Josh & Taleya Engaged

First and foremost, I love this shoot. I love every picture. Josh and Taleya are a beautiful couple and I could feel how much they love each other while I took their pictures. That's a great feeling as a photographer, because love is the one thing I cannot photoshop. The first location we went to was this neat abandoned barn. I'm used to photographing in Idaho, where your best shot of the day is probably near or inside something abandoned and you're probably trespassing. I've even photographed on a family's tire swing before without so much as maybe a weird look or people getting excited about engaged couples. Let me tell you, it is a different story in Tennessee. They take their private property very seriously. Within 5 minutes of photographing at this barn an ornery police officer shows up. He asks what we're doing, asks if we knew we were trespassing and that it was a federal offense, and told us he would have to bring us in. I mean seriously po-po are you for real? Do you really have nothing else to do? Do you really take your job that seriously? I tried to politely explain what we're doing and that we weren't even going inside the barn, but the officer was not kind. His rebuttal was "well would you walk in to one of these homes (pointing to a rather large subdivision of homes) and start taking pictures?" That is not at all the same. This was an abandoned barn on the side of the road, and we weren't even inside! He tried to tell us there had been 3 shootings at the barn (really? 3 shootings in front of a big subdivision right on the side of the road of one of the nicest and most family friendly cities outside of Nashville? Really?) and that people had been breaking in to the barn and stealing stuff. (We looked in the barn at one point, there was nothing but poop to steal.) After a lot of sweet talking the officer told us to leave before the owners got there to press charges. It was ridiculous! We were very cautious about trespassing on private property for the rest of the day. And even with that minor bump in our session I think these photographs are beautiful!

Kranenburg Family

Here are some family portraits I took for the Kranenburg family. I love Christopher's big brown eyes! He is so cute and so much fun! Definitely had one of the longest picture taking stamina of any little one I've photographed! After a few rounds of the itsy bitsy spider and acting like a dinosaur he was ready to go! Tennessee is so beautiful and so green, the location we shot at was just right off the road in a little forest grove. It was the perfect backdrop. Hope you enjoy!

Robby & Nikki Engaged

MY SISTER'S ENGAGED! And lucky duck that I am, I got to take her and Robby's engagement pictures before Robby flew back to Utah. The weather was bleeeh for most of the time, but I think they turned out pretty beautiful despite the rain that would start and stop every 5 minutes. It helps that they are a beautiful couple. I had such a hard time picking a favorite picture, so I chose 16. I can't help it.. they're so photogenic!

The End of Film Noir

So I wrapped up my little film noir project, Miles said it was getting a little too dark and grotesque. Oh well.. it's over! I ended up with a little over 30 useable prints. I haven't decided what to do with them yet. Probably not a whole lot to do with them, but I learned a lot about low-key lighting outside of the studio and how to manipulate natural lighting. All and all it was a positive experience.

And I'm starting a new little project, and for the first time in my life I am concentrating on landscapes. I'm usually a bit of a landscape hater.. but I decided to embrace the fact that Miles and I seem to move every 4 months to a new place that we've never been before. Some day we would like to have a room dedicated to the place we've lived, the place that have helped to strengthen and mold our marriage. So I want to frame a landscape image of each of the places we've lived. So far I have one image I took in Sacramento when I was there early April that we're going to use. I'm working on Nashville right now, and I have plenty of time to worry about an Idaho image. Included in that room we will have a map with pin's in each place we've visited together, so I'd also like to have images from our travels framed. That's what I'm working on! Here's the image from Sacramento...

Raliegh and Sharyl's Wedding

I had the amazing opportunity to fly to Sacramento last weekend to shoot Raliegh and Sharyl's wedding. Every detail was well planned out and beautiful! I felt so lucky to be a part of their big day. In case it's not entirely apparent, Sharyl is absolutely flawless and Raliegh is one handsome cowboy. I have loved editing their photos. It didn't take a whole lot to make their pictures look good. In fact, I'm pretty sure they are making my camera look good. We started the day at the Sacramento, CA LDS temple and took some pictures there. We then headed over to Old Sacramento. It had the perfect feel for their wedding theme. So on with the pictures... I had such a hard time picking favorites. Honestly, every image of these two together is a favorite! They're so perfect for each other and so in love that it made each picture perfect. But if I have to pick, I choose... these 25 [plus the one from my post below this].