With a long line snaking out of the LLARC library, Hockaday students stand fixing their hair, waiting for their school yearbook picture to be taken by Scott Peek, the photographer that captures every school event, yearbook picture and senior portrait.
Originally, being a photographer was not Peek’s dream. In college, Peek obtained an electrical engineering degree which allowed him to pursue corporate sales jobs within technology companies. He ended his first career as an executive coach.
“I got my first camera as a present for high school graduation,” Peek said. “Unlike today, everything on the film camera was a manual setting. There was no internet to help you learn how to use it. I had to figure it out on my own with some books and hands-on experience. It became a real hobby of mine for many, many years.”
Photography was originally just a hobby for him. It later evolved into much more after Peek’s friends encouraged him to start his own business after he lost his last corporate job in 2008.
“I did not think it would be a full-time job,” Peek said. “I thought it would be extra income on the weekends; but after looking for a job for over a year in 2009, I had to make the decision to try and make it a full-time business as the sole income for my family.”
Peek faced challenges along the way as he started his photography business. It wasn’t always easy, but as he learned the business, he developed a process that worked best for him and his customers.
“Part of the process of making mistakes,” Peek said, “especially on the photography side of things, is being too quick or being too perfect in a photo shoot. You should know what the picture will look like before you press the shutter, which means knowing your camera settings inside and out and trusting my gut to capture the right image.”
Now, Peek works with both The Hockaday School and the St. Mark’s School of Texas as the official school photographer. In addition to school photography, Peek’s business also photographs a large number of family portraits, executive headshots and corporate and non-profit events.
Hockaday Junior Cate Baker interned at Scott Peek Photography over the summer to learn about businesses and how photography works.
“He’s really good at what he does, so it’s fun to watch him sell products and take pictures,” Baker said. “He was really inviting and made it a large learning experience for me.”
Baker learned everything that Peek does leading up to photoshoots and how his business runs behind the camera.
“I learned that it’s very relational,” Baker said. “There’s a lot more to photography than just taking .”
Senior Ava Ortega had her senior portraits taken by Scott Peek Photography and was excited to take them and see the results.
“I thought it was fun,” Ortega said. “I got to feel like I had my own personal paparazzi.”
Seniors get to take their drape photos, along with taking pictures with different outfits and poses.
“I’m not much of a poser,” Ortega said, “but he was really helpful with giving me a wide variety of poses that I could do for my photos.”
Senior portraits take around two weeks to process until they are able to be picked up. The senior portraits are used in the yearbooks and senior announcements, making seniors’ reactions to seeing them always exciting.
“It was definitely a really different experience, but it was really nice that he put in so much time and care into looking at all the details,” Ortega said.
