This one is yours.
Your parents get the wall portrait. You get the day. Five hours, your locations, as many outfits as you want, your music in the car between stops, and your best friend if you want them there. The goal is a set of portraits that look like you, not like a yearbook.
Lake Conroe · a senior who brought the kayak
Five hours. Nothing rushed.
We plan it together
Before the session, Ty comes to your house for an hour on a weeknight and talks with you and your parents. You tell him what you are into, where you spend your time, and what you want the portraits to feel like. That conversation designs the whole day.
Saturday or Sunday, first location
The session is on a weekend so it never competes with school. You start at the first location with the first outfit. Ty handles the light, the posing, and the direction. You do not need to know how to pose. You need to show up.
Change, move, repeat
Up to three locations within a hundred miles and unlimited outfits. Letterman jacket, formal, athletic gear, the instrument, the car, the horse, the dog. Each stop is a different chapter of the same story.
Seven days of editing
Ty edits every selected image by hand in his signature style. Around day four you get a sneak peek to post. A week to ten days after the session, your family sees all eighty or more finished portraits at home.
Your wall, your feed, your announcements
Your parents choose the collection for the house. You get every portrait in that collection as a high-resolution file, and the entire edited gallery as social-ready files with a small watermark, for your feed and your graduation announcements.
Somewhere that is actually yours.
Old Town Spring, The Woodlands Waterway, Market Street, downtown Houston at night, Lake Conroe at sunset, a field of sunflowers, your own backyard. Start with where you go to school and Ty will show you what is nearby.
Everything that is you.
- Three to five outfits, one of them the one you feel best in
- The thing you spend your time on: the instrument, the cleats, the sketchbook, the jersey, the car
- Your pet, if they travel well
- Your best friend, if you want company between stops
- A playlist for the car
Not sure what photographs well? That is what the consultation is for. Bring options and Ty will help you choose.
The wall is for your parents. The files are for you.
High-resolution files
Every portrait your family chooses for the collection comes as a full-resolution file. Print it, frame it, keep it.
Your whole gallery, social-ready
All eighty or more edited images, sized for Instagram and TikTok with a small watermark. Included with every collection. Post the whole session, not just three.
Graduation announcements
Designed from your portraits, printed for family, ready to mail in the spring.
Seniors who went first.
Behind-the-scenes from real Saturday and Sunday sessions. Follow along, send it to a friend, and tag @swartzportraits when your own portraits go up.
Five themed sessions, a video short, and a paid year.
Ten Houston metro seniors from the Class of 2027 and 2028 are selected each year for five themed group sessions, up to a hundred edited portraits, stylized video shorts, paid opportunities, and a 24x24 floating-frame heirloom at the year-end Ambassador Party. There is no application form. Ambassadors are selected at the consultation.
Before you say yes.
I do not like having my picture taken.
Most seniors say that in the first hour. Ty has photographed more than a thousand of them. There is no posing you have to know and no smile you have to force. By the second location it stops feeling like a photo shoot, and the portraits from hour four are usually the ones that end up on the wall.
Can my best friend come?
Yes. Friends are welcome on the session, and a friend who is also a senior can ask their parents about a session of their own. Your family's referral counts toward the referral program.
Can I bring my dog, my horse, or my car?
Yes to all three. Tell Ty at the consultation so the locations and the schedule are planned around them.
When can I post them?
You get a sneak peek to post about four days after the session. The full social-ready gallery comes with your family's collection after the reveal.
What if it rains?
Ty watches the forecast and reschedules to another Saturday or Sunday. Nobody is photographed in weather that ruins the portraits.
How do I get my parents on board?
Send them this page. The button below texts it to them with a short note.
Send this to your parents.
Your parents schedule a free hour-long consultation at your house on a weeknight at 6:00 or 8:00 pm. You should be there for it. There is no pressure and no decision that night, only a conversation about what your portraits could be.
Text it to them Email it to them Parents, apply here
Class of 2028: spring sessions fill first. Apply by December for a bluebonnet date. Class of 2027: a limited number of fall and winter dates remain.