Senior Portraits « Harmanportrait's Weblog

The Secret of Taking Great High School Senior Pictures

The Secret of Taking Great High School Senior Pictures

by Walla Walla Photographer Dean Harman

“Hey picture dude!”

I hear it called out to me all the time, usually by one of my past clients as I am walking down the street. I have even heard it yelled out loud in a crowd, in far off locations like Portland or Spokane and even Seattle.

Yes, at first it bothered me a bit but to know that there is really no privacy anywhere I go, but when I think about it for a second or two, I realize it is kind of cool to be recognized by one of my past clients. Some go as far back as 1983 when I started photographing high school seniors in the Walla Walla area.

Past high school seniors know me not because I am such a fantastic photographer, but because I always have tried to treat them with due respect. As a professional senior photographer, it is my task to find the very thing in a teenager’s life that brings a certain glow to their eyes.

Usually, it only takes a nice complement and a few simple questions to get a high school senior to open up about themselves. Once they do that, it is only a matter of time before they clue me into what really makes them tick.

Then, we can go about photographing them in a way that tells their story.

High school seniors and their families have always been burdened by the immense task of searching for a competent portrait photographer that can create some outstanding senior portraits.

Finding a photographer that can take senior pictures isn’t usually the hard part. Online search engines or a phone book can come up with dozens of photographers from Walla Walla, the surrounding area and Google will even pepper the results page with portrait and wedding photographers from far away locations.

Really, the difficult part of choosing a portrait photographer is filtering the list down to the photographer that today’s demanding teenager will, first of all get along with, and second, can consistently make each photograph look amazing.

Let’s face it, everyone knows someone that has a pretty good digital camera, or, at the very least, a darned good camera that came tucked inside their smart phone.

Many teens find it kind of cool to go to some far-out location with their buddies, snap off several hundred photographs and somewhere, somehow there should be at least a couple good ones in there.

That may be exciting for a couple of hours, but what lasting impression of ones youth does that experience provide?

I have discovered that as a professional portrait photographer, we are entrusted with the unique power to kindle quite a positive self image in a high school senior.

In reality, we should be able to create some powerful and awesome portraits that high school seniors can be proud to show family and friends. Pictures that really represent what kind of things that particular teen is in to.

Alternatively, it is also our job as trusted professionals, to reach people on a level that can’t be seen through the lens of a portrait camera. Call it a psychological level that can leave people with a positive impression and give fuel to our seniors to take on the world for awhile longer.

When a high school senior realizes that they really can look great and their friends and family are complementing them on how wonderful their portraits look, that is what makes being a professional photographer all worth while.

That is the secret to photographing high school seniors.

That is why I will always love it when someone in the crowd excitedly yells, “Hey, it’s the picture dude!”

To see more examples of some unique high school seniors and the portraits we created at Harmanportraits.com, here is a quick little slide show from flickr.com. Click here for senior pictures slide show.