Seniors 2012 - Zak

I got a call earlier this week asking to do senior portraits for a kid named Zak.  Definitely psyched for it because, when I was talking to his mom she said he skateboards and shooting at a skate park would be super fun.  Of course, the weather today turned out terrible - very windy and with freezing rain.  So that part is postponed to next weekend, but today we still got some awesome studio shots!

This was my lighting set up for the day.  The hair light is an Alien Bee B400, the umbrella and softbox have B800s.  This was also my first shoot using my new background, so that was pretty exciting!  After years of saying "these paper backdrops are in terrible shape, I should buy new ones" I finally invested in black and white muslin backdrops.  MUCH nicer.

At ImagingUSA this year, I went to a lighting seminar from Oscar Lozoya, who is amazing.  He really had me excited about lighting so I was determined to make something nice today.  Quite pleased with how it turned out - you can see the separation between the background and Zak's dark hair, the highlights on his shirt aren't blown out and there's great texture.  The softbox was up higher (and not tilted down) in this photo than in the example because he's standing, but basically the same setup.

Backlit by the softbox.  It makes a great white background!

This shows the lighting set-up from the example.  Because he's a skateboarder and we couldn't go outside, we still wanted to include his favorite board in the studio shots.

There's a brick wall in The Fallout Shelter where I was shooting, so had Zak grab his board and take a few shots over there.  I showed him this on the back of the camera and he said he really liked the lighting and how the skateboard is visible in the background.  Yay, I love making the client happy!!

Seniors 2012 - Lecksi

Lecksi bowls with my brother on the Hopewell High School team, so when I'm at the bowling alley I'll talk to her and the other high school kids.  One day I basically just said "you're a senior, right?  I'm gonna do your pictures."  She said "ok" and so we took senior portraits.  Had my studio set up down in The Fallout Shelter, which works out quite well.

I kept telling Lecksi "don't look so scared!" and she would say "I'm not!" and laugh and I would get a good shot.  It was fun.  After the studio shots, we went to Hopewell Park, which is close by.  The shirt she was wearing kind of matched the fall leaves, something I thought was really cool!  The 50mm f2 prime lens kept the background from being too overbearing like her shirt though, and I really like the resulting images.

Seniors 2012 - Kacie

Kacie's senior session was, no lie, one of the most fun I've had, and I love doing senior pictures.  They're all fun to me, but Kacie's was awesome.  I've photographed her sister before - for senior portraits awhile back and during my beauty shoot this summer (was it summer?  Spring?  No, summer.  I'm so bad with time....).  For Kacie's shoot, like Alex's, I went to their house, which is amazing.  They have all this land and beautiful scenery.  Normally my senior shoots have the studio shots first and then outdoors, but we switched it up and did the outside ones first.

The thing I really love about doing senior shoots is going somewhere that the person is comfortable and wants to be.  Not just "oh, look, this is my studio and the places I already have set up."  No.  It's so much more interesting to go and photograph in someone's natural environment.  Not only are they more comfortable, the images will be unique to them.  No one else will have pictures on that porch swing, with those flowers in the background.  Just Kacie.  And that's really cool to me.

For the studio shots, I set up in their living room with a similar lighting pattern as I used for Drew's portraits last week.  (Note: I am very proud of my lighting here, especially in this first image where she has on a white shirt.  White shirt + white background + good seperation = win.)  The beauty dish was more to the front than side, and the hair light closer to the background, but it was very similar.  The shoot, however, was very different.  Because we were having fun and Kacie's entire wardrobe was in the house, she changed a few times, grabbed hats and scarves and the camera clicked away for a bit longer than expected.  When she becomes a model for Abercrombie, I told her, she better give them my name!

Seniors 2012 - Drew

I joked recently that I should do a "Zach's ex-girlfriend" senior special this year - Zach being my little brother.  I've photographed his first "real" girlfriend, a girl he hung out with in kindergarten and now his elementary school "girlfriend."  My brother and Drew were in the same class for years and she was his girlfriend because they played basketball together after school.  I love kids.  But now they're grown up and getting their senior pictures taken.

Drew and her mother came by on Sunday to do her pictures, but we ended up only doing studio shots because (like I mentioned in my last post about Jake and Melissa's wedding) the weather was horrid last weekend.  I had set up shop down in The Fallout Shelter, which worked really well because there's so much more room down there than in, say, a living room.  It was also my first shoot with a three-light set-up, as I just bought a third Alien Bee from a girl I went to college with.  From my point of view, I had a softbox to my left, a beauty dish to the right, and a hair light also to the right, but slightly behind where Drew was standing on the backdrop.  There's a photo of it on my Facebook page if you're interested.

We wanted to do more than just plain background shots though, so we cleared off the stage, grabbed the beauty dish and did some portraits of Drew and and her basketball with the brick wall.

Yesterday we finished up the shoot in Drew's yard.  I got a bit lost on my way there, honestly, but all was well in the end.  They have a pretty little garden and a big yard, and a basketball hoop.  Her mom Kelly told me she was glad to have me as their photographer because she knows we can work around each other's schedules.  Compliments like that are always so nice!

Seniors 2012 - Ellie

It's always a little weird doing senior pictures for my siblings' friends, because I've known many of them since they were young.  This was one of the odder ones, because Elizabeth is a family friend and I've known her literally her entire life.  When I was asked to do her pictures though, I was definitely excited!

For the formal shots, I went to their house, and almost the entire family was there, with the exception of Nora, who is my age.  Test shots were taken with Ellie's parents, which was very funny.  Landon helped me carry equipment in and Victor was cooking dinner.  I got an offer to stay, but had plans with my boyfriend so could not.

After headshots, we went to a park in Sewickley, which I wasn't too impressed by but we did get some beautiful shots of her lying in the grass and leaves.

After the Triangle Park, we decided to hit a nature reserve across the street from their plan.  It had all these beautiful yellow flowers and we took some absolutely amazing pictures!!  Had to put on my polarizing filter to get the sky to turn out right, so that was fun too.  I'm so happy with how they came out!

Seniors 2012 - Becca

Becca is my brother's ex-girlfriend, but she still wanted her pictures done by me which is just proof to how awesome I am.  No, seriously.  Anyway, she's pretty awesome herself, especially since she also likes photography.  And, like mine, her family owns a bowling alley.  Weird, right?


We actually ended up splitting up the outdoors and indoors photo sessions - I usually do both in the same day but due to time constraints it worked out better to do them different days.  The first was the outdoor session, which is what all these pictures are from.  I let Becca pick which to put up and she liked these best.  (Also, pretty much the best thing in the world is being told that someone expected picking photos to be much easier but everything is so beautiful that it's impossible.  Thank you, Shelley!!!)

We went to a park near the river in Sewickley and I got totally lost on the way there and had to call Becca's mom Shelley to figure out just where I was headed.  Once I got there though, all was well.  There was this cool little train thing, and railroad tracks, and a pavilion and all kinds of prettiness.

I kept telling Becca to "gaze off into the distance" and such, and she kept laughing and making funny faces and telling me she's used to being on the other side of the camera.  TOO BAD!  We also had a worrisome moment when her dog, Joey, ran off and she had to go run and catch him.  Joey was getting his picture taken too, which apparently he absolutely hates.  However, I had my 70-300mm lens in the arsenal and was able to step back and get some ridiculously cute pictures of the two of them.

I gotta say, it was the perfect day to photograph.  Nice outside, bright, but overcast enough that the light was soft and beautiful.  No weird shadows, great colors!  I brought out the reflector once or twice to get a little more light on Becca's face, but that was it.  Do plan on buying a Vagabond power source for my Alien Bee's soon though, so I can light outdoors shots as well as studio stuff.  Speaking of studio, I'm putting a shot of Becca in the Tattoo album on my Facebook page, so if you want to check that, it'll be there!  www.facebook.com/elenadeephoto

Senior Model 2012 Application

2012 Senior Model Application for elena dee photography

Here’s what you need to do:

Be graduating from high school in 2012.
Be fun, friendly, have great style, and bring props!
Be comfortable in front of the camera.
Tell everyone you know about elena dee photography.
Have your parent or guardian sign a model release form.
Agree to have your senior portraits done by and represent ONLY elena dee photography.





Here’s what you get:

A FREE senior portrait photo session, that must be shot by May 1st, 2011.  You have the option to shoot again before October 1st for half off the session.
A CD of 10 lo-res images with the elena dee photography logo on them to use on sites such as Facebook.
Model cards with your image on the front (your friends get 12 free wallets for turning them in!)
Free mini book of your images


I will only choose two models from each high school, so not everyone will be selected.  You can email applications to elena@elena-dee.com or inbox me at facebook.com/elenadee.


Name:   __________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________

Phone: ____________________   Email: ____________________________

School:  _____________________________________     GPA: _______

Facebook?  ________________________


Hobbies/Extracurriculars: 







Why do you want to be a senior model for elena dee photography?







Describe your style and personality:








How did you hear about elena dee photography?







Anything else?  Dreams?  Goals?  Fun facts?  I want to get to know you!