Elizabeth!

Elizabeth, a senior from Wauzeka-Stuben High School, was in the studio last week. She is the last senior from her family. It’s been a pleasure to have her siblings here over the years. What a great family!

Hornet Baseball

I had this idea as a fund-raiser for the RC baseball team. These were the returning letter-winners and coaches from 2012. Even though the season is over, I wanted to post this image because I thought it turned out great! It was a huge success for the team! Each player/coach was photographed independently and put together with a HDR background dropped in behind them. Display ads, schedule and the background image was added. The posters were printed and distributed around the area. I’m real proud of this and I’m glad it was a success for the team!

Paige!

Soooo many great pictures of Paige to choose from, I’ll be posting more for sure! Paige is from Bloomer, not many people can say that! That’s my hometown, my niece wanted Paige to have senior pictures that were not like anything her classmates would have! Mission accomplished!

One More of Josh

This is the “rock face” not sure if Josh liked it as much as I do!

Josh – the guitar man!

I asked Josh, a good friend and fellow musician, to come into the studio for these shots. I got the look that I was going for, it’s great when it all comes together! Thanks Josh for playing along.

What a cutie!

Addie was in the studio for her 4 year old photos. There where so many great ones but this one takes the birthday cake!

FYI, this is the first time in months that I’ve been able to access this blog! I’ve been struggling with finding the right web browser that still worked with XP!

No….this is my favorite!

It seems that with EVERY senior session that I do there is an image that I think, “That’s my favorite image of the year!”  I think that until the next session.  I guess that it’s my right and previlage to be this way.  Shelby, a senior from Boscobel, and her folks came into the studio to place her order on Tuesday.  They ordered from some several great images including this one.  Being at the right place at the right time is all I can say.  BUT being ready when you are at the right place at the right time is one of the reasons you hire a “Pro”!  SO this is one of my favorites of the year!  There are several!

I’m a “Natural Light” Photographer TOO!

My beloved profession has been flooded the past few years with “natural” light fauxtograpers, i.e. person with a camera.  These people don’t have a studio, the great outdoors is their studio!lol  ANYWAY…a Mom of a senior came into the studio today with the proofs of her son’s senior pictures, taken by one of these newbies.  She was very disappointed with how washed-out they were, his head was clipped off at the top (not in a good way) and he looked distorted.  The fauxtographer told her there was nothing wrong with these and wouldn’t do any retakes. This is my shocked face :-0 I told her if she did have more taken she’d just get more of the same.  She agreed.

She asked me why my portraits look so much better….(really? seriously?, is what I was thinking) BUT I was nice and told her that alot of these fauxtographers don’t spend any time or effort to learn proper portrait skills. Rather than spending their money on training, they spend it on the camera because they think that’s all it takes.  And the images still look bad, so they run a Photoshop effect on them and call them “Creative, edgy”.  You can put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.

After she left, I sat down to work on some outdoor senior images, and this one was first.  This image is a fairly typical for a outdoor senior. Notice how there is direction to the light on her face, creating hi-light and shadow giving her face dimension? Notice how her hair is backlit seperating her from the background?  Notice how the wind is blowing her hair just a little?  Notice her eyes are not in shadow?  Notice the proper skin tone and color, it’s not “washed-out” or has one of the ugly effects put on it to give it the “creative, edgy” look?  Notice the camera angle and lens selection used to avoid lens distortion and compress and blur the background?

All of these techniques are learned, AND applied.  They are the basics in professional portrait lighting, it’s not an accident.  Anything less than this is amature, lazy and sloppy.  I often say to newbies, “If you couldn’t look at the back of the camera after you take a picture, would you still be a fauxtographer?”

Please show alittle respect for the profession that I’ve spent 27 years of my life perfecting.  There’s more to what I do than buying a camera, even a “really nice one”.  Call these wannabee newbies what they are, just people with a camera. Oh, and a Facebook page.

Shelby

It’s been a busy couple of weeks with the summer winding down, and fall sports team practice starting.  Many seniors have been rushing in to the studio to get their senior portrait images done.  Here’s one from last week of Shelby, Boscobel High School class of 2013.

 

 

Aaron – RC Senior

I’ve known Aaron his whole life.  He and my son were in daycare together and I coached him in little league back in the day.  Aaron has always been able to put a bat on a ball, and throw hard.  It’s great to see him have much deserved success in baseball now that he is in high school.  I really like this shot of Aaron.  It’s been fun.