Hellooooo 2012 Seniors! It’s just about Fall which is the BEST time in Michigan and the perfect time to get your senior photos taken as you start your senior year. I believe that fall is the season that keeps everyone from leaving Michigan since it’s so amazing here. The weather is amazing and the leaves are gorgeous. Unfortunately, this awesome time of year is short so your going to want to start booking your session pretty soon.

This year, we have switched our pricing around and are doing everything a la carte. That way, you can get just what you want and need and are not stuck with a pre-made package.

Session Fee: $350
- 2 photographers – you get a lot more images to choose from as a reult.
- 1 hour minimum of shooting
- 2 Locations
- 30 edited images – the rest of your set will be edited for proofing which is a standard color correct. The 30 we retouch will include fixing skin imperfections, creative coloring, black and white, ect.

ALBUMS

We offer two types of albums, Hinged and Flush. This blog explains the differences between both: http://www.theGAUPERSblog.com/album-samples/

I absolutely LOVE albums. I think they are the very best way to keep and display photos. I am really proud of the full sets we deliver which is why albums are one of my favorite things about what we do. I want everyone to have all the best photos displayed in a well designed album that has been printed and put together in a quality album. Individual prints are excellent for the wall, but only 1 or 2 will ever typically be used for that.

I really love the flush mount albums. So far we have only offered them for our wedding clients but I decided to open that up for seniors this year as well.

Hinged Senior Album:
8×8: $400
10×10: $500

Flush Senior Album:
8×8: $540
10×10: $640

If your interested in booking your senior photos with us, just email me at Holly@GAUPERphoto.com or submit the contact form here on the blog. Available dates are first come first serve!

These are just a few of my favorites. You can also check out a lot more of our work at our PORTRAIT WEBSITE

Looking at these pictures kind of makes me sad though (especially the first one!). Michigan does not currently look like this. It’s cold, gray and very snowy. When does summer come back again?

Oh, and let’s just be honest, Taylor’s hair is amazing. I don’t know if thats just good genetics or a good cut but I think it’s great.

We are finally back in kalamazoo now and will be back to taking on a full season of seniors this year since we are limiting weddings. So if you are interested in having us shoot yours be sure to send me an email sooner than later so we can get you on the list. I have not figured out what it will be quite yet but I know we will be having some sort of special deal for those of you who book early.

Anyways, hopefully these sunny images brighten your day if your in michigan and if your in a sunny state…well…send some our way?

Taylor was lucky enough to have her session scheduled in this perfect time. This year we got a couple sessions done during the awesomeness but since it’s such a small window of time only a few people get those spots.

This is one of my favorites!

Ryan shot the one on the left but it was my idea. Our process is quite odd sometimes. I squeal and say “Get inside that tree!!” and then Ryan will stand there and just fulfill my vision. It’s pretty much awesome.

This reminds me of alice in wonderland sort of….

Anyways, I’m trying real hard to be more consistent at blogging by just putting less images up. How do you all like this format of displaying photos? I’m trying to figure out the best way so any opinions are appreciated.

We are busier then you could probably imagine, and we have weddings every weekend for a little while. These weddings deserve our full attention so if you email me on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday please bare with me as I can’t respond while trying to focus on the wedding during the weekend, not to mention sometimes we just need to relax!

So I just wanted to let everyone know, that YES we are super dooper busy. No we aren’t avoiding you and we don’t hate you! We are just really trying our best to keep everything going and take care of about 50 people at one time in a timely manner as well.

We love our clients so please know that everything will be worth the wait. We are great at what we do, the magic just takes a while to warm up! ;)

Good news is that all our weddings are freaking awesome no matter WHAT nature or people throw at us, we are still awesome! ;) This is why we should be your photographers.

Plus we bought a really expensive lens that does this! That means it’s super mega ultra wide.

We have a wedding coming up this weekend in Lodi, Ca… aka wine country! First one there it should be amazing. Next we are coming home for a couple days and heading right back out for a long weekend wedding on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. This also will be EPIC. Then one more in detroit, which I am super pumped about because of their awesome engagement session which I have yet to post.

Ok I will try and blog much better then last season, since we have about 4 spectacular weddings coming down the pipe!!

Mary is a long time employee for a high-end florist dealing with, well weddings of course!  They do some pretty cool stuff that you can check out HERE.

Annnyway let’s look at some images! OK normally I wouldn’t go backwards but WOW. Makes me wanna swear this is so cool!

You know what? NO! I do want I want! Favorite images FIRST.

I mean come ON!

This sure took a few tries and some MEGA flash power. It sure is hard to slow down a train in direct sunlight.

I think we had the best tag.

you know it’s a good session when this is the last image. :)

Good stuff Peter, good stuff.

seriously borrowlenses.com is the only place i rent equitment and has been great from prices to customer service. Please give them a try and you won’t regret it!

Actually now that I think about it, Alex’s mom helped get us Angela & Brandon‘s wedding which is in a couple weeks! Sweet thanks!

Since I didn’t do a post for her last year, check out a few good ones from the session.

Who can forget this one? AWEsome.

The timing was perfect for good leaves (since the next week the wall was bare) So we had to have some more fun in them… right before we get a chance the steeple bell rings LOUD, freaking Alex out as you can see! It didn’t take her long to continue having fun. =)

One of our favorite images EVER. Had to go to a school bus graveyard to get it!

Since she’s a dancer naturally we had to end with a “dancer” jump.

Ashley had a lot to live up to but proved to be just as photogenic as Alex! That matched with our ever good…ening skills, it was a good one!

That being said we started in this little nook to get warmed up. We wanted to go down by this bridge but as I went to get out of the car, Holly said “Don’t go down there, there’s a NAKED guy down there! We avoided him and whatdayaknow? There he is… invading our lives again!

Luckily we found some new top-secret spots ;)

Ashley was VERRy serious ….. until she wasn’t.

Yeah yeah… I know we are doing a lot of “nature” which CAN be sweet… but it’s gotta be the right nature and the right light. I actually tested out an on the spot theory about backlighting the dark leaves and using natural light for her face. I think it looks AWEsome.

That’s all folks! Check back soon for our next senior Peter. (He’s pretty great and his mom is cool too!)

We shot 21 seniors this year and man it was crazy. We tried to get people to do them in the summer but it seems like once they get back into the school year something flips on in their heads and everyone has to get them done then. So we were just slammed with them all at the same time it seems but I guess that keeps life exciting.

We had some pretty awesome seniors this year that really blew our work from last year out of the water. Seniors are a great way for us to be creative and do something a little different so its a good change of pace. After doing that many in such a short time though, I’m happy to have a little break. Trying to keep up with them and finish editing all my weddings from this year is a lot of work.

Ryan and I have NOT been good at keeping track of our actual life. As far as photos of us and our life goes, we don’t have many. This business is more our actual life than anything so I thought we should do a good job at keeping track of our growth and all the cool things we have done. Thus, I’ve decided to do a best of book every year for seniors and weddings. The wedding book is going to be a much bigger job since we have like 17,000 pictures to go through and find the best 200 images. The senior book is done though and i’m so excited to get it printed.

To view the book online, go here! http://www.ryanrichardphoto.com/bestof/index.html

When Holly and I met she was looking for someone to teach her more about photography and trying to find out if she should go to school again for that instead of sticking with graphic design which is what she graduated with.

At this time, I was looking for someone to design me a logo and website. That’s the premiss of how we met essentially for those of you who didn’t know. So she was looking for a photographer to show her the ropes…We technically have to say we met on-line… Which is kind of embarrassing for us =) She always makes me tell the story when people ask because I can tell it in a way that doesn’t spotlight that fact but doesn’t lie about how we met either!

My point is that at first Holly was with me shooting weddings because I could use a hand being pretty inexperienced, and because she wanted some more practice. We quickly became a great team and have actually been together since my first paying wedding!

So the whole point of this story is that Holly has been more in the background where I got most of the credit for her amazing editing, and a lot of her shots that no-one knew were hers! You can’t say we are just Ryan Richard Photography anymore. It’s not just me, it’s us! She has improved by leaps and bounds and there is no way I could produce what I promise without her. So to celebrate and recognize the goodness she brings to the table, we are now GAUPERPHOTO!

What do ya think? I struggled for a while about changing it to my last name because no one can seem to say it right! If you actually look at it and sound it out, it’s not that hard. Gaw-per. Not Galper, Glopper, Grooper,Goopie,Golper,Gumper,groper or Galapanokis.

GAUPER … I have gone through a lot of frustration, but I am putting my trust into mankind one more so please don’t let me down! Even with Ryan Richard people would always call me Richard for some reason, or say Ryan Richards…So I am counting on you guys to get it right… got it? =)

So anyway, we have a bridal show coming up where we are the only photography vendors. The Radisson is putting on a non-traditional show that is going to be really great! Unfortunately, we have a wedding in Long Island the same day. I have been super pumped to do that wedding but we are bummed to not be able to do the show but we figured a big NY wedding and a big bridal show would be the perfect time to unveil a new logo and name!

Part of the deal of having a free booth and being a preferred vendor all year for the fanciest hotel in town was that I had to shoot the bridal show. Since I obviously couldn’t I asked if I could hire someone out to do that so I could still have the booth. I had someone great in mind and they accepted! My favorite new wedding photographer is Diana Vermeulen of Moxie Photography. I have been referring people to her left and right because she does great work for the price so if we are booked on your date or are a little out of our range, be sure to look her up!

Since we are getting an all new identity, we needed a few fresh new images so we went out for a few shots with my brother in law Dave.

Pretty nice for his first time wielding a nice camera right?

We wanted to do a giant overhaul with a new website and blog but that just wasn’t going to happen by the NY trip and we really wanted to do it for the show and the wedding. Be on the lookout for at least a new blog by the beginning of the summer because a nice blog is LONG overdue and we know that. The new one will be much more enjoyable to visit!

But anyways, that’s the big news! I hope you guys like it. I feel like we have more of our own style and the old logo only portrayed our traditional and classic side but had nothing to do with the rustic and industrial side. I think it suits us much better and is much more modern. Let us know what you think!!

Gauper out =)

Thank you for your interest in a portrait session with us! We would really love to do a session with you but we also really try and work with people who share our style and will be happy when we give them images that reflect that style.

Our Style should be taken into account before booking your session with us as we may not work as well under the more traditional standards that some people are used to.

We are strictly on location, and mostly natural light, so by booking a session with us you have to be aware that we are at the mercy of the weather and therefor will have to be flexible to fit in your session. We try and use the beginning of or end of the daylight to more easily control shadows to get more of a flattering light for our subjects.

If you are wanting the majority of your senior pictures done in nature settings, we can do that but we must let you know that we are usually unable to provide more variety in those settings. We thrive and work best in urban settings that are more grungy and rustic to achieve a “beauty and the beast” type of contrast that makes colors pop and gives our images a very unique and edgy look.

Q and A:

What is your payment policy?

We ask that you send us a check for half to book your date, and then we require the remainder before we begin the session. If you decide to order more then your allotted print credit we would need a check for that before we can submit the order.

How long do sessions last?

That can depend on a lot of things but usually from one and a half to two or more hours. In either case we reserve control over when I feel like we have enough images to give you a good variety. I like to start about 3 hours before sunset so the times will vary or we could do shoots a few hours before noon to get similar light.

Do you retouch your images?

Yes we know that you want to look your best for senior pictures and don’t leave any images looking anything but the best they can. Our theory is that if it wont be there in a month we will remove and smooth. Things like moles, scars or anything else as to not offend people you will need to tell us you would like us to remove certain things that bug you. On the same note, retouching does take a great deal of time so anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated, even if you don’t tend to wear makeup, even a small amount will help us to make you images look much better.

Can I bring a friend?

Yes! I wish more people would bring friends because it makes it less awkward to be honest! Anyone who helps you to be yourself I really encourage that you bring. After all the whole goal is to get images of you being yourself in a natural and relaxed way!

Is facial hair good in pictures?

My personal opinion is that unless it’s a big part of who you are it’s best to be mostly clean shaven unless you have a descent five O’ clock shadow going on. I had a “goatee” in my senior pictures, and I think back and think it looks ridiculous but that’s just me. I still find the images have a more clean look when you shave.

Yes this is me demonstrating how bad it can look =)

Do you travel to locations we want?

We do travel for 50 cents a mile to and from a location outside downtown kalamazoo. We feel we need to charge this rate because of the time traveling, and the gas and milage put on our vehicles.

Can I suggest locations?

This subject is kind of hard because we love to give people lots of variety in there set. 90% of the time when people ask us to go to certain locations they don’t cater well to our style and a lot of times we travel a good distance to a location where we can only get a couple good shots. We spend a lot of time scouting areas to find locations that yield the best variety shots you can get in a single location. We really ask that you trust that we know the best location which is why booking us because you like our style is so important. Like I said before nature locations are not very good for what we do. Trees and flowers can be nice for a few shots, but they start to all look the same very soon.

Why do you Charge up front?

We have had to learn the hard way unfortunately that money is kind of a pain to deal with after the actual session. We used to do half down on the day of the session and then the rest when you get your proofs, but our turn around time is fast enough to where we would rather just get it out of the way so that we can focus more on getting you results. Then we don’t have to wait for a check from you to release the proofs, or worry about people getting the proofs before we are compensated for all the work we have already done. Hope this isn’t an inconvenience to you, but we have to do what’s safe and best for our business.

Why do pictures cost so much?

Most people kind of have the idea that all you need is a descent camera to give people senior pictures. And in one sense that is true. We try and give you images that are set apart from the norm. We really pride ourselves in giving people the highest quality pictures they can get from anyone. This means keeping up and researching the best Camera, lenses, computers, software, and proofing sites we can. Then we have to buy all those things. We have spent thousands on equipment and computers to give you what you paid for. Not to mention we really put our hearts and souls and hours of our time to give you great pictures. We hope you see the value in what we do!

Do you give people full resolution disks with printing rights?

I’m sorry but no we don’t and you may think its more about the money but to be honest its about the artistic integrity. When people go to print pictures it makes me cringe to think they are bringing my images to walmart to print them on low quality paper and ink. You must understand that my reputation and name is on my images, and word of mouth and my images are all I have. When people design there own graduation announcement cards with a bad design and sub par printing it makes me look really bad. I hope you understand that I have to reserve all printing rights because I feel like it’s what is best for our business. We also backup your images in 3 different places so you will always be able to order prints down the road if you so choose.

Holly is a graphic designer so we do offer custom designed grad announcements!

What is the turn around time on proofs and prints?
We always try and give you a good preview to tide you over until you get the full set but depending on the week we try and complete your set within a couple weeks. As soon as you submit your print order it only takes a couple weeks to get them.

This past saturday we had the privilege to do Kayli’s senior photos. She lives in grand rapids so we went there for something different since we do most everyone in kalamazoo.

First, I must say, this girl has quite the personality and it was awesome. She was just a joy to work with and I just so wish more people were spunky like that. I love people who are just so free spirited, it makes our job so much easier because she wasn’t really being “posed” she was making everything her own when we were downtown and it was just great.

Something to note is that I think when you see her photos below you will be able to see who she is and that is so important. With seniors, I know it is awkward and uncomfortable at first but I just encourage all of you who we have yet to shoot, to dig deep and forget we are there and that you are uncomfortable and just let loose and be yourself because it really will show in the photos, and thats what its all about, right?

First, she loves art and was telling us about this pieces of grafiti she loved so we went to it and found it was covered by a stupid fence. So, I thought it would be cool to put a page together with the quote on the grafiti for her. It has been a while since I have done pages, but gosh, I think this turned out great, i love it!

This was the beginning of the shoot and she was less comfortable here, haha. You have to have stuff for the parents though, so I think this is the most parent-y shot we have.

I put some cool textured in some of the photos I thought were cool and I just adore how this looks. It makes it kind of dark and interesting to me.

This is one of my favorite photos of the day. The cutout just worked so well and she just nailed it with her face. There are certain things about this pose that she did that made it work PERFECTLY. First, it is the eyes that sell it, and she just seemed to know what we were going for and her eyes just are captivating in it. Also, the lips being slightly apart makes that impact as well. It is hard to just “tell” people to do something like that you know, sometimes you just have feel the idea and go with it.

Another sweet sweet texture…and i love it on the this photo. I also have a thing for stripes..obviously. We have many upshots of her I feel like but this one felt different to me from what we do with other people. Where your arms and legs are really make the difference in a photo.

I love this because it shows something about her rather than just standing there smiling.

I have “regular” edits of these photos without the texture on them that I gave to her, but it just feels like this works so it gets in my favorites post. :) It has mood and emotion and was just made for sepia! I love it!

This was part of the graffiti that had the fence obstructing us, but we made it work. :) The fence kind of made a cool texture anyways.

I spotted this and it matched her sweatshirt so well I figured it was just destiny…and I really love how it turned out. Again, her face really sells it.

This is my favorite of my creative edits! It just turned out really cool and texturey… :)

Ryan was going to reject this one! When I saw it, I knew it would edit well so I saved it! :)

I love this, who says senior pictures have to sooooo serious all the time? I mean really, when your 17 years old, you shouldn’t be all that serious anyways.

Best fisheye face…ever. That is all that needs to be said.

She kept offering all these things she could do and we were like….go for it. So this happened, hah. Her tongue is sticking out too…haha. priceless.

An upshot with some sass!

This reminds me of the movie “house bunny” when she stands over the steam to try be all Marylyn monroe and freaks out cause its so hot.

Two very awesome poses! Who knew such a ridiculously awesome photo could happen on an old dumpster!

So this is the second time that day we tried the bubble picture. The gum we bought just was not the greatest even though it was BUBBLE tape. This is the best we could do. I am going to get a different kind of gum for the next time we try it with someone.

Ok so that is the end of the shoot! This was a big preview but I liked so many of them, haha. I spent like 5 hours editing her photos which is crazy longer than it usually takes, but there were just so many good photos!!

So the moral of this story… it is so much better to just let loose and be who you are rather than trying to fit the mold and just busting out a cheese smile in every photo. The end. :)