Your child is finally a senior!
Wow! It is senior year! It feels like you blinked and your child is all grown up and they are now a senior in high school! Get ready for the emotional roller coaster you and your child are about to embark on...oh and might I add...plan on getting no sleep if you have an active senior because you are going to want to take in these last memories that make up their senior year.
As senior year gets underway you are constantly being reminded of all the things you need to do in order to be ready for graduation! From Senior Portraits, to class pictures, team pictures, college applications, ACT/SATs, sporting events, senior nights, senior banners, final banquets, cap and gown, ordering graduation invitations and the list seems to keep growing. How do you keep track? With so many changes and big events happening throughout the year don't forget that documenting their senior year is huge so that you can cherish these memories for years to come. What better way to do that than through senior portraits?
But where do you start? Who do you choose (because honestly there are a lot of us to choose from these days)? Many schools require seniors to have their formal pictures (tux and drapes) done by a contracted photographer and some also require the casual submission to also be from the same photographer and because of this many parents think they are required to use this photographer for their senior session and that could not be further from the truth. This photographer is typically just contracted for the class/yearbook pictures. Often times they are a volume photographer. For example, our own daughter is a senior (c/o 2024) and the photographer contracted for her school will photograph 7000+ seniors between June to December. In our personal experience, we felt like just another number, there was nothing personal about the session at all. I am sure many parents can say the same thing. Still, parents leave feeling that these are the senior pictures they are stuck with and many times they are not happy with most of them. So what do they do now? Well, for us we paid our $59.95 and picked out her drape picture for the school (which actually turned out pretty good). But we didn't like any of the other pictures so we didn't buy them. We didn't even purchase one for a casual submission to the yearbook. Instead, we decided to pay for a senior ad so we could take her senior portraits (since we do run a photography business) and use those images for the yearbook. The thing to remember here is that you do have a CHOICE when it comes to purchasing the images you will print for your home or put into a photo album.
A true senior portrait session should be all about capturing all the memories your child has made in high school that have helped mold them. The session should capture their personality in the images and it should look like they are having fun doing it! That is why we take into consideration if they are an athlete, or participated in any clubs, or had anything they are just really passionate about and we incorporate that into your child's session. We want you all to feel comfortable. We take the time to chat with you and your senior to find out these things. We also want to deliver a gallery that will be different than any other photographer can offer you. We like to push the boundaries of traditional senior portraits and deliver our clients a magazine quality image you can be proud of. We also want you to leave feeling like you are now part of our family.
Some other things you should look for in a TRUE Senior Portrait Session:
- First and foremost, do your research?
- Do they offer style and makeup suggestions?
- Do they help you pick the right location for you?
- Are they personable and easy to get along with?
- Are they excited to work with you?
- Have you checked out the quality of their work?
- Will they let you have fun with your session?
- How much time do they spend with you? Are they willing to keep going until you are satisfied that you have gotten a good selection of images? (It should not be about quantity of images but quality and variety of images)
- Are they a natural light photographer or do they use off camera flash? Why is this important? A lot of times blowing up a picture that is natural light and has to be heavily edited, your image could appear very grainy the larger you print it.
- What are their editing skills? Have you seen any before and after comparisons of what they are capable of?
- Does their style of photography match the style you are looking for?
Some final thoughts...Don't let price be the determining factor of who you go with for a senior photographer because these are memories you will have for a lifetime. Always remember you have a CHOICE. Choose a photographer that specializes in senior portraits that you feel you can connect with.
When you are ready to book your senior portraits we are ready to get you scheduled!
Tammie and Tony Dixon
662-420-8321
tammie@dixoncreativeimages.com
dixoncreativeimages.com