Good senior photos are so important to have as you leave your childhood behind and enter adulthood. They are a wonderful experience where you are the star for the whole day. We plan it together, you share your ideas and we make them come true! Fun clothes, cool locations, artistic ideas come to life! We want you to love your senior photos so much, that you can’t stop sharing them with everyone! This is what a senior photoshoot should be like!

Senior photos: Our goals

Our highest goal is to make your senior photos look the very best possible. In order to do that, you need to start to relax and gain some confidence. For most people it can take some time to start to feel comfortable in front of the camera, so we like to spend some time getting to know each other, gaining some trust and rapport. We want the experience you have in getting your senior photos to be a wonderful memory you won’t soon forget.

Getting to know you at the consultation

All of our senior photoshoots start with a consultation, either in-person, here in our studio or by phone. I learn more about your personality just by talking and observing. We also talk about your vision for what your images will look like, how you want to use them, where you’d like to have them taken and what you’d like to wear. I’ll have lots of ideas also, so we collaborate together to come up with a game plan so that every minute of your photoshoot is fun, relaxed and we capture just what you would like.

“Scott and Linda at Dramatic Memories gave us such a great experience! I loved the extra care we received at our consultation picking out outfits and imagining what photos we would take before hand! Scott and Linda are warm, genuine and individually creative. We love you!”      -Andrea and Audrey from Gilbert

Pre-photoshoot

The actual photoshoot itself usually starts by us looking through the clothes you brought and choosing the outfits that make you look the best. I look how each item’s color works with your skin tone and how it brings out your eye color.  If it makes you look bigger or smaller than you really are. Once we finalize the clothes you’ll wear, we start the shoot.

The senior portrait photoshoot

I’ll use light and shadows to add depth to each image and sculpt your body to look the best possible. Depending on what we decided during your consultation, we’ll spend time in the studio or head to our first location. The position of the sun, and the looks we’re going for, determine where we go first and the direction I shoot. Most of the time our shoots are in the evening or when the sun is on it’s way down. The light is much softer then. I shoot with the sun behind you so you never worry about squinting. Scott brings our portable lights to be sure your face is lite perfectly. Over 10 years of experience has helped us be able to laugh and talk with you most of the time we are out shooting and still get awesome images. Our shoots last between 1 – 3 hours. We bring water along and take breaks as needed. The time flies!

Viewing and ordering

Usually 1 – 2  weeks later we get back together to show you your images. I start with a music video slideshow of all your proofs. Then we sort all of them into love, like, not.  Then we go through all your loves and decide what you want to do with these. The most popular things our seniors do is to put 15-20 of your favorites into a book or album. They also get some images for the wall (metal and canvas are favorites) and of course many want wallets or 8x10s // 5x7s for the office or family. You’ll see samples of everything we offer in the studio during the consultation and again when you order.

Picking-up your order

They are usually ready 3-4 weeks after your order is finished, depending on the season. If you’d like us to print your graduation invitations using some of your pictures, you can order those in the spring.

Senior pictures are a once-in-a-lifetime experience and the images will be passed down to your children and grandchildren. They need to be as special as you are. We want you to love them and be proud of how you look and how they make mom and dad feel every time they see them hanging on the wall.

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© 2023 Dramatic Memories  | 101 Stanley Dr, Gilbert, IA 50105 | Serving Ames, Des Moines & Central Iowa | (515) 460-5304

A Sunshine Web Design & Marketing Website

Who’s best for me?  How do I choose the right senior photographer to create my memories? How much should I pay? Prints or digitals? These are great questions. And the answer is: it totally depends on you. We all value different things. Some of us value and are willing to pay a lot for a new sports car. Others are happy with a newer, good-looking car that gets good gas mileage. Others are happy to save money and get an older minivan and spend their money on travel.  So, who are you, when it comes to photography and which senior picture photographer you choose?

How important is choosing the right senior photographer to me?

Is choosing the right photographer critical in your eyes? How important is good photography to you? It’s totally fine if you say, “Oh, it’s OK”.  If that’s what you’re looking for, then you don’t have to look far to find lots of new ‘professional’ photographers out there that will shoot a session and give you all the images on a disk for cheap. It’s becoming very popular as a side business for people with a passion for taking pictures but have little experience or training.  We all started somewhere and going to someone like this can be a good choice for many people. If you think most pictures you see on Facebook are good, then these photographers may be a good option for you.

Photography is art. Senior photographers are artists.

Photography is an art form. Photographers are artists. Each of them have their own style, their own way of using light and color, how they compose the photograph varies, and now days, how do they edit their photos. Are they able to use dramatic lighting for studio work or amazing places outside which they incorporate into the shot.  Artists are individuals. Each has their own style and vary greatly on how traditional, artistic or original they want their work to be. You should love their creative style, lighting and posing. We’ve all had certain photos or art pieces that we’ve looked at and were amazed by. They affected us. They moved us. We couldn’t take our eyes off them. Because of this, any quality piece of art requires some investment.

If you are someone that really values artistic photography, you should look for an ‘artist’ to create your memories for you. Someone you can work with that has a large body of work to look through. Many are professionally trained, have won awards and are sometimes well known. This type of senior picture photographer may not be cheap but they may not be out of range either. We suggest you look at our work and compare it with others to see what resonates best with you. We all pay for what we value, even if we need to save up or use a payment plan.

What do we value?

We all choose what’s important to us, what we value, and if it’s important enough- we find ways of paying for it. Portrait art is an investment because, unlike that leather couch you just bought, those beautiful images celebrating your high schooler’s athletic accomplishments and hard work gain value as time goes by and will not end up in the garage sale in 10 years. We really encourage our clients to document those high school memories so they can celebrate them for years in the future.

Since most of us are willing to pay for things that we really value, what’s important to you?  Think: good leather purse vs discount-store special, Clinique vs. a drug store’s sale make-up. You get the picture. Neither of these are right or wrong, they are just valued differently by each individual. The same with a once in a lifetime experience like senior pictures.

Looking at photography websites

Here’s a few things to keep in mind when checking out photography websites. In general, the larger the studio or studio chain, the more photographers you have involved. Make sure that the images you see on-line were taken by the photographer you will be working with. Another thing that can come into play is the use of models. For instance, are the senior girls you are looking at paid professionals who are used to being in front of the camera or are they real clients just like you and me?

If you have any questions, feel free to give the photographer a call and see how they treat you over the phone. Do they seem to know what they’re talking about? Are they easy to get along with? We’ve heard more than once from our clients how they had worked with photographers in the past who they just didn’t “click” with. You want to make sure that you really enjoy being with your photographer so that you can have a great experience at your photo shoot.

What goes into our pricing?

Our prices vary for the different types of work we do. But for each one we customize each session to be just what you need. We limit our sessions per week to give the tender loving care needed to create the most amazing images possible for you. We scout out new beautiful locations weekly matching flower colors to clothes and locations to personalities!

Careful planning before your shoot, the time, creativity and skill behind the camera and then time at the computer creating beautiful portrait art is what you pay for. The materials that an 8×10 are printed on cost very little, it’s really the time and expertise you are paying for. When you come to Dramatic Memories, you hire us to do what we do best, capture the essence of you…as well as some amazing dramatic memories!

Bottom line

As you look through the work of various photographers, keep in mind that the photos you are looking at were each created by individual artists. You can learn various things from the images but in order to get the exact “look” of that artist you need to hire the artist themselves.

So, bottom line: as you look through a site and lots of the images move you and you want these kinds of memories, then book a session with that photographer and get out your credit card. This is art and will go on for generations.

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© 2023 Dramatic Memories  | 101 Stanley Dr, Gilbert, IA 50105 | Serving Ames, Des Moines & Central Iowa | (515) 460-5304

A Sunshine Web Design & Marketing Website