Senior Year Photo Sessions

Senior Year Photo Sessions

Senior Year Photo Sessions

Senior year is a special time. It’s not just turning a page in life, but a pivotal page that needs to be captured.  I love images that tell a story and show off personality. I’d love to highlight you or your senior.

I run my senior sessions as follows.  

 

Senior Speed Session – $300

Perfect for when you just need a few photos for an invitation or your school’s yearbook?  I like to have fun with senior sessions and this QUICK 20-30 minute session is as easy and painless as possible.  We’ll meet at your local school or a similar location for the photo session.  After the session is over, you’ll get an email to an online proof gallery.  The session fee is $300 and includes the session, an online gallery to choose images from, and a $100 photo credit toward purchased photos from your session.

Senior Session  – $500

A full senior session lets you show off a little personality.  If you want photos that actually capture your interests and show who you are in more detail, this is the session for you.

A senior session starts off with a brief meeting where we can get to know each other a little bit and plan out your shoot so that we capture your interests.   After your shoot is planned, The actual session will be scheduled for a different day.  The session usually lasts up to 3 hours and can be tailored to various personal interests.  If you are into sports, we can spend an hour shooting sports.  If you have some other fun hobbies we can transition to that.  We can get a variety of different looks in this one session.  The session includes a proof gallery and a photo credit of $200 towards images or prints purchased.  

Add On Couple – $100

Senior photo sessions are intended to highlight the personality of one person. However, sometimes a high school sweetheart is a significant part of your senior year.  We’re happy to capture that aspect as well, but a couples shoot is a very different shoot than an individual portrait session.   Just let us know and we will add on up to 30 minutes into your senior session for your boyfriend or girlfriend.  

Add On Speed Session – $300 $250

Do you have more hobbies than we can fit into your Senior Session?  Book a separate Speed Session with your senior session.

Cowgirl riding white horse next to fence

A Year in the Life of a High School Senior 

Sometimes High School Seniors have a lot of hobbies and interests that cover more areas than can be fit into just one session or even two sessions.  For many people, it’s not just a few photos from one day that they want to capture.  You may want photos to remember your whole Senior year.  The senior year package consists of up to four different sessions spread across the year.  The sessions can be customized but ideally, we’ll begin in the summer before school starts. We can spend some time capturing water sports or some other summertime activity, etc… The next session is typically scheduled just after school is starting and temperatures begin to come down.  This session can be a Friday night lights theme or more of a casual session that captures the beginning of your school year.  The next session is really special.  You’re halfway through your senior year.  If hunting is your passion, we can shoot your own outdoor life session. For the final session, you’ll be wrapping up school and spring hobbies or softball or baseball maybe your life. College or trade school or military service may be your next step.  These decisions are huge. We’d love to capture that part of your personality as well.  

The total investment in all 3 sessions is $1,500 with a 10% deposit due at booking, the remaining balance will be divided into 3 equal payments due at each session or before the final shoot.  This helps spread the cost over the course of the year instead of one lump sum.  These sessions come with your own private online gallery and a $300 photo credit toward photos from your gallery. 

  

A year in the life Package – $1500 $1200

(payable in 3 Payments)

Add On Speed Session – $300 $150

Didn’t get everything you wanted in your Senior Session.  Book a separate Speed Session with your senior session 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Do I get the files with the sessions?

 

The session fee is a creative fee that covers the time spent planning your shoot, the session itself, and editing/organizing the files for a gallery of images from the session. Digital copies of images from your gallery, may be purchased individually or as part of a separate photo package using the photo credit which is included with your session.

Do you travel?

I frequently travel for photo shoots.  Travel within 1 hour of El Dorado, AR is included in the session fee.  But if you have somewhere in mind that is beyond approximately 60 miles of El Dorado, additional travel expenses incurred will be added to the final invoice.  

Banjo Ben Clark and the Purple Hulls

Nashville Experience with Banjo Ben Clark

I’ve been to Nashville a handful of times over the years.  Last week though, I got the opportunity to hang out in Nashville at Banjo Ben‘s Nashville Experience. 

“Banjo” Ben Clark is a talented musician from Kilgore, TX who has played professionally for several years with acts like Craig Morgan, Josh Gracin in his early days in Nashville.  In 2007 though, Ben was called on to help an up and coming young artist who was just getting started skyrocket to fame you may have heard of named Taylor Swift.  They set out on tour that year with the king of country, George Strait and country music legend Ronnie Millsap.  The rest as they say is history, but according to Ben, after a few years of playing 300+ nights on the road,  he was burned out.  He left the arena sized crowds to begin doing what Ben seems to really have a passion for and that’s teaching others to play banjo, guitar, and mandolin through online courses.  

As his youtube channel and online business began to grow, Ben stared doing what he calls “Cabin Camps”.  Here, musicians from beginner to advanced, come from all over to hone their skills as musicians.  At these camps, he along with his equally talented sisters of a popular Gospel Bluegrass group called “The Purple Hulls“, Katy Lou Clark and Penny Lea Clark Gimble teach in-depth music lessons.

 

Banjo Ben Clark and the Purple Hulls

Last week was a little different though.   I believe this was the first “Nashville Experience” Cabin Camp.  This time, the goal wasn’t so much instrument focused about learning how to become a better musician, but rather, what it’s like on the inside of the Nashville music industry.  Everyone got to experience the music industry in a much deeper way than just a normal sight seeing trip to Nashville. 

After a quick lunch at Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, We started off on music row by going to Sony Music Publishing’s  Studio A where we got an inside look at how songs are cut and produced. Here I knew it was going to be good when we didn’t go in through the front door lobby.  Entering through the artist’s entrance would be a theme for the two day event.  

Then we moved down the road to Gruhn Guitars where we met with George Gruhn. George is the largest Martin guitar dealer and THE expert aficionado on all things guitars. Here, once again, we may have entered the front door, but we were quickly taken up to the second floor which is not open to the general walking public.  Never before have I seen or heard a $300,000 guitar before or an equally valuable and rare mandolin. Watching a group of young musicians get to play them and play them well was amazing and a testament to the things that they have learned from Banjo Ben’s online guitar lessons and lessons at other banjo camps. Sitting there listening to them play amongst thousands of rare and valuable instruments is cool. Casualy Looking over during a conversation at an unassuming guitar sitting there in an open case and seeing the luggage tag on it that says “E. Scruggs” was interesting, to say the least. And yes that is the Earl Scruggs as verified by a certificate of authenticity from George and it can be yours.  It’s on sale currently on the Gruhn Guitars website for $100,000.  

Later we went to dinner at Ole Red downtown before heading to Springer Mountain Farms bluegrass nights at the Ryman where we went backstage to visit with Rhonda Vincent before the show. Something tells me it wasn’t just chance that we met her in the alley between the Ryman and Tootsies.  However, that happened, It was a welcome surprise and a cool chance to meet the artist. Once again, entering the Ryman from the back alley instead of the main public entrance proved this wasn’t your ordinary family vacation trip to Nashville.  The show itself was one of the only things we did that the average Nashville visitor could participate in. 

 The following day, we met up at Storytellers in Bon Aqua, TN. This seems like an unassuming building but it is a historic general store building where Johnny Cash and others performed years ago. More on that later. 

There we of course got to hear Ben and The Purple Hulls perform and hear Ben’s full story.  We also got to hear from people like Radio legend Kyle Cantrell as his career has moved from Broadcasting on WSM, to Satellite radio and his latest endeavor to start BanjoRadio.com  Later we heard two time IBMA Guitar player of the year Kenny Smith and his wife Amanda play and share their story. 

I don’t know if it was intentional or not but one thing that I loved and that stuck out in all of the stories that were told is how pieces of the Gospel couldn’t help but be woven into their stories.  How God’s sovereign and providential will moved these people all from humble beginnings to where they are in their careers and lives today and where they are headed in the future.  It was a testament to not just the work of God in their lives but character building and the quality of character found in pretty much all of the people working with Ben.  

Kyle Cantrell
Kenny and Amanda Smith

I mentioned before that Johnny Cash was involved in the history of the building now know as the “Storytellers”.  Well,  there is a little more to that story.  Right down the road from Storytellers, a hand hewn log cabin sits on a 100 acer farm that Johnny once owned.  The property is now known as Hideaway Farm.  It got it’s name because this is the place Johnny and June chose to hideaway from their life of fame.  The home is still filled with many of Johnny’s things almost as he left it including the “one piece at a time car”.  

Obviously I’ve left out tons of details here but, if you are a budding musician or if you just picked up a guitar, mandolin, or Banjo, Banjo Ben is the guy you need to get in contact with.  I’m not a musician myself.  I can play the radio but sometimes it has a little static in it.  But I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a more qualified expert than Banjo Ben Clark and his team.  If you ever get the chance to go to one of his Cabin Camps, I think you should jump on the opportunity.  

You can find Ben online at www.banjobenclark.com.  There, you’ll find all of his latest lessons, how to subscribe as well as upcoming events.  Or Like, Follow and subscribe on all the major social media channels.  There is a lot of crazy stuff on there sure to keep you laughing as well as the latest tutorials and some great music.  

Little League Sports

2023 Sports Teams

We had a lot of fun shooting your sports teams photos last year. We’ll be offering sports photos again for 2023, but changing things up a little bit.

This year, we’ll be offering a team package instead of individual packages. You’ll still be able to customize the photo prints and keepsakes that you decide to purchase, but each team will be charged a team photo package fee that can be equally divided up among the players for digital photos included in the package.  

Packages

Base Package

$ 400 /Team up to 10 players
  • 1 Team Photo
  • 1 Individual Photo
  • Digital Download
  • $10 Print Credit Coupon Code

Bases Loaded Package

$ 500 /Team up to 10 players
  • 1 Team Photo
  • 1 Individual Photo
  • Player Action Photo
  • Digital Download
  • $20 Print Credit Coupon Code
Popular

Grand Slam Package

$ 750 /Team up to 10 players
  • 1 Team Photo
  • 1 Individual Photo
  • Player Action Photo
  • Roll/Personality Photo
  • Digital Download
  • $30 Print Credit Coupon Code

All packages include digital download options

Sales taxes not included will be added to the final invoice.  

For any other questions, Feel free to Contact Us.  Happy to work with you.  

Veterans Hunt

Willie Belton Purple Heart Hunt

This past weekend, I was asked to come help film the Willie Belton Purple heart hunt near Columbia, LA with T.P. Outdoors Adventures.

The hunt was held by Louisiana District Attorney John Belton and a group of volunteers in honor of his late father, Willie Belton who earned a purple heart after injuries he received while fighting in the Korean war. Several purple heart recipients from all over Louisiana were invited to attend the hunt and four men graciously accepted.

Here are just a few of the photos from the event. Look for as these men hunt together and the community gives back to them in a future episode of T.P. Outdoors Adventures on KTVE or Youtube.

Cartoon graphics for T.P. Outdoors Monroe's Wild Bill's Steals and Deals TV Commercial

Motion Graphics for Advertising

Some of you may know about the photography we do, but the majority of the work that we actually do is more commercial advertising in nature. Work usually begins as photography or videography but then uses those images that have been captured to create advertising-related content for websites we maintain, brochures, magazine ads, or just content for social media pages.

Here is a recent TV commercial for T.P. Outdoors Monroe. This season, T.P. Outdoors Monroe began featuring one super hot in-store deal good for that week only. These commercials air weekly on the T.P. Outdoors Adventures TV show. First, we spent a day filming some products to be featured in the first few weeks of the season for special deals. Then it all had to be put together.

The T.P. Outdoors logo redesign for the Monroe store happened last year so it wasn’t part of this specific project but we did that too. The new Wild Bill’s Steals and Deals logo was created from a photo taken during a previous turkey hunt that was shot for T.P. Outdoors Adventures. From there, the photo was edited in photoshop to make the photo a little more cartoonish. Adobe Illustrator was used for completing the logo design for these ads. After that, the project was moved to Adobe After Effects.

This is where the magic really happened to animate the cartoon character and build the commercial. Animation like this required frame-by-frame animation to make things move smoothly. Rights to use a cartoon theif were purchased from an online resource but it still didn’t fit the exact look and actions that were needed for this spot. After Effects was used to edit the character for this. It’s an extremely time-consuming process and there are two different uses of the cartoon thief so it had to be done twice, but I think it worked pretty well.

While In After Effects, motion graphics templates were created for the products that would be featured in this series of commercials. It takes a little time to create these templates, but since the commercials would run weekly, it was much easier to create a template and then use that template over and over again. Once the templates and motion graphics were completed, everything then moved over to Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing and put all together into 30-second tv commercials.

All in all, there is over a week’s worth of work that went into this 30-second video using multiple software packages and years of experience doing this type of work.