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Sport Photography

Want to schedule Senior Photos?

— 10/23/2015 by Monika Wertman —

Though summer is over and most seniors have had their sessions, some of you may not have had them done yet or are already thinking about them as a junior. No matter who you choose, what size session you commit to, whether you are a boy or a girl, you will want to showcase your interests, whether they are sports related, you have a favorite pet, or are into cars or other big toys. Are you into winter sports and would like to get action shots in the snow? Here at Wertman Photography we will be happy to meet you at your favorite location and incorporate that interest into your session.

senior picture outdoors

 

Now we all know that you want your senior pictures to look different than last year’s school picture, right? How do you accomplish this, you ask? Here are a few tips on what you should do to insure that you will get some one of a kind images from your high school senior picture session:

 

  1. Spend a couple of months researching the kind of imagery you would like to see. Look through sports magazines and browse the web for ideas and styles. Do you like the edgy, grungy look? Do you want to look like the latest gold medal winner in one of her endorsement commercials, or do you want to look like the girl or boy next door, clean and pristine in your gear?

 

  1. Once you have determined what look you want, contact us and show us what you are looking for. We will then plan your session and recommend the appropriate length of time we will need to accomplish the look you are after. If you are a football player, chances are you have access to your school’s field, if you are a swimmer, access to a pool may be more difficult. As a skier or snow boarder, we will need to wait for the weather to be cold enough to work in snow. We need to understand exactly what you would like to accomplish in order to give you the session of your dreams.wertman photography seniors 2016-6

 

  1. Understand that special requests require prior planning and that you are asking your photographer for individualized services. She will invest time in your session and you and your family will invest money in return. This tradeoff will ensure a fantastic session for you and great images for your family and you to share and display.                 wertman photography seniors 2016-1

 

  1. Ask about cost only after you have determined whether are the right fit for you. It is important to have report with your photographer to get what you want, when you have fun, the images show it. But do ask, you will want to know how much your family will need to invest in the service and what you will receive in return. Ask about products that are offered and be aware that a boutique studio and a boutique service such as you are looking for and we offer, will offer some great print collections for you to choose from.wertman photography seniors 2016-5

 

  1. Finally, after you book your session and have paid the retainer fee, enter the date in your calendar and arrive 5-10 minutes early at the predetermined meeting point. Your photographer will be there waiting for you and when you are on time all will go smoothly and you will have a wonderful experience which will in turn result in great photos to choose from.wertman photography seniors 2016-2

 

We have worked with some great seniors this year and some great athletes, and are looking forward to working with you. Please feel free to browse our senior and sports gallery for additional images and call us to schedule your session.

wertman photography seniors 2016-4

Photographing Athletes

— 10/08/2015 by Monika Wertman —

When I first started out photographing people on a regular, professional basis, I focused on families, children and individuals. All were portraits either for business use, portfolios, the family living room wall and Christmas presents. I eventually added weddings to my repertoire with the occasional student athlete during senior sessions.

 

Recently photographing athletes has become a bigger part of my business as I have entered into a fantastic relationship with XL Sports magazine as the primary photographer. I find myself going to games I never thought I would attend, sporting events I ever just heard about and capturing athletes in both the performing state of things and in the resting phase.

hurdles and sprint track

 

Many sessions this summer and early fall have been of the portrait kind, capturing a bit of the essence of the athlete, the strength that is needed to perform well and the physical aspects that created that strength.

swimmer on dryland

 

In many ways an athlete, starting in High School, becomes aware of his or her body fully, and starts to realize that training and hard work alone will not get them to perform at the highest level. It takes an inner strength, and inner desire to want to succeed that pushes an athlete to win.

track and running

Photographing seniors who play a sport and have taken it into college and then revisiting these athletes one or two years later, reveals that characteristic. The inner desire shows in their eyes. They have gained a confidence that was beginning to form in High school, but had not fully blossomed.

high school football and girls

 

It is that confidence that they will carry into adulthood and continue to use in daily life and when they participate in local, regional, and national events such as bike tours, running events, and triathlons to name a few.

boxing

I have included a few shots of sports captured in motion and athletes at rest in this blog.  Some of them are scattered in the fitness/seniors section of our website, some of these shots are new additions.

williamsport biking event

 

If you are interested to find out more about some of the people in these shots, please check out the fall issue of XL Sports Magazine coming out before the end of the month. We will have issues of the magazine at our display at the Prime outlets in Hagerstown as soon as they come out. In the meantime the current issue will be present in a few days, please feel free to take one home.

 

Are you an athlete or a parent of one? If so, and you would like us to capture what makes you tick, please call today to schedule a session. 301-693-3021

 

 

At the Hagerstown Prime Outlets

— 09/28/2015 by Monika Wertman —

In this blog post I will switch things up a bit. Usually I tell a story about one of my clients and their session, but we are trying a marketing approach that is new to us and I thought it would be fun to share the set-up.

 

The idea started when I got a letter in the mail about putting a booth display into the food court area of the outlets in Hagerstown. The cost was very reasonable and they caught me at just the correct time, with money left in the advertising budget and phone calls with crazy requests arriving every day. This opportunity, by far, seemed the most cost effective way to spend my money. Another benefit is the time frame. We installed the display today, September 28 and it will be up through the holiday shopping season until January 1.

wertman photography prime outlets

 

The decision about what to show potential clients was not as easy as the decision to give this new-to-us marketing strategy a try. We finally settled on bridal, athlete and seniors. As you can see, the selection shows a nice variety of gestures and poses, while offering a peek into studio lighting and on location use of architectural elements and natural light.  The selection can also be found throughout the galleries, so feel free to find the images if you want to see them more clearly, or go by the display to do the same.

wertman photography, Prime outlets display-6

 

Many couples get engaged over the holidays, so the hope is that they remember what they saw while shopping and will come talk to us about their wedding day, while families will see what can be done with just about any activity and book us for various occasions.

wertman photography, Prime outlets display-5

 

We also have informational materials about senior photos, boudoir sessions and wedding coverage, as well as regular business cards at the display area. Gift certificates can be purchased for any amount all throughout the year and make wonderful stocking stuffers. A sign planting that idea is on display as well.

wertman photography, Prime outlets display-2

We encourage you to check the display out for yourself, please let us know what you think and remember to check in on Facebook throughout the life of the display for contests and drawings. At some point we will probably add a little information collection box as well.  For now, if you can guess where this alcove is at the outlets, or if you want to go and find it, leave the exact location in the comments below and everyone who gets it right, will be entered into a drawing for a free one hour session for up to 5 people, a $150 value.  We will draw a winner at the end of this week.

 

Please browse our galleries, new work is added on a routine basis and you just never know what you may find this time around. Call us today to secure a gift certificate in any amount that can be applied to sessions and as print credit. Gift certificates make the most wonderful stocking stuffers as well!

Shooting at the Beach

— 06/05/2015 by Monika Wertman —

In the middle of May I had the pleasure to work with some fabulous models in Miami on the beach. It was a very fun experience and very intense. Not only did we have fantastic models to work with, but had a wardrobe stylist from Vogue and a hair and make-up stylist from Vogue as well. We worked in sweltering heat and humidity and did so for 7 plus hours.

 

It was very rewarding in many ways. The exposure to that level of prep work on the part of the behind the scenes stylists and the composure of the set directions lead to some wonderful imagery. It was fun to work with models who did not need much direction and to have the freedom to direct them to do things I do not often get the chance to do with my clients.

wertman photography modeling glamor-1

 

I was exposed to different lighting techniques, like manipulating sunlight instead of overpowering it with strobes, creating shade and bouncing light back onto my subjects, that I have already implemented with one of my brides and intend to use with my seniors this summer. It takes a team of four to accomplish this feat, but is well worth it as you can see from the images within this post.

wertman photography beach seniors-1

 

The take-away is that you may hire me to work with you on any beach of your choice, if travel is required, additional fees apply, but here in Maryland we have a few lakes these techniques can be used at, and in fact, this technique is handy in various situations.

wertman photography beach seniors-5

 

Please feel free to go to some of the galleries such as the portrait/portfolio gallery, new images reside within, the engagement/wedding gallery, new images are present here as well, and check into the boudoir/glamor gallery as well, new images from Miami are in there as well. Please browse our site to your heart’s content, as you never know where new imagery is hiding and may just trigger the need to book a session with us.

wertman photography beach seniors-9

 

Tyler’s Lacrosse Game

— 05/21/2015 by Monika Wertman —

Had someone told me a couple of years ago that I would start shooting sports images and sporting events, I would have laughed, but somehow I started with it sometime last year and rather enjoy it. There is excitement capturing a game as a spectator. My first experience doing just that was earlier this year when I recorded the legends basket ball game between North and South Highschool. It was fast moving and exciting to capture baskets being made and wins being scored. That game will be featured in the new publication of XLSports Magazine in the July issue.

 

I then was asked by one of my favorite clients if I could come and shoot her son’s lacrosse game. We had a somewhat cool, but sunny day for it and it was a lot of fun being close to the game, following her son Tyler around with the lens. Even though this is a middle school team, they played very well, pushed for their scores and even got aggressive enough with each other to make the time fly.lacrosse game hagerstown md             wertman photography tyler lacrosse game-4 lacrosse game hagerstown md

lacrosse game hagerstown md

 

I got some great shots of the action and a few close ups of Tyler during half time, listening to his coaches strategize. Tyler’s mom was thrilled and told me that her son felt like a rock star with me there recording his efforts. He scored several goals during the game, all of which I captured. The images have been compiled into a cool memory book for Tyler that he will be able to look at over and over again and one of the pictures showcased within this blog is on it’s way to my studio printed on metal right now.

lacrosse game hagerstown md

 

Here at Wertman Photography, we will do sports sessions that can be styled as an extreme sports session, a portrait session in all the gear, or like the one I am describing here, as a sporting event. We will work with any age and session fees depend on what you hire us for. In any case, we will have fun recording it all for you.

 

Please feel free to browse our galleries to see some recent additions in the modeling, boudoir and children’s sections.wertman photography tyler lacrosse game-1

Wertman Photography Launches New Website & Blog

— 04/01/2015 by Monika Wertman —

new-wertman-photography-website

It is here!   We are so excited to share our new website with you. Wertman Photography has been in business for over 5 years and many exciting things are happening in 2015.

We are growing in many ways including our space at the studio, which doubled in February of this year. We now have three distinct shooting spaces available and a private dressing room to make glamor and boudoir sessions even more fun and private than they were before.

We learned that we would be able to expand our physical space at the end of the summer of 2014 and decided that other changes were also necessary. Our website needed some serious TLC and after seeing work our web designer had done for other photographers, we decided that Visual Lure would be a great fit for us. Justen designed a site that is not only gorgeous but really took our vision and our love for art deco to the next level. If you have not done so yet, please browse the entire site and enjoy not only the richness of the design and the ease of the functionality, but also our portfolios to understand who we are as a photographic studio.

When we opened our doors in 2009 we knew that we would give our clients a great experience during any session and that we would produce imagery that our clients would be proud to hang on their walls. Today, five and a half years into the photography business, we continue to provide you, our clients with a great experience and great images, and we offer products you may have never thought about. We continue to innovate and add more products and specialized services to our studio. You are treated with special care and every session you book with us is tailored to your needs.

This year we have revamped our High School Senior sessions to include up to three locations and clothing changes and hair and make-up for the girls. The offered collections can accommodate any budget and print collections include many exciting products.

Our Glamor and Boudoir sessions are also redesigned to include some great products when purchased as a collection and can also be booked as stand alones you can add to, including make-up and hair.

We love weddings and engagements, as you can see in our wedding portfolio and offer all-inclusive collections with plenty of time and great options built right in.

As our new site highlights, here at Wertman Photography we love timeless design and elegance with a modern twist our clients desire. Please read more on the about us page where you can find some client review and testimonials.

We want to thank Justen at Visual Lure for creating a great new website for us and hope that all of you enjoy it as much as we do.

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