Rising seniors will go far to get a memorable yearbook portrait
With the start of a new school year comes a new class of seniors looking forward to graduation day, and looking to commemorate their milestone year with their own custom-commissioned senior portraits.
That’s where local photographers like Butler’s Elaina Eppinger come in.
Although senior portraits don’t make up the entirety of Eppinger’s line of work — she also does wedding photos — they are in such high demand that some families schedule with her a year in advance, sometimes longer.
“I allow customers to schedule basically a year or two in advance if they know that they want me to be their photographer,” Eppinger said. “That way we can plan for backup dates in case we have rain, or something happens that we have to reschedule.”
Although her business is based out of Butler, she isn’t picky about who she takes on as clients.
“I travel throughout the United States to take photos. Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, New York,” Eppinger said. “I'll be going to New York to take senior photos later this month, as well as Ohio.”
At the start of each school year, some school districts contract with a local or national photography studio to capture more traditional and uniform senior portraits for the high school’s annual yearbook. For example, Butler Area School District is using Inter-State Studios, an agency based out of Missouri with local franchises across the country.
In a message to students, the school district said that only photos taken by Inter-State would be allowed in the yearbook, and that photos taken by other photographers would not be accepted.
Other school districts, such as Mars Area School District, allow students and families to submit their own photos for use in the yearbook which can be taken by any photographer.
Unlike Inter-State, and other similar agencies such as LifeTouch, Eppinger said she provides a more personal experience for each senior.
“The biggest difference is that school photographers such as Lifetouch or Inter-State are primarily providing a standardized portrait for the yearbook, while my goal is to create a personalized senior experience,” Eppinger said. “Sessions are built around the individual senior — their personality, interests, hobbies, locations and style.”
Many of the senior portraits that Eppinger has taken incorporate a senior’s hobbies or lifetime achievements in some way.
“I do pictures that are more specialized to them, and not just a standard studio type of photo,” Eppinger said. “A lot of my customers have animals, or they have a special car or truck, jeep or something that they want to incorporate as part of themselves.
“I always like to incorporate something that commemorates their high school senior year, and something that really says who they are.”
The same is true for Fred Vero, another photographer based out of Butler. Although Vero’s main specialty is wedding photos, he does perform the occasional senior portrait shoot.
“I did senior portraits for a girl who was a swimmer in high school,” Vero said. “She was on the swimming team at the high school she went to, and we did pictures with her in her swimwear at a pool. We also did pictures with her in the water.”
Although Eppinger may not be picky about who she takes on as clients, her clients typically choose her for a reason. In her case, they usually want someone who works well with animals.
“A lot of my customers will have a horse, or they may live on a dairy farm,” Eppinger said. “So, they want a photographer that is comfortable around animals and that knows how to capture them.”
Some locations in Butler County and across Western Pennsylvania are prime locations for senior portrait shoots, Alameda Park in Butler and Succop Nature Park in Penn Township, for example.
“I would say we have multiple photographers here every day,” said a staff member at Succop. “On a beautiful day, we do have people here pretty consistently.”
Outside of Butler County, an especially popular shooting location is Hartwood Acres Mansion in Pittsburgh. According to Vero, he was one of nearly a dozen photographers shooting a session at the same time when he was last down there in June shooting for a senior portrait.
“The last time I shot at Hartwood Acres about a month-and-a-half ago, there had to have been eight or nine other photographers down there doing senior portraits, and there was one that was doing an engagement session at the same time,” Vero said. “It's a gorgeous location, and for that reason it's very popular.”
