I: High School Senior portraits are still very popular; are you finding that as well?

Ron: Yes we are. But there have been major changes in the past 30 years. What used to be maybe 10-20 exposures on film; now can be anywhere from 50-200 images taken digitally. For these students, Senior Portraits represent the first major photographic session as young adults. Many have had portraits taken before their senior session; but not of the magnitude that Senior Portraits represent.

I: So, what constitutes a good or great Senior Portrait and the sessions that these portraits come from?

Ron: When maybe half an hour was long enough for Senior Portraits years ago; an hour is primarily the least amount of time for portraits, and more than likely it will be 90+ minutes. This allows each Senior to explore different styles of clothes, as well as personalize their portraits with sporting goods, cars, musical instruments or even collections many seniors have. As to a good or great Senior Portraits; the building blocks of great portraits involve timeless rules that apply to lighting, posing and compositions that have been around since man has been making art.

I: What do you mean by these timeless rules?

Ron: Well, there’s ‘artistic’ principles that make things more pleasing and comfortable to our eyes. These involve how we as photographers ‘light’ our subjects. It isn’t just throwing a light on a subject with no thinking behind it. Lighting techniques can emphasis certain features of a subjects face or body. In addition, lighting technique can also make someone look less heavy or can even add weight to a subject by the positioning of light. And posing is another big factor. Positioning a body to look natural and flattering at the same time takes years of practice. And of course there’s composition. Composition can add ‘visual’ impact to an image; keeping a viewers eye in the image, almost like a curiosity. The same rules we use in our photographic competitions are relevant in our ‘everyday’ work.

I: So what’s new and hot in Senior Portraits today?

Ron: With the larger number of images captured, new products that allow our clients to keep most of these images are hot. These include wall folios, books and DVD shows. The wall folios blend a number of images that can be viewed on a clients home wall, while a book can use many images in a form that’s portable and easy to share. And of course, a DVD will allow many images to be shared on any TV screen, projector or computer with DVD reading capabilities. In addition, on the senior session side; fun sessions more like modeling ’shoots’ are being added, making the HS Seniors feel like they’re really at a modeling session.

I: Do you have any last words for HS Seniors and getting their portraits made?

Ron: Yes I do. Just like any other commodity or service; there are different levels of quality and price. Each client needs to look at their needs and wants as part of their selection process. But more importantly, they need to check to see if their expectations can be met by their photographer selection. At our studio, we are not only on the cutting edge for equipment; we have the knowledge and tools to retouch, enhance and finish the products our clients request to our ‘high’ expectations. We hold the ‘quality’ bar very high. This is something we ‘guarantee’ to our clients. Make sure you get the same from your photographer; you deserve to look your best in your High School Senior Portraits.

Ron: Oh, and I almost forgot; we keep getting asked about specials. It turns out we do better than ‘regular’ specials. Right now, if you book a session and pay your $100 deposit towards your session fee; you get $150 credit toward many of our extra products when you purchase $750 in portraits and extra items. This can be anytime, you’re not limited to taking your photos in July, August, etc. We have many seniors who have their sessions scheduled for the ‘cooler’ days of September and October. And if history is any example; we will have many sessions in November and December as well. We like to spread them out and keep our ‘creativity’ level at the top. Call us today and find out when you can get your portraits done!

We are generally very humble about the awards and accolades that we receive. And we support our professional associations to make us better, and to ultimately give a better product to our clients. The same goes with our competitions. They are not to compete against our fellow photographers; but to compete against ourselves and see if we’re getting better.

A month ago at our Regional Northern Light convention; Toni received the highest award our Professional Photographers of North Dakota can bestow to anyone. The “National Award” is given in recognition of service to the profession above and beyond the call of duty. My wife has followed my footsteps and served on every position on the North Dakota board, along with chairing a number of seminars and this year, being my Convention Chairperson. She graciously gives of her time and helps out anyone who asks for her help. Hats off to my wife Toni! (Plus what’s better is that we were able to keep it a surprise!)

In other convention news; I was fortunate enough to get a few honors from print competition this year. A print titled “Urban Stalker” (of a bengal tiger), was awarded the top Masters Illustrative print, a Kodak Gallery award, the PPA Certification top print for ND, and the top print for an ASP member from ND. Another print titled “All Packed Up and Nowhere to Go” was given the top portrait award. It was a portrait of puppies in a suitcase. I was also honored with North Dakota Photographer of the Year from all the prints I entered.

We compete to make us better, and hope that you as clients, can challenge us to push ourselves even farther producing portraits for you.

If you are coming back to our web site and noticing changes……you’re still in the right spot!

We have been working on our web site to make it more user friendly. Instead of having a separate blog, we want the blog to be the main page. The page where you see what’s happening at our studios and all the new things we’re up to. 

When you log into our site, you will see the last post we have and what’s new. You can still access each of our subcategories from the menu bar for things like childrens, seniors and family portraits. Along with weddings and anything else we will put on the site including Ron’s fine Art Photography.

So you might see some pages that are “messed up” over the next few weeks. If you see anything thats out of the ordinary, please be patient and things will be working just fine in a few days.  If you have any questions, give us a call at 701.788.2611, we’d be glad to help. 

Remember to check out our sports site

sports.jacobsonstudio.com

and also Ron’s Creativity Coaching site

www.ronjacobsoncreativecoach.com

2008 was a turning year for our High School Senior Photography. In the years past, we have taken so many GREAT portraits of our seniors; they’ve only been able to order a limited number of the images in wallets, 5×7’s, 8×10’s, and in folios. A few years ago we started experimenting with Books when the Digital Production age allowed short run designing and printing to press machines other than Photo processors. The first couple years were a learning experience. Software was evolving and so were the printers. This year we were able to make great leaps; offering many different sizes and kinds of books. Our design process evolved even farther, giving us the ability to lavish these books with flourishes, textures, different backgrounds and words that add to the process of designing a book specially for each senior. Here’s some pages from a girls and boys book. Remember we always have samples at our 2 locations (Mayville and Grand Forks) to look at closer. Enjoy.

Wow, I can’t believe where the time has gone the past few months. Well, I’ve had a few distractions to say the least…..15-20 appointments per week, our sons weddings(along with a few others), school starting, a fall seminar to attend as I’m President of our Regional Photographers Association, school starting and photos to take, my garden to keep up with, exercising, mowing lawn…..well you get the drift.

It has been wonderful working with a lot of interesting and fun people. People that LOVE life!! Makes it all the more fun to capture images of them and create art from these portraits. In addition, I”ve found some ‘free’ time to brush up a few of my ’special’ images that I’ve taken for myself and make them into PAINTINGS. Some of these are being produced as limited edition canvas ‘gallery’ wraps and we’ve got them on display in our studios; and some have been purchased already by area businesses and clients. Hats off to Polar Communications who have purchased a number of my impressionistic renderings of Mayville-Portland and have them decorating their Mayville office and conference room. Stop by and take as look at them.

For upcoming news, we are doing our Annual fundraiser(s) for the Humane Societys in both Grand Forks and Fargo in October. These involve a donation to the Humane Society where you will receive a mini-session with 1 of our setups (backgrounds) and a 5×7 portrait. You may order extra photos, christmas cards, mugs, t-shirts and other products from these images; but are under no obligation to do so. We have a tremendous time take portraits of people and their pets; whether that be kids and a dog, a couple with a few dogs, or even just the pets alone. I know we photograph more pets than any other photographer in North Dakota and the Red River Valley….so we are the ‘experts’. Our count was somewhere over 400 pets photographed last year. That’s a lot of PAWS!! Give us a call for more information…701-788-2611 or 1-800-344-7667.

With all these days already filled with promotions, apppointments will be hard to find in the next few months. On September 1st, we started our 30th year in business. There’s a lot of new things we’ve go planned, and some great savings and gatherings for our clients. Only our clients and those on our mailing list will be getting infor on these. So if you’re not sure or haven’t signed up, go to our website and sign up for the newsletter. That way you won’t miss anything.