Bridal
Whitney Lewis has decided that Provo is indeed one of the best temples for wedding photography. And the verdict remains true for the Tahitian Noni Gardens ("Morinda Gardens")- still one of my favorites. I was introduced to the gardens back in June for Abbey and Taylor's formal shoot, and I was concerned that this mid-November shoot might look dreary and dead. But low and behold, IT IS STILL FALL! The photo gods smiled upon us.
This wedding had a special place in my heart because it brought me back home, to Austin TX. I enjoy living other places, but I think Austin will always feel like home. Yes... I was the overly-excited freshman at BYU who had a TX flag in my dorm room. I also loved working with Jenn and Jared because they were amazing! Willing to do or try anything (including standing in the middle of So Congress Ave downtown around rush hour). The cars were honking and cheering... it was quite an experience.
These guys were so cute together. You just have to see their faces to know how happy they are to be together.
See Jenn and Jared's full gallery here.
You might remember Brittany and Scott from the post where I shared possibly the greatest way to meet/marry someone EVER. As it turns out, Scott brought along his "modeling clothes" so we could properly document them for posterity. Blue's a good color for him, right?
Both Brittany and Scott looked great in their formal clothes, and we had an amazing time tromping around Aspen Grove above Sundance. All my clients have different reactions to what I suggest, and I'm always psyched when I say "Hey maybe we could go over there- I think it would be an amazing shot, but we might get the dress a little dirty or it might be a little awkward to walk over there, what do you think?" and they immediately say "SURE!" and start moving on into the underbrush. We got pretty far off-road, but really found some amazing locations.
I really loved the scrollwork and beading Brittany had on her dress. Both simple and elegant.
Check out more of their galleries here.
I just had the pleasure of photographing Janet and Adam's wedding, and now that he's seen her in her dress, all of you can! She looks gorgeous, doesn't she?
Taken at the International Peace Gardens in Salt Lake City.
You can see her full gallery here.
We shot these formals at Thanksgiving Point. It's such a beautiful location, and best of all? We rent a golf cart every time we go to get from one place to another. It's great! (Realistically though, to get to all the good parts a golf cart is VERY useful- the place is huge, especially when one of the party is wearing a big white dress and heels)
There are just so many gorgeous flowers and arches!
Some of my favorite photos are when we're able to get that beautiful light on the background in all the trees and greenery. It gives such a happy, loving feeling to the photo.
Check out the entire album here.
I'm originally from Austin, Texas, which I once thought to be a fairly big city. I live now in Lehi, Utah, which is definitely NOT a big city. Neither location really educated me on what "bad traffic" can really mean. I was actually pretty naive when it came to such things, and didn't really understand how horrendous a traffic situation can really be. NO LONGER!
We met up with Allison and Darron at the Los Angeles LDS Temple to shoot some bride and groom photos the day before their wedding (bridals/groomals/pre-wedding-vanity-shoot, call it whatever you like :), and when we finished, we headed on over to the Santa Monica Pier to finish the rest of the evening. It's only a hair over 5 miles from the Temple to the Pier, and I figured even with "bad" traffic we'd get there in about 30 minutes. ...About an hour and a half later we pull into the parking garage a block away from the Pier, and I am ready to pull out my hair.
This was fairly representative of the traffic situation during our trip down there. We fought with "Jeeves" our friendly GPS unit the whole way about whether or not we dared get onto a freeway while we were down there. It seemed like "rush hour" was actually from about 8am-11:30am and then again from 12:00pm-8pm.
Anyways, once we got to the Pier everything was great. Allison was completely gorgeous in her dress (even after close to two hours in the car getting there), and we ended up getting some really fun images. There were THOUSANDS of people around the Pier and the beach, which made Allison and Darron feel a little out of place in their wedding clothes, but they were awesome! Seriously, if I were on the other side of the camera I would have died. We even had an audience that spontaneously started cheering when they did their first kiss for the camera. Darron was so cute about the process- once he realized that we were going to have an audience for the remainder of the evening, he made the joke that he would just tell people that they were models just doing their job. So the whole time, he just said over and over under his breath "It's ok, I'm a model." It made for a fun running joke, and anytime we needed a genuine smile I just had to remind him to give his model face. "Ok, now BLUE STEEL!"
^ Insert cheering here. Yaaaaay....
As I've mentioned before, I am addicted to color, and so I think this ferris wheel below is amazing.
This next one on the left is definitely where Darron the Model shines...
Take a look at the complete set of the formals at Santa Monica here.
As I mentioned when I did their engagments, Erin has a lot of experience in front of a camera. She works for KSL and is also a reporter for BYU-TV, so she is quite at home with with situation. For her bridal photos, we trekked on up to Cascade Springs and a few other spots along the Alpine Loop. It turned out to be a gorgeous day.
This first one is probably my favorite out of the set.
The full gallery can be found on smugmug here.
For the fourth of july, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity for some pretty neat backgrounds and scheduled Brooklyn and Kagan's formals for the evening. We planned to take some normal photos at a couple of different spots in Springville that we had scouted out, and then play around when it got dark to see what we could get with the fireworks. A half an hour before the shoot Thomas and I decided to go get some smaller fireworks of our own to play around with between sunset and the fireworks show. I am so glad that we did! We got a great variety of photos, but some of the "small firework" photos are my favorites.
In light of the upcoming state holiday this saturday, I figured I would get these firework photos up now and share them with you all... :) (For all my out-of-state readers, the 24th of July is "Pioneer Day", which essentially comes out to a second fourth where people barbeque, set off more fireworks, and have lots of parades. As for me, I think any excuse to blow things up and see pretty colors is perfectly fine.)
We really lucked out- before the sunset we got some wonderful daylight photos. Not too harsh, some nice backlighting, and enough direct light to manipulate to my heart's content.
Something about this one just makes me smile...
Now you're probably thinking as you look at these next photos "Oh wow, Whitney must have enhanced the colors on that sunset- no way that is real." However, if you were to think that, you would be WRONG. wrongwrongwrong. I can say with absolute honesty that this sunset was just as incredible as it looks. If fact, I think I actually decreased the saturation of the colors a smidge. It was unbelievable.
And now that the sunset is over, we get to play.... :D
Brooklyn is a big fan of Harry Potter- I think it shows...
This shoot was so much fun, and there are a lot of other photos I would love to share- so be sure and check out the full gallery here.
Every now and then I have a shoot that I feel is a turning point in my photography. They are shoots that I look back on and in every session afterwards I see a marked difference- a boost in creativity and quality. I feel that this is a shoot that will meet those criteria. I loved doing Erin and Todd's engagement photos at Wheeler Farm. They were a terrifically fun couple, great to both pose and simply react candidly, and they were both quite stylish. I especially liked Erin's style, and felt we got some really good photos for their announcement and their reception sign-in book. So when it came time to do Erin's bridal pictures, I was definitely looking forward to it- she's a gorgeous, stylish person who is fun to work with and I was confident that we would end up with photos to equal the engagement session. This shoot went beyond my expectations, so much so that I ended up with twice as many photos to give Erin as I normally do! Her dress, hair, and makeup were perfect, she brought lots of different shoes (at my encouragement- at the engagement shoot she had expressed a love of shoes), and she was happy and ready to go right from the start. We stuck around the City County Building in Salt Lake City, as well as around the Salt Lake Library.
Like I said, I have a pretty good feeling that this shoot will be one that will mark the beginning of even better things to come. Things just flowed.....
Erin brought this chaise lounge which fit the feel of the setting perfectly.
I was so pleased with this next one that I edited it before I had even processed any of the others and ordered a large metal print. It's now hanging in the entryway to my office.
Sometimes I try to control the spill from a flash; sometimes, though, it's just what you need.
I generally went with a very clean look for the processing for these photos, but there were a few where I had a bit of fun. This is one.
Click here to see the full, 176-photo gallery.
