We went out with Mariah recently to Salmon Creek Park. We shot during one of the hardest times of the day to shoot. In addition to shooting to produce Mariah's senior portraits, I was also using lighting techniques for an article I am writing on shooting at the time of day most photographers will not shoot. Great results happen when it all comes together. Educated photographer, hard working photo assistant, and willing subject.

For girls that don't feel like applying their own make-up for senior portraits, we offer make-up services. The image above is Brittany showing off her make-up skills for the camera. Brittany is a skilled make-up artist and is great to work with. If you want one less thing to think about during the day of your photo shoot, Brittany's services are well worth the extra expense.

Have fun, look great, and get the best High School Senior portraits.
++ BOOK NOW FOR YOUR SUMMER 2008 SESSION ++

Jake lives up the street. He's a great guy. He is also one of the most intense offensive and defensive football players that I've had the pleasure to cover. I don't make that statement lightly and I've covered too many high school, college, and pro football games to count.

The photographic dilemma: How do you get some of Jake's game intensity and maybe a bit of intimidation to come through in a senior portrait, studio shoot? It wasn't too hard. Jake, James , and Eric started with some warm-up exercises to get a good pump in their shoulder, chest, and arm muscles. Add in some lighting to show it off, a beanie, a clenched fist, and BA stance and it all just comes together.

Below is an in-game shot of Jake. With seconds left in the game, Jake made this tackle behind the line of scrimmage to end Kelso's hopes of victory.



Have fun, look great, and get the best High School Senior portraits.

Hello Students and Parents - I've been getting quite a few emails and MySpace messages from students and parents with photo questions. Keep them coming, I am always happy to help. STUDENTS: find out what class I'll be teaching next semester and GET IN THAT CLASS! We shoot a lot! You create the same quality images that I would create in the same shooting situations. We are creating some GREAT MySpace images for all of our student models. PARENTS: Keep the questions coming. I'll be offering workshops for parents covering everything from shooting sports to candid baby photos to family event coverage.

DSP Choice - Be sure to stop over to skyview.davescottphoto.com and check out our new DSP Choice.

The image above is another shot from Claire's photo shoot.

Have fun, look great, and get the best High School Senior portraits.

Meet Claire. Claire is a rower and is part of a crew team. Additionally, she is a budding photographer. Claire mentioned that she wasn't happy with the images that she received from the school photographer. To be fair, there is a big difference between mass produced school portraits and custom photo sessions. I am always happy to receive my sons' school photos even though they are of the mass produced type.

For Claire's image I set up my lighting the way I would for a model. This set-up uses four lights. A nice large main light is to camera right with a fill light to camera left. Notice the wonderful catch lights they create in Claire's eyes. To finish out the lighting there are two lights, camera left and right, behind Claire. These two lights create the rim light on her hair, shoulders, and her left arm and separate her from the background.

Have fun, look great, and get the best High School Senior portraits.

Props are an important thing to remember for senior portraits. I cannot think of a more important prop than a cell phone. How many hours of the day do you have your cell phone with you. Whether texting, talking, taking pictures, or listening to music your cell phone is most likely one of your most used possessions. Don't forget to use it as a prop in your senior portraits!

Danica came by to shoot today. Danica is a wonderful visual artist and vocalist. She is creating the graffiti wall that we will be using in future senior portraits in the studio. For this image we chose a mottled, grey, hand painted muslin because it went so well with Danica's fair, unblemished skin as well as her hair color and choice of shirt.

Eric is a three sport athlete at Skyview High School (football, wrestling, and track). The shot in this post is a traditional, casual outdoor senior image. Edgy, modern, editorial type images are fun to make and are high impact but it is important to include traditional shots in a senior portrait package.

In other posts we showed James in a traditional head shot and also a more edgy modern senior photo that is exactly what seniors are looking for. Another side of James is him on the football field. James is an awesome running back who will be attending the University of Oregon next year.

We had a great shoot today with 3 Skyview High School football players. We shot outside because the weather turned surprisingly nice. While the outside shots were great (I'll post a few soon) I couldn't wait to get into the studio and really bring out the side of the guys that they were looking to show. We had the lighting set up ahead of time because I knew what we needed. These guys train hard, eat clean, and have ripped bodies. It was important to capture that in their senior photos.

A couple of Skyview High School football players came by and mentioned that they needed an image for submission into the yearbook. The deadline was fast approaching! They came by the next day and we created some portraits. The image in this entry is the one that James picked. James was great to work with.

This image is from a recent shoot with Jordan and Steffany. We had some time to kill so Jordan gave Steffany a call and she came over for some photos. We all had a great time as they hammed it up for the camera while we created some great images.