Vegas, baby!

I'm sorry to say that no real Vegas stories came out of my trip, not much exciting happened.  I've been to Vegas before with Thomas.  We loved the Cirque De Soleil show, but other than that, though the city was kind of tacky...  This trip however, I saw it through a photographer's eyes.  And I'm now happy to report that it is not just tacky, but it is delightfully tacky.  The lights, the water, the color... all of that combines for some amazing photos!!

These photos below are from the Beatles Cirque Du Soleil show - I've never seen it, but I would LOVE to go there this year!!  At least the lights were cool.

Photos tomorrow from San Diego - with Jeremy, the man who made this trip possible.

St. George Temple at Sunset

I made a goal this year to visit 50 temples - 50 temples in 2012.  So far, I've been to: Salt Lake Temple, Provo Temple, Timpanogos Temple, Draper Temple, Jordan River Temple, and this one is #6 for the year.  I was so glad we got to stop here right at sunset!, loved seeing the changing colors in the sky!

^My favorite picture from the evening.  In the past, I've always tried to avoid the gate in temple photos, I thought it got in the way.  I was excited to find a way to use the gate to add to the photo instead.

 

 

Normally, LDS temples have an Angel Moroni with a trumpet on the steeple.  It was interesting to see that the St. George temple did not.  We asked in the visitor's center and apparently, there are a handful of older temples that still do not.  According to ldsChurchTemples.com, "Eight (8) temples do not have an angel Moroni. They are the St. George Utah, Logan Utah, Manti Utah, Laie Hawaii, Cardston Alberta, Mesa Arizona, Hamilton New Zealand, and Oakland California Temples."

Check back tomorrow for photos from Las Vegas!

Where I've been...

  Wow, what a month!  I apologize for my absence from the blog, as the weather got warmer, I started spending more of my time outside experiencing life and less of my time inside telling people about it online :)  So here's a quick update, then I'll jump into the photos!

First, I've become obsessed with rock climbing.  I love learning about it, doing it, and photographing it!

Still lots and lots of photography!  I've done several family shoots, several engagements, a few weddings, many stock photography shoots (I'll tell you more about those later!), some corporate photos, and quite a bit of travel photography.

The travel is one of the things I've been most excited about recently.  See, when I started to get into photography, I dove in head first and it became a business.  I didn't even take the time to decide what kind of photography I liked, to learn about all the different options.  I just started working and jumped into weddings.  While I love weddings, this point in my life is a time of discovery.  It's time to see what else is out there, what else I can learn.  Here I am, 3 years after my first wedding and now I'm taking the time to learn about the art of photography - to discover why I really love it.

Most recently, I went on a road trip with my first intern, Justin Workman.  He's done an amazing job with his own photography business since he worked with me, and it was a great experience to shoot together and see a new perspective.  We left Salt Lake and drove South towards California (the jobs paying for the trip were in San Diego and Los Angeles).  First stop: Zion's National Park.

I have very little experience with landscape photography, in the past I used to say "that's nice... but can I put a bride in front of this view?" It was a challenge to go through the park and just see the photo - I can't pose a mountain, I have to move myself.  Can't make the rocks laugh, I only have light and angle to change how they look.  But what an experience!  I think I'm finally catching the vision.

 

One of the things I loved about Zion's was the road - the asphalt was a dark red color instead of black.

 

 

^ And there's Justin.  Whatever you have to do to get the shot, right?

Next stop: St George Temple at sunset!

Princess in Pearls

Life to me is about perspective.  I love the discovery - learning to see the same old things in my life through someone else's eyes.  This is why photographing children is so darn fun for me!  They take the normal, everyday object or activities and make an adventure of it.  All these things we take for granted, they get excited about.  I've spent all my life trying to be an adult, but not I just want to be young again and see the world the way these little kids do!

This little girl was so sweet, she wanted to get dressed up and wear the pearls (and didn't want to give them back when it was time!  But I don't blame her... they looked better on her anyway!).

 

One of the games she played (below) was "take the pearls off... then put them back on... repeat over and over again."  Sometimes it was difficult to figure out how to fit her head through, but she was determined!

And then we played on Mommy's beautiful hardwood floors!  It reminded me of a dance studio.

 

On Cloud 9

  I was so excited to hear Katie was engaged - she sings with Noteworthy, and I've been following them as time goes on.  These girls are all amazing!  Incredible voices, and really fun people.  And it looks like Katie's found herself a pretty amazing guy too.  She and Tom were soo cute!  They smiled so naturally and laughed the whole time.  It was just fun!

We shot outside Fashion Place Mall in the evening and I played with a rented Nikon D3.  THAT was fun too.

 

 

I can't help but smile looking through these.  Katie and Tom are just happy people, and I love that!

I Love Popcorn

It's true.

Elegant Wedding Reception

Earlier this week, I met someone whose job is installing escalators.  For some reason, this struck me as really cool!  I had never met anyone with a job like that, never even occurred to me that someone had that job (because obviously the new escalators just magically appear).  But it got me thinking - how many of us actually work in a field we planned on?  I know I never considered photography as a career until 2008.  In kindergarten I wanted to be either a doctor of a garbageman because "doctors help people and garbage men get to ride on the back of the truck."  (good thing I didn't go for garbage man because now the truck does most of the work and the guys don't even ride on the back of the truck!)  In 5th grade I wanted to be the President of the United States.  And in middle school, I decided I wanted to be a band director.  My opinion hardly changed after that - I finally found my calling.  I wanted to teach band in a public high school.  And when I went to BYU, I got accepted in the Music Education program and worked very hard towards it.

But life threw me a curve ball and I had a sudden onset of health problems that changed my path.  I was unable to finish my music education degree and instead found a more flexible way to spend the time I wasn't in bed - photography.  What a blessing this has been in my life.  There are still times when I ache to be in the teaching world, but then I get to work with an awesome couple and I'm reminded how lucky I am to be a photographer.  Each event is so unique, so well put together, so full of personality.

Working on this wedding was a great reminder for me to see how amazing it is to have two people commit the rest of their lives together and also have an elegant reception to celebrate that!  And I got to be there to photograph it.  So without further ado, I present: Alicia & Craig's Wedding Reception at Highland Gardens

The decorations were gorgeous...

 

The kids adorable...

 

The photo booth lots of fun (thanks Dustin Izatt)...

 

 

The cake was delicious and so unique...

 

The bouquet toss was fun...

And the dancing made me smile...

 

All the pieces came together beautifully for a perfect wedding.  Congratulations Alicia & Craig!

With this ring...

I love to share stories from my weddings, but sometimes overcoming writer's block and finding the right words prevents me from actually getting these blog entries posted!  I love the art of language - finding the perfect way to communicate exactly what I want to express.  Choosing my word to convey an emotion or tell a story. But I do not envy the people who write for a living.  Sometimes it's just hard!  This while this was a gorgeous ring ceremony at Highland Gardens and so much could be said... I've got writer's block.  No stories for now, just photos.

 

 

Check back tomorrow for photos of the reception!

Winter Wedding at Timpanogos Temple

  For some reason, I don't have many chances to shoot at the Timpanogos temple.  My first year in business, the most popular choice for LDS weddings I shot was the Bountiful temple.  Last year it was definitely Salt Lake.  I travel around to other states a lot too, so now it's more evenly spread out.  But the Timpanogos temple has a special place in my heart because it's where Thomas and I got married.  Alicia and Craig's wedding was a beautiful winter day.  Snow on the ground, but no precipitation from the sky.  An awesome group of people there, I love to photograph happy people!

From here we went to a ring ceremony and reception at Highland Gardens.