Mountains and Lights

I have decided that Bridal Veil falls looks 115% better frozen.  It's so majestic!

Brittany and Jordan were super fun and easy-going.  Sometimes when I'm taking photos it just feels like I'm goofing off with friends and I happen to have a camera along.

I was so glad to see that the Riverwoods in Orem went all out on the Christmas lights for the area.  Remember boys and girls..... lots of light in the background = super-awesome-colorful-lit-backgrounds smudged into perfection by the camera's depth of field.  Candles, lit windows, street lamps, Christmas lights- all of these will give you gorgeous results used properly.

I was sad to see they removed the old train car from Vivian park (Thomas and I even shot our engagements around it)- they did, however, replace it with a very colorful newer-style train car that is just as fun to work with in its own way.

Take a look at the full engagement gallery here.

In the City and on the Beach

Meet Justin.  He started an internship with me in January.  He's a photography student and is doing quite well establishing his own wedding/portrait photography business as well.

Meet Mallory.  She's Justin's wife and partner-in-crime. They are in love.

By the way, Mallory has awesome shoes.

We did an "anniversary" shoot at Park City and at the Great Salt Lake at Saltair.

The lights at Park City at night make for some awesome shots, but the sky at Saltair was unreal.

I call this photo the "Big Dip-her." Hahaha.  Hah.

Justin and Mallory don't only shoot with cameras.  They are also big airsoft fans.  So we got a little "Bonnie and Clyde" action going on here....

Justin and Mallory have two kids.  They are hairier than most children....  but Justin loves them anyway.

When they get a chance to relax, Justin and Mallory like to get some quality time together with Call of Duty.

Justin has been such a wonderful help to me this year, and I have loved the chance to teach and help him as he has developed his talents and his business has grown. I'm excited to see what the future holds for them.

Leigh and Craig

Georgette and Gordon

Gordon is a huge golf buff, and so Georgette was able to convince him to go with these period golfing clothes for one of their engagement outfits.  I thought they were spot on!

I loved seeing their inner child come out as they played with the leaves... :D

Marie and Mike @ Park City

Katie and Steven

Every once in a while a photographer gets a creative block.  Similar to writer's block but (obviously) not pertaining to writing.  I loved Katie and Steven's shoot because it pulled me out of one of those slumps and inspired me.  I've been trying to decide why their engagements were so different and I think I've come up with a few answers.

1. They brought a ukulele.  Enough said.

2. At the beginning of the shoot Katie told me that they wanted to have fun and they wanted me to have fun.  They weren't worried about getting certain photos because they knew that whatever we got would be great.  Hey, with confidence like that, why wouldn't I feel comfortable with experimenting?  Forget the traditional stuff, and we end up with engagement photos that represent them and their relationship, which is what this is all about anyway, right?

3. Katie and Steven were fearless! Riding on handlebars, standing in freezing cold rivers, walking through suspicious plants (I'm pretty sure it wasn't poison ivy!)...  they just wanted good pictures.  I love that.

4. They were happy and clearly in love.  This is why I shoot weddings.

ps.... speaking of ukuleles, enjoy the music.

Jordan and Mike's Engagements

One of the challenges that an on location portrait photographer has is that you often has limitations on where you can go and how much time you have for a given shoot, and so inevitably you end up shooting at a lot of the same locations. The challenge is to make each of those shoots different and to make each time you go to the location look unique. Wheeler Farm is one of my favorite go-to places to shoot engagements, bridals, and formals. There's so much variety in the backgrounds there, and so many different "mini-locations" to play with, that depending on the time of day or the season you can go there many times a year and it always looks different.

Mike was such a crack-up. I don't think I've met a goofier or more naturally cheerful person.

See the full gallery here.

Katie and Chris- Explosions of cuteness and color

About a year ago, I took an entrepreneurship class at BYU. I take a class every now and then with the intention of graduating one day. Working 60 hours a week on weddings doesn't leave a ton of time for homework. ;) In the class we got divided up into groups, and a large majority of our grade involved starting a brand new business and generating a specific amount of revenue by the end of the semester.

Given my existing business, I saw this as a wonderful way to kill two birds with one stone. We started up an advertising business for our first (and primary) client- Whitney Lewis Photography LLC. It was fun, successful, and we found some very effective ways to increase my market exposure at the time. Another happy side effect of this class was that several of the class members were able to find a superbly talented, creative, and outstandingly attractive photographer for their own weddings!

Erin and Cole booked me to shoot their wedding in Newport Beach, CA, which we did just a couple weeks ago. Katie and Chris were looking to book me for their wedding in October in Oakland, CA, but unfortunately I was already scheduled on their wedding day (headed back out to my hometown Austin, TX though! oh yeah!). So we ended up booking an engagement session, and might be doing a formal bride and groom session before the wedding. I love formals, and think that every bride and groom should do them. They frequently produce the best photos from the entire wedding package, they are low stress, and a great trial run before the wedding. Plus, we get to pick the perfect time of day to shoot and lots of fun locations. But I'm getting distracted.

We started Katie and Chris' engagements at the Tahitian Noni Gardens (officially the "Morinda Gardens"), and finished up at the Riverwoods Mall nearby. They were both so cute during the shoot; I loved how their personalities really came through and that how happy they were was able to just pop in every photo. It seems to jump out at you, sprinkling happiness all over your monitor screen. As an additional bonus, Katie used to be a dancer; I love working with dancers because they are often so easy to pose and natural in front of the camera. Katie was simultaneously elegantly graceful and stinking cute. It was great!

"Scooch on over closer, dear...." :)

But my favorite part of this shoot was how cute and colorful Katie's outfits were. I suggested that they bring a few different outfits with different colors, and she showed up to the shoot with this enormous duffel bag. I'm pretty sure it contained her whole closet. It kind of made me feel like I was ten years old again, playing dress up. So fun!

See Katie and Chris' complete engagement gallery here.

Never strikes twice

This is my favorite photo from an engagement shoot earlier this summer. No photoshop needed... just a kiss and the summer sky. :)