As the last of the setting sun went behind the peaks here in our “little mountain home”….I thought to myself…JUST ONE, Boys…PLEASE. Mom’s been SO GOOD today. I even broke down and bought you a milkshake. I baked for your classes…went to your schools…helped out in your classrooms…cleaned your dishes and did your laundry. Let’s get…JUST ONE SHOT…of the two of your wiggly worms together.

AND…just for fun….a different processed one for their bedroom!

AND…I almost forgot. Brant and Jordann’s wedding was FEATURED on the Utah Bride Blog. Check it out…

Check back tomorrow to see more of my two fast movin bundles of cuteness…..

Its belated…then again, everything seems to be in my life right now. However, I wanted to make a shoutout to love. Its BEAUTIFUL…truly.

YOU two are beautiful…your love is so fun, unique only to you, and contagious! Enjoy your images, and your full gallery moments away…

The first look…how I LOVE when couples see eachother before the ceremony. The sweet emotions I can capture are timeless. My most favorite image of Ben and I on our wedding day is a black and white of me fixing his tie while he’s looking down at me. There are people all around us, its in the middle of the formal shots, and we are stealing a moment. Its not completely passionate, not posed…just us…being us…loving together, learning together, and starting our life as friends, lovers, companions…just being. Its part of what pushes me to shoot this way, to capture the “unplanned” moments as well. I find they are the ones that make the “blog posts” more often than the posed formal shots.  

You tell me…did the “reverend” in the background add to the image or take away from it. Only the two of you will ever know the answer…

I have to admitt, I do love a little “tint” to my black and whites. I try to give them both ways…but I seem to fancy a hint of brown. Maybe its the “rustic elegant” side of me. Regardless, I adore this shot. Yes, I say adore alot. I know…I’m working on it.

AND, for “funsies”…just a bit of a different edit. I love giving different edits of the same image to brides and then letting them choose which they love the most. Loving the romantic feeling of these…

I get asked “technical” questions through emails alot. I’m going to try to post some “broad” answers to some of these questions in each of my posts. SO, starting now, all these images were taken with my Mark II, 50 mm 1.4 lens. ISO was at 100 (lots of nice clouds) in Midway that day…with an ap anywhere from 1.8 to 6.3. Some of these shots had off camera flash fired from camera right dialed up to about a +2 just to give directional light and a little fill flash. All were shot in RAW.  My shutter was anywhere from 100-400 depending on the moving clouds and how low my aperture was to help achieve the bokeh in the background. I concetrate on holding very still and usually hold my camera. However, I do use a tripod for the large formal shots.  Ofcourse, for the moving shots of them seeing eachother for the first time, I kept my shutter speed higher and let my aperture fall a bit.  I take these further back and then crop in when needed.  Because it was about 3pm, with just a small amount of clouds, I was able to keep my iso at 100 without the use of too much OCF and was able to get nice directional lighting without too much flash effort. I sought out shady areas and kept them just at the edge of the shade so I wouldn’t need to worry too much if the clouds decided to part and let in more light. I really like shady spots with deeper shade in the background for these type of shots, capturing the emotion ,without posing too much, I like to keep people at the edge of my shade so that the deeper shade pops them out of the image. I do very minimal photoshopping to the background because of this.  I hope that helps a bit. I know its basic, and not specific, but it might help point those who have been asking questions lately in the right direction. I adore soft natural light and will use it over flash (and then compensate in CS4 with the proper tools) for crispness and sharpness whenever possible. Its just what I prefer, but doesn’t mean it is the absolute only way to do it. I see many wedding photographers that never turn off their flash, and I like their images very much. This is just the way I do it because of my understanding of photoshop and because I really don’t like to wait for my flash to recycle…I usually miss alot more of the “touchy feely” moments when I’ve done it this way. There you have it….please email me with questions and let me know if this helped.

AND, just as I say I prefer to use natural lighting, I’ll show some of the off camera flash done in these amazing ice sculptures after the ceremony. It was dark…it was cold…it was very very slippery, but these beauties were so unique to this amazing venue that we had to steal away from the reception for just a bit. I edited these in a variety of ways, but I thought the black and white and “subdued” tones were fun together.

AND…what would a wedding post be without a few “candids” from the nights events. I always shoot till the “party ends” and this party went till the very end. If any of you have ever worked with Laughing Gravy, you know how insanely amazing he is at getting the party moving. Here’s proof of just how good he is…making grown men do THIS. I laughed so hard when these came up on the screen. You boys were troopers…TROOPERS! GO YMCA!

ALSO…I am in love with, and have always been in love with Pottery Barn. There’s something about the relaxed beauty of their rooms, fabrics, furniture…etc, that has always been so appealing to me. Regardless, if you ever want some inspiration on how to use your pictures (new and old) to really define you and make an amazing wall gallery, thumb threw their catalogue or website. Its just fabulous for any stage of life.

I ADORE “lifestyle” shoots!  For those that might not know what this is, its a shoot where a family (or couple) interacts with one another, in their home, doing something they enjoy together…etc etc. Most of the time, you’re still dressed to “go together”, everyone is in their “nice clothing, its just more interactive. These sessions are much less “posed” and are truly meant to capture interactions and life together.  They’re meant to help you reflect, remember and treasure moments. My home has both types of portraiture…the traditional “posed” images, as well as many “lifestyle” portraits where my children are interacting with one another. I must admitt, the ones I look at the most are the ladder. There is something about these images that invokes emotion, an older sister smiling down at her baby sister, two boys belly laughing together, something so deep and special. I also feel that lifestyle portraiture is harder to achieve, to capture correctly. As a photographer, you have to be ready at all times in these shoots…constantly metering differently, posing differently…etc. These shoots resemble how I often try to go about capturing weddings…AND, you usually have to be patient, letting the time play out the way it will…instead of forcing it.  Even though I try to get both types of images at my shoots, my goal this year is to capture more of these moments.

Because of this, I will be offering two different types of sessions this year. The first will be the ‘original’ session where there is a session fee, a print credit, and then you order the professional prints through me at the professioanl printing company I use. The second type will be a “digital collection” where you receive all your proofed and edited images on a cd to have and use as you’d like. If you’re interested in either session, you can find the pricing for each on this website under investments.

AND now, I’ll leave you with a few sweet images from a recent session. This fabulous family is leaving “the valley” where we live. They are headed to warmer weather, but really wanted to capture the essence of this amazing place before they left. We took backroads till we found the spot, and found a fabulous “high point” where they could look over the valley that they loved one last time before they leave. I’m so excited about all your adventures to come and thank you for letting me capture these for your sweet family before you left.  Life truly is good…..

Adore these! CANNOT wait to proof all of them…I had the fabulous opportunity to meet with 5 amazing ladies today.  The ever fabulous group of inspiring young ladies at “Poor Man’s Wife” came by for a little session. They have just started selling hair accessories for weddings and have a new blog up JUST for that!  HOWEVER, as always, these gems are good for any occassion. My little lady now has two and hasn’t taken them off all day.  I will be using them as studio props starting in March when my studio is completely finished.  They are very reasonbly priced for brides on a budget. They’ll be at the Provo Bridal Fair in February, so come visit, see their amazingness and enjoy the images. (PS. I’ll be sharing a booth with them, so come take a look at my sample albums as well. If you decide to book your wedding with me that day, I’ll give you your engagement session for free….doesn’t get much better than that.

Soft…little, lovely amounts of perfect light and goodness for todays post. Once I started playing by “his rules”, T-man’s shoot went much smoother. Thanks for sharing your little personality with me, little man.

 Its Official….this wedding was AMAZING! They had it all…the bride and groom were beautiful, the guest’s knew how to party (even the reverened), the details were FABULOUS, the weather was GREAT, the venue was PERFECT, the Vendors were AWESOME….and it all went off without a hitch.

More about this FUN couple to come.  For now, enjoy a peak at their details…they really were breathtaking!

Some of the FABULOUS Vendors Included:

Zermatt Resort and Spa

Laughing Gravy

 Midway Country Corner

He’s All Mine…there’s no giving him back! Truly, I love him…even when I want to give him back. My little Gray. I have come to believe we named him this to remind him that he can be “even” sometimes. There’s no middle ground with him. He’s either mad mad mad…or crazy happy. As I was proofing these little snaps I took of him while we were waiting for Coles’ cross country skiing to start today, he came down the stairs crying. He walked in to my office and instantly started laughing when he saw his little face up on the screen. THUS begins my new years goal. I don’t take pictures of my kiddos often…not snaps like this anyway. I have grown accustomed to not getting my camera out to document my own life, and this makes me sad. These little ones of mine are growing insanely fast! SO…this year, you’ll see more snaps of my own flesh and blood on here. These aren’t perfect, not staged…just on our drive up to the hills.

On a side note, I love this location for shooting. My first shoot at this very spot was 4 years ago. I was trying to find a spot for my own family portraits and I happened upon this while taking my kiddos to school. Since then, I”ve seen it on a good many peoples blogs. No worries, I’ll share…its not mine for the taking. It is a fabulously amazing  spot when the sun begins to dip behind the hills….and the weather doesn’t look like this!  ITS SO COLD UP HERE…..Anyway, enjoy my little man. NOW, I must go snuggle with him for a wee minute before he closes those tired eyes…

Truly….he was such a little man. At 6 weeks, I thought we might have some struggles with getting him nice and sleepy. He didn’t want to much to do with sleep at first, but in the end, it won him over. Even though they aren’t as “bendable” at this age, if you can get them sleepy, newborn shots are still just as priceless….

SO…after alot of this cuteness,

we finally got to move on in close for a little of  this…

A bit of a different angle and softenss to this one…I’m digging it.

Truly Stunning…Miss N. I cannot wait to photograph your wedding…the venue is breathaking (Zermott Resort in Midway Utah), their family is so great, she’s beautiful…and they let me tag along to see their venue before I ever shot the wedding…bonus! Whenever possible, I feel its so important to view your venue before the actual day. Anyway, your family was amazing. This beauty and her equally beautiful sister and Mom followed me out into the cold to take her bridals. I’m so gald you did….they turned out  beautiful. Its fitting, that such a natural beauty would have her bridals out in nature….(even if that nature was high noon and 5 below!) Enjoy your peak girls….

First off, something is up with my email. It seems I’m not getting AOL addresses. Forgive me if I haven’t answered your email….I promise it is because I haven’t gotten it.  As of now, I don’t know what is wrong. If you could contact me through my “CONTACT” button at the top, email will go through for sure. So very sorry for any inconvenience…

Do you ever have those moments in life that stand still? To me, that is what photography is all about. I often get lost in the “technical” pursuit and business aspect of it all and forget that what we truly are capturing are someones moments for THEM. For every one moment we capture through our lens, there are thousands of small moments that it has the potential to represent to our clients. Be it a newborn that has just entered this world, a family that is finally all together to celebrate, children discovering, or a couple stealing a moment to themselves on their wedding day, it is all about moments.

Lately, I have been wrapped up in defining my style…me me me. Am I a Nikon or Canon girl? Will I have a highly processed look or stay more true to what comes out of my lens? Will I have deep rich tones and more moody images….or will they be bright and lively.  I am beginning to realize that many don’t care what we shoot, be in Canon, nikon…etc. They don’t care so much that we bounce our flashes, use OFC…difusers…wescott softboxes…SB’s…natural light…reflectors…studio…outdoors…CS4…lightroom…etc….etc….etc.  They just want to look back and have their images relfect them. Ofcourse, as photographers, we must think about all these technicalities…all the time.  Why?… because it is our art, and we know that without the tools, we cannot sufficiently create for our clients.  However, as my dear husband said…”its about using what you have and truly pushing yourself to know those tools perfectly before moving on. There is no magic tool out there that will define us…it comes with time, practice…and hours and hours…AND HOURS of extremely hard work. My eyes will go bad from staring at a computer screen before I am done with my pursuit. I know it…BUT, the MOMENTS we capture for others will live on. They become a large part of how memories are seen…felt…and remembered for generations to come.

And Now…Up Next…