This past weekend was the Yreka High School Prom with the theme of Masquerade Ball. Liz Hensen asked if I would be willing to take some photographs of her and some of her friends before Prom. We agreed that Greenhorn park would be a good location for a shoot.
I was excited for this opportunity to try out my new camera the D800 with the Nikon 85mm f/1.8G lens and its awesome bokeh. I was not disappointed in their performance. The D800 renders color so well and the focusing is quick and accurate. The 85mm lens gives a nice field of view on a Fx camera body for portrait work.
I was a little nervous about taking prom pictures with the expectations involved with such a big event in a young persons life. So I took the opportunity to go over to Greenhorn a few hours early to scope out some good locations that would have decent lighting.
I found several places that would work well, but my first choice was going to be some fields of mustard top flowers.
I must admit I enjoy working with high school students when taking photographs. They are fun they have fun creating great images. I look forward to doing more senior picture work with the new tools I have obtained.
One thing I found great with the teens these days compared to when I was in high school back in the dark ages, is that everyone who wants to go to prom does. In my day if you were to chicken to ask a girl to prom or if no one asked you, you didn’t have the option to just go and have fun with friends. Today they go and have a great time as friends.
The other thing I learned Saturday was you need to scope out your location before hand and have a pretty good idea of what will work and look good. You need to have several options in mind so that you can move to different areas if they don’t like the background or location.
One thing that I would like to learn more about is different ways to pose a model/subject to create a great image. This is an art form in and of it self that great senior picture and portrait photographers excel at. I like this one of the dancing pose in the yellow flowers.
Anyway I’ve included the rest of the photographs of the different couples there that day and the other locations that we went to shoot. I really had some fun and I hope they enjoy and like the photos.
Enjoy!
