshow

Just finished my 2011 Senior Sampler video. A little bit later this year, but busier times are here and I have to squeeze tasks in whenever I can. Check it out on FB:

Senior Slideshow

Real Estate Photography

Was looking on the web for some awesome examples of real estate photography for an upcoming gig I have and found Beacon Hill. Really gorgeous shots of the insides of their cottages. The lighting is amazing, it makes it look like the lighting is all natural, but I'm sure it's been artificially lit by strobes. My three favorites are:

http://www.beaconhill.co.uk/curlew-cottage-northumberland.cfm

http://www.beaconhill.co.uk/larch-cottage-northumberland.cfm

http://www.beaconhill.co.uk/beacon-hill-cottage-northumberland.cfm

Alyse 1 Year Portraits

Another catch up portrait. Took this earlier this year and while we had lots and lots of great portraits to choose from, this one definitely stands out. Mom definitely bought more of this pose than any of the others. Just thought I'd share it.

Landis Grandparent's Day

Had a blast tonight at Landis' Grandparent's Day. Photographed around 80 groups and everyone did really great, only had about 3 groups that took more than 1 shot to nail it. It got super busy there in the middle, but unless we do tickets with prearranged times I just don't see how we can keep everyone from jumping up and getting in line at the same time. No one had to wait more than 2 minutes though, and we actually got everyone done 15 minutes before the event ended. I literally have never seen that happen before, so that's a major victory. See everyone next year!

Awesome source for photo posters!

Just got in my first samples of some posters from PhotoOnline Roller Banners . The print quality is awesome and I love the heavy duty paper they are printed on. These are really excellent samples of my work, any business needing a new tool for promoting themselves should really check out Poster Printing UK and consider printing up some of their promotional posters, it's well worth it. They sell the stands too which is something I'm thinking about trying for my booth this year at shows. They even have design services to help make each poster the best that it can be.

Kyle Ayers Senior Portraits - Logansport High School Class of 2011

Had a great studio only session for Kyle's senior portraits last week. We got some really great shots. This super dark black and white one is my favorite. I love how he is just popping right out of the shadows. I posted more in my gallery and on facebook, so if you want to see more check it out.

Been swamped!

I'm so far behind on blogging I don't really know where to begin. I've had a super busy winter season so far. Definitely my most busy ever. Have had lots of kids, plenty of families, a couple of offices, and have some events coming up really soon. This is a shot of the Gellinger children from last week. We had a really good time and they all did really well. I'm probably not going to get fully caught up on posting the images I've missed, but I'm definitely not going to let myself get that far behind again, so stay tuned for lots more great portraits.

Great start to 2011

Usually January means pack up the camera, it's not going to be needed for about 2 more months, but this month has been great. Lots of babies and children, an entire office staff, and a couple of large family portraits including the Shidlers. We had a blast Saturday photographing them and everyone was excited because apparently this is their first family portrait in a very very long time. I love when I'm able to provide portraits for people that have put it off for such a long time. It reminds them how important portraits really are, and that's a cool thing to be a part of. If this sounds like your situation, give us a call today and schedule a session, we did a full family, 3 smaller family poses, all of the kids, the kids seperately, just the grandparents, the grandparents with their kids, and probably a few others I'm forgetting in exactly one hour. It's completely painless I promise.