Senior Portraits? Book Now.

Listen up people: if you're interested in booking a senior portrait session (or any portrait session for that matter) with Hired Lens Photography, contact us soon because the calendar is getting pretty darn full. July has been packed, August is almost all booked (I only have two openings left towards the end of the month), and September is already filling up fast. And for anyone interested in doing something really different, I've got a couple new locations in the old bag of tricks for this season. Where are they? I'm not going to ruin the surprise, but trust me when I say that they're cool. Call 262.305.9187 or go to the contact page to book your shoot.

P.S. Last year, we had a couple people who went for the underwater senior portrait challenge but due to some bad weather, some bad luck, and some super cloudy water, we had to scrap the idea. So it goes. But I haven't given up. I'm reissuing the challenge and offering a 15% discount again for anyone that uses one of their portrait settings to do an underwater photo. If we have to abandon the plan because of bad conditions, you still get the discount. Any takers?

Practicing for Underwater Portraits.

Well, good news, someone must be reading this blog: I got a handful of calls this week about the Underwater Senior Portrait Challenge and it sounds like I've got two brave souls in the Ashland area who are ready to give it a shot. Awesome. I'm not going to say who they are until after the shoot (which should be in the middle of August), but I'm super excited. I went out again this weekend to practice in the water a little more before the big shoot. Underwater photos are way harder than normal photography. There's a lot more to think about all at once, including how long can you actually hold your breath while you get things set up. Anyway, none of my friends wanted to pose for a practice shot, so I found this little fella. What he lacked in beauty he made up for in patience.

Turn a little, smile with your eyes, perfect...click...hold that...click...okay, now pout for the camera...perfect, click...okay, take a break, there's some water over there if you want some...

We swam around in circles for a good ten minutes before he got bored with the whole scene and moved on. Kind of cool. Watch for some real underwater portraits in the next few weeks.

The Underwater Senior Portrait Challenge.

I had some time this weekend to experiment more with an underwater camera housing I got a while back. The photo above is one of many lovely self portraits that I made while playing with it. Obviously, the subject leaves a lot to be desired, but all in all I think the picture is pretty cool: interesting background, good color, nice light, and most importantly, a rockin' perspective that you don't get to see every day. That of course got me to thinking (always a dangerous thing), how can I use this to do something cooler than just taking pictures of me holding my breath. So here it is folks, Hired Lens Photography announces the The Underwater Senior Portrait Challenge.

You think I'm kidding. I'm not. I'm looking for some brave high school student (or two) in the Chequamegon Bay Area that wants to take their senior portrait underwater. I'm offering a 15% discount to anyone that will use one of the poses from their portrait package to do an underwater shoot. The rest of the session can be normal terrestrial-based photography. Why do I want to do this so bad? Because its different, because it's a fun challenge for me as a photographer, and because I think it will look really cool when it's all done. And  that's always the goal: great photographs. So who's with me? Worst-case scenario, you choose one of the other, more standard photos from our shoot for the year book and you still have a good story to tell. Think about it, and contact me if you're the bold aquatic subject I'm looking for. This is the chance to do something really different.