I was going up to shoot a motocross event in WY and was asked by a few of the kids to do their senior pictures. This is my first ever senior shoot. I am terrified every time I shoot this sort of thing because I am not sure of what people want or expect. Here is what I came up with. I have been pushing myself to do more shots of people and staged shoots. Instead of my usual action event stuff. Shooting action sports sort of flows. You anticipate what will happen and then try to capture what unfolds before your eyes. Luck and timing are key. But your position greatly increases chances of getting the goods. Shooting people like this is opposite. You set up the whole shot then try to capture it under much more controlled conditions. Luck has little to do with it. It is all about posing the subject not yourself. It really scares the crap out of me!

What do you think? I think each of these could still use a little work on backgrounds. But I didn't want to get too crazy with cloning things out.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5. I may or may not clone out the trailers. They are such a part of MX racing.


6.


7. We did a few cool shots on the track too!


8.



9.

10.

The action shots are superb!

Numbers one and two are nice poses with number one being great in my mind. They look a bit too "taken with a flash" for my taste in portraits though, but three looks better in this regard. Also, watch the horizons going through the head on 1 and 2, it distracts the eye.

I would absolutely love number 4 with a similar crop to number 1.

Thanks Bryce! You pointing out the horizons made me think about it. That is what I am not liking about those shots. Something just weird about it.

I will crop 4 like 1 and have that as an option for her. You are right on that one. It will look nice like that. Should have done it while shooting.

The action shots are killer! Nice job! Did your flash survive in #7? I like #6, though I wish she was looking at camera in this one, with that sunset from #4. These types of senior pictures are really fun.

Really cool stuff. #8 and 9 are effing awesome.

Superb action shots - especially like the fluidity of the soil etc in 8

pp

Nice photos', #7 is RAD!

7, 8 &9 just knock your socks off. Great job. Agree with Bryce with the horizon line and the starting gate takes away from the pic. Crop #4 above the gate and see if you like it. With a little more work I like #3.

Hackbone, I messed with 3 this morning. Darkened the tube and played with some sharpening and saturation a bit. I also tightened the crop a tad. What do you think now?

Thank you for the feedback everyone!

Yes much better. How about a narrow long crop? That would get rid of the top portion. Just thoughts. You can tell me to shut up, my wife does it all the time.
Love his face in this one.

Hackbone, here you go. Doing some edits this weekend and tried this. I like it. But I like both. Wish I had a few more minutes of the sun like this.



Here is one I liked with the Lensbaby Edge 80

Now THAT's what I'm talkin about!

#7 holy crap - bet the person is gonna be stoked with that photo!!!

Yeah he was pretty stoked with those. His family digs em too. It is funny someone really gave me some diggs on another forum for the action shots for the senior pics. But that is what they asked for. I don't care what is traditional. We were at a track with bikes why not include some badass action too?

Originally Posted by Zerodog Yeah he was pretty stoked with those. His family digs em too. It is funny someone really gave me some diggs on another forum for the action shots for the senior pics. But that is what they asked for. I don't care what is traditional. We were at a track with bikes why not include some badass action too?

Make a composite poster with number 7 and include about three different shots with the subjects face in the shots down the left hand side, and some "senior" text upper right, and tell the people on the other forum to kiss your patootie when the subjects friends see it and have you booked solid shooting the same thing.

I like it. I need to work on that! All of the cutesy stuff is hard for me. That is probably my weakest area right now. I should get online and look at templates and get some ideas.

#2 has a blue thing on the left edge you might edit or crop out. These are great shots. :-)

3 is perfection....do more of that.
Lots of fun shots. On the flash shots maybe more ambient and a bit less flashed.

Don't worry about diggs. That person is out of date with what seniors want. You've got a winner with senios with this type of work.