A few days before taking my cousins senior pictures she asked me what she should do to prepare for her senior pictures so I thought I would share a few tips to help make your day go smoothly.

First and foremost you need to get a good night's sleep. If you're tired, it will show on your face, in your attitude, and your overall appearance.

Clothing
With clothing you want to be comfortable or it will show in your pictures that you aren’t. 
Suggestions:

• Wear your favorite outfit that shows your personality.
• Solid colors and long sleeves photograph best.
• Wear matching shoes and accessories to complete your outfit.
• If you wear glasses bring a pair without lenses.

Guys:
For the traditional portraits, a suit or sport coat with a tie is good. Medium to dark sweaters photograph well. For casual and outdoor photos, jeans, khakis and shorts look great.
       Girls:
Bring the outfits you feel best in. Dresses and sweaters are great for a traditional look. Bright colors, skirts, jeans, or shorts look good for your casual portraits. Avoid busy prints and patterns, as they distract from you.

Avoid stress
These next few tips will help ease your stress.
Girls:

• Skip the wild nails and go for clear or natural colors.
• When you do your hair make sure it’s a style you will be comfortable with.
• Don’t get a last minute haircut because you might not be happy with it.
• Apply a minimal amount of concealer or powder to minimize blemishes; we will retouch the photos so you don’t have to worry about blemishes showing in your photos. (apply your makeup before you arrive)
• Avoid over exposure to the sun, you don’t want tan lines or a sun burn.

Guys:

• Shave right before to avoid an unwanted shadow.
• Have your hair styled before your session and avoid a last minute haircut
• Avoid over exposure to the sun, you don’t want tan lines or a sun burn.

And finally bring props! Go ahead and bring anything that shows your personality or what you like doing. You can use anything from sports equipment to pets.

So there you have it, some tips to help you prepare for your senior pictures.

Comment:

Laura Beahm

Guilty Pleasures    
I am a hands on learner. I love to play and experiment with my camera. My most recent guilty photography pleasure is slow exposure.

It all started with a glow stick.             Some friends and I decided to try taking photos while writing our names with glow sticks. We went out in the dark, I lowered my shutter speed, and voila. (Turns out our initials work better.) Not too bad.
Time to step it up.             Glow sticks were fun, but I wanted more. Hello Fourth of July!  Suddenly I was spending $20 on sparklers and roman candles, digging out my tripod and calling my brave friends. Boom. Sparklers are fun. They are much brighter than glow sticks, so they work better. It was fun to put my camera on the tripod, light our explosives and run around in front of the lens for a few seconds. Each time the results were exciting and different.
After the sparklers we moved on to roman candles. This was more dangerous (note the welding masks). The key to this next photo is shooting past the 'opponent' instead of at them. These results were more than I had hoped for.
	Coming soon. I am working on some news ideas. Here's a sneak peek

Recent Project:

Recently I produced a video slide show for a client. They wanted a 90 second to 2-minute video slideshow with background music and a voice over. I was given the project two weeks before the due date. Before the end of the first week I had a preliminary version to the client. Three days before the due date I recorded the voice over with the client. The client’s voice was over five minutes in length. During editing I was able to shorten the script to two minutes and thirty seconds.  The project was completed on time and met the client’s expectations.

Tips for clients:

Write your script first and time yourself reading the script aloud. This way you can change the script to meet your time requirement. The second thing you should know is to always give adequate time for any project. This includes giving the producer time to edit and produce the projects.

Tyler Garrelts

Lighting

Having trouble adding drama to your images?  Try using dramatic lighting to make shadows.

To me lighting is an essential way to add artistic flare to your images.  Depending on the lighting you can add drama.

I prefer side lighting.  You create dramatic shadows by placing a soft light to the side, and near the bottom of your subjects. 
It is important to catch some light reflection in the subject’s eyes when photographing portraits.  Catching light in the eyes brings the subject to life and adds pop to your image.  This will also make your portrait look more inviting.

I like my photos to appear golden.  I use soft tungsten lamps to accomplish this.  It also may take some playing with your white balance. 

Jennifer Tvrdy

I had an assignment to take “People Pictures” so I asked a friend of mine if she would like to be my model. We went around Hastings and found some interesting places to take pictures. These are some examples.

Melody Rodriguez

Here's a link to my Newsletter Blog

Heather Ashley

Tips on Hair and Makeup

To avoid the disaster of my senior pictures follow this #1 rule; Keep it simple.

Don't use a lot of hairspray, gel or other product in your hair when you come in for your senior pictures. Your hair should flow naturally.

Wear neutral eye colors, such as grays and browns. Avoid pastel shades and highly frosted shadows.

Be sure to have your fingernails clean and manicured, if wearing nail polish stick to neutral tones.

If you need help, go to the experts. Visit the make-up counters at your local department store.