Senior portraits

It’s time to start thinking about senior portraits. Why do we take portraits of our seniors? We do it because their senior year of high school is a special milestone in life. Our kids are in that final stage of living at home. We have been charged with raising a human being, and now is the time we can show off our work. Soon they’ll be off at college, and on their own for the most part. We’ll no longer be involved in the day-to-day management of our children’s lives. My wife cried the entire last week of my son’s senior year, counting down the days to graduation in terms of how many more Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches she’d get to make for her baby boy. It’s that important. I told her that I like PB&J’s and that she could keep making them for me, but apparently it’s not the same.

Ideally, these portraits will capture the personality of your senior. We want those pictures to tell the world all about the kid. What do they do? What is their passion? How do they spend their time?

Many portraits are taken in parks, and town squares; and those are great for showcasing the look of your senior, I do plenty of those. In my view, another very important aspect of the portraits is to capture the personality of that subject. If your child has spent thousands of hours practicing, and pursuing excellence in a sport, or some other talent, I think it deserves to be showcased. If your kid loves to play football, runs track, plays guitar, or works on cars, that side of them should be beautifully captured in photographs that will last forever.

The shots below represent some of my work. I think you’ll be able to tell a little bit about what these kids love to do just by viewing the pictures. That’s one of our goals, right? I can take a picture of anyone in front of a sunset, and they’ll look awesome, but I won’t have a clue as to what they live for. Sometimes I shoot in basketball gyms, sometimes I shoot in local bars to capture a kid who plays in a rock band. I’m taking my camera wherever it has to go in order to capture the passion that kid has.

I’d like to help capture the passion your kid has in life. Please email me for details. Scroll down for sample pics. You can also see more of my work on the “Portfolio” tab of this site, and on my Instagram page @901hssports

Best Regards,

Steve Scaramastro

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A Storm is Brewing

I sat at my computer checking the weather radar. It looked as though Friday nights Homecoming football game would be delayed by a massive wall of thunderstorms that were rolling through the area. Giant red cells were all over my screen indicating powerful storms and violent downpours. Kickoff was delayed 30 minutes. I figured the worst of the storms would be gone by the time I arrived at 7:45.

I pulled into the inky blackness of the Houston High School parking lot in a hard rain. The darkness kept at bay only by the light of the football stadium. I grabbed my camera gear and trudged through the rain to see what I could see. The game was underway when I got through the gate, and the rain was starting to die off, but I found a much different storm when I arrived.

On a hot, late summer evening, not even powerful thunderstorms could drive the student section away from their team. Far from being deterred, the student section seemed to strengthen like a thunderstorm itself, drawing energy from it's environment and dumping it on their foe. It’s no wonder they are referred to as “The Mob”.

It was hot and humid. Everything was soaking wet. A drizzle still fell and yet they stood cheering and laughing and singing along to any song played over the intercom. The hardcore dudes were shirtless with their team name spelled out on their chests, they hoisted a black flag, did pushups when Houston scored, and ran the length of the stands carrying huge Houston flags. The weather had kept many away and sapped the spirit of countless people, but amid this dreary world of foul weather and oppressive humidity, The Mob owned this night. These kids had enough energy to fight a tornado and win.

I wandered through the stadium and despite the weather, everyone seemed happy. The weather was as bad as you could imagine for a homecoming night but the school spirit was running at a fever pitch. The football team was on an early run, driving the ball and the score with relentless efficiency. The Mustang Mob was a nerve center of raw energy pulsing through the stadium. I saw 20 cheerleaders in the rain, smiling as they cheered their team forward. I saw the school district’s superintendent there with his young baby, and countless parents I knew lining the fence. It felt like small-town-USA. I’ve never seen an atmosphere like this at a high school game.

I left the Mob and pushed further down the sideline. It wasn’t long before I ran into another mob - the Houston Varsity Cheer squad. One might think that 20 high school cheerleaders would be upset if they did their hair and makeup only to have 50 million gallons of water dumped on them shortly thereafter…not these girls. Their spirit was undeterred.

The students were absolutely focused and fired up about this game despite the weather. Their team was fighting and they were supporting them with a tornadic level of enthusiasm. Among all the people who had made preparations for this game, one group stood out as having the most to lose to a hot, humid, rainy night…the girls who fixed their hair and makeup, put on a fancy dress, and walked out with the Homecoming court. If I’ve heard women talk about a “bad hair day” once, then I’ve heard it a million times and this night had the hallmarks of being one of the worst. My next surprise was that every single one of them walked out onto the field at halftime with a smile. Nobody was letting the weather dampen their spirits.

After the halftime ceremony I sat in the stands to watch the Mustangs put the finishing touches on an epic beatdown, and to take a few more pictures. During a break in the game the intercom started blaring a familiar sound: Don’t Stop Believing by Journey was booming through the stadium. From the far end of the bleachers I could hear The Mob explode as they sang along, word for word. That song was released in 1981, around 20 years before most of these kids were born, but they knew every word and sang with such enthusiasm that I felt like I was hearing it for the first time.

The music blared, the Mob ruled, the Mustangs were galloping all over the field, and even the cheerleaders sang as the night drew to a close. I wish my high school football games had been as cool as this.