Jenna and Ben

I met Jenna while wedding dress shopping with my future sister-in-law-in-law. (fiancee of my brother-in-law, that works right?) Due to the fact I was going to be in Oakland the day before their wedding and couldn't get a flight up to Portland that would work we weren't to make wedding coverage happen, but I'm glad we were able to get engagements done.
I love the rim lighting on this one... gives such a such a warm feel to the scene.

Sometimes I tell my clients "Ok, now just pretend I'm not here for a moment." Be careful what you wish for, I guess.... ;)

Jessica and Casey's Marathon Engagement Session

Meet Jessica and Casey.

I knew we were going to get along and that we were going to get some truly awesome pictures pretty much as soon as I met them. I think it was about the moment that they explained to me with a grin that as Jessica's last name is "Terribilini" and Casey's last name is "Skankey" their wedding was ultimately going to be a "Terribly Skanky" wedding. Yes, I thought to myself, I think we're going to be able to work together juuuust fine. :)
I think I must have been fated to shoot their wedding. Jessica's sister is also engaged, and had contacted me a month or so before Jessica asking if I could shoot her wedding. She had found me through Facebook ads and liked my style. Unfortunately I was already booked for that day, but was able to recommend a very good friend to photograph their wedding. I guess in the spirit of "if at first you don't succeed" the powers that be lead Jessica to my site, completely independent of her sister and unknowing that she had tried to book me, and we were able to sign a contract- thus paving the way for the sweet sweet photographic goodness you find before you.
Now something you probably already know about me is that I don't charge by the hour. There are several reasons why, among them simplicity in terms of pricing, the opportunity to be there as long as I need to to get that one perfect shot to capture your day, and the flexibility to deal with craziness in schedules and mishaps along the way. That being said, engagement and bridal sessions still only last anywhere from 1 1/2 to 2 hours on average- mainly because not too many brides and grooms really want to be in front of a camera for longer than that. However, I am always ready and raring to do anything my clients want, and while talking with Casey and Jessica about engagements it quickly became apparent that they were up for a bit more than the norm.
Thus, I present to you... (drumroll, please) the Marathon Engagement Session. We started out at Wheeler Farm, then headed to a location west of Salt Lake City off the freeway, and finished up at Salt Air. I took over 1000 photos and the shoot lasted over 5 hours. Fun was had by all. I still haven't quite finished editing all of them, but I have put up a gallery of some of my picks from the session. Be sure and check them out here.

Remember the teaser post I put up a couple weeks ago? Yeah, these skies were AMAZING!

The colors just kept getting better as it got later.

They were such a pleasure to work with. I love happy people, which is why I love weddings!

I loved these stalks and reed thingys, you could just see how they moved in the wind- gorgeous setting.

Yeah, we got along fine.

Jenny and Josh

We met up in Sugar House with Jenny and Josh to shoot their engagement photos last week, and it was a lot of fun to hang out with them both. Jenny served in Oakland on an LDS mission at the same time as my sister Jasmine, and so it was entertaining to hear her tell stories about Jaz as we worked... after all, a sister always needs more ammunition. :)
After we were done, we were able to head on over to Smashburger for dinner, which was awesome. I love being able to just sit and talk with my clients, as I usually feel like they are good friends of mine after a shoot. Engagement and Bridal sessions are wonderful for getting comfortable with each other before the wedding day, but nothing quite beats just sitting around talking over games or a good meal. Plus, the rosemary and garlic fries at Smashburger were delicious.

I loved the reds in this one...

Abbey and Taylor

Shooting Abbey and Taylor's engagements was some of the most fun I have ever had in a photo session. As a photographer I try to get sincere smiles and often make corny jokes or silly noises at my clients in an attempt to get them to smile naturally. I didn't need to do anything for these two- they were totally natural, laughed the entire time, and just had a blast being together.
As far as the location goes, we hit a few different spots- one is evidently a very popular setting for engagements. It's "Exchange Place" in downtown Salt Lake City, and I can see the appeal. There were some very fun backgrounds and buildings to interact with. Aside from exchange place, we had wandered around a bit and just went with the flow. I love photoshoots where I can have a few loose ideas in my head but still have the flexibility just to explore and see what there is nearby to work with. It's an adventure that way, and ensures the experience is different every single time. Being a photographer is awesome at times like these.
Abbey and Taylor's wedding colors are "shades of green" so we were thrilled that Spring finally seemed to arrive and the grass was actually green instead of dead and brown.

Words can't express how happy I was with how this one turned out. Silhouette + Rim lighting + wicked awesome posing from the models = ♥

They were so happy together- great smiles all around!

Yay for sun flares!!!

This picture makes me smile. Great moment...

Love their personality.

Click here to see the rest of the gallery- they were full of awesomeness. Too much to share in this post.

Alyssa and Justin

Most of the time when the weather report is looking a bit threatening, I have clients calling in a panic wanting to know if we can reschedule. When the morning started out gloomy and snow was forecast online for the afternoon I called out to Alyssa and Justin to ask what they wanted to do. "Well, we like snow... so yeah, let's do it today." Well cool, I'm up for it. Not too many people want to shoot in a blizzard. And after all was said and done, it turned out great. I do think it took about 3 days for my fingers to thaw, though.
My intern, Justin Workman, told me about this awesome gear sculpture in downtown Salt Lake.

You can get some strange looks while taking pictures in the middle of the street. You can also get some neat photos.

I love how snow can reflect the light.

I loved the lights in this tunnel....

Click here for the full gallery.

Christina and Heber

For Christina and Heber's engagement pictures we decided to head on up the canyon. They love the outdoors and spending their time in nature, so setting up a downtown shoot wouldn't really have fit their personality too well. And, given that Christina is from Alaska, we knew we'd have to pick a landscape that would show off some of the truly stunning views that Utah has to offer here in the Rockies. The spot they picked worked out perfectly, though the amount of snow still up there doesn't much look like it was the middle of April. :)
This one kind of says, "western novel cover" to me. What do you think?

LOVE the texture of the rocks and the lichen here.... the contrast with the smooth unblemished snow was great.

This is exactly what I think of when I hear the word "winter". Gorgeous.

Now I'm originally from Texas, so I have seen some truly amazing skies and sunsets featuring huge rolling clouds. This one, though, was definitely as good as anything I have ever come across...

This session wouldn't be complete without showing the second love of Heber's life... his truck! Love love love the way the reflection turned out.

Ok maybe I spoke too fast earlier.... THIS one truly does scream "western novel cover".

Click here for the full gallery.

Allison and Darron

April is an odd month in Utah, weather-wise. I can't really remember any other place I've lived where I can easily get a procession of warm sunshine, cloudy skies, rain, sunshine again, hail, and then back to sunshine with an extra dose of intermittent freezing wind all in the course of about 3 hours.
Given that the notion of taking engagement photos in ski parkas didn't overly appeal to our clients, we had to reschedule once for Allison and Darron's session. April had decided to surprise us with about 5 inches of snow on our designated day for the first shoot (of course, the snow was all gone by 5pm but I digress). For our second appointment we were greeted with an agreeably clear sky, a few puffy clouds and some great sunshine. It was only after we got out of the car and stood there for 30 seconds that we realized there was a rip in space-time somewhere nearby, allowing a gale-force wind directly from the North Pole to smack us in the face. However, since we were already there our hardy couple decided to soldier on and get the photos taken care of. They weren't really dressed for it, but they were awesome sports. I myself was fine with the wind, but I guess the gloves, woolen hat and pea coat might have helped a little bit....
The photos turned out wonderfully (which is all that matters, right?), and I only had to take the blue out of their lips and fingers on just a couple of pictures. ;)

Check out the full gallery here.

Megan and Ben

I love shooting on location, but sometimes it presents minor problems when the location I want has pesky "no trespassing" signs. In the spirit of it's-better-to-ask-forgiveness-than-permission, I usually ignore it and tell the clients to put their blinders on and, if confronted, just to run away with their fingers in their ears saying "la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you!" It does, however, pose a conundrum when I frequent a specific location on a regular basis though.... :)
One of the nice things about outdoor spots is the opportunity to return with different clients and capture the differences as the seasons change. You can go from snow, to green, to beautiful fall foliage, to snow again....
Megan and Ben are getting married in June, so it was definitely time to get their engagement photos done in preparation for the announcements. We hit up the orchard (a favorite for Megan), and a few other spots around Provo. Good times were had by all....

Click here to see the full gallery.

Sneak Preview- Jessica and Casey

I haven't processed all of Jessica and Casey's engagement photos yet (it was a 5 hour shoot last Friday- we had a blast). I just had to post this one photo, however; can you believe this is in Utah??? More to come soon, I promise...