I’m so excited about my new #KHP Senior Model Rep Team! I’ve been getting a lot of questions about it and wanted to just lay it all out here. Let’s start at the very beginning, though:
What’s Senior Photography?
- Nope, it’s not portraits of people age 65+! You’ll want a regular portrait photographer for that!
- It’s portraits taken of high school seniors, often for graduation announcements, for the yearbook, or just for fun!
- These are fun portraits, designed to show off personality, style, and interests rather than the “velvet drape” and “1/4 of a cut-up suit jacket and shirt” that is so common in high school yearbooks.
- These portraits are a really cool keepsake to celebrate a graduating senior’s accomplishments, and this fun stage of life – parents and grandparents often love to get prints for their walls to keep their seniors close when they head off to their post-high school adventures!
What’s a Senior Model Rep Team?
It’s an amazing deal for booked graduating senior clients to get:
- Multiple photoshoots and photos for the price of one. (Different locations! Outfits! Times of year! Activities!) Professional photos to more fully document more aspects of your senior year!
- The option to have your booked photoshoot session fee discounted or waived based on booked referrals of your friends to your photographer!
- Making new friends at group photoshoots and events!
- Blogs of their photoshoots and featured galleries on their photographer’s portfolio.
- Publications of their photoshoot portraits and be a published model!
- Fun themed photoshoots (New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, etc)
- Some photographers even offer exclusive destination photoshoots for their Senior Rep Team!
What does a senior rep do?
- besides meeting up for photoshoots, Senior Reps are often asked to post on social media about their experience on the senior model rep team and share photos from their photoshoots!
- Often the senior model rep team will post on TikTok or BeReal or SnapChat. Some photographers don’t require their reps to post their photos, and instead ask them to share behind-the-scenes information so their friends can see what the experience of working with a senior photographer is really like!
- Depending on the photographer, senior reps sometimes earn cash or print credit depending if a referred friend books a senior portrait session.
- Some photographers put together activities for their Senior Model Rep Team to do. This can be a fun activity like mini golfing or it can be a meaningful volunteer opportunity to give back to the community like cleaning up a local park or volunteering together at a food pantry. Bonus – these volunteer opportunities look great on a college application or in an application essay!
What’s in it for the photographer?
- A Senior Model Rep Team is a great way for a photographer to grow their senior portrait side of their business. The photographer gets valuable word-of-mouth marketing in the area! Additionally, this is a wonderful way to grow a senior portrait portfolio, and have plenty of images for social media marketing.
Sounds great! Who can sign up?
- Ask your photographer! Often a photographer launches Senior Model Rep Team applications in January and February for the junior class, with group photoshoots and activities in the summer before their senior year starts.
- Occasionally photographers also have Teen Model Rep Teams that are for younger high school grades; rising freshmen, sophomores, and juniors.
Is there a fee for a Senior Model Rep Team?
- There often is a fee, which covers the cost of the group events, and often photographers require you to book a full senior portrait session to be eligible to apply for the program. It’s absolutely worth the extra cost, though – it’s an opportunity for experiences and friend-making for the senior, and loads of beautiful portraits.
Kristen Hazelton is an Oak Park, IL (Chicago, IL metro area) and Livermore, CA (San Francisco East Bay Area) senior, family, and engagement photographer. She occasionally photographs in San Diego, CA, Tucson, AZ, and Seattle, WA. You can inquire about your own photoshoot here!
