These are the Lawfield Sisters. They came in for a session Wednesday afternoon. What a beautiful bunch of lovely young ladies (and twins . . . you two crack me up!)
Here’s an image that will be hanging in the Lawfield home as a 40×30 canvas!
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4 Sisters
Thursday, August 11th, 2011Kelton and his guitar
Thursday, August 11th, 2011So I’ve been seriously slacking in my blog posts this season. There . . . I admit it . . . and admission is the first step toward change, right? We’ve just been so busy lately. like 10 hour days EVERY day for the past several weeks.
Anyway, enough excuses. To make up for it, I’m going to make 2 blog posts today to make up for it and hopefully get back on the wagon and get with it.
Here’s Kelton Burgi who came in for a senior session yesterday morning.
Senior Season is Here!
Friday, June 17th, 2011Class of 2012 seniors pictures are in full swing. I apologize that I haven’t been posting here on the blog as much as I’d like. We’ve been super busy (but I have been posting on Facebook quite a bit – feel free to see more of our senior photos on Facebook by clicking here.
We shot a beautiful young lady today from Jackson High School in Jackson, Missouri by the name of Megan Lambert. Here are a few favorites from this lovely young blonde’s senior session.
If you know a Class of 2012 senior, tell them to call soon because our calendar is filling fast (573-579-2129)
Class of 2012 – It Begins!
Sunday, May 15th, 2011We just shot our first full 2012 senior session the other day (we’ve been shooting a lot of 2012 models over the past few months, but this is the first full-on session of the season). I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am for all the new things we have in store this year. New backdrops, new locations, new studio, new products! It’s gonna be an AWESOME season.
Anyway, this is Tori Burton from Delta High School. She ordered some of our new products, a 10×10 digital album and some of our mini accordion wallet books. Both items are perfect for showing off your images to friends and relatives.
You can see a few of Tori’s album pages below. If you would like to see the entire book, feel free to view it by clicking here.
7 day old newborn – Silas James Sparks
Thursday, April 28th, 2011We had such a great photo shoot yesterday morning. Silas is 7 days old, and he just slept like a . . . well . . . like a baby. He made my job too easy.
Here are a few from Silas’ session. Welcome to the world Silas James Sparks
Mother’s Day Portrait Sale!
Sunday, April 24th, 2011With mother’s day approaching on May 8th, allow me to remind you of two facts about mothers (in case you didn’t already know):
FACT #1 – Moms love their families more than anything else. More than pedicures, massages and even flowers.
FACT #2 – Moms love nice looking (not cheesey) portraits of their loved ones.
If you want to get your mom (or wife) the PERFECT Mother’s Day Gift, look no further! Get a family portrait session (up to 6 people) plus one included 8″x10″ for only $97. This is a $200 value, and will only be available for this one-time special offer. We’ve never offered a deal this great on family picture sessions.
Sale ends on May 9th. Gift Certificates from this sale must be used by Dec. 31, 2011.
See below for details or click “Buy Now” to order yours today!
Sale Terms and Conditions:
- Session must take place in studio or outside on our studio property or at Jackson City Park (further distances will be subject to additional fees)
- Session must take place before Dec. 31, 2011
- Booking subject to photographer’s availability (Mon-Friday only)
- Cannot be combined with other gift certificates, offers or sales
- Up to 6 subjects. Additional subjects may be added at $25 each
- Sessions are limited to 30 minutes in length
- Viewing and ordering will be completed immediately following the photo shoot.
- Not redeemable for cash
High-Key Family Portrait Session
Monday, March 21st, 2011We had a family of 12 in the studio last week for some high-key portraits. ”What is ‘high-key’?” you ask. High-key essentially means that the key tone of the image is high, so usually high key images tend to focus on a lot of white. High-key is a great technique for family portraits as it draws the viewer’s attention directly to the faces of the subjects. But as you can see from these images with the Sharp, Clifton and Elliott families, planning in the clothing department is a huge component, and this family nailed it.
At the risk of tooting my own horn, another key to success with this type of family portrait is lighting and posing. You can’t just slap a bunch of people in front of a white bed sheet and expect to get this look. You have to know how to light the subjects separately from the backdrop and most importantly, how to pose the group in the most appealing, symmetrical and flattering way (and it doesn’t hurt to have a few laughs along the way as high-key images generally have a feeling of brightness and happiness).
Family portraits are so much more than just a picture on your wall. They are an heirloom. A well thought out, and well planned family portrait session will capture your family for a moment in time and preserve it for generations to come.
If you’d like to schedule your own family portrait session (high-key, low-key, outdoors, or even funky/non-traditional), contact our studio to set up an appointment.
Maggie and her Vinyl
Friday, March 18th, 2011Maggie Thorn came in to the studio today. In addition to being as beautiful as a greek goddess (see the B&W photo below), she’s also an amazing musician. I mean it. Keep an eye (and an ear) out for this girl. She’s going places. Click here to check out Maggie’s music page on facebook.
Maggie brought in all of her dad’s old vinyl albums to the session so we came up with a few “vintagy” shots that should make her papa proud (and ought to make the rest of us, who actually know what a record player is, feel really old).
On a separate note, don’t forget that the 50% off senior sale goes through until Sunday night. Call or e-mail to book your senior session at 1/2 off the normal sitting fee prices.
Class of 2012 Senior Special – Book Early & Save 50%
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Well, my birthday is today and because I’m feeling in a happy birthday kind of mood, I’m offering a ridiculous special for this week only.
Any 2012 Senior that contacts me to book their senior session by the end of this week (Sunday, March 20) will get 50% off of their session fee. Here’s the best part . . . you don’t have to shoot your session this week. You just have to book it and pay the 50% off session fee. This could be a savings of as much as $100. So don’t wait. If you know you’re coming to us for senior pictures anyway, now is the time to get it on the calendar because session fees will never be discounted this low again for class of 2012.
If you know someone who is (or is a parent of) a class of 2012 senior, be sure to forward this message onto them (remember friends don’t let friends miss out on great deals).
If you’re still undecided on where you’re gonna go for senior pictures, be sure to click here and check out our senior gallery. Hopefully that will help you make up your mind.
You can also download our senior price list straight from our website too (just click here). If you do decide to take advantage of this very special offer, you don’t need to decide on a print collection right now. Just choose which session you want and then contact us to book and save 50% off the session fee (Did I mention that’s a savings of up to $100). Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!
You can contact me one of 3 ways.
1. call me (579-2129)
2. Contact me via Facebook
3. contact me through the contact form on my website - http://www.tysonzahnerphotography.com/contact/
So you wanna take better pictures?
Sunday, March 13th, 2011I frequently get e-mails from people asking me for advice on how to take better pictures. They often want to know what kind of equipment to purchase and where they might be able to go for classes or lessons, etc. I certainly don’t mind getting these e-mails, nor do I mind answering them, but it seems my answers are often very similar from one e-mail to the next . . . . so . . . . I thought perhaps it would be useful to the masses if I posted a generic response here on the blog. I’m certain there are others out there who have the same questions, but have just never thought to send me an e-mail or ask a professional directly. So this blog post will be the first in what I plan to make a series of helpful (or at least I hope they’re helpful) answers to questions about taking pictures, and equipment and lighting and learning photography in general. My plan is to search through some old e-mails from people, post their original questions and then post my responses (don’t worry, I’ll keep it anonymous). Then, if any of you blog followers have additional questions, please post them right here in the comment section of the blog and I’ll try to address those in future posts as well.
So, here’s an e-mail I just received on 3/13/2011:
I’m interested in photography. I was wondering if you had any suggestion, as far as a class to take, or what camera to buy. I love to look at wedding photography sites, really have no intention of learning photography and use it professionally. I have time now, and would like to learn how to take awesome photos of my family. Thanks for your time and any suggestion is appreciated.
And here’s my response:
As far as equipment suggestions, you can really learn the craft with just about any camera that allows you to change the settings manually. I bought my wife a great little point and shoot camera that I take on vacation with me and leave my DSLR at home . . . it’s really that good of a camera, and it’s easy to carry and put in a suitcase or purse, etc. So if you want something like that, I would recommend the Canon G12. It’s a convenient camera because of it’s size and portability, and it takes great quality pictures and you can change all of the settings manually just like a DSLR (plus it takes pretty good video as well which my wife loves for footage of our kids around the house). Plus there’s no additional lenses to purchase, so you don’t have to worry about spending a whole bunch of extra money for “accessories” after you make your initial camera purchase.
If you’re wanting something larger, more professional and something that you can change lenses on (not to mention more expensive and addicting), then you’ll want to buy a DSLR (DSLR stands for “Digital Single Lens Reflex”). The Canon Rebel series offer a nice affordable starter camera (it’s what I started on back in 2006). I would probably recommend the Canon T2i as a beginning DSLR. The link I’ve just posted is for the “body” only. It does not come with a lens. You can purchase “kits” that come with a body AND a lens, but most of the time, the lenses that are included as part of the kit are just cheap pieces of junk so I would buy the body by itself and then buy lenses separately. Lenses are where you can really start spending a lot of money though, but they are very important. Much more important than the camera body itself. I would much rather have a $2000 lens on a $50 camera than the other way around. Think of it like this . . . if you have 20/20 vision, but you put on a pair of cheap, dirty, fogged up glasses that are the wrong prescription, that 20/20 vision doesn’t really matter much, does it? Same thing goes for lenses. A poor lens on a great camera body will result in poor images. So I would always recommend purchasing quality glass. But because of the variety and different uses for different types of lenses (wide angle, prime lenses, telephoto, and on and on), that’s a whole different discussion that can lead to thousands and thousands of dollars of equipment purchase (so we’ll save that for another post)
Having said all of that . . . there’s no need to break the bank when you’re just learning (unless you just have cash to spend). So if you’re going to purchase a DSLR and a single lens to get started with, I would probably get the Canon T2i that I mentioned above and a simple 50mm prime lens (a prime lens means a non-zooming or fixed focal length lens). The 50mm 1.8 is a cheap, but surprisingly good quality lens for the money (warning: it feels very cheap. It’s very light and feels like it’s made of plastic, but I promise it’s a pretty darn nice lens for the money). If you have a bit more to spend, I use the 50mm f1/4. It’s a bit more expensive, but more sturdily made, and better quality. But if you’re on a budget, the cheaper 50mm is a great option too. You can’t zoom either of these 50mm lenses (but you can zoom with your feet and you’ll learn a whole lot about composition and how to “see the shot” by starting with a prime lens . . . . in my opinion). Plus this lens is cheap and can be used on any future Canon camera if you decide to upgrade down the road.
As for education, first of all READ the MANUAL for your camera (perhaps a couple times). Become VERY familiar with your camera and how to use it’s manual features. Don’t just set it on the “Green Box” and start clicking . . . you’ll take some “o.k. pictures that way, but you won’t really get the full use and potential out of your new camera unless you move away from the green box). Next, I would recommend buying a book called Understanding Exposure. It’s a great book for starters (in fact it’s a great book for any level of expertise. I should probably read it again just as a refresher). After you master those two books, you’ll be well on your way to taking awesome pictures.
So that’s where I would start, but my best suggestion is to just get out there and start shooting. That’s the best way to learn. Shoot Shoot Shoot and have fun.
Hope this helps.
All the best – TZ