Illuminé Photography

Sundance 2012 Opening Weekend {Utah Photography}

2012-01-23T08:16:00.000-08:00

*Fair Warning* This post is going to be a trifle long...now that you've been warned...

Let's get going!

This is my second year being involved with the Sundance Film Festival. Last year I was a floater which means I did a bit of everything and never the same job twice. This year I am the One and Only and very first EVER outside Park City Photographer! I am in charge of covering everything regarding Sundance that occurs outside of Park City...yes there is a lot of driving and yes it is totally awesome!

Here I am in full regalia, well my official gloves are in my pocket, even including my Festival Insider button which sadly I found I had to take off thirty minutes into my first shoot because I can't stop and answer questions if there is action that I have to be covering...sad face!

My first festival day was Friday the 20th at the Broadway Theatre in downtown Salt Lake City.

For my job I have a shot list for every venue and special thanks to all the volunteers, staff, AND festival goers who were kind (and patient) enough to not only mug for the camera but help me create and "re-create" all the shots I needed.

The couple above was awesome! I talk to myself when I shoot and I got the exterior sign shot and then decided that it was boring and I needed movement. They were eating but overheard me, said that they would walk in for me, jumped up and proceeded to do so. People are fantastic! I was happy to see that they made it into their film okay a little later. Yay for waitlist!

I'm supposed to get shots of volunteers having fun doing their jobs (easiest shots ever 'cause they are all having a blast) and all exterior and interior signage. These volunteers were giggling over this sign and when I saw it I had to laugh too. If you can't read it, it says...

WARNING:
The following film contains strobe light effects.
Those who may be affected should take
appropriate action.

We weren't sure what "appropriate action" might be but thinking up outlandish scenarios was fun.

Here we have the valiantly hard working box office volunteers. There is so much more going on behind the scenes than you realize. Everyone works so hard. A few of their duties (I'm sure there are more that I do not know anything about) include taking care of the waitlist ticket sales, post ticket counting and scanning (every. single. ticket.) and entering everything into the system. It makes me tired just thinking of it.

I'm always yelling (well not YELLING), "Wait, go slower, I need that shot". This kind volunteer was very deliberately taking this ticket so I could get the shot and special thanks to patient festival goer for going along. Loves to you both!

Number one in the waitlist line, huzzah!

Broadway crew introducing the very first Sundance screening of this theatre...AND...

Broadway Crew!!

They are awesome and nice and so much fun!

Next it was off to the Beehive Tea Room which, for the duration of the festival, has been re-named the Beehive Festival Café. It is open to the public and has live music every night.

p.s. for locals, note that the tea room is open later than usual during the festival. The live bands start at 7:30 p.m.

Friday's band was The Hot Club of Zion and they were fantastic. I am totally in love with their music and I must have a CD.

They play Gypsy Jazz and I found them on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hot-Club-Of-Zion/158421557548825?sk=app_2405167945#!/pages/The-Hot-Club-Of-Zion/158421557548825?sk=wall

Getting artistic with the Sundance banners on Broadway.

And now for my Saturday adventures, the highlight of which was not getting into an accident. I decided to cover the Sundance Resort because it's a two-and-a-half-hour drive for me. It started out torrential rain and I figured I was okay as long as it stayed rain but WOW, the mayhem that I saw on my journey, including two hydroplaning cars in my immediate vicinity. Seriously? Slow down people! I got within five miles of the resort when the rain turned to furious snow in the blink of an eye. I thought I've only got five miles and I drove home from Park City in crazy snow on Wednsday, I can do this. I got to the turn off where the signs were flashing that four wheel drive or chains were required of which I had neither. "But I only have three miles" I said as emergency vehicle after emergency vehicle rushed past me. Thirty more feet on a narrow, twisty, windy road another emergency vehicle rushing by, memories surfacing of my botched attempt to traverse Trappers Loop a few nights before and I was out of there. Drove to Salt Lake and the venues that awaited me. Scary, scary, scary!

To The Library!

The Library Theatre is a new venue this year and it it gorgeous, what a setting!

Here we have the historic first ever Library Theatre team!

Just like the Broadway team they are super nice, fun, and extremely helpful!

They also know how to play. :)

Here are some of my very very most favorite people. Pictures of signs are a lot more interesting when people are looking at said signs. I saw some people looking and I bolted over but missed the shot. I must have been talking to myself again because these nice festivalgoers (passholders too) said they would look at the sign, jumped in, and even added the intent pointing all on their own.

People are so nice!

See, getting your ticket taken is fun!

We take not disturbing the audiences very seriously! All the happy group shots? Artistically faked. Joyful celebration in silence if you will. ;)

Last stop of the day the Rose Wagner Theatre, another beautiful venue. By now the rain had turned to snow and even though I wanted to visit another venue that night I was a little shell-shocked from my morning drive.

Loved this volunteers speech to the crowd! Wish you could have heard it, especially you Moms out there. Basically she is letting everyone know that they are about to start seating and once you are seated you can't leave or you risk losing your seat because the volunteers will fill Every. Single. Place. So...if you need to go potty, do it now!!! Those weren't her words but that was the jist. I giggled in my head, it was awesome!

Sidenote-the film they were waiting for was Queen of Versailles which has already been picked up for distribution.

Quiet moment watching the rain which has now turned to snow before the ticket holder seating chaos begins.

Ticket holders are in the foreground, waitlist in the background. See the girl looking directly at me and smiling? Thanks cutie! See how she is placed artistically at a power third point? Wish I could say I did that on purpose...sigh...I'll take it! :)

Here is the theatre partway through seating. It ended up completely packed but I think all the waitlist got in. And for my theatre friends, I stood dead center stage and it was awesome.

Happy Festival from the Rose Wagner Theatre team!

There is still a week left. Come out and play! Catch a film, visit the Festival Cafe and New Frontier venues, or head to Park City where more adventures await!

More to come..... :)

My World {365 day} Photo Project

2012-01-17T08:39:00.000-08:00

On January 10, 2012 I finished my My World {365 day} photo project. Not to be melodramatic but this project may very well have saved my life.

Flashback if you will to January 10, 2011. A miserable day. I was in a terrible place at that time in my life. Why exactly? I’m not sure I remember accurately. Some things I do but I don’t really want to dwell on them at this time. Now I love a brand new fresh year. I’m not super jazzed about New Year’s Eve, it always seems a bit of a waste of time but I absolutely love New Year’s Day. I love new goals, dreams, and the feeling that you can throw off the old mistakes of the past and create a brand new better self. The beginning of 2011 was no different and when I found myself miserable on the tenth I was determined to not let the New Year get started off on a bad foot so I did everything I could think of to feel better. Practice my voice lesson (singing always makes me feel better), text friends, call friends (everyone was busy). Nothing was working and I was frustrated because I truly was trying. Finally I decided to get out of the house and call my sister Leah who lives in Australia. I took my kids to the library so they could be entertained by something other than me and used the Library’s network to Skype call my sister. I had a hard time getting through because she was in the middle of something. Perhaps you, dear reader, will recall the terrible flooding that occurred in Australia at that time. Well, she called me back to inform me that she was being evacuated, her husband wasn’t home yet, and she would have to do her best to get her pregnant self and baby son out alone. She would call as soon as she could, pray for her.

I sort of lost it.

It’s very selfish to say that, I know, but at the moment it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I was a wreck of stress, misery, fear, and worry.

I probably should add that I had been praying for help this entire day. I really am not a fan of wallowing in misery without fighting to make things better and as I drove home I was still praying…pretty darn hard. Some may not believe in a higher power and of course I respect their views and only ask that they respect mine in turn. I, myself, believe unequivocally in a higher power and I believe with everything I am that as I pulled out of the library parking lot that the inspiration to undertake this project that came to me at that moment was of God. I can still remember everything about that moment. I was to photograph something every day that had to do with my world. It could be something I was doing, something that meant a lot to me, something that caught my eye, or to portray, without words, how I was feeling that particular day. I remember feeling immediate comfort and a lightening of spirit as I planned some of the things that I wanted to “say” and the “stories” I wanted to tell. I remember feeling strongly that my sister and her family would be all right.

January 11^th was day one and I remember that it was so cold, like only January can be. Bighting cold that seeps through your piled on layers and you almost want to cry you are so cold. I wanted to portray cold, solitude, loneliness, hope.

This is also a place that I see extremely often as I run or walk in the mornings and I have enjoyed the beauty of the scene at every season and pretty much every time of day. It means a lot to me.

As I look through the pictures of the last year of my life it reads like a diary. It brings back so many things; experiences, emotions, laughter, and tears. At one point I decided to write the stories but I stopped that quickly. I wanted to be able to speak straight from my heart without worrying about whether anybody else would approve or judge. I should add that I posted every picture on facebook and am in the process of uploading them to my online Fine Art Boutique. I cringe sometimes that they are public but that was part of the cathartic process. I learned to see the world around me, to appreciate the unexpected beauty I found, to tell stories and convey emotions without words, to really be in touch with myself.

The end of my project grew near and I began to get very nervous. I was so afraid of losing all that I had gained. I was afraid of stopping. The end photograph had to be something special and so I decided to do a self portrait. Have you ever wondered what super power you would want to have? I do all the time. My number one super power of choice is of course to fly but a while ago I decided that a good semi-useful super power to have would be the ability to yell “Confetti” and confetti would shoot up from your hands. Good to throw into the eyes of an adversary and fun at parties. I told friends about it and it kind of became a thing. Hence the pictures on facebook of either throwing confetti or rolling in it. Hence again the self portrait of me with confetti in the air to close out a wonderful year…. there really is only one more thing to say

CONFETTI!!!

p.s. Here is the link to all 365 images
http://fineart.illuminephotography.com/myworld

How I spent11/11/11 {Utah Wedding Photography}

2012-01-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

I try to only blog once a week so that I don't annoy those who are kind enough (I really appreciate you all so much) to follow my blog but I find that I tend to get rather far behind. Here is the wedding storyline {album} for the wedding I photographed on 11/11/11. What a crazy fun day that was! I was very grateful that the wedding wasn't at the Salt Lake Temple. I had been there a few days earlier and they told me that there were around 150 weddings that day. I think Bountiful had closer to 65...it was really fun!

Hadn't Thought About It That Way {Utah Family Photography}

2012-01-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

Greetings to the Longhurst family. There is a lot of love here. They like to laugh and be together and you can tell that they are very close.

When I was getting their print order ready I had an eye-opening conversation with Mary (the lovely mom). I've taken shots like the one above a few times before without really stopping to think about why I was doing it. Oh, I know that it holds to the rule of thirds and the added interest of foreground and background elements but I hadn't thought clearly about the emotional content. Mary told me that she had to have a print of this image because it reminded her of how important it is to have a relationship with your spouse outside of your children. Children are important and wonderful but if a marriage isn't strong then the family will suffer. It is so important to take time to just be with your significant other. I was so grateful that she shared that with me and now I lok at this photograph with new eyes. This is only one in a series of shots. Cory and Mary were in the background twirling and dancing and my favorite has a big dip complete with kiss.

The above was the "money" shot for me. As soon as I took it I had to show Mary. I absolutely love the connection between the family members and my favorite part is the daughter leaning her head on daddy's shoulder. This is the one they got printed large for their wall art and I am so very glad that they did.

I wanted to give them a different "look" to chose from for their big family picture so I took them over to the river. This is one of my very favorite locations to shoot at during late fall and it turned out very nice. They had to have a print of this one as well...I don't purposefully try to make it hard to choose. ;)

Twelve Months, Twelve Temples! {Utah Fine Art Photography}

2011-12-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

I'm a little scary with resolutions. Once they are written down they are basically set in stone for me and I review my list every day. I was a little nervous to make photographing a different temple every month as one of my New Year's resolutions for 2011. I knew this goal would require travel and though I adore adventures more than I have words to describe you just never know where life will take you in a year.

I decided to photograph the Provo Utah temple in November. November is actually one of my favorite months to photograph in. I love the softer, more muted colors. My little boy came with me. I made sure to have plenty of snacks and Angry Birds on my phone for him to play and he was happy. We like to have adventures together.

It rained almost the entire drive down and I was discouraged, but it stopped just as we got there. The rain turned out to be a blessing because the light was pretty, the colors extra saturated and the clouds were a lovely added element. The rain also added a fun Hollywood effect. It wet-down the road in front of the temple which added a bit of reflection.

Manti was my final temple. I'd wanted to photograph it all year but was daunted by the three plus hour drive. My husband and I planned on driving down and staying overnight but that didn't work out. Todd is a lodging snob and when he looked into Hotels in the area he said that all he could find was a BandB where your rooms were named after LDS Prophets. His words..."I am NOT getting jiggy in the Joseph Smith room." I laughed hysterically and told him I was going to post that on facebook. He promptly threatened me with all sorts of doom and destruction if I did so....don't tell him I posted it on my blog! ;)

Once again my little five-year-old was my adventure buddy. I came prepared with even more snacks and games but he was more interesterd in just chilling on the drive down and sleeping on the drive back. It may have been the inversion. It was extra nasty during that week (Dec. 19th is when we went down) and though I thought it would clear once we got out of Salt Lake it lasted clear to Manti. It was a huge relief to get back to my beautiful Valley where there were clear blue skies. Y'all have my sincere sympathy for having to live with the yucky inversion smog.

We didn't have quite as much fun at the Manti temple as we did at the Provo Temple. There weren't any water fountains for Noah to admire and it was bitter miserable cold. We still had fun. Noah goes to Kindergarten next year and though I never thought I'd be one of THOSE Mom's I am already getting sad at the idea of losing my adventure buddy. We have so much fun.

I did it. Twelve temples in twelve months. I'm humbly proud of fulfilling this resolution. It really was an effort, which of course is the point of resolutions. I have something different in mind for 2012 which I am excited to get started on. The best way to learn and grow is to just get out there and shoot.

Happy Shooting everyone and to all a most Happy New Year!

p.s. There are more photographs of both temples on my Boutique site.

link to the Provo Temple Pictures
http://fineart.illuminephotography.com/provotemple

link to the Manti Temple Pictures
http://fineart.illuminephotography.com/mantitemple

Clark and Dana's Wedding Storyline Album {Utah Wedding Photography}

2011-12-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

I was blessed with the opportunity to photograph the wedding of a dear, dear friend in November. It was a wonderful, wonderful day. I was so excited to get to work on the images and especially to create her Storyline. I take hundreds of photographs during a wedding but I don't feel that the story of the day can be told flipping through image after image so I love to create Storyline Albums. It's my favorite part of the wedding. The entire day is easily at your fingertips and the emotion just shines through. I love videos but I'll be honest, I rarely watch mine. But a photo album you can just grab when the mood strikes, start at the beginning or flip to your favorite part, and relive the day quickly and easily.

A little fun backstory for this day...we tried photographing the shots above first thing but though a few lovely flakes were coming down while we set up they turned into a full on blizzard and we had to run for cover. Now their reception was at the Chateau Le Jardin which is exquisite but it's a greenhouse so my camera gear promptly fogged up and though I tried to appear outwardly calm and professional I was inwardly panicking because of course, our time was limited and we really couldn't wait for an hour to defog. I pulled my filter off and repeatedly wiped down my glass and took photographs as best as I could. If you look at the page spread two above this one you will notice how soft it is. I decided to just go for artistic effect. Luckily the snow calmed down (of course) and we were able to go back outside and that helped a lot. I didn't dare go outside for the rest of the night until they left in case it happened again so that is why I don't have a photograph of the venue from the outside at night. Ironically I have had people tell me that the softer photographs are actually their favorite!

Congratulations Clark and Dana!!!

My Golden Family...Merry Christmas! {Utah Family Photography}

2011-12-12T08:07:00.000-08:00

I love this family and they have had a busy year, note the addition of a brand new son-in-law {I got to photograph the wedding-yay!}. There aren't words for how much I love them and I was thrilled that with how busy they were we were still able to get a family session and Christmas card in. I talked them into a two-sided card this year, change is good right? They were thrilled, I was thrilled, life is good. Happy Holidays everyone!

The Lund Family {Utah Family Photography}

2011-12-05T07:57:00.001-08:00

I love fall and this has been one of my favorite locations to shoot in for about a year, partly because I can have good light for longer than usual and partly because as yet the hordes have not discovered it. This is a wonderful family whom I have known for as long as I can remember. Their youngest son was leaving on a mission four days after these pictures were taken and Saturday Oct. 1, 2011 found us traipsing through the weeds in the dark{ish} at seven am. It was darker than I expected and I was panicking a bit. At the last second I threw my studio lights in the car and when I got there {I like to arrive early and set up} it was pretty darn pitch black and there were mysterious shapes lurking...I admit to being a little apprehensive. I told myself that they were most likely deer and would leave as I got closer, sure enough they were and they did. Curse you Dave Carver for telling me all of your bigfoot stories!!!

You can see here that the sun is coming up over the mountains, the light sure moved fast but we were able to get all that we needed before various members of the family had to rush off to other engagements.

I love this picture. I love his eyes. I always try to take at least one photograph of small children looking up at me because that is the way parents see their children most often and it is a reminder in later years of when they were small. Ironically the family was concerned because this little guy is usually super smiley but he is not a morning person at all. It's still my favorite picture.

This is Joni and she is a sweetheart. I really like this picture of her, I think her wonderful personality shines through.

Some back-story to this session was that the night before was the closing night and cast party for a show that I had been doing at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre. I got home probably around 3-4 am, took a two hour nap and then ran out to photograph this session still in full stage hair and make-up and in my ensemble from the night before...that just makes me laugh.

Here is a link to my facebook business page if you would like to see a few more. :)

https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150402810018727.353188.111853783726&type=3

Valenzuela Beloved Session {Utah Photography}

2011-11-28T10:04:00.000-08:00

What is a Beloved Session? I am so glad you asked. Beloved Sessions are designed to show connections and relationships. This genre of photography originated with the amazingly talented Jesh de Rox. I came across an article about the meaning behind his work and was hooked. I couldn't wait to shoot a session of my own and I knew that this couple would be perfect. They are just so darn gorgeous and so in love with each other. It is a pleasure to work with them.

Beloved Sessions certainly don't have to be of a couple. I have seen some truly beautiful artwork of a parent and child as well as other relationships. It's all about showing the connections between people...I think it would be fun to do a session with a group of really close friends.

I just love how the shot above turned out. The texture of the trees is fantastic. I wanted an almost fairytale look for this one. With all of them I was looking for soft, almost dreamy quality, and a whole lotta love!

I am such a sucker for lens flare but I really try hard not to overdo it!

I only posted a few here, there are more on my facebook page, here is the link...

https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.10150347414668727.345247.111853783726&type=3

Thank you for stopping by! :)

Seven Down...Eighteen to Go!! {Utah Photography}

2011-11-21T17:17:00.000-08:00

October 2011 marked the one year anniversary of me earnestly working towards my Master Of Photography degree through Professional Photographers of America (PPA). To earn said degree you have to earn twenty-five merits, thirteen of which MUST be print merits and twelve CAN be service/education merits. It arduous, it's expensive, and it's awesome! I attended this Super Monday workshop sponsored by PPA in order to earn an education merit. It was taught by the amazingly talented Miyo Strong of Busath Studio and Gardens and was titled Weddings that Wow. It was a lot of fun. We worked mainly on lighting and as I am trying to mesh supplementary lighting into my shooting style I found it very beneficial.

Come to find out that our lovely female model is from Eden, it's a small world!

I like to take behind the scenes shots...the mob of photographers makes me giggle. I used this in a montage with one of the couple for my My World shot from that day.

This bride was renewing her vows and she had the COOLEST accessories and tattoos. I'm not showing all the details to save space but they were to die for. Awesome jewelry, awesome hairpiece, awesome dress! I love when people have a strong personal style. Know who you are and LOVE it people!!
So one year down and I have five education/service merits and two print merits. Not bad for a first year....eighteen to go!!

Personality and Then Some!! {Utah Family Photography}

2011-11-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

My poor siblings! It has to be annoying sometimes to have a photographer for a sister who is always bugging you about pictures. Luckily this time my sister-in-law Becca got the ball rolling so I feel a lot less naggy. ;) This is my sister Katie and her family, I think this (the photo above) is my favorite of their family that we took that day. I called her when Becca asked me about doing their family because I figured I could do two birds with one stone, so to speak. We had fun! I just wish my other two siblings were around. My sister Leah lives in the land down under but hopefully we will get her and her family here this summer. Photo-op!

The point of this location really is to get the colorful graffiti but I'm a sucker for black and white and I still like the patterns that the paint creates.

My nieces are too, too cute! Riley's magic word was gummies. To see her face here you wouldn't know how un-thrilled with taking pictures she was but say the word gummies and she was all smiles.

So cute!

Awwww, you two are the best!

I love this photo, looking at my nephew Davis (the little guy in the middle) makes me crack up every time. He is a character and then some, what a personality!

I had fun playing with this image in photoshop. Sometimes I just take a picture and run with it. I was playing with color and then I thought, "Hey, why not pop the color in the flower" then "I'll make the skirt match" then "What about her eyes". It's fun to do that sometimes.

Mason is such a sweetie!

This is my favorite of course, I love goofy pics. I think Davis was getting tired and done so we did a sill pic to help get a little more time out of him. I do that a lot when shooting families, it works most all of the time. If I can get the kids to feel like they have a part in what is going on they are more interested in the process and cooperate better.

....aaaaaaand scene! Well, at least until next year...ummm time. ;)

Las Vegas Nevada LDS Temple {Utah Fine Art Photography}

2011-11-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

I'm running out of temples to photograph for my monthly project that are near me so when Todd and I went to Las Vegas for Ragnar (so much fun) I was excited to photograph the temple there. The race ended, we took a picture, had a toast, then ran over to the temple (while the other van was showering).

It is a rather unusual temple, I really like the spires and I was fascinated by how interesting the back of the temple was, I think my favorite part was actually the back and of course I love the palm trees.

Trying to look for interesting angles and perspectives, here's the back of the temple from a low angle. I'm pleased with what I got and it was fun, so it's a win!

I took a few more, so if you'd like to see them (or purchase any) here's the link to my online Fine Art Boutique.

http://fineart.illuminephotography.com/lasvegastemple

Las Vegas Ragnar. Being a part of something bigger than yourself.

2011-10-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I participated in my first ever Ragnar relay race. This one happened to be the Las Vegas Ragnar and can I just say that I am completely hooked. It was honestly one of the best adventures I have ever had in my entire life and I truly don't say that lightly. I've actually thought long and hard as to why this is so because if you know me very well or have read my post about how much I love the book The Alchemist you will know that my personal treasure involves searching for adventures. I love beyond anything to travel to new places, try new things, meet new people. Well, this experience had a little bit of everything.

I was on a team from my husband's work and I was a little nervous to be around relative strangers in such close quarters and almost intimate circumstances for such an intense time. I was worried about people (and myself) getting ornery after hours upon hours of intense physical effort, not "real" food, and little sleep. I also just really wanted to do a good job for Todd so the people he works with wouldn't think his wife was way lame. :)

We met at Todd's work and caravaned down to Vegas. We did a brilliant thing in renting a house in Vegas. Not only were we all together which made things more fun but we had a place to crash while the other van was running their legs. In other words we were able to sleep, eat "real food", and have a little time out of the van. There was absolutely no crossness and we all felt pretty darn good.

Here is our pre-race safety seminar. You can see how people have some really fun costumes. I was a little bummed that we didn't have fun costumes but being the wife and a first timer I hadn't wanted to push. My delightful van mate Nichole Hardy had felt the same so we are in cahoots for fun outfits for next time. The costumes, team names, decorating of the vehicles really creates a fun festival environment. The energy was simply intoxicating, I was loving every minute of it!
It was so fun to run the race with my husband Todd. I am a musical theatre and photography person, he is a brilliant CEO type, so as far as hobbies go we don't have many that we do together, I loved the chance to share this with him. We had an absolute blast!

This is Jason Hardy, well the back of his head anyway. He definitely had the coolest Ragnar symbol use. People asked to take pictures of his head the entire time.

Isn't this the most beautiful starting locale? We are at Lake Mead, early in the morning (9:30 am start) and it was breathtaking!

Christel was our leg one. She is a delightful person, I am so grateful for the chance to get to know her. I would run with my Van again without hesitating. Incredible, fun, awesome people!!

Pausing to give Christel van support and to paint Todd's hair orange. At our safety meeting we learned that the night before Ragnar officials had been informed that there was to be no support on the first eleven exchanges, so while we could pull over we weren't allowed to cross the street. We spent a lot of time hurling water bottles at each other across the road...lol, good times!

Todd very frequently (he says I shouldn't use absolutes like ALWAYS, lol) gets injured when we go on trips of any sort, and it FREQUENTLY occurs at the beginning of said trip and he is hobbling for the remainder so I wasn't surprised when he bashed his knee and was actually relieved that 1. He had gotten it over with so now we were good and 2. It wasn't so bad so now that he had gotten it over with...we were good. Ironically after the entire race was over he realized he had twisted his ankle so he's been hobbling a bit since then (I think he just wants sympathy, shhhh, don't tell him I said that).

This was at the exchange after leg 25. Those who were there will recognize leg 25 as the brutal running through a dry rocky riverbed for six miles in the dark with no van support at all leg. Poor Christel! Everyone who came through the shoot looked like they had been through the ringer. Anyway, I knew my friend Todd was running Ragnar but I hadn't found him. Then suddenly I found him out in the freezing cold at about 4:30 am. I had to get a picture.

It felt wonderful to check off my legs. It was difficult but not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I do wish that I had pushed myself harder on my last leg. I wanted so badly to run the WHOLE thing that I was trying to reserve energy. Next time I'll do what I did my second leg. Just tell myself to not hols anything back because I can walk if I have too. Sidenote...I did end up running the WHOLE DARN THING. Yay!!!

Here's my team finishing. I'm crouched on the ground yelling "Just go around me, I want this shot."
View from behind as my team finishes. I don't know what our official time was but it was somewhere around 31 hours. There's a great festive party at the end. I love a spectacle!

Team portrait!
and the toast!

I think what made this such a great experience for me was being a part of something bigger than yourself. Everyone was so nice. You didn't just cheer for yourself, you cheered for everyone. We shared blood, sweat, tears, colored markers, water, and stories. It was beyond wonderful and I WILL be doing it again!!

Marcus and Jen's Guest Book {Utah Wedding Photography}

2011-10-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

I took Marcus and Jen's engagement photos on September 24th but I wanted to get their guest album designed and ordered before I blogged about them mainly because I love how an album tells the story of the day better than loose photographs.

Above is the cover for their album. This will be printed as a lay flat press book. Basically this means that the pages are print paper rather than photographic paper. I choose this option for guest albums because it's easier to write on. I also absolutely love lay flat books because they, well, lay flat. There is no "gutter" where the middle lands and the design extends across the entire page spread.

I also love how I can have a title on the spine of the album. If you look at the cover you will notice it has their names and the date of their wedding. I think it's a lovely touch.

They brought several clothing changes, which I love. Jen wanted the different changes to be mixed throughout the book. So while I tried to have each page contain it's own individual "story" I also wanted the pages to be different than the ones adjacent.

My biggest challenge when designing guest albums is remembering to include room for guests to actually sign. You'll notice I failed to leave room on the page above but I try to have at least one full pano every album I design. I just really love them and the lay flat album design shows them off so beautifully.

Jen wanted a "rustic-chic" look so I designed a custom page background for this album. I wanted it to be pretty neutral so that it didn't compete with the messages people wrote but to also have a very subtle texture to tie in the "rustic" aspect of their wedding without being too strong so that it still felt "chic".

They are a really fun couple and BYU fans as you can see. :)

Marcus and Jen are getting married on 11/11/11, isn't that fun? I'm so excited, I can't wait. It is going to be a lovely day.

Craig and Mikenna's Wedding Story {Album}...{Utah wedding Photography}

2011-10-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

I love, love, love designing wedding albums. I love to take the hundreds upon hundreds of images from the day and put them together...I just love stories. So here is the story of the day that Mikenna Warnes married Craig Atkinson. It was a lovely day and they are a lovely couple...enjoy!

Katie's Cake Creations

2011-10-10T07:56:00.001-07:00

My sister Katie makes the most fun, creative, and delicious cakes! I know, I get to eat them sometimes. :) Anyway, we've been bugging her for ages to promote herself more and she finally launched a separate blog just for her wonderful cakes. Here is the link

http://katies-cakecreations.blogspot.com/

Check them out and contact her if you need a cake for anything!! Here are just a few of my favorites that she has done.

Katie made this one for my Dad. He is an avid gardener and our entire family went nuts when they saw this. Sadly I missed the party but lucky for me my wonderful family sent hubby home with leftovers, and did I ever enjoy them...oh, how I love cake!

I love how real this looks and the pizza box is an awesome touch! Katie, you are so creative!

I have no idea how on earth she did this!

...or this!!

YAY KATIE!!!

The Rollo Fam' {Utah Portrait Photography}

2011-10-03T07:31:00.001-07:00

I love this family! These are my pseudo-Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. Uncle Rex grew up in Huntsville with my Dad and they have been life long friends, so we grew up with the Rollos and the Layton family. Ironically both the Rollos and Laytons are all boys which is probably why I turned out the way that I did!

Every summer we would head up to West Yellowstone to stay at the Rollo's family cabin. Oh the crazy fun we had! Chasing squirrels, water-skiing on Hebgen (freezing, glacier fed) lake. Running around Yellowstone Park like lunatics...good times!

Now that we've all grown up I hardly ever get to see them anymore. It's tragically sad. I was so thrilled when Aunt Nadine called me about taking their family pictures. I took my children with me and they think Aunt Nadine is super nice, they are right. She is the very, very best.

We used to get together every New Years Eve and hopefully it will work out that we can see them this year! You can NEVER have enough cousins!

...The San Fransisco Treat! {Utah Photography}

2011-09-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

Apologies in advance, this post is a bit long... and here we go!

I am in a play right now, Anything Goes, at Centerpoint Legacy theatre and we have the most AMAZING costumes. Here is a photo of our lovely Erma.

Isn't her jewelry fantastic? I am totally fascinated with her necklace! Our costumers obviously didn't make it from scratch so I couldn't help but wonder where on earth they found it because it must exist in real life, do people really wear jewelry like that??

Ta-dah!!

These are actually the mildest of the fun necklaces I saw in Chinatown. I was so excited to take this picture to show the girls in the dressing room. We all thought it was great fun!

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I jetted to San Fran for the weekend a couple of weeks ago. We had an absolutely wonderful time and it was extra fun being such a random, crazy trip. Our hotel was pretty much at the very top of Nob hill and to be honest I was completely freaked out by the steepness of the hill. I was physically leaning forward in the car and didn't breath easy until I was out. I wondered out loud what on earth they do when it snows, hubby pointed out that it doesn't...oh yeah, right.

I took a quick snap as I was walking across the street from my hotel...it doesn't look at all as creepily steep in this picture as it really is!

We jaunted over to Chinatown...sidenote: Chinatown in real life does NOT look at all like it does in the movies. It isn't all crazy lit up and there were no parades with a bunch of people dressed as a giant dragon. Sad...still fun though!

I was loving all the lanterns strung everywhere and I couldn't wait to come back at night to get a shot of them all lit up, sadly they don't light up. Sad...still fun though, lol!

Here is a view of the city from Telegraph hill. Bit of hike that one is, my quads were killing me.

I liked how the flag stood out against the sky and monument. Just a quick snap for fun.

I'm a sucker for boardwalks. Below is a photograph I took at Fisherman's Wharf. To my left are the sea lions, it was fun to watch them.

I loved the bustle of Pier 39. We got clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl, soooooooooo good!

Of course I couldn't visit San Fransisco without visiting the Golden Gate bridge and by visit I mean stay for hours to get as many pictures as I could.

Most of my photographs are taken from Battery Spencer. The shot above was obviously taken before it got too dark though it looks lighter thank it really was, I just used a tripod and dragged my shutter speed. I'm glad there was some fog for the shot.

I seem to have a penchant for freezing night-time shots. Luckily Todd and I were able to wait in our car until it got darker. I literally bolted to the look-out as soon as I saw the light getting where I wanted it. It was freezing and so windy. I tried to use my weight to steady my tripod. It worked pretty well.

There is a dirt rode that leads from Battery Spencer down to the beach. Darling Husband had researched it out for me (he is so fantastic) and we headed down for a thirty minute walk in the pitch black darkness. Of course he had known that so he warned me to wear good shoes and we brought flashlights. Luckily as soon as we dipped below the ridge line the wind couldn't get at us and it was a lot warmer. I was also totally creeped out. I had NO idea where we were going and I could just picture the police standing over our bodies shaking their heads and muttering about stupid tourists (I have a very vivid imagination). Then some people with a kid and fishing poles passed us and I realized we were just heading to a campground where a bunch of other people were and I felt much better.

We walked out onto the beach as close to the water as we could get and I took a bunch of pictures while Todd made sure I didn't get soaked as the tide was rising and I was not paying any attention at all to the water. Here are a couple of my favorites. I almost got doused taking the shot below. We basically had to bolt for higher ground right after taking it.

We headed over to Liberty Island that same night to get a shot of the cityscape...I am a sucker for cityscapes!
I have more of my San Fransisco bridge and cityscape shots on my online boutique. They are all available for purchase and I have included many different croppings to make things easier. Here is the link.

http://fineart.illuminephotography.com/sanfransisco

This is my My World shot that I took the morning that we left. It was pretty early as you can see and I actually think it shows the steepness of the hill and the dynamic of the city pretty well. I dragged my shutter a little and racked my lens to create the motion. Oh, we had such a great time! I hope I get to visit again soon!

Oakland CA Temple {Utah Photography}

2011-09-12T08:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my husband and I made a quick two-day trip to San Fransisco, CA. We left at about 10:30 pm Friday evening after my preview performance (kind of like a final dress rehearsal) of Anything Goes at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre in Centerville, UT. We drove straight through the night with only a one-hour pause at a surprisingly nice rest stop. Our first destination was the Oakland Temple and we arrived around 9:30 am while it was still shrouded in fog. We decided to go through a session before taking any photographs in hopes that the fog would clear. After our session the fog was indeed gone but the sun was blazeingly bright and people were EVERYWHERE. This temple has the most gorgeous landscaping! There are two long rows of palm trees that frame pathways, fountains, and a stream that lead up to the temple. It is stunning! Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot of that without people in it so although I did take pictures I haven't bothered to edit any of them.

I was fascinated by this carving on the temple.

This is my favorite picture. I like the framing of the unique spire by the palm trees. Maybe it's because I don't see palm trees often enough or maybe it's because this was my first real stop and pause view that I had of the temple. Yes, I am standing in the middle of the parking lot to take this shot...people are really nice!

Boutique Grand Opening!!! {Utah Fine Art Photography}

2011-08-25T08:11:00.001-07:00

It's finally here, I am SO excited!!

I'll get to the point first and then do backstory later. :)

Today my online Fine Art Boutique officially goes live. I will be placing all of my fine art images online as well as client images (in password protected galleries for clients) so that people can order them at their leisure. I've had so many people ask me about selling prints and I thought that this would be a wonderful solution for those, like me, who love to shop online. Of course for those who would like more personal attention and help in designing wall displays PLEASE feel free to call/email/facebook/smoke-signal me anytime. I love to help people find art for their homes because I know how much joy I get out of mine.

There are several ways to reach my boutique. One is to go straight to it.

http://fineart.illuminephotography.com

Or you can also reach it through my regular website.

http://www.illuminephotography.com

When you reach my website you will see an intro page where you can go to my boutique, blog, enter the website, or my business facebook page.

Also if you enter the code FineArt on checkout you will get 15% off of your entire purchase (yay). This code is good for two weeks (Sept. 8). As I update/add galleries I will be doing more discounts so be sure to check my facebook page often for the codes.

I have been actively working on this for an entire month and intellectually working on it for far longer so this is a thrilling day for me. Please share the link if you would to those whom you think may be interested. Also, I'm sure there will be bugs and fine-tuning to work out. I love comments, tips, and advice, so please let me know about anything that could be improved. I will be constantly updating the site with more pictures so check back often. :)

Now for the backstory.
I don't know how many of you have read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho but if you haven't I can't recommend it highly enough.

It tells the story of a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. By following his story we learn about the importance of our dreams and listening to our hearts. In the end it is the journey and struggle to reach our treasure that defines who we are as individuals even more than actually reaching our treasure.

After reading this book I sat down and took a hard look at my life. What was my treasure? I wrote everything down and through doing this realized that one aspect of my "treasure" was that I passionately want to travel. I want to see everything and photograph all I see. I want to experience everything, every culture, and meet every one. I want to always be having new adventures. When I travel my camera is never far. Through it's lens I am able to record the world as I see it. But then what? I have lots of shiny discs and facebook images... I wanted to do so much more and be able to better share my unique view of the world. So many people have asked me about prints but I really didn't have a system in place to deliver them so that always got lost in the shuffle of life. After ages and ages of trying to figure out how, this is what I came up with. If all works out the way I am hoping it will, it will be like rubbing the genie bottle and getting my wishes. So here goes...yay for new adventures!

A lovely friend. {Utah Family Photography}

2011-08-22T10:12:00.001-07:00

One of the benefits of being a photographer is the opportunity to see friends that one hasn't seen for years. Everyone needs their family photos updated and even if one lives out of state there is time during trips home to visit. Plus I love to travel (hint,hint). This is my friend Sarah and her beautiful family. Sarah was one of the wonderful people who took advantage of the special that I ran to help my sister and her family who lost pretty much everything in the flooding in Australia last January. It was a win for everyone. Sarah got a great deal, I got to see my friend and not have to charge full price (which I hate), and my sister was able to purchase a fridge which we will all agree is rather crucial to family survival. Sidenote: My sister and her family are finally back in their home along with an addition. Leah had a beautiful baby boy who sadly I haven't seen yet but hopefully will in the next year.

Sarah wanted an urban look and also to not travel too far as they were all so tired from all the visiting and travel and reunions so we chose this location in Ogden.

I loved meeting her children, they were absolutely delightful!

When I photograph families I like to take both headshots for the Moms and also let each child pick their own place to take full-length and three-quarter shots. I like to get the kids involved in the shoot so that they feel that they have some say and are a part of the process. They always seem to like picking their spot and it makes them excited for their turn. I always get more cooperation when it's "their" idea. Every once in awhile I get a challenge location chosen so if it's too nutty I still shoot in the place that they have chosen and then I say "Hey, let's just do a couple more over here." Always works!

We chose this location partly so that they could have the two different looks of the urban buildings and the green of the foliage behind the bridge. I also love the beautiful rim-lighting that I get here as the sun is going down,

I love two-year-olds, they are so much fun! It's a little challenging to get them to sit still and smile at you so I just shoot and shoot and shoot like a madwoman. Of course, when I'm editing I see all these fantastic expressions that I just love and can't possibly choose between so I love to make composites. This is a 20X20 nine image composite and it's meant to be printed as a gallery wrap. As a parent we love all the different expressions that our children have and here they are, all together. I'm working on making these up for each of my children, I just think they are so much fun!

Thank you Heiner family for the opportunity of photographing you. It was so great to see you all and I hope it won't be long until we can play together again. Loves!!

Forced to be on top of things. {Utah Fine Art Photography}

2011-08-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

I barely scraped my Temple photo project in last month so this month I repented and got it done in the first few days. I happened to be in Midvale (which is a bit of a drive for me) so I had to photograph the Oquirrh Mountain Temple while I was there. Ironically they were closed for cleaning for a few more days but I'm still happy with what I got...would have liked some clouds though.

Of course if they had been open I probably wouldn't have been able to get this shot as I am standing, with tripod, smack dab in the middle of the road. Good times!

Sidenote: I've had people ask me about ordering prints and I am happy to announce that my online boutique will be up shortly. Right now I am customizing the site and adding pictures. The learning curve to working the site has been a little steeper than I anticipated but it shouldn't be too much longer now. I'm really, really, really excited about it!

Photo Groupings {Utah Family Photography}

2011-08-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to photograph the family of a good friend of mine from high school who now lives out of state. I was telling her about ideas for photo groupings for her family pictures and as she had to go back home and was unable to come to my house to see some of mine I told her I would send her some pictures...I figured a blog post would be even better so that more people could see what I was talking about.

See how lonely and sad this family picture looks, all by itself, above my couch? Now, this isn't a small print. It's a 20X30 inch Gallery wrap and I absolutely adore it. But even though it is a large print it just doesn't look right all by itself. There is way too much empty space!

Doesn't this grouping of pictures look a lot better? The space above the couch is nicely filled with plenty of room on the sides for reading tables and lamps or whatever you would choose to put there. FYI the smaller prints are 8X10 inch gallery wraps, but of course framed prints will work equally well.

My secret for hanging prints is to cut paper into the sizes that I think I might want and then carefully tape the paper on the wall, moving the "pictures" around until I get the arrangement that I am looking for. In the grouping above I didn't have any idea of the sizes I would need until I saw how the papers looked on the wall. Another added benefit to this method is that once you have everything exactly where you want you can hammer the nails into the wall through the paper and then just pull the paper away. It works a lot better than trying to hang by eye and you have a lot less nail holes in your wall. I do this EVERY time I am working on a new wall in my home.

Another tip for hanging pictures is that they should be hung so that the middle of the picture is at the eye level of an average sized women. In the case of a grouping I would place the main center picture at eye level or in the case where you have rows put the middle row at eye level or the middle of the entire formation at eye level. It is very common for people to hang artwork too high, especially in homes with tall ceilings. Hopefully these tips can help.

I love to have art on my walls and I consider portraits of my family to be the best kind of art. I stare at them every single day and they bring me great joy. With just a little time and planning you can have beautiful groupings of family art on your walls. Much better than a few pretty 4X6's shoved in a shoebox somewhere! Good luck and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Two months in one. {Utah Photography}

2011-08-01T11:52:00.001-07:00

I am behind in posting my monthly temple photos. These two are from June and are of the Jordan River Temple. The night's hazard? Rabid swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitos the size of station wagons. Of course my DH stood calmly by completely un-bothered as I tried to take pictures while being the evenings main dish. Humph!

I think I need to take pictures of each temple both during the day and at night. The looks are completely different...maybe that's what I'll do next year.

I barely squeaked this temple in before the end of the month hit. This was literally the last day I could manage and after driving almost two hours I arrived mid-thunderstorm. Normally I wouldn't shoot in those conditions but I had driven forever {felt like} and was out of time, so I draped a chamois cloth around my camera and headed out. The rained slacked up a bit so I wasn't completely soaked and I tried to pretend that even though I could hear thunder there wasn't actually any lightning. It all ended well.

p.s. This is the Mount Timpanogos Temple and it is lovely!

We make this, look good! {Utah Family Photography}

2011-07-26T08:32:00.001-07:00

I'm starting this post with one of the last images from the photo shoot because this was the main image that we were trying to capture. A good friend of mine had purchased this fantastic dress for her daughter and wanted to tailor the shoot around having her look like a movie star in a back alley, like she was headed to the theater surrounded by her bodyguards. She even said that she wanted to have her boys have a Men in Black look. When she said that I was hooked!
I was originally planning to do this image in Salt Lake but the day before the shoot my friend called me and said that she also wanted to have her kids portraits taken at the ponds in Kaysville so in order to have the time to get both images we decided on taking the above in a little alley behind the Kaysville theater. I really like how it turned out though I would have wished for some ambient lights in the background. If that light over the doorway would have been on it might have made this perfect. The kids were so fun and so willing to try anything. As it turned out I was glad that we hadn't tried to go to Salt Lake because the little one had had it by the time we were done. We had to bribe him with frozen yogurt...it was really good! As a general rule I try to keep family sessions to an hour though sometimes more stylized sessions like this take more time. It takes a lot of energy to have your photos taken and kids especially don't need too long of a marathon session.

This was a quick grab shot as we were starting. I love casual images like this and the light was just magic. I took out a lot of flying cotton which is a bit sad because I loved the look of it but this turned out to be one of the clients favorite images and I don't think she wants white smears all over her gorgeous wall portrait.
I get many questions about what to shoot from aspiring photographers. I tell them to shoot from their heart and they tend to look at me with baffled expressions. You know those moments where you see something and your breath catches a little and your heart skips a beat? Take the shot! I don't care if it's random, or unplanned, or not what you were looking for. Those are the pictures that mean the most. And if they don't turn out? Who cares! Creativity is a muscle that needs to be developed, just like anything else.

Love the casual walking shots. I was telling them to walk in slow motion so I had more time to shoot and they started going into slow-mo walk and we were all laughing so hard and I just kept shooting. I absolutely love the image below. My cheeks hurt just looking at it and remembering how much fun we had!
Thanks guys! I can't wait for what we come up with for the next shoot!

It all started with a picture I had in my head. {Utah Photography}

2011-07-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

This picture, to be precise. Please welcome to the blog stage Anna, who not only is an amazingly talented individual but happens to be my counterpart in the show I am currently involved in. I've known Anna for a little while now and that she was involved in Guard. Last October {2010} I was doing my creative fog thing and suddenly a picture came into my head of Anna flipping a flag and having multiple flags around her head. I mentioned it to her and we set up a shoot only to have the weather completely ruin it. Remember how crazy the weather was last fall, and this winter, and this spring? Anyway, during auditions for the aforementioned show we decided to try again and this time the weather was perfect, even to the point of threatening us with rain which just meant that we had cool clouds in the background. This was perfect as I had decided to bring out my lighting equipment for this shoot. The point being to be able to use the sun as a rimlight/backlight and have enough light using my flash as key that I didn't have to blow out the sky and clouds behind her. It's a different look than what I prefer for regular portraiture in that it's a little, not sure what the term would be...harder?...more commercial? Well, I did want a less soft look and that's why I picked this location. A few of the shots are done with natural light because I always want to experiment with everything I can. That's how you learn. My brother Ben came and shot with us, here's the link to his thoughts on the day.

http://bwoodstock.blogspot.com/2011/07/shoot.html

This was obviously done with no flash. I wanted a silhouette look.

This is against the portraiture "rules" of having your subjects face turned towards the light.
I have no problem with the rules or with breaking them. The point is, you need to know the rules so that when you break them you do it on purpose, not by accident. I was going for a dramatic feel and loved the shadows having her turned away cast on her face. Did I shoot one with her turned the other way? Of course I did...but I like this one better for what I was going for. Would grandma like this one better? Probably not, and that's why I did both.

Ben had a shot he wanted where her face was in focus but everything else was movement blurred. I tried it too but ended up liking the blur better. His turned out well. How we did that was lower our ISO as low as it could go so we could use a slower shutter speed, mount our cameras on a tripod and take two exposures. One with her holding still for her face and one with the flag moving. Then in Photoshop you move the in focus face onto the blurred one and voila!

Sometimes I can't decide whether I like color or black and white better.

Natural light, didn't want to try to haul my flash into the floor-less and dilapidated old rail car.

She also brought a saber and a rifle. The girl has mad skills. I love her lines in this shot.

These two were taken within minutes of each other. Isn't it amazing how you can change looks completely just by changing camera settings? Here's my mini-lecture. LEARN HOW TO SHOOT IN MANUAL!!!!! They are both with natural light (I love how the sun is back-lighting her hair in the above shot) but the above was for what I would call regular portrait and below an almost silhouette.

This was the "oh, let's just take one more" shot. It may be my very most favorite. I love the rim light on her body. I love her lines. Love the clouds moving in. See the rain in the middle right side? Love the sun flare!

It was a fun day but we were to tired to stick around for light painting. That will have to wait for next time. Instead we ended the night with a McDonald's pineapple-mango smoothie. If you haven't tried one yet, do so. You will thank me! I also got the shot I saw in my head so successful day? Yes!

Baseball

2011-07-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

My husband decided that our son needed to start playing baseball this year. I was reticent. Not that I don't want my children to participate in sports and healthy recreational activities, I was worried about the schedule. I should mention that one should NEVER ask me about adding an activity anywhere near the end of a school year. Honestly, that last month is made for killing off parents. Plus, we had just BARELY finished soccer.

I am now entirely converted to youth baseball.

1. How darn cute is my little boy in his uniform? Love it! He wears that hat from sun-up to sun-down.

2. He loves baseball so much I can pretty much get him to do ANYTHING I want. Handy.

3. The games are just plain fun!

Picture this, in my opinion I live in one of the single most beautiful places on the planet. The games take place in the cool of the evening, the temperature is perfect and the sun is just going down and casts that beautiful, magic, golden light over everything. The boys are playing in the park where members of my family five generations ago helped plant the beautiful pine trees that circle the park. The church that they also helped build has bells that play music on the hour and hearing them never fails to bring a smile to my face. I remember playing in this park as a child while my parents played co-ed softball and those memories add pleasure to the ones I am making now as I sit with my other children as we talk and laugh and watch my son play. Friends that I haven't seen for years sit next to us and we talk about how we are all so blessed to have been able to move back to this valley that we all love so much. We catch up on each others lives and share the joy of watching our children grow up together like we did. We share the joy of cheering for every kid because there is no keeping score here and the hardest job belongs to the coach because every child wants to hit that ball so badly. You can feel a tension building as bats are swung and pitches missed until the moment when that lovely "thwack" comes and everyone lets out the breath that they didn't know they were holding. Tomorrow night is our last game and I am heartbroken. I have grown to love these evenings more than my son and I can't wait for next year!

Happy Fourth!! {Utah Photography}

2011-07-06T12:51:00.001-07:00

Ah, tradition!

The Jeppson-Wood Family Fourth Extravaganza begins, of course, on July 3rd. Over the years our festivities have changed. Not as many people sleep over at my parent's house as they have in years gone by and gone is the afternoon water-fight (some of us are getting old) but the basic structure still remains. There is still the hot dog roast accompanied by a plethora of salads (this is Utah so of course Jell-O is included). The sparkler bonanza and last, but not least, Kirk's fireworks set off in the front yard accompanied by the dancing of small children. This year my Dad worked really hard on getting the thistles out of the lawn so there were significantly less casualties.

Now the morning of the fourth dawns bright and early with people re-gathering at my parent's for breakfast and then making the trek down into Huntsville proper for the annual parade. In my humble opinion there is nothing better than a small town for celebrating the fourth of July and the Huntsville parade is the best. It is always started off by the firing of the cannon, shooting of the guns, plugging of the ears, and fly over by the jets from Hill Air Force Base.

Being a small town, people still throw candy (painfully sometimes, I totally got clobbered by a Now 'n Later), kids ride bikes, and tractors and horses abound. The traditional families offer up their floats, usually with a dash of small town humor. We all wait for the regulars and are disappointed (Clawsons, I am talking to you) when they don't deliver (you can make it up next year).

After the parade it's over to the Huntsville park for booths, games, blow-ups, cotton candy, and all around good time fun. There are people I only get to see once a year and the fourth is it. It's old home week. Love it!

We all head back to my parent's for lunch and the mid day drag time. This year the rivers are running to high to go tubing and there is absolutely no beach to play on, so we entertained ourselves by watching Tremors. Best. Movie. Ever!

Then back down to Huntsville park for the evenings festivities. Live music which we were happy to have turned over to a DJ, dancin,g and of course FIREWORKS. I LOVE small town fireworks. you know, the kind where you are pretty much directly underneath them and every so often burning embers hit trees or people, or blankets and there is a scramble to stomp them out...no one is hurt so it just adds to the thrill.

My daughter held my son's ears the entire time. What a great sister! He really did like them.

I love the mass of humanity everywhere with chairs, blankets, food, sparklers. All having a wonderful time. This year the fourth was extra, extra nice. In fact, it was perfect. Happy Birthday America!!!

Craig & Mikenna's Guest Album {Utah Wedding Photography}

2011-06-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

I found a new product to play with. This is a lay-flat press album that I am now using for Wedding Guest Books. I love that they, well, lay flat for easier signing and that I can have photographs extend across the entire page. It is also a press book which means that it is printed on special press paper instead of actual photographic paper. It is a different look but the paper is easier for guests to write on which is kind of the point of a guest album. I also love that I can design a custom photo cover. It costs more but I think it is definitely worth it. I love to have photographs on the cover rather than the whole thing being a solid color. I also love that I can place the "title" on the spine so that it can be seen easily on a shelf. I am actually going to use these albums for my own family albums....NEW PROJECT!!! :)

I love designing albums! The hardest part was leaving empty space for the guests to sign.

Niagara Falls {Utah Fine Art Photography}

2011-06-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

You know that scene in one of the Superman movies where the kid is goofing on the railing and falls into Niagara Falls and Superman has to save him? I couldn't find it. Walked up and down and up and down the falls looking and finally came to the conclusion that they must have filmed it somewhere else entirely. I was a trifle out of sorts. Then someone pointed out that I was on the Canadian side and maybe that was filmed on the American side. Ohhhh!!!

I still want to watch that part of the movie again.

Here are a few of my favorites from my Niagara Falls stay. The Panoramas were shot from my hotel room through a window. I took them on a whim for my My World project and then was pleasantly surprised by how they turned out. Perhaps they are only special because they are a happy memory of mine {I spent hours chilling by my window and watching the falls}, but I'll take it.

At night they shine colored lights on the Falls that slowly change into different light patterns. Apparently the week after we left they were scheduled to start firework shows every night. I'm a teeny bit sad to have missed that.

This is what I woke up to every morning. Made it impossible to sleep in, so beautiful!

A few detail shots. Our hotel room was decorated with black and white shots like these. I absolutely loved them so I went and created some that had emotional meaning for me. Now I just have to decide where I want to put them in my house.

Every sunny afternoon brought a rainbow. I love this shot!

Here are a few of the night shots. Y'all know I'm a sucker for night shots!

Farewell beloved Falls...hopefully some day our paths shall cross again.

Trip Pictures...Smith Farm/Sacred Grove/Hill Cummorah/Toronto

2011-06-20T14:55:00.001-07:00

I am fully cognizant of the fact that one's precious trip pictures may be boring to every one else in the world so I am trying to post just a few of my most favorites. All the pictures except the Toronto skyline were taken on May 7, 2011...we were busy that day.

Starting with a few shots of the historic Smith farm.

Above is the original log cabin, below the frame house that they lost due to the mortgage note on the land "suddenly coming due".

A few shots of the Sacred Grove. It is a lovely place.

Christus in the visitor's center at the Hill Cummorah.

This photograph of the Toronto skyline was taken from an island, ironically named Toronto Island. We took a ferry over, scouted out a spot, and then sat there for about two hours {well, I sat there, Husband wandered around} freezing and waiting for the right moment. I took a LOT of pictures {122...I just counted} because I didn't know when would be the best time. Did I want just before sunset, just after, a little after that, full dark? When would the sky be prettiest? Ddn't I want some blue in the sky rather than complete black? When will the lights show the best? Oooh, now I'm getting a great reflection. A lot of work for one shot...but I think I'm happy with it.

Palmyra Temple {Utah Fine Art Photography}

2011-06-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

I traveled to Canada with my husband the second/third week of May. We stayed just across the border on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. We had a wonderful time. Our first full day there we took advantage of the fact that we were so close to some LDS church history sites. Here are a few pictures of the Palmyra, New York Temple.

I finally got some pictures with tulips.

This is a picture of the temple taken from the Smith farm. I would love to see this later in the season with all the trees green...I wonder what it looks like in the fall?!

Bountiful Temple {Utah Fine Art Photography}

2011-06-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

I wanted to photograph the Bountiful Temple for April. I love this temple, it's the one I was married in, and I would LOVE a huge picture of it for my wall. I also wanted the tulips that are so gorgeous there. I kept waiting...and waiting...and waiting. No tulips. I was afraid I would run out of month so this is what I got. I'll have to try again next year. :)

Memory Mates {Utah Family Photography}

2011-06-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

Ta-dah! My first Memory Mate! I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with memory mates. I love getting pictures of my cute kids with their little soccer teams etc. but usually the photos are well, let's just say they leave a bit to be desired. So I was a little apprehensive when a friend of mine asked me to photograph his music school but it turned out to be a great experience. There were about twenty-five kids so it wasn't too crazy and they were all such fun to work with. I loved all their little personalities and the parents were great too. I wish I could post the pre-school group. It's my favorite because all their little characters shine through and every time I look at it I can't help but laugh. However, in the interest of privacy I'm just posting the oldest group who dubbed themselves the "Soy Boys" I have no idea what that means but they were a blast!
Hope I get to do this again next year! :)

'Tis the Season

2011-05-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Every year my beloved Valley plays host to the annual Ogden Marathon. Every year the time is heralded by the putting up of enormous lines of port-a-potties. Every year it makes me laugh, so of course one of my My World shots had to celebrate this grand event. Whenever I look at this I sing (to the tune of Never Ending Story), "Endless port-a-potties...la la la, la la la, la la la...".
...You need to hear it in person.

I decided to run the half this year with my Dad, brother Jake, and sister-in-law Becca. I also had to take a camera with me (my phone) to take pictures because hey, I'm me. Here we are all anxiously awaiting the start. Stretchin' and all that good stuff. It was very festive. Band playing, people cheering, cow bells ringing (why cowbells??). Sidenote: even with the plethora of port-a-facilities, the lines were still huge. Funny.

And here we go. Took minutes just to actually get to the start line.

Three years ago I started running so that I could run down Ogden Canyon (registered historic scenic byway) in the sparkly morning light. Training went well so I ran the full, unfortunately I was too late for the morning light and it was very, very sad. Last year I didn't register in time. Pointer to those who may EVER want to run this race: It sells out in about, oh, a DAY! So this year I registered early, ran the half, and enjoyed every minute of the magical, glorious Valley morning. It was breathtaking. There's the story as to why the pic below was this day's My World shot.

Yes, I was a dork and stopped right before the finish line for another shot. Lol, it was fun. :)

Team Wood. Dad, me, Becca, and Jake. Then it was off to Jeremiah's for breakfast with all the fam' that were kind enough to come cheer us on. Mmmmm, cinnerscone dippers...

Final race time for me: two hours, two minutes, fifty-four seconds. I'm disappointed because I wanted to run it in under two hours...Todd says that people who want to make a certain time shouldn't be stopping multiple times during said race to take photographs...he may have a point.

Salt Lake City Temple (Utah Fine Art Photography)

2011-05-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile I have an image that I work on, obsess about, and fret over...for months.
One of my photography goals for this year was to photograph a different LDS temple every month. For March I decided to photograph the Salt Lake temple mainly because I happened to be scouting locations for an upcoming shoot in SLC and figured I would do the "two birds with one stone" thing. Also, gas is expensive. So March 3, 2011 found me with camera in hand staring up at the temple, trying to think of a way to present it in a different and unique way. That. Is. A. Hard. Thing. To. Do. Here is what I came up with.

The photograph above is the reflection of the temple in the reflecting pool. I'm a sucker for reflections, especially at night.

Below is the picture that I've been working on for almost three months. I decided to turn it into a painting. First I took clouds from another picture of well, clouds, and layered them into the sky so that I would have texture to work with and not just a boring mess of blue. I upped the saturation for fun and took it into a program called painter where I applied all the brush strokes by hand with my fantastic Wacom tablet and pen (which I could NOT survive without). Yes, it takes forever but thanks to Hulu I am well entertained and only have to worry about eyestrain and carpal tunnel. I finished and posted it around April 14th but was not happy with it. It kept nagging at me and I would open it up, stare at it, get disgusted and frustrated and close it down.

The sky is just plain boring. I've always loved van Gogh's Starry Night so I decided to try to emulate it a bit ... isn't it so moving?

It took me forever to get up the nerve. Finally I was with my husband on a business trip and I was at the office where he was working. I was trying to watch webinars on Studio Management Software and was so bored I was actually falling asleep so I decided to bite the bullet and try to fix the sky. This is what I came up with and I like it a lot better.

After I came home from my trip I pulled this picture out again and tried painting in stars and the amazing swirls of Starry Night but it just made a mess, so I've decided that I AM NOW DONE with this month and need to get to work pretty darn quick because I am so terribly far behind that it isn't even funny. Ah well, some thing you just shouldn't rush!

International Print Competition Images (Utah Photography)

2011-04-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

I realized that it has been a while since my last blog post. I have been conquering grim tasks. First was the annual filing of my business property taxes which always leaves me depressed and tempted to quit pro photography and become a shoot and burner so that I wouldn't have to slog through a year of paperwork. The next was entering the International Print Competition which I probably shouldn't describe as grim, just plain scary. I am a CPP (certified professional photographer) but I would also like to get my Master of Photography degree. To do this I need 25 merits. Twelve are service/education merits and thirteen need to be print merits. Getting a print merit is brutal hard and one of the few ways to get one is by entering this competition. If you score high enough you get a merit and it ain't easy. I spent weeks staring at these pictures and tweaking then retweaking, then retweaking again to the point where I can't even look at them any more. I wasn't going to post them but in the interest of facing my insecurities I decided to do it anyway. Yay me.

Above is a picture I took of Green Pond trail here in the Valley. The colors were unbelievably beautiful that day. I changed the photograph into a painting using Painter and my Wacom tablet and pen. Every stroke is done by hand not a filter. Yes, it does take awhile. You are judged on the finished product so usually some sort of edge treatment is done.

This is a picture of my son when he was twenty days old. I turned this picture into a painting as well.

The N.Y.C. skyline. I love this picture but it is so darn long that I have no idea what to do with it. I am still trying to figure out how to have it printed. So far it looks like my best bet is to break it up into five or six panels, either gallery or float wraps, to fill the entire wall in my den. I was nervous to enter it for the competition but I saw a picture that had done well reviously that was of the Grand Canyon. It was long and narrow like this one and they also had left the photo with no edging. I decided to just take the plunge because whatever I entered needed to stir me in some way and I couldn't worry to much about what everyone else might think. So I went with my heart and I'm glad though as I look at it I'm not sure if I wouldn't change the crop a little...like I said, I just can't hardly look at them any more.

Below is my favorite wedding picture that I've ever taken. I just love it.

I believe the judging is in June and I paid to have a video review of my images. I wonder how long it will take me to get the nerve to listen to that. I'm not expecting anything, especially since this is my first competition but I'm glad I entered. The only way to accomplish anything is to try, right?

Superheroes and a Whole Lot o' Color

2011-03-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

I started out this past weekend totally bummed because the weather messed up a shoot on Friday that I was over the moon excited for and it looked like Saturday was going to be iffy as well. I woke up Saturday and headed for Spanish Fork hoping for the best and was rewarded for my optimism by a smiling universe that proceeded to grant me a truly spectacular day.

First stop the Utah Festival of Colors. I have been wanting to go to this for ages but have never made it before. It is absolutely delightful. My friend Josh and I made it for the 1 p.m. color throwing. I decided to stay up on the balcony because I wanted a shot from above of the colors being thrown in the air. I only took my little point and shoot camera. This year was for scouting, I'll probably take my back-up DSLR next year. If you haven't been you need to go. It is so much fun!
p.s. wear old clothes :)

Josh's head was a total chalk magnet. People loved throwing color at him, it was hysterical.
As we were walking back to the car we kept getting the funniest looks, it took a bit to realize everyone was staring at his head.

Next up was the ProvoCreative Superhero shoot. It was cloudy and cold but oh so fun. Here are just a couple of my favorite shots from the day.

I love hangin' out with fellow photogs. It's so fun to have days like this where you just shoot to play and get the creative juices flowing.

By the time I got home I was so exhausted I could barely move but it was that fantastic good kind of tired. Such a great day!! :)

December 2010's Project

2011-03-22T08:59:00.001-07:00

Okay so I know this is March but my photo project for December 2010 was to take still and video of my families Christmas Eve traditions and create a short film. As this involved trying to learn a video editing program it has taken me awhile. So here's the link to the short, it's my very first so please keep that in mind. Loves! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULntJNbt364

p.s. Thanks to my brother Benjamin Wood for filming the video.

The Froerer Family (Utah Family Photography)

2011-03-01T13:15:00.000-08:00

I am SO excited about this session! I love pictures in the snow but find it strangely hard to talk people into doing them, so sad. Luckily my friend Jamie wanted to take her families pictures in the snow so it was a perfect match! We were thinking about doing colorful scarves and hats (which I would still love to do hint hint lovely friends) but I love the colors they chose. We've actually been watching the weather since last fall, literally! We wanted fresh snow and that's harder to coordinate than you might think. So last week when it stormed we threw this session together and I love how it turned out!

This is actually the last photo I took but it represents a triumph for me so I'm starting with it. Yes, there is a little photoshop magic going on but I'm not tellin' what exactly. :) They were all such troopers. By now they are freezing, especially the youngest. I love hand holding to show connection between family members but it's also awfully handy when your little girl is about to cry because her hands are so cold. I'm so sorry sweetheart, you did great!

I love when kids look like themselves in pictures. I absolutely love how she is standing because it's so "her". As soon as she stood like this I was like "DON'T MOVE, you're perfect!" and then I had to happy dance when I saw the shot.

I love this picture because he's in this awesome perfect kid hut place that we found. You can't see as well from the picture but it is the perfect boy spot, heck I wanted to crawl in there and start building a fort. It was just the perfect spot for him. I know they'll most likely pick a different shot for the wall portrait but I had to post this one 'cause it makes me happy.

Hahaha, I probably don't have to explain this one. I've known these kids for ages and they are a riot, I wanted to do a shot of them just being themselves and having fun.

SO cute, look at you two. I'm not sure I've ever been able to get Nick smiling this much, I had to make them laugh and shoot fast. Happy, happy, happy!

And now the greatest triumph shot. There are not words for how much I love this picture. This is my third time photographing this family but I've done the children twice more and I've never been able to get this little cutie to smile like this. She's cold, and tired, and so done but she was patient enough to give me just a couple more shots and it's the best I've ever taken of her. Her Mom and I were both so excited I can't wait for Jamie to see these, I'm over the moon!

I love my job!

FLASH! (Utah Photography)

2011-02-28T10:53:00.001-08:00

I love to take classes and workshops to improve/add dimension to my photography. I recently took a clash on incorporating flash into your work. It was a lot of fun and I left feeling pretty confident in my knowledge but realizing that I have to practice more with making flash fit into my style. I like flash for dramatic, fashion, and commercial type images but have struggled with bringing it into my portrait work. I really love the softer look of natural light for families, engagements etc. I'm starting to realize that keeping the two looks separate may be just fine.

This is a just for fun shot, my instructor was letting me test settings on him. I include it to illustrate a point to myself. I told myself to learn to use flash less dramatically on this day yet as soon as I started shooting I went full drama.

Here's what I was trying to do. I am using flash here but you can hardly tell, right? Please say yes. :) Sometimes you find yourself in deep shade and a touch of fill flash cleans things up nicely and can add some warmth. This image makes me happy.

Here we were playing with backlighting. We were supposed to do a silhouette, which I did, but then I wanted to show her face. It's a little mucky because I had to pull a lot out of my camera to work with the available light but I like how the flash illuminated the dust in the air. I want to play with that outside. You know in a movie when the dust motes are lit up and it's all golden and warm and sparkly? I love that look.

Another where I'm trying to use flash but tone down the drama. I'm pleased, especially since this shot is done in a dark studio with just one speedlight and a small umbrella. I can't remember if I had someone holding a reflector, I rather think not, there wasn't time.

All in all I had fun, got the creative juices flowing, and got myself a nice little shot of confidence. Now to play!

Draper Utah Temple (Utah Photography)

2011-02-16T18:24:00.001-08:00

For February's project I visited the Draper Utah temple on the way home from a lighting workshop. I think I may want to re-shoot all of my winter temples when the landscapes are a little more aesthetically pleasing. As it was most of my pictures from this day were either boring or had an annoying maintenance contraption in them, grrr. So I'm going with this shot. It isn't your typical temple shot but then I reminded myself that the point of an artistic self-project is total creative freedom and I felt better. I love the sunburst, the near silhouette, and the glint off the angel Moroni.

Chuck Gilmore Press Kit (Utah Photography)

2011-02-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to work with the amazingly talented Chuck Gilmore. I met Chuck while appearing in Evita at Rodgers Memorial Theatre. Chuck is an actor, singer, and vocal coach and he needed press kit pictures for his website http://www.singutah.com and blog http://singamazingly.com.

I like to do at least one horizontal headshot because the verticals are so common that the horizontals tend to stand out. Plus I have found that some social media site avatars can be weird sizes so sometimes a horizontal is easier to fit.

I usually have an aversion to random stuff in the background of headshots, especially if they are used for theater programs but I just really liked this one and since these are for press kit as well I'm hoping he can use it.

We wanted an edgy, urban like feel for this shoot. I'm hoping he will be pleased with how they turned out! :)

Utah Statesman (Utah Photography)

2011-02-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

This is my brother Ben who is a brilliant writer and currently the Editor in Chief of USU's paper, the Utah Statesman. Ben was nice enough to let me come shoot him in action as he and his cohorts got the Friday issue put together...they stay up late!

I wanted an old-time cluttery feel to the images so I went for black and white. Black and white just feels classic newsroomy to me, yes I realize that newsroomy isn't a word. I tried adding film grain in post but it just looked stupid to me so I'm a little cross that I didn't boost my ISO more but at the same time I hate digital noise which is just one of the reasons I shoot with a tripod. I need to start looking for a good grain plug-in.

This above is Matt, organizer of all things crowd related at the Spectrum. If you haven't ever seen a game there you, my friend, are missing out!

One of my favorites. :)

There are more pics on facebook, I'll try to post the link tomorrow.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1856092687952&set=a.1509086173006.69930.1409890915#!/album.php?aid=266458&id=111853783726

Holy smokes that's a long link!

...and scene.

Thanks Ben and Co. for letting me hang around, it was a blast.

I love a good story.

Logan Temple (Utah Photography)

2011-02-06T16:05:00.001-08:00

For January's temple project I photographed the Logan, Utah temple. I'm not particularly pleased on how it turned out. I don't feel like I was particularly creative with this shot. I also wanted snow and it's rather strange to not have much snow in Logan during January. I also need to get a tilt-shift lens if I am going to be shooting architecture from a low angle. Oh well, we shoot and learn! :)

Gangrene Film Festival (Utah Event Photography)

2011-01-31T13:52:00.001-08:00

September 3, 2010 found me giddy with joy because I got to combine my love of music, photography, film, and a great party all in one gig. I was lucky enough to get hired to photograph the 2010 Gangrene festival featuring Mini Kiss. It was a fantastic night!

For more images of the festival please check out my business facebook profile. :)

My World

2011-01-31T13:23:00.001-08:00

I've started another photo project that I am calling My World. It started with a particularly brutal day, January 10th. Just one of those days where you feel like you are being pummeled for no particular reason. I tried all the standard cheer-myself-up methods but to no avail. I even called my sister in Australia for a chat only to find that she was being evacuated in the terrible flooding that ended up destroying her home...not a good moment. Someone who I admire told me that they use writing as a way to work through things. I've tried doing that but it doesn't work very well for me. I feel self-conscious about who may read what I say and what they might think, so I wall off. I was thinking about this that night when I realized that I prefer to communicate through images because that's really how I think. There are always pictures in my head. So I decided to try to communicate my world, my thoughts, my emotions, through photographs. There are stories behind every one of them. So far it's been a wonderful experience and a lot of help...I figure it's a whole heck of a lot cheaper than therapy. :)

Website redo, update, new look...whatever you want to call it. :) (Utah Photography)

2011-01-19T06:39:00.000-08:00

I recently updated my website. It definitely felt like one of the Herculean tasks only easier on my shoes than cleaning the Augean stables.

Here is the link
http://www.illuminephotoart.com

If anyone has time to check it out and give me feedback (any kind) I would be eternally grateful.

This is the favicon I made all by myself. I'd never even heard of a favicon before. It's the little icon that show up in the address bar of your web browser. For some reason I'm most proud of myself for figuring that out. All. By. Myself. Lol

When I get my courage back up I'll do something about the blog so it can match! :)

Go AGGIES!! (Utah Photographer)

2011-01-10T05:04:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time I went to Utah State University and one of my favorite things about USU was basketball in the Spectrum, nothing compares! Luckily for me my brilliant brother Benjamin is editor-in-chief of the Utah Statesman and was able to get us both onto the floor to shoot a game. Definitely a bucket list moment for me.
This game was on December 23, 2010 during Christmas break which is why the stands aren't completely packed. This was the final of the Gossner Foods Invitational which of course the Aggies won.

A few things had changed. When I was in school the Frat section (and therefore main cheering section) was bottom right of the student side. Now the loudest, perhaps you might say most obnoxious (if you are the other team), section is under the basket to the right of the student section. I wasn't supposed to cheer or show any affiliation but they were absolutely hysterical and I laughed the entire game.

Big Blue!! Can you have a crush on a Mascot?? :)

Tip-off!
My favorite pic of the game. Coach is not thrilled that they had a technical foul called on them. A little showboating (read hanging on the rim) after a slam dunk.

Yes, that guy is dressed like a Christmas tree, yes his outfit glowed AND blinked, and yes, the crowd is singing Oh, Christmas Tree. Good times!!

Always fun to get a little under the basket action shot.

I have NO idea why he is looking at me like that, it was a tad disconcerting, lol.

MVP player for the night and the one my brother says about trampled me, I was busy ducking so I didn't see.
Crowd doing the Winning Team, Losing Team chant. That was a new one for me, fun though.

And to top the night off they won the game and the Invitational.

So this was basically my first foray into sports photography. I need to practice more! I spent the night messing with my settings and talking to myself. Do I want a faster shutter speed or smaller aperture? Shallower depth of field or deeper. Continuous or Single autofocus? Should I try to focus on the player or pre-focus and wait for the action? Why can't I get the white balance I want? Should I bump the ISO? But what about the noise...it was so much fun. The next sport event I'm dying to shoot? A Real soccer game. Don't know how I am going to manage that one but I am determined to keep trying.

I got hit by a ball, trampled {sort of} by a player, and got to sing the ol' fight song again.
Perfect, perfect night!

Alex and Christopher's Couple Pre-Session (Utah Wedding Photography)

2011-01-04T06:30:00.000-08:00

A wonderful Photographer friend of mine, Meghan Derico of Derico Photography, told me about this photography location. In fact she did more than that. She gave me the contact info and sent me a link so that I could see a session that she had shot there and get a feel for what was availiable. Thanks Meghan, you went above and beyond and I am very, very grateful! I believe photographers should share and help each other and she certainly is a perfect example.

When I heard that there was a castle location I knew it would be perfect for Alex and as it turns out they built a HUGE castle for their Reception so it turned out even more perfectly than I first imagined. She wanted a Vintage look to go with her incredible dress and I couldn't be happier with how the pictures turned out...a little magic. :)

This above is my favorite shot of the entire day, I call it the "magic" shot. I just really love it.

This image was kind of an experiment, I saw it in my head and wondered if I could make it work.
Any thoughts?

Movie scene shot, establishing locale, lol.

My second favorite shot though when I saw it blown up to a 16X20 and beautifully framed I had a hard time choosing between it and my first favorite.
Sidenote: we (Christopher) went and got an armful of the pretty yellow leaves to place around because the ones already there were all shriveled. Not cheating!

Hero shot of the bouquet Karissa (Alex's friend) did such an amazing job on.

This is my favorite shot of Alex, I added textures to enhance the Vintage look. I really like how it turned out.
I always love to play with lens flare and I love the connection between Alex and Christopher and the back of Alex's dress. Love, love, LOVE this dress!!
Alex was freezing and her dress wasn't the easiest to move in but she was such a trooper and Christopher is one of the nicest guys in the universe. Thank you both so so much for my best session to date. Love you both!!!

November's Project (Utah Photography)

2010-12-16T13:57:00.001-08:00

As I've mentioned before I assign myself a monthly photo project. Actually for 2011 I'm going to be doing something a little different. I'm going to try photographing a different temple every month. I'm not sure exactly how that will work, I imagine that some of the farther away temples may have pictures taken that are less than ideal because I'll have to work with whatever conditions I find, but I'm still excited. This is something that I have been thinking about for several years. My beloved Aunt Carol asked me to think about taking a picture of the Salt Lake Temple because she didn't really like any of the pictures available. This got me looking around and I realized that I too didn't really like any of the pictures I came across. Oh, there are plenty of gorgeous shots but for some reason none "feel" right to me. I hope that doesn't come across as rude, I don't mean it to, I'm just not framing a huge picture for my wall unless it speaks to my heart. Anyway, I decided to start a little early with the Ogden Temple because it will shortly be under construction and I wanted to get a picture of it before it is changed. I'm a little not happy about the whole remodel idea. I understand the reasoning but this is how the Temple has looked my entire life and it's good enough for me.

I figured I should grab a shot of the Tabernacle while I was there. I'm a sucker for berries in snow.

I took this during those few days we had snow before the warm spell melted it all. It was gone the next day. I rather think I lucked out though the skies are bland, that's the main reason I messed with the added textures.

I'm excited and nervous for December's project. I'm hoping to make my first foray into photo fusion. I really, really, really, want it to work out. Those I've talked to recently know where I'm headed and how important it is to me. I've been surprised at the potshots I've taken in the last few months. They almost made me quit, actually I did for about two days. Then I remembered how things that are important and worth the most are darn hard and I snapped out of it. Now I feel like I'm figuratively gritting my teeth and plowing forward. We'll see what happens...I feel like I'm watching the movie of my life and I'm impatient to see what the next scenes bring.

Can't..look...at...these...pix..any...more........... (Travel Photography)

2010-12-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some pix from the trip I took to New York in October. I consider it a personal travesty that I haven't posted them yet but in my defense I've been feverishly filling Christmas orders and these panoramas have been giving me fits!

These are panos of N.Y.C. shot from Liberty Island. The shorter are 10"X50" and consist of nine images stitched together. The longer is 10"X60". When I first worked on these I measured my horizons from the buildings and they were straight but the waterline wasn't. I didn't think it looked that bad until I saw it on my friend Josh's gigantic monitor, AWFUL!! I spent a couple of days panicking because I knew that in order to make the waterline straight the buildings would be crooked so I was scared to even open the files again. I straightened the waterline and tried to ignore the buildings, tested it on the unsuspecting public (my family) and they didn't notice anything. Still bugged. Worked with the images with the lens distortion tool in Pshop and that helped a bit but it's still off. Conclusion: 1. Panos aren't ever going to be perfect (grrr) and 2. I'm just tired of staring at this picture so this will have to do. =)

If anyone has any opinions on which they like best I'd love to hear. I seriously have lost all ability to judge, lol.

I'm only doing one post for the whole week so I tried really, REALLY, hard to edit to my most favoritest images.

Columbus Circle, one of my favorite places in N.Y.C. and my favorite metro stop. I love coming out under the big silver globe. I did this in sepia to accent the lines of the buildings. I like how they loom and curve.

Love street fairs and bright colors and sparkly things.

Haha, just had to. The Naked Cowboy wasn't there on my first trip. Had to snap a pic (or two or three). Haha!!

Fantastic "street performers". I think they were actually from some sort of church group. Love, love, LOVED listening/watching them. I had a terrible time picking out my favorite image. I'm down on the ground with my huge camera and he totally hammed it up for me. SO fun!

I'm on a billboard on Times Square with my honey!!! =)

There aren't words for how much I love the Metro system.

I was walking down the streets of SoHo in the rain and of course singing Werewolves of London when I saw this shot that I just thought was cool and realized that as the song was Werewolves of LONDON it must be talking about a different SoHo, oh well.

So they have parades in N.Y.C. for Colombus day, who knew? Some people from Denmark were standing next to us and asked us if we celebrate Columbus day like this and we were like "Ummm no, we don't even get out of school".
Anyway, there was a parade AND Bagpipers ( I WILL learn to play the bagpipes someday) AND, wait for it, CONFETTI!!! Oh, was I so bouncing up and down while Todd laughed at me!!

Had to take pictures of this random Cafe under a bridge.

I saw a picture like this in one of my photography magazines and have been wanting to shoot this ever since. This is Grand Central Station and I'm up on the balcony, dead center, with my camera propped up on my hands which are propped on the railing and I'm not breathing at all beacause I wanted a long exposure to blur people. It was a total fluke that I caught that camera flash from the Gentleman on the floor, it's my favorite part. I couldn't decide color or no color, any thoughts??

LOVED Coney Island. Of course I had to get an original Nathan's Hotdog, y'all know my thing for iconic food, and while I was there I tried their frog legs, because I've never had them before so I had to! =)

We had the greatest skies while we were in New York. It was always on the verge of raining, or sprinkling, and one night boy oh boy did it ever pour down, so I had great clouds to work with.

As you can see I'm under the pier, just another of the pictures in my head.

Love Lady Liberty, that's all.

These shots are in the Visitors Center on Ellis Island. It's hard to describe how much that place moved me. I'm very visual so to me the greatest treasures were the pictures of the immigrants in their Native dress that were taken as they came to this country to begin a new life. I felt a connection to them, these people from so long ago. I just sat and stared at their eyes and wondered how their lives turned out, how they felt about being in this strange new land, what incredible courage they must have had. It made me want to be stronger and less afraid of taking risks in my own life.
The room below is The Great Hall where Immigrants waited for their interviews with legal inspectors after finishing their medical exams. If they were lucky the entire process through Ellis Island took three to five hours. I wanted to emphasize the size of the room because I imagined that it had to have been pretty intimidating to be there as an immigrant so I'm once again laying flat on the floor...I spent a lot of time in N.Y.C. doing that.

I just really love the Brooklyn Bridge, probably because Todd loves documentaries so I've learned all kinds of crazy fun stories about its construction. This time I ate that day so I didn't feel like I was dying walking across it and was able to savor it more.

We had the most amazing sunsets while we there. This was one of those stop and stare, oh wait I need a pic, go back to stopping and staring. Definitely a "savor the perfect moment" moment.

Another pano I played with. the exposure is longer so it looks lighter than it really was. I messed a bit with trying to fix the perspective but it just made things weird so I'm going for "artistic" here.

One of my favorite spots in Brooklyn is the Brooklyn Bridge Park. It's this tiny park with the most incredible views of the skyline.

Playing with zooming my lens during my exposure to create something different. I like the ghost skyline in the one above and I think this is my favorite pic of Times Square that I've taken. I have struggled and struggled to get a picture of Times Square that "feels" right and I just can't seem to manage it. This one comes pretty darn close for me.

Four of my favorite buildings in New York, also wanted to try my hand at making my own postcard.

Last but not least, Imagine in Strawberry Fields. Love the song, love the place, love the city. thank you kind reader for making it to the end of this post. Loves!!! xoxox

Alex is getting MARRIED!!!!!!! (Park City Engagement Photography)

2010-11-21T18:22:00.001-08:00

This is my incredibly wonderful and beautiful cousin Alex and my soon to be cousin Christopher. I adore them oh so much! They were kind enough to let me take their Engagement pictures a couple of weeks ago and we had so much fun. Alex wanted an urban feel and while my husband and I were in Park City for a fun weekend get-a-way he suggested we shoot there. I loved the idea, Alex loved the idea and voila, there we were. We ended up shooting for a little over five hours. I don't normally shoot that long for an Engagement session but I wanted to play with some night pictures and they were game so... =)

We wanted an urban look but a little more classy sophisticate than grungy. I love how the shots turned out. These are just a few of my favorites and they are mostly the "play" ones that I like to do for myself, luckily Alex and Christopher like the play shots too!

Love the shadow, love the shoes!

Love the colors!

When he pulled out the hat I started bouncing and squealing like a little girl... I really did.

I love all the colors in Park City, this blue building was a must shoot. Add a light post and a gorgeous couple and...magic!

Shooting through bars. It's artistic. ;D

I was sad to turn this to sepia because I loved the red of the balls but it just looks better. I especially love the way the sepia accents the texture in the balls. Makes it more of a graphic element and less distracting.

I heart the whole series of the shots by this window but I had to pick (I hate picking sometimes).

So cute!

I love the Park City Trolley so I was fully prepared to beg, bribe, cajole, and wheedle in order to take pictures on it. No need! The driver was THE nicest guy ever and everyone else seemed to love just being a part of the fun day. People were so nice to us the whole shoot. I was thrilled at what we got on the Trolley and it was something I'd never done before which y'all know I'm a HUGE fan of.

I love this little moment.

Hahaha, my Aunt has two stores in Park City so we just had to take some pictures in one of them. They're mannequins, I love this shot! Christopher fits in well with my family!

My husband liked the car in this shot.

This shot is my FAVORITE!!! It's the picture that I had in my head for this shoot. Yes we are literally in the middle of the road. I think I'm lying in the road. We would literally scamper back and forth. Good times!!

Manamana!
Love, love, love, the glowy red balls. We had to come back here after the lights came on.

This wonderful art gallery owned invited us to come in and shoot on his fun couch. We're going for major attitude in these shots. So fun! So glad my beloved cousin is marrying such an awesome guy. He is the best and game for anything. We have had such a great time taking pictures. Thanks Alex and Christopher, love you both!!

I need to mention that the name of the gallery is Silver Queen Fine Art and their website is www.SilverQueenFineArt.com. The owner is Timm Hilty and he is awesome!

Oh, the humanity!! (Utah Family Photography)

2010-11-21T10:06:00.000-08:00

The irony of my life is that when I have lots to blog about I have absolutely no time and when I have plenty of free time for blogging I have nothing to talk about...sigh. Right now the former would be the case so here I am finally posting my own family pictures that I took on October 17th out at Saltair. I was going for an edgy grunge look with the black and white attire and graffiti walls. I just want to point out here that I am so very sympathetic to how excruciatingly painful it can be to have family pictures taken. My family is just like every other, and believe me, I am not above threats and bribery. Lol, luckily I had my parents come along to help wrangle the heathens and push the shutter button. I'm now good for a year, well, maybe two. =)

This was the picture I had in my head when I decided on this location and I love everyone in it... except for me. But, oh well, I'm being the self-sacrificing mother and using this for the parental Christmas gifts. I do love everything else about it. My family is the cutest! =)

This is probably my favorite though the two stripeys were NOT supposed to be next to each other...family pictures are uber frazzling.

I love, love, love this photo of my children. Four of the stubbornest mules in existence but I love 'em for it (when I don't want to kill them, lol).

Not a huge fan of this shot but the setting is cool. My kids wanted to take pictures here SO badly and so we did, all a part of the bribery for good behavior. Mostly I look at it and want to move Todd and I to the right. I don't like it enough to go to all of that hassle in PShop so it's just gonna have to stay the way it is.
I love the composition of this shot with the repeating framing. Just thought the lines were cool. SO wish I could just switch my two boys so that the stripeys aren't next to each other. That's the kind of thing that drives me crazy. I knew I didn't want them together but you get there and there's tension, and whining, and grumbling, and that's not even counting the kids!! Haha ;D

Me and my fabulous husband!! I need to drum up my photog pals to do a couple shoot of the two of us, doing it yourself is just too hard. I love my boy! Here we are just a couple days back from him taking me to New York for the best birthday ever!

This is my oldest daughter. She'll turn thirteen in just a couple of weeks and she is almost as tall as I am. My literal words when I first saw this picture..."Oh, crap!"

This is my second daughter and she is a spitfire and then some! Tomorrow she defends her title as the Spelling Bee champ at her Elementary. She won it last year as a fourth grader beating out her older sister who ended up taking fouth place. yeah, that was a fun week at our house. The girls were actually great to each other but one was naturally upset that she got out and the other was upset that she got her sister out, Oy Vey! SO tomorrow I will be a nervous wreck waiting to hear the outcome, I'm already feeling sick about it. We've done the whole spill of "Spelling Bee's are a lot about luck" and "We are proud of you no matter what" but I know my daughter.

Here is my sunshine boy. The happiest, friendliest, most outgoing kid you will ever meet. Of course he has his horrifying termagant moments but apparently only for his parents. Good times!

And my baby. This is the only single shot I got of him not crying, he was ready for his fruit snacks. Quick anecdote. This last Monday was his fourth birthday but Todd and I were both going to be gone so we told him his birthday was Sunday. We made a big deal, did the whole cake and presents party, threatened his siblings with death if they ratted us out (his brother had to be "reminded" of that), even enlisted the Primary Presidency in the scam. Of course the next day on his actual birthday I went to wake him up with a big Happy Birthday and then realized I had to pretend all day that it WASN'T his birthday...I had to laugh.

So why am I juggling? Well, you know how New Year's resolutions are usually pretty lame like losing weight and all that? I decided I wanted to do something fun. Ages ago my Grandmother made all of the grandkids juggle balls out of balloons and sprouted wheat, no really, after awhile mine actually started to grow. Anyway, my cousin Tony got phenomenally good and I've always been a little envious. This year for New Year's I decided to juggle every day as best as I could. And I have. Sadly I'm still not all that great but I can, at least, juggle. I think I'll give it one more year and then it's on to the bagpipes! Sidenote: My mommy made me these juggle balls for my birthday and on my birthday I juggled with them on Times Square. So fun! They are silver and black with sparkly sequins. I love my Mommy!!

I heart this picture. I love the lines of the window above and the silhouettes. I just love it. Well, this is us, thank so much for taking the time to meet my family. Loves!! xoxox

I really should be working on other things. :S

2010-10-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

I have so much work to do, but all work and no play, well, YOU know.
I played hooky and went light painting with some fantastic photographer friends out at Saltair last night. We had SO much fun. Light painting is a blast. Several of them had brought steel wool. You attach it to a chain, light it on fire, swing it around and PRESTO, fun pics!! I'm such a pyro, you'd better believe I was in there a swingin'. Here are just a few of my favorite pics. I can't wait for the next adventure!!

My awesome friend David came to help me again. He's my best light paining buddy. We laugh!

This cropped is now my new Facebook profile pic. It makes me happy...I actually did do yoga yesterday, lol.

At least I'm not as sad as I used to be.

2010-10-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Don't panic, this post title is the name of a song by my current band obsession, Fun!! Such a great name. "Where are you going?" "Oh, to Fun". "You're having fun?" "Yes, with Fun."
I'm a dork but it all makes me laugh.

Steel Train opened the night. The lead for Steel Train is a member of Fun so he was doing double duty. This shot is from their song It's fun to dance. It is and it was!!

I also like the crowd in these shots. I had as much fun watching the crowd as the bands, well maybe not QUITE as much, but I'm weird like that.

I love the color, light, and positioning in this one. It looks a lot better on my larger screen, oh well. See cute girl on the right. Her name is Emily and my brother is in love with her. She does have skills.
Another that I loved the light on the crowd. Awesome show and the crowd energy was fantastic. I moved from the top balcony to the side, then down to the floor. Had to be in the mix, loved it!
...and scene! This was the last activity in my best birthday week ever. I'll be posting the NYC pix as soon as I get caught up in editing...it may take awhile..good times!!

My Perfect Session

2010-10-06T07:59:00.000-07:00

Fair warning, I am going to briefly mention religion. =)

Last Saturday (Oct. 2, 2010) I had the opportunity of going to the Saturday morning session of LDS General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. This was my first time attending General Conference live and it was an incredible experience. Getting there was a bit intense. I live in a Valley a little over an hour North of Salt Lake. My Dad picked my daughter and I up at 7:30 and as it was we barely made it to our seats for the 9:30 cut-off when they start giving your places away. Parking was crazy and though we were lucky enough to have a pass it was the actual getting there that took all the time. Herds of people everywhere!!! Luckily we're a pretty mild crowd though navigating the screaming protester (the rest were nicely polite) was a trifle off-putting. We made it to our seats just in the nick of time which was a bit sad because I was really wanting to wander a bit and savor the ambience. It's just this thing I do. Long story short, Conference was brilliant beyond words. I went with a heavy heart and came away with desperately needed answers, comfort, and hope that the particular trials that I've been dealing with for the past two plus years (August 14, 2008 to be exact) will soon be at an end.

After Conference I had lunch with my family. I adore my family. My Parents were there as well as my Grandparents, Brother, Daughter, Aunt and a lovely couple from Belgium who were staying with my Aunt. My Dad enjoyed speaking French with them, he isn't able to speak French very often around here. On the way home I was completely and utterly exhausted and was very worried that I wouldn't be able to do the upcoming family session justice. It takes a lot of energy to be perky. =) I made it home to complete and utter chaos. I rather expected this. It seems whenever I have an amazing spiritaul day I get pummeled even harder. I threw eveything in the car told myself everything was going to be fine and rushed over to my clients house. I was four minutes late. =(

This is the Warnes family. Bishop Warnes is my, well, Bishop lol. I believe this is the fourth time I have had the wonderful opportunity of taking their family pictures. They are an amazingly fantastic family and I love them all dearly. Our session couldn't have gone better. Fall hasn't been it's usual self here in the Valley but somehow the colors came through. The gentlemen needed to leave for the Priesthood session of General Conference so we took all the pictures that they were needed for first and they were able to go. I hope they didn't miss very much. Everything just went perfectly. Lisa told me that they had been praying for me and I definitely felt it. I told her what had happened at Conference ... I don't often cry at the end of photo shoots...

Anyway, it was a lovely day. I went home again to chaos but everything worked out and right now I'm just holding on to the knowledge that everything is going to work out. I get to go to N.Y.C. in three days, celebrate my birthday, see Wicked again, take a ton of pictures, and make a fresh start in my life.

Much thanks to all who have been so wonderful and given so much help to me over the past couple of years. I truly love you all.

Yes I'm editing pictures on a Saturday night...

2010-09-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, the leaves are changing color, the air is getting crisper, and I spend many a late night/early morning with my best friend the computer. In all fairness I have had a great weekend. My DH took me to the Zermatt Resort in Midway for a little overnight get-a-way. Fall is both of our favorite times of year and we had a wonderful time rambling through the mountains and strolling the bustling metropolis of Park City, Utah. BUT, I have SO much work to do. So here goes.

September's photo project was a Trash-The-Dress shoot. I've been wanting to do one for ages but it's hard to mess with someone's dress so when I found one for $20 at Ross I was super-jazzed. I got help from the beautiful Kenzi Andersen who has been kind enough to let me photograph her for her Senior pictures. She is great to work with so I knew she would be perfect for this shoot. I think this is the fourth time we've worked together. Thanks Kenzi!!

I knew I needed help with hair and make-up and was delighted to get the chance to work with the brilliantly talented Aspen McKenna of Aspen McKenna Make Up Artistry. She is AMAZING!!
I can't forget to mention my Mom. I had an idea for a shot with a really long veil and though I was stalwart enough to brave the horrifying environs of the local fabric store *theatrical shudder*, she was kind enough to assist me in making my vision come true by helping to make the veil. By help I mean she actually made it while I watched and marveled, my Mom is the best!!

Ironically enough the dress sisn't end up trashed. In fact, it's cleaner now then when I bought it. I rinsed it out when we finished thinking the lake water would leave gross residue but I could probably dye it and use it again. Nope, perfectly clean, go figure. Quick dash of Febreeze to get it to stop smelling like dead fish and we're good! I'm not sure what to do with it now. Perhaps I will use it repeatedly and it can be a joke. Where in the world is the bionic non-trashed dress now? Good times!! =)

A funny thing happened on the way to the Salt Flats, and at the Salt Falts, and on the way home from the Salt Flats.

2010-09-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

As all of you who are kind enough to read my blog know, I love adventures, the more random the better. Saturday September 18th found me leaving my house at 1:30 p.m. to meet up with the ProvoCreative Models/Photographers group for a shoot out on the Salt Flats. I have never shot or even been out there so I was extremely excited. We met at the Valley Fair Mall, hopped into each others cars for carpooling and headed out. A good ways out one of our vehicles started billowing smoke so we all came to a stop on the side of the freeway and we were shortly joined by a Sherrif who informed us that we needed to get off the road a.s.a.p. I should add that we had RV's pulling trailers, models in costumes, all sorts of fun stuff. I'm sure we made an interesting sight.

Someone was kind enough to stay with Pete while he waited for a towtruck and he instructed us to keep going for safety and the fact that we had other people waiting for us at the gas station by the Salt Flats exit. Yes, ironically the man in charge who knew what was going on and had everyone's numbers was the one in vehicular distress.

We met up with the group and headed out to the actual flats but were told we couldn't shoot there as there was racing going on the next day and apparently we would be in their way...okay. We settled for a fun spot and proceeded to have a blast shooting. There were photographers and models everywhere as well as about every prop in the whole world that you could imagine. Chairs, couches, balloons, motorcycle, family dressed as circus performers, a mini gas station set, you name it. Unfortunately where we were the ground wasn't as hard packed as the regluar flats and a car got stuck. Another car (the one I rode in) went to the rescue and it got stuck. Finally to get them out we had to deflate the tires but no problem, there's a gas station with air at the exit, right?? Nope. No air.

So that's how I ended up in Wendover and home at 1 a.m.

It was a great night, I got some fun shots, and had the opportunity to meet more amazingly talented people. =)

Sidenote: I also got to be a Vegas Showgirl this week, but that's another story... :D

The Swain Family

2010-09-14T16:55:00.000-07:00

I love this family. Every fall the temperature changes, the leaves turn colors, and I get to photograph the Swain Family. I love my job. These are dear friends of mine from when my family used to live in Kaysville. I feel so blessed that I get to see them at least once a year. It's so fun to catch up as well as watch their children grow. Funny thing is, it never seems like a whole year when I see them again, maybe just a couple of months. Thank you so, so much for letting me be a part of your lives!

I love pictures of kids just playing and doing their own thing.

He's doing a bird call, I wish I could remember what bird. I do remember that we talked about owls so maybe that's the one. =)

This shot is a tradition. They have pictures like this from everywhere they've traveled together, ones I've taken, and I'm sure many more!

ProvoCreative Trash The Dress Shoot or My Legs Are Still On Fire From The Idiot Mosquitos From That Night

2010-08-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

I recently joined the ProvoCreative Models/Photographers Group. They hold monthly get-togethers where they hold different themed shoots each month. This month's theme was Trash the Dress and as I'm doing one of my own in a couple of weeks I was especially interested in attending this one. So this past Tuesday evening found me diving two hours South to Lindon (thank you Scottie for your oh-so-handy GPS navigation feature). I had a wonderful night and met lots of brilliantly talented people who I truly hope will become great friends.

This is the lovely Kari Gillen. I absolutely love her eyes. Shoots like this I get to just PLAY with the images and I had fun!! =)

These two are Sean Hunter and Lora Lee. They were a blast to work with. They just played and played while we shot away, made our jobs easy!

It was hard to pick which individual of Sean to post so I resorted to the extremely sophisticated, the last one was black and white so choose the color one, method. Here I'm breaking rules ON PURPOSE. I feel so liberated, lol! Usually it's a bit of a no-no to shoot full into the sun but I wanted to. Have you ever noticed what that does to people's eyes?? I think it's cool, plus I wanted the shadows from his hair on his face.

Hi Heather, this is Zac, now that you've met will you please get VERY close and personal in the water while dozens of photographers take pictures of you?? Yes? Great! Good Times!!!

Zac Thomas and Heather Morley. Zac is actually a photographer who knew we needed more men and so was kind enough to lend his stunning visage for the shoot. Such a great guy!! What I've seen of his work is stellar, I hope he makes it to the September workshop.

Last shots of the night. I know they're basically the same but I'm struggling to choose between them, any thoughst would be most welcome!! Sidenote: I was curious, so I timed how long it took to photoshop out all of the bugs in the last shot...six minutes!

Yay for face masks and hand sanitizer!

2010-08-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

I love where I live, seriously, isn't this a pretty location?!

These shots are from a recent session that was lovely except for the fact that I was sicker than I have been since seventh grade. We're talking comatose in bed for three days and those who know me know I never do that. I am so grateful for my lovely subjects who were patient with me. We got some wonderful shots.

I love cuddly pictures and the one below, her eyes are just, wow!

Repost (with permission) of a great article about the cost of Professional Photography.

2010-08-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?
This article has been very well received by the photography community, and is published in the December 2009 edition of Professional Photographer Magazine.

In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home "photo printers," we hear this all the time: How do professional (or personal) photographers charge $X for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drugstore? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they're paying for time and expertise.

The average one-hour portrait session

First, let's look at the actual work involved:

Travel to the session
Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
Shoot the photos
Travel from the session
Load images onto a computer
Back up the files on an external drive
2 - 4 hours of Adobe® Photoshop® time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs. Proof photos are also ordered.
2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment, and ship.
Possibly meet clients at the studio to review photos and place order. Meeting and travel time average 2 hours.

You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a personal photographer charging a $200 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them $200 per hour.

The eight-hour wedding

A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it’s not uncommon to end up with 1,000 - 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges $4,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them $500 an hour!

(Don’t forget that the photographer runs the wedding day to some extent. A comfortable, confident wedding photographer can make a wedding day go more smoothly.)

The expertise and cost of doing business

Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though a DSLR now costs under $1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don’t forget backdrops, props, rent, utilities, insurance, etc!

In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.

The chain store photo studio

Chain stores do have their place. For a very cheap price you can run in, shoot some quick photos, and be done with it. But you get what you pay for.

Consider the time and effort that a personal photographer puts into photographs, compared to a chain store. Store sessions last just a few minutes, while a personal photographer takes the time to get to know the people, makes them comfortable, makes them laugh. If a baby is crying at a chain store, they often don’t have the time (or the patience) to wait because everyone is in a hurry.

The truth is that many chain store studios lose money. In fact, Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios in 2007 because of the financial drain. What the chain stores bank on is a client coming in for quick, cheap photos…and while there, spending $200 on other items. They are there to get you in the door.

The real deal

Professional, personal photographers are just that—professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.

Maybe we need to help clients look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs $1.50 at the drugstore. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.

The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs, created by a Personal Photographer are so expensive.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Shawn, Pamela and Gavin Richter - cofphoto@aol.com

Our website - Caught on Film Photography

Our photography fourm - Learning Digital Photography Together

August 2010 Photo Project or ARGH, THE HUMANITY!!!

2010-08-03T22:21:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time . . . okay so it was May 13, 2010. I took a really fun lighting workshop from the brilliant AND talented Ryan Christiansen. The very next Monday I ordered a plethora of new lighting toys, hoping to have them in time for some upcoming photo shoots and projects. Cue the hideous backorder. I hate backorders, they're just mean. Here's a shiny new toy, PHYSCH, can't have it, neener neener neener. Lol =). So I finally get the call that all my stuff is in, YAY, as I'm standing in the airport waiting to board a plane to N.Y.C. Nope, not EVEN going to complain about that. Well technically it was Boston, but ANYWAY. . . time passes, I get my stuff, I have stacks of manuals to slog through. I even spend every free moment during my recent jaunt to my beloved Shakespeare Festival (HeLLOOOO Mr. Darcy) reading up on the last two (sorry Mom, Dad, and Leah). I spend ages setting everything up (my bedroom looked like a cross between a movie set and a war zone) when I discover to my horror that I have a 1/4 inch synch chord instead of a 1/8 inch. ARGH!!! THE HUMANITY!!! ...Barbara Manatee, Manatee, Manatee. You are the one for me, one for me, one for me. Lol, inside family joke. =)
Finally the hideous error was rectified and I got to play with all my toys today. Two-and-a-half months later. Haha good times, I had fun.

I couldn't choose between these two, and I'm tired and really shouldn't be up still so ta-dah, both!

The goggles make me giggle, just had to. =)

Sidenote: I just got a new phone, it's the new HTC EVO 4G and oh, how I love it! I haven't allowed myself to read my phone manual until I finished all my lighting manuals (sorry everyone who got multiple hang ups from me because I didn't realize that I was calling you) so now I get to read it. Huzzah!
p.s. I named my phone Scottie, and if you know me you'll know why! lol ;)

Adventures or July 2010 Photo Project

2010-08-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting top do light painting for ages, in fact I believe I mentioned it in a prior post, but life got in the way and I put it off. I had a couple mention an idea they wanted to try for their engagements so I realized I had better hurry up and figure this out. I knew the basics but watched a few YouTube clips to get a better idea of what to do, bought about $35 worth of various sized flashlights, enlisted the help of a fantastic friend and went to play. Sidenote: It's a lot harder than it looks to get what you want, I need a lot more practice, AND it's a blast. We had so much fun!

So here for the first time I am actually in one of my own projects. I wasn't going to be but David made me play and I'm so glad he did. This is my friend David Johnson by the way, he's amazing, VERY patient, and game for anything.

This shot reminds me of the Dr. Seuss poem "Too Many Daves". It would be fun to shoot this again but with 23 Davids like in the poem. Maybe I'll start calling him Zanzibar Buck Buck McFate . . . lol, it could be amusing. Sidenote: I like the tree.

In this one I was playing with firing my off camera strobe at David from the front and also from behind. I like the edge light it created and the shadows on the grass from his feet. Love the pose, we were seriously laughing so very hard. Do you see me? No? That's 'cause I'm dressed like a Ninja Assasin . . . smoke puff . . . gone.

This may be my favorite shot. I did the same thing with my strobe as in the last pic. Fired it in front and then from low and behind. Then when he recovered from being blinded he swirled the red and I did the white. It was pure luck that the swirls framed him the way they did . . . no wait, it was totally on purpose . . . yeah. I can't decide if I like the tree branches in the shot or not, I do think that the texture is interesting.

We used a 30 second exposure and my aperture was set at f5.6. I'm afraid I've caught the light painting bug. It really was so much fun and now that I've sort of got the hang of it I can't wait to see what else I can do! =)

Sidenote and private joke: It was SOOO worth it, I a- n-- a w----!!