SENIOR PORTRAIT SAMPLES
a.k.a. #seniorpictures & more details below
NEW TO THIS? HERE’S MORE ABOUT THE PROCESS:
This post is very helpful before you decide on a photographer.
I've been shooting seniors since I was a senior. After my own bad photography experience as a client, I decided that “if that guy can sleep tonight, after telling me that my substandard images are 'good enough', then there's room in this market for someone who cares…”
It started out with competitive vengeance but evolved into my creative release. Time showed me that a competitive mind caps off the creative hemisphere that I prefer to enjoy. My awards were earned while I was creating, not while I was competing. To get the awards, I had to enter “Competitions.” Six straight years in a row I “competed.” but felt wrong inside and I didn’t know why.
Was it that many people shot competition prints for free, even paying models to pose? That part bothered me, but landing on Oregon’s “Court of Honor” (highest scoring prints) in all those years while displaying client images meant more to me than the awards themselves. Why? - because the only reason I entered professional-only competitions was to make sure that what I delivered my clients was worthy of the price that I put on them.
Those awards show up in the form of five-star reviews like the one’s I’ve added below. (I am the same “Prints Charming” mentioned in some - rebranded to Studio B so that teen guys wouldn’t screw their noses up at where they might be going - HA)
My goal is to create TRUE-YOU (genuine personality) portraits that exceeded the phrase - "good enough". (two words that I loathe)
@studioBpdx IG feed below…
Please follow @studiobpdx on IG to see new posts.
Do you want a professional, authentic image that shows your true personality?
I think it’s great that so many students support their budding “classmate-photographer” because that was once me - “practicing on my classmates”.
However, once I entered my first professional portrait competition 14 years later I was pretty shocked at what I didn’t know. (though grateful for friends that let me practice on them anyway)
Discovering countless elements I had missed, like complimentary posing, lighting and ESPECIALLY, how to direct people. I enjoyed my “Joe Photo” nickname in high school, but I didn’t know what I didn’t know, ya know?..
I was too busy learning the cause and effects of shooting a camera in manual mode, to empathize with that person watching me forge my way through a session.
My classmates saw photos that were better than they could take themselves, but those images were nowhere near the ones that eventually landed me some validating accolades, awards and reviews.
It also took me years of study and practice to master a scenic portrait that included them as a subject. Like capturing a BLUE-sky background without blasting it to white. (cannot be done with “a nice camera” alone it also requires quality, color-balanced lighting supported by mad, RAW file-processing skills).
How to balance fill light with ambient to still see what color my subjects eyes are. (no “raccoon eyes” you know - those dark eye-sockets where your stunning iris colors could be shining)
PLEASE HERE THIS: NOT USING FILL FLASH will not show eye colors - especially deeper-set eye sockets. Reflectors will work, but only at close range where they can also change the color of your flesh tone. I too did this for years until mastering the mix of flash and nature for a predictable result every time.
THIS IS WHERE IT REALLY BECAME FUN FOR MY CLIENTS!
Embedding all of the technical & aesthetic aspects of my craft into my subconscious - I began to be fully present - comfortable enough myself, to then put my subjects at ease in order to extract their true personality...
This is when I really started having fun with a camera. Awards on real clients were a mark of my progress, but to create images that caused a parent to say - “You didn’t just show me what he looks like, you captured who he is.” That was the sound of mastery for me.
When The Portland Rose Festival chose me as the official photographer for the Court Princesses & Queen I was just as afraid as I was flattered. They used to send each of the 15 Princesses to different photographers before trying one photographer, but now they’re asking me. “YAY [GULP] I mean YIKES!”
I felt the same feeling for the first five of 20 years that I served as their official photographer. Win/win changes occurred in the same year as the pandemic. They decided to try something new then the virus upended “normal” for all of us. I still love and support the program, but LOVE being able to make plans for spring breaks. Something that always came second, to the final princess selection day the Friday before break.
As an upcoming graduate, it all comes down to this: In 20 years you’ll likely attend a class reunion. At registration you’ll be slapping on a nametag that includes your photo, to remind your classmates who you were before life added the smiling crows-feet.
What will your image look like?.. Would it reflect a true version of YOU?
I provide this service with PURPOSE, because I know that mine was gawd-awful. Let me (B.) create a professionally-lit, award-worthy image - AND allow you to have a blast in the process!
PARENTS: LOOKING FOR FAMILY PORTRAITS?
Most of our family and wedding services are of our prior high school seniors. This is also the only place you’ll find weddings linked to my site.
I love new clients but LOVE being able to shoot weddings for my studio family first.
I hope to add you to that family!..
