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…

Virginia, your Heaven’s opened, unleashing winter for our stay.  Bitter Cold, and yet,  I still adore you…and already miss your comforting ways.  Truly, there is beauty in every season…Warmest Holiday Wishes. May you find beauty and peace in all your seasons throughout the year.

A sincere thank you to all of you who have allowed me to capture you and your loved ones through my lens this year…allowed me to create…and, most of all, to let me see a small bit of your hearts, lives…and world.  Graciously, I Thank you…thank you…thank you.

NOW for those of you who have asked…here is the Short list for who’s work I SWOON OVER…(add about 30 others and it might be complete)

First off, I must add, there are specific reason’s for why I swoon. To be simple and to the point, these are people that I believe have it ALL TOGETHER! They know their cameras and use the technical aspects of photography as ONE tool to help them create beautiful works of art. They seem to be incredibly passionate about what they do. They tell stories through their median of creating, rather than just shoot a “technically nice photo”.   However, they also seem to me to be utilizing their photoshop skills, their studio props, their lighting in many different situations…and they are doing it SO RIGHT…SO MUCH OF THE TIME!

The list today includes…

Jennifer Skog…For her Mood and Romanticity

http://www.skogasinvogue.com/

Kimberly Bee…for her creativity without loosing clarity

http://www.kimberlybee.com/blog/

Red Leaf Studios…for their insanely amazing use of natural light and artistic flair

http://www.redleafblog.com/

Jasmine Star…for her courage to be herself and bring this into her amazing ability to run her business

http://www.jasminestarblog.com/

Carrie Sandoval…for her truly fabulous way of capturing newborns in natural light and then creating each piece into a work of art

http://capturedbycarrie.com/blog/

Molly Hilton…for her realness in capturing newborns just the way they come…

http://mollyhiltonbaby.com/blog/

Kelly Ryden…again, for her amazing talent to capture little ones with natural light

http://kelleyryden.com/blog/

Jose Villa…just plain amazing at capturing human life and emotion

http://josevillablog.com/

Jessica Claire..for speaking her mind and standing up for what she believes

http://www.jessicaclaire.net/

Brianna Graham…for being one of the first to do the “highly saturated”…fabulous “crisp softness”…(even though her daily blog has stopped)

And the list continues. There are so many fabulous photographers around the world….and these are just a few that I have found that have consistently used ALL their tools to create, what I would consider, masterpieces.

Unfortunately for me, I haven’t found that any of them live even remotely close to where I live….and they are all extremely expensive (and rightly so).  Also, my list grows daily…I find people that I love all the time. And, I’m sure that the very best photographers don’t even have a blog up, and quite possibly, don’t even have a business.

Just a few images featured on the Utah Bride Blog. If you haven’t heard about this neat idea blog yet, go take a look. They spelled my name wrong…but I still love them!  Seriously, the ideas on here are awesome and the blog is very classy…. enjoy. http://www.utahbrideblog.com/