Saltair Formal Wedding Photography with Andrea & Danielle

  This shoot was a fun mix of casual and dressy, elegant and fun.  Andrea and Danielle were married a couple of months ago, but I was booked for their wedding date and so couldn't be there for the photos on the day of.  We scheduled this formals shoot after the wedding, and it was really nice and relaxed.  While this wasn't a trash-the-dress shoot like Brittany did recently, Danielle didn't have to worry quite as much as we would have if her dress got a bit dirty or where we was needing to walk.  She wanted a more casual feeling so she wore flip flops for the session, and Andrea went without a tie.   These two are some of the sweetest people you will ever meet, and we had a good time walking around the Great Salt Lake getting different bridals and different shots featuring both the bride and the groom.

One of my favorite angles/locations at Saltair is this area where you can get the same clean, almost sterile landscape that you can get at the Salt Flats- without having to drive an extra two hours! :)

  

  

  

This is another favorite area of Saltair.  It's called Sunset Beach, and it's AMAAAAAZING.  Perfect angles to get backlit by sweet sweet sunset colors, foot-friendly rocks to stand on, and convenient access to parking.  It's got it all.

Utah Bridal Photography- Trash the Drash Shoot at Great Salt Lake

  Any long-term blog stalkers I have will most certainly remember Brittany and Jordan.  I shot their engagements and their wedding last winter, but we put off bridals until after the wedding.  Brittany wanted warmer weather for the shoot showing off her dress, and doing it this way we also got to take some shots you can't really pull off before the wedding. Mooostly because more often than not the gown isn't really all that wearable afterwards.  Since Brittany and Jordan live in Wyoming now, it took a while before we could coordinate the session.  I was especially excited for this shoot for a couple of reasons- first, I wasn't took sure it was going to happen (most brides and grooms that schedule after-the-wedding bridals/formals/whatever don't usually end up going through with it because by then the LAST thing they want to do is get dressed up again). Secondly, and most importantly, Brittany is the type of gal who is willing and eager to do absolutely and everything I possibly suggest.  It's fantastic!

We got several traditional style bridals at Saltair showing off how gorgeous she is and how awesome the dress was before we got to trashing it.

  

What's that hint of purple under her dress you say?  Why, her trusty purple galoshes of course!  I thought they were super cute, and they definitely came in handy a bit later...

Ok, now we start having a bit of fun.  Where can we go that we normally wouldn't be able to?

  

Whether it was wading out into the Great Salt Lake, sitting in the mud, or climbing up on a rickety gate, Brittany knocked it out of the park.  Look at how fantastic she looks!

  

Of course, it goes without saying that we took plenty of opportunities for Brittany to twirl around and stomp as hard as she could.  It kind of brought to mind the sheer joy you could have as a little kid playing around in puddles and mud.  That never really goes away... :D

Be sure and check out the full gallery from the shoot here (more to come as they get finished).  At the end of the day, we decided that Brittany's dress still looked a little too good, so stay tuned for a future post.  Brittany and I are both excited about the possibility of doing a another shoot sometime where we light it on fire!

It might be a while before that shoot though.  Brittany is insanely busy starting her own salon in Laramie, Wyoming.  It looks like it's going to be fantastic though, so if you happen to be passing through and need an awesome stylist, you should definitely check out Studio220.

Stevie & Conrad- Engagements at Weber State and the Great Salt Lake

  I had never even been to Weber before, but since Stevie and Conrad met while going to school there, that was where we started.  And I am so glad we did!  I had no idea that the campus at Weber had so much to offer for photos, and I will definitely be back.  After running around the university for a bit, we headed over to Saltair to finish up and get some sunsets and photos with the stars (the huge balls of gas billions of miles away, not the celebrities).

Just look at how gorgeous this location was, and how perfect the light!  The sun made this gorgeous spotlight right on them, it was fantastic.  One small note of trivia- this was literally taken in the first 30 seconds of shooting.  No need for warm up or get loose for this couple; they were great right from the beginning.

We were grateful for a clear sky that night so we could see all the stars that were out.  You wouldn't know it looking at the photo, but it was essentially pitch black when I took this last one...

Summer Engagement Photos at Saltair

  One of my favorite things to hear is how someone found my website and decided to contact me.  Sometimes it's just a google search for something like "Utah Wedding Photographer", sometimes they picked up a card at a wedding I was shooting, and lots of times people see my work on Facebook as one friend comments on another friend's photo and I pop up in their feed.  The backstory on how Joelle and Brett found me was one of the more roundabout that I had heard.  I met with them earlier this year to book their September wedding, and Brett confessed that he and Joelle had been following my blog for the previous 6 months.  If I got the story down correctly, this is what happened.

Brett found some photos of an acapella group on their website who had linked to a couple of photos of another acapella group.  The photos seemed pretty cool, and Brett winded up on Noteworthy's website.  He saw the promotional photos that I had done for them last fall, as well as the photos I took of them at their November concert.  He eventually went through all the photos they had, noticed my watermark on a few of them, and wondered "hey, maybe she does wedding photos too."  They ended up on my blog, and that was that.

Joelle and Brett have been together for several years now, and in a state where the common courtship-to-marriage window is 6 to 9 months, it makes for some different dynamics during a photoshoot.  I loved how comfortable they were together.  No awkwardness, no hesitations, no problems.

Love the marina at the Great Salt Lake.  So much variety in textures, and you can photograph it every day of the week with every day being different.

It's awesome how in summer we've got these tall grasses that turn this perfect gold- it makes for the some of the warmest, happiest photos.  Perfect for an engagement session.

  

And no WLP engagement shoot would be complete without a romantic silhouette, right? :D

Brittany and Scott- Sunsets, Sand, and Saltair

Today is Brittany's birthday!  She and Scott are getting married in less than a month, and today is the perfect day to show off their engagement photos.  We packed up our gear, slathered on the bug spray and headed on out to Saltair for some beautiful outdoor shots.  Brittany and Scott were a delight to shoot- happy to smile, ready to kiss on command, and A-OK to stand in the mud/sand/rocks/unmentionable sludge to get that perfect photo!

I mean, just look at those smiles...

It can be hit or miss to get the sky we want, but that night was something special...

I loved just how comfortable they were with everything.  With each other, with the camera, and with everything in between....

They didn't do so bad with the dramatic look either...

Happy Birthday Brittany- we'll see you two at the wedding!

Kirra & Brandon: Awesomeness at Saltair

Ok,  I can't say enough about how much I loved this engagement shoot!!!  Kirra and Brandon were so fantastic to work with- they would intuitively do what I normally coach people to do, they had the most amazing smiles, and they were just plain fun.  We shot 100% of the time around Saltair near the Great Salt Lake, but ended up with an awesome variety of locations and looks.  

I love that area, but particularly around summertime you have to make sure you slather on the bug spray!  I ended up with 14 bites just on my left leg, and gave up counting after that.  I also ended up sacrificing a pair of shoes - as you see in the picture below, I crossed over to the other side of the little lake on the beach and the "almost-looked-dry-but-apparently-wasn't" path to my spot ended up eating my footwear.  I finished the shoot barefoot, and brought home a souvenir in my shoes that was almost as cool as those little beach in a bottles that you can get in Hawaii.  Just a bit smellier.

The amazing thing to me is that Kirra and Brandon were so in love it didn't even phase them.  They were happy to go wherever I asked and smile, because they were together.

These guys seriously just laughed and giggled the whole time.  I loved it!

If I picked all my favorites from this shoot this post would crash my server, so I put together a slideshow to Kirra and Brandon's song to let y'all see some more.

Tara's Bridals: Westminster College & Great Salt Lake

Chris and Tara's wedding was on Saturday- it was at Millennial Falls in Draper, and it was A-MAZ-ING!  Gorgeous location, and what a party!  

Of course this means that now that we've captured Chris' awestruck look as he sees his bride for the first time in her dress we can share all her bridal photos with you!  Tara is an alumnus of Westminster College, which is also where Chris proposed to her, so we started the bridal session there.  Afterwards, we drove out to Saltair and shot by the Great Salt Lake and the marina there.

Tara used to eat lunch in this area and the landscaping was a little different.  We arrived for her bridals, and decided that Westminster must have put in this pedestal just for her!

One of Tara's recent loves is sailing, so the marina was a perfect fit for her!  Sailing has a special place in my heart ever since I managed to flip my little one-man skiff on a lake during a summer storm when I was about 12.  I got it right side up and finished out my afternoon.  I loved it!

I love the fields around Saltair.  It gives that perfect, romantic-wheat-field look, especially as they sway in the wind.  It was INCREDIBLY cold by then, but you wouldn't know it by the photos.  Tara was absolutely incredible to work with, and I have to give a shout out to Nancy, Chris' mom.  She is a professional costume designer, and she actually made Tara's dress!  Not only that, but Nancy came along on the shoot and helped out with the lighting.  In some of these photos she's actually crouched down on rocks behind Tara with a flash for back light.  Nancy, you completely went above and beyond!  I now grant you the most-awesome-mother-in-law-in-the-world award.   Feel free to put "wedding lighting specialist" in your resume as well.

Tara is such a beautiful girl.  The way she did her hair, her dress... so relaxed, and yet so elegant.

Take a look at her bridal gallery here.

Chelsea and Dan

Everyone has something quirky and unique about them.  Something that when you find it out, it changes how you view them a little bit, and helps you see a side that you never had before.... like when you find that your bride and groom can break dance.  AWESOME.

The sky at Saltair was incredible!

I love dramatic shots, I love beautiful skies and gorgeous colors, but what I still love most is to shoot happy people.

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.