Kelli Nicole Photography

Don't Forget!

2009-12-09T22:36:00.005-06:00

I've noticed lots of people have already updated their links and blog feeds, so great job!

For all the rest...
You don't want to miss all the awesome new posts this week! Check it out!

http://kellinicolephotography.com/blog

I Like New Things

2009-12-01T23:30:00.008-06:00

Two new things today!

First, I have a new logo! Once upon a time I discovered an amazing graphic artist, but was a poor college student and couldn't afford much more than Ramen. Fortunately, a few things have changed and I was recently able to use Angie Panian to redesign my logo. Exciting! Check out her site, she does great work!

Second, the thing I'm MOST excited about, is my new blog (kellinicolephotography.com/blog)! Click HERE to see it. Or here. Please update your bookmarks, favorites, google reader or whatever other technology you might use. Check back often for updates to information about my photography (and my life).

It's still a bit of a work in progress, but I'm excited have you try it out! My new site/blog will serve to address (hopefully) all your questions. Don't Panic - all my information will be on there, such as pricing and product photos, and lots of new fun stuff like faq's and the ability to subscribe to comments on a certain post. If you notice anything weird or out of place let me know and I'll work to get it fixed. In addition, I hope to add more features and content to my new blog. I hope you love it like I do!

Again, remember, update your blog feeds and bookmarks to kellinicolephotography.com/blog and let me know what you think! Enjoy!

PS: There's a new post with some awesome pictures of a stunning couple in LA! Don't miss it :)

PPS: All the new awesomeness will work best if your browser is updated. So in firefox go to help -- check for updates (if I knew how to do it in anything else I'd help you out too).

Happy Black Friday!

2009-11-28T16:44:00.002-06:00

Instead of spending Black Friday heading to the stores and acting like animals, it seemed like a better idea to head to the Houston Zoo to actually see animals. My boyfriend thought it would be a good idea (it was free) ;)

He thought I should have more photos of myself on my blog so I let him practice. This was his first time shooting with manual controls! He did an amazing job and enjoyed the opportunity of making me feel awkward by posing me in busy walkways :).

My bf kept asking for directions to the evil petting zoo. He really wanted to see a goat eat a can. I just wanted some hand sanitizer.

This duck had a lot of attitude. The bf really thought this bird should get some gold chains and a posse.

I taught him all about finding good light (even in a bat cave).

One of those busy walkways where he made me stand for 5 minutes (he tricked me into looking happy). ;)

He really wanted one of us to get a picture petting the large cats, but I didn't think it was such a good idea.

Oh my...

All pictures shot by him, edited by me.

Another Card Style

2009-11-23T16:35:00.000-06:00

Some cute Christmas cards I designed this weekend~

Holiday Cards 2009

2009-11-21T05:24:00.001-06:00

It's almost December! If you want any cards for the upcoming holiday season let me know and I can put something together for you. They're all customizable by color, phrase, etc. See all the options here. Merry Christmas!

Downtown SLC family!

2009-11-20T08:05:00.003-06:00

Had such fun with this family going downtown in SLC! I absolutely loved their sense of style and the colors they put together!

The next two are two of my favorites!!

Laura and her kiddos

2009-11-19T08:34:00.004-06:00

A few of my favorite pictures from one of my amazing repeat families! I so much love to watch the kids grow up :). I couldn't believe how long and blonde little Kate's hair had gotten. So amazing that they all have different hair color too!

Q&A #ONE!

2009-11-16T06:21:00.008-06:00

Okay, I know, I'm finally getting around to doing this! The more questions I get, the more often I'll try to do things like this :). Let me know what you think! Oh, there IS one thing, I want to make sure it's okay for me to use your first name if you asked a question, so this time I'll keep it anonymous. Let me know in the future!

First up, what type of camera do you use? I have two camera bodies that I take shooting, one as a main body and one as a back-up. I've been to two weddings where one of my cameras failed for no apparent reason (one right in the middle of the cake-cutting) so it is so absolutely necessary to bring back-up gear with you to important events! My main body is the Canon 5D Mark II and my back-up is my "old" Canon 40D. If you have specific questions about what camera YOU should get, email me. While I've always been a Canon shooter I have no qualms recommending a Nikon or Canon camera, both are great options and have different strengths and weaknesses.

Do you save the RAW file and the final version? And how are you organizing your backup? When I upload pictures from a shoot they immediately go into a program called Adobe Lightroom. All my files start out as RAW images and are .CR2's instead of .JPEG's (ie image_0001.CR2). When I upload to Lightroom they all get converted to .DNG files. DNG's are like a universal lossless compact RAW file. In 10 years Photoshop and other programs probably won't carry support for the type of file that my current camera shoots, but it will always support a DNG file. I always delete the CR2 files and save the DNG's. I don't save JPEG's as I can easily export them later, but I do save any JPEG's that I've edited and retouched. I organize all my pictures by year and month and I'm lucky enough to have my own built-in IT guy who made me a server for back-up. I didn't even ask. In my actual desktop I have two 1-TB drives (one that backs-up automatically) and then I transfer to the server in a separate location for additional back-up. Before this system I owned about 13 external hard drives (I still have most of those actually...) and I just made sure I had at least two copies of everything.

I have my Mom's nice camera...is there a setting that's best for doing indoor shots? Either I don't use the flash and my pictures are blurry, or I end up using it, and then they look, well, like I've flashed a bright light at my kids right before taking the picture (not good). ...what would be your advice for getting good shots indoors? For instance, my two boys were snuggling with each other in bed tonight, and I wanted to get a cute picture of them, but there's not much lighting in that room, what would you have done? It sounds like you have a dSLR? This is a bit of a tricky question, as every indoor setting will be different and there are several things that could be done, based on the equipment you own. The first thing, however, is to take it off of auto so you can be in control. In a dark situation without flash you'll first need to raise the ISO. Check your manual (you should be able to find them online) if you don't know where these buttons are! The higher the ISO the more "noisy" or "grainy" the picture will look, but it's better than blurry. There should be a few different semi-manual settings, two of which are called AV and TV (on Canon, A or S on Nikon I believe). AV lets you choose the aperture and the camera chooses the shutter speed, while TV (or S) lets you choose the shutter speed and the camera chooses the aperture. In this situation you would want to choose the shutter speed. The rule of thumb for choosing a shutter speed that results in a sharp picture is to take the length of the lens and stick it in the denominator of a 1/X fraction. SO, if you have a lens that is 100mm you would try to keep the shutter speed at 1/100th second or faster. You can experiment to see what you're able to hand-hold. I once hand-held a 200mm lens at 1/15th sec, but I had to be super steady! I typically don't shoot below 1/200th sec if I can help it. As far as using the flash, the best option is to get a flash that doesn't pop-up from the camera.
This is what I would do in your situation: Take a flash that sits on top of the camera and point it either to the ceiling or a wall (as long as the wall is a neutral light color like white, grey, or even light yellow). The flash will bounce off of the wall and land softly and nicely on your children :). When you use a flash the shutter speed rule doesn't typically apply. You can use longer shutter speeds if you have a flash. This is an example of a picture where it was too dark inside and I bounced my flash off a wall:
This is how the flash will look:
Or like this:

What actions do you use? I nearly exclusively use Totally Rad Actions. The only exception to that rule are actions that I made myself. When I'm editing a picture I'll generally create anywhere from 5 to 20 different layers with somewhere around 3 to 8 different actions used. I alter the opacity of different actions and layers. Some good actions if you can't afford it or don't want to spend the money are Pioneer Woman's actions. I highly recommend downloading them! Here's one example of one of my pictures before and after action use:
(this one is SOOC - Straight out of Camera) Actions used: Lux (soft) at 60%, Oh Snap! at 46%, Yin (from Yin/Yang) on select areas at a low opacity, Green With Envy on select areas at a low opacity, one of my own that just affects some color toning, Antique Tone at 30%, and Select-O-Sharp on select areas at different opacities. I know there's not a huge difference (and I think it's even less noticeable on the blog), but I don't like to over-process. Every picture on this blog has been edited in photoshop, most of them with TRA. Let me know if you'd like to see more examples!

What I was bummed about in my photos was the sun. In some of the photos the faces turned out too dark or too light. Maybe you can spend some time on the proper usage of light. I could talk about light all day! I will probably come back to this at a later time and discuss it more, but I'll touch on it lightly today. The most important thing is to take your camera off of the auto-mode (it looks like you use a Nikon so I don't know exactly what your camera looks like, but it will probably be on the dial on the top left of your camera). From your description it sounds like some of your pictures were back-lit (the sun was behind them) and in others the sun was probably directly on them, making them too light. In these situations it's important to make sure you expose (your use of putting together the aperture and the shutter speed) for their faces and not the whole scene. You can do this by shooting on manual and choosing both the aperture and the shutter speed based on what your light meter tells you. I'm only going to touch on one way to fix this for now. The section I marked below "Light Meter/Exposure compensation" is very useful for manual or semi-manual (AV, TV, or P on Canon; A, S, or P on Nikon). As I said above, AV (A) lets you choose the aperture, TV (S) lets you choose the shutter speed, and P (program) is basically an auto-mode, but lest you use some of the other features on the camera (oh, and M is for completely manual). If your subject is back-lit by the sun and you're in one of the semi-manual modes you can use the exposure compensation to your advantage. When the little line is in the middle (it goes from -2 to +2) it basically means it's properly exposed according to the camera. By dialing it up to +1 or so, the faces will be lighter and by dialing it down to -1 they'll be darker. On my camera I dial it up by using the wheel on the back after pressing the third button on the top. The picture below is a good example. If I had let the camera do all the thinking the couple would be really dark and the background would look properly exposed. But I did it the way I wanted to do things and I don't care that the background isn't exposed correctly because the people are. I have some more questions to answer, but I just realized how long this is getting! I'm sure I bored most of you to death, so I'll try to get better at being more concise!

The Day Before

2009-11-10T16:39:00.004-06:00

Some of my out of state weddings choose to do an engagement-type session the day before their wedding so they can get some cute pictures together without being dressed up and I always love it! Angelin and Ryan got married in Florida (well, in a boat off the coast of Florida) and the evening before we went out to the pier in Cocoa Beach and did some shooting!

Angelin and Ryan have been together since high school! They were obviously so comfortable and in-love and fun around each other. It's always so fun to see how two people in-love interact and be able to capture that :).

This first shot is one of my favs!

Another favorite!

I often have people tell me they love how a lot of my portraits seem more candid and photo-journalistic. I think this is a good post to point out that, while most of these pictures seem pretty non-invasive, I actually posed them (told them where to put their hands, to look at each other, to look at me, how to sit/stand, nuzzle each other, etc) in most of the shots and then let them do their thing so it looks natural and unforced. I think they did a pretty good job with all my orders :).

upI'll probably be blogging less in the next month or so I can get all my client's proofing galleries, but I'll try to sneak in a picture or two every few days!

Whitney & Nick!

2009-11-09T11:46:00.005-06:00

Whitney and Nick had a small intimate wedding in the summer, but after I photographed her sister's bridals and wedding I was able to go back and photograph the newlyweds! Whitney is so gorgeous and I didn't even touch her eyes to make them lighter or bluer than they already are!

New Proofing Site!

2009-11-03T16:47:00.001-06:00

I've been working on my new proofing site for a while now and, though it's not 100% I'd like to share it with all of you! You can see it here. You'll have to create a login when you get there so you can use the features such as marking favorites and so you can see pricing. The old one is still up, but I will slowly be trying to move all of my shoots from that site to this one. Let me know what you do and don't like about it and I'll see what I can do. Thanks!

Happy Halloween from Claire!

2009-10-31T11:33:00.004-05:00

I know these pictures have nothing to do with Halloween, but they were too cute to not share. This first one totally cracks me up. Can't believe she's already four months old!

Megan and Cliff's Wedding!

2009-10-27T13:09:00.005-05:00

On the morning of Megan and Cliff's wedding it poured. There were a lot of worried people, but as soon as the lovely couple stepped through the front doors of the Provo, UT Temple the skies parted and out came the sun! Besides a little wind at the reception later, it was a beautiful day!

The reception was at Megan's parents' home, which is where we did their bridals here, and everything looked amazing! All the little details came together so perfectly.

Megan gave Cliff a thumbs up (for not smashing the cake in her face, I assume).

Their favorite little nephew :).

First dance! If I remember correctly, they danced to Elvis!

Congratulations!

Spam Fail

2009-10-23T22:57:00.002-05:00

So I happened to check my spam the other day and found 17 messages that weren't supposed to be there, including messages from clients and potential clients (and many that I usually receive regularly). I don't know how long this has been going on as I'm not usually incredibly diligent at checking my spam, so if you've sent me an email in the recent past and I didn't respond, please send it again! My email address is kelli @ kelli nicole photography.com. Thanks!

Malinda and Bill's engagements!

2009-10-22T23:30:00.000-05:00

Malinda was almost my roommate...until she met Bill :). Their wedding will be my first Houston(ish) wedding next month and I can't wait!

What I've been up to!

2009-10-21T23:01:00.001-05:00

I need to apologize for neglecting my blog so much lately! I've been traveling like crazy the last few months and have been working on TONS of shoots! Washington, San Francisco (twice), LA, Minnesota, Salt Lake City, St. George, not to mention my home in Houston, and this weekend I'm headed to Virginia! Next week is Utah :).

Here's a taste of what I've been doing!

Dustin and Crystal

2009-10-21T12:45:00.004-05:00

This was my first real shoot in Houston and this gorgeous couple is now getting married this week! I was already booked up for their wedding date, but I'm soooo glad I got to do their engagements. We found so many awesome locations, some really close to where I live.

Aren't they stunning?? I get the best clients.

My boyfriend came along to shoot with me and he did such an amazing job!! Especially since I didn't really do a good job of instructing him beforehand (oops). He took the shot below and I'm so proud of him! My favorite part is the bottom right corner ;).

Thanks so much Dustin and Crystal! I can't wait to hang out after you're an old married couple :).

Craig and Jackie engaged!

2009-10-13T23:00:00.005-05:00

Craig has been one of my favorite people and best friends since we both moved to California when he was 14 and I was 17. He followed me to BYU and we always had such a blast when we hung out! He recently returned home from a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Orlando, Florida where he spoke Haitian Kreyol (I believe he also learned Portuguese, polished off his Spanish, lost some of his Japanese, and probably invented a new language while he was there). During that time I collected letters, lots and lots of letters, and he did the same.

It was so much fun to photograph his engagements at one of the raddest places in Utah. Thanks so much to his little sister Miranda for coming out and helping SO much! There were several shots we wouldn't have been able to get if she hadn't been there.

Their wedding is already coming up in the next few weeks, and I'm so excited to see everyone so soon!

And this is the sunset we got to enjoy!

Jackie, welcome to one of my favorite families ever!

Ty, Tessa, and Max

2009-10-13T17:00:00.004-05:00

I found these images on my computer today of my adorable nieces and nephews that I had totally forgotten about! I couldn't help but share them.

This first one is SO them.
The baby brother, now 5 1/2 months old!

Play Time!

2009-10-13T16:21:00.003-05:00

I got to photograph my cousin's play group at the park and this first handsome little man is my cousin's boy!

I love his face. The other kids were darling too!

San Francisco Trip

2009-10-01T14:29:00.002-05:00

Hey all you friends from the state I love so much! I haven't been able to schedule as many shoots as I would have liked for my upcoming trip to the bay area so I'm going to be shortening my trip. If there is anyone out there who'd like to schedule something let me know soon so I don't accidentally cut off the days you might be available :). Thanks!

Scott, Liz, and Will

2009-09-29T15:03:00.002-05:00

I knew Liz when we were in high school in the bay area (she was a year ahead of me and at my rival school). I was super delighted to hear last year that she was expecting a baby and it was so great to finally meet her family! Their little boy is SO darling I could barely stand it. Despite the unexpected chilly/misty/windy weather that we often find in San Francisco in the summer he was perfect the whole time.

Aren't they the cutest family?!? Liz and Scott's first date was a double with his parents, lol.

A quick stop at Kara's Cupcakes to warm up also proved to be a great place for pictures!

What do dads do best?? Play! We almost always gets some real fun smiles when dad goofs off.

Where did the time go??

2009-09-29T14:59:00.003-05:00

Wow, I had no idea I'd neglected my blog for so long! I have a TON of work I'm trying to catch up on and get things out to clients and I'm sorry I've been absent for the month of September.

Anyway, I'm so happy there's so much interest in the tutorials and question/answer segments! If I get enough questions together by next week I'll do my first one. I already have a few sitting in my inbox, so thanks to those who sent them! Once again, anyone who has a question leave a comment here or send an email to kelli @ kellinicolephotography.com with a subject that says something to do with tutorials or blog questions. Thanks!

Monthly Tutorials?

2009-09-10T05:27:00.006-05:00

Hi to all of my friends, family, and nameless blog stalkers (no hating, I am a total self-proclaimed blog stalker). For the last several months I've been considering doing a bimonthly or monthly post with tutorials and/or a question/answer section. I get lots of emails and phone calls from old friends and strangers (or new friends :)) asking questions and I would love to start getting those answers out to more people and let people know they don't need to be afraid to ask questions!

Most of what I know I learned from asking questions and looking to other photographers and I really think that I'd be selfish to not help out other people as I've been helped. I know a lot of photographers like to keep their "secrets" as far as locations and work flow etc, but that's their way of doing things. I truly think networking and sharing are the best ways for building businesses and friendships and there's no need to be cut-throat or believe "every man for himself" in this business.

Believe me, I know I'm not an expert in the industry, but they DID force us to learn a few things during those 4 pesky years at college as well as these years with personal experience and I would especially love questions about how to do certain things that I'm already doing (this probably means I'm lazy). Topics can range from basic camera use (exposure, aperture, white balance) to business questions or what kind of gear I buy/software I use as well as photoshop...stuff. If I don't know an answer I'll do my best to figure it out!

I have no idea if I'm being self-delusional or not, so answer my poll and let me know if you think this is a good idea and will participate or if it's really just a waste of time :).

If you have specific questions you'd like to be answered in a post or a tutorial you'd like to see me do feel free to leave a comment at any time and I'll save them up or email me at kelli (at) kellinicolephotography.com with the subject line "blog post tutorial (or blog post question)." Thanks everyone!

Would you be interested in regular reader-based tutorials and/or question/answer posts?(survey software)

Allison and Dallin engaged!

2009-09-02T18:18:00.005-05:00

I've probably known Dallin since he was like...6. I used to visit California every summer when I was a kid and play with him and his 8 siblings! So fun. I also photographed Allison's senior pics a few years ago, her sister's senior pics, Dallin's sister's senior pics, and Dallin's sister's wedding! I LOVE my repeat clients and friends :).

These two have to wait until Dallin graduates from West Point to get married, so come next summer they'll be newlyweds.

Isn't she beautiful?! They were so much fun to photograph.

Around now it started raining...but that didn't stop us!

It was also REALLY foggy.

And SUPER windy!! This one cracks me up.

One funny thing about their relationship is that their dads work together and actually set them up! So at least we know they both approved of the relationship :). So fun to see you both again!

Shay and Dan's reception

2009-09-01T14:17:00.007-05:00

Part 2 of Shay and Dan! It was a lovely reception. Check out these amazing centerpieces!

Cake buffet!
Enter the bride and groom!
Working last minute on the toast :).
This guy much be quite the story teller!
Due to the airline mishaps my luggage didn't make it, but Jenna lives in black clothing and was able to throw some stuff together for me!
The toasts created quite a wide range of responses.
From tears...
to laughter...
to embarrassment?

More laughter.

I find these next two quite funny.

Time to decorate the car! (Dad is an organic onion farmer, hence the onions).
Everyone got involved.
Though not everyone wanted to be known.

Farewell!

Shay and Dan's big day!

2009-08-31T14:27:00.004-05:00

After some crazy airline mishaps and lots of stress I actually made it to Washington
much to everyone's relief! It was a little hot, but such a beautiful day, which started bright and early in the hotel rooms getting ready.

Aren't these shoes so cool?? The other one says "I Do."

Shay sneaking up for the first look :).

Shay gave Dan a note that she wrote when she was a teenager to her "future husband." It was hilarious, and adorable!

All the little girls were SO darling!!

The reception is coming tomorrow!

Hey hey San Francisco

2009-08-26T11:36:00.005-05:00

For all my bay area clients, I'll be back in the area October 8-19th scheduling shoots on weekdays. If you want to schedule something shoot me an email at kelli @ kellinicolephoto.com.

For everyone, in case you look at my blog through a feed or just haven't noticed, I now post my travel dates and locations on the side bar of my blog (over here --->). I try to keep it updated, so if you're curious about where I am, check it out!

Just a quick one

2009-08-18T12:21:00.003-05:00

Of the beautiful bride. Her eyes are just so striking I couldn't let this one go by!

Shay and Dan!

2009-08-18T01:12:00.006-05:00

I just got to Utah on Thursday night from my family reunion in Minnesota and I'm back in business. I'll be showing plenty of pictures of my adorable nieces and nephews (we had 19 people in one house, including 8 children under 9), but first up, lots of pictures of my wonderful clients and friends.

I was so happy Shay trusted me with her wedding as she's a photographer herself! As are her mom AND her sister. It's a lot of pressure.

Introducing the lovely couple!

I Love LA

2009-08-05T02:22:00.004-05:00

And this was such an amazing way to see it.

More adventures from the rooftop and downtown with a vespa coming soon.

Linnea and Mark engaged!

2009-08-02T13:36:00.004-05:00

I got to go into San Francisco with Linnea and Mark (and their adorable 4-year-old twins) to do a few engagements for them! I love doing shoots in big cities because there's SO much variety. I did several shoots this week in the city and they're all different.

I was doing this first picture of Linnea and Mark when the twins just jumped into the picture, lol! They are so adorable!

Mark used to play for the Giants, how cool is that?! His name is on this plaque in McCovey Park, right outside of AT&T Park.

After pictures I got to go down on the field and take some pictures! It was so much fun. Congratulations! Thanks so much for the fun afternoon!

Will

2009-07-31T01:51:00.004-05:00

I couldn't go to bed (I mean go pack for my trip to LA in the morning) until I showed the world this cuteness. He comes from such an adorable family, just one of the many shoots I did this week in San Francisco!

Shay and Jenna

2009-07-28T14:43:00.003-05:00

Usually a wedding sneak peak includes a bride AND a groom, but I made a little promise to one of my closest friends...who happens to be this bride's big sister. Jenna's wedding was last October in Seattle and it was such an honor to be able to head back to Washington to shoot Shay's wedding. For now, here are a couple of pictures of the lovely sisters, with promises of the bride and groom coming soon!

Megan and Cliff

2009-07-20T10:44:00.004-05:00

I knew Megan back when we were both freshman at BYU! She lived next door to me and I recall being amazed that she wore a 3 or 4 shoe size (correct me if I'm wrong, Megan!). We didn't really see each other or speak again until recently when she asked me to shoot her bridals and we figured out that I was available for her wedding too! We did this shoot at her parent's house. It was stunning. I am so lucky.

Megan and Cliff met in class (they're both going to Law School!). They are going to have some SMART (and beautiful) kids.

Her adorable little sisters wore their flower girl dresses so we got some shots of them too! Can you believe they all lucked out with that amazing hair and those blue eyes?!

Due to some construction I was able to climb into a dried-up pond to take this picture. I believe this is also where Cliff proposed. So sweet.

This shoot went soooo amazingly and I can't wait for the wedding!!

Megan and Cliff sneak peak

2009-07-16T10:52:00.002-05:00

Aren't they gorgeous?? More coming soon...

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-15T10:37:00.003-05:00

Yeah, yeah, I'm a little late, but if you saw how late I usually am on personal pictures you'd be shocked to see these up so soon. It was the first time I've ever actually photographed fireworks (and I've somehow missed most of the last 5 years of celebration, once flying over the pacific ocean and missing the day entirely), so it was fun to be able to do this.

Fireworks, however, are not my specialty :). Favorites?

More of Claire

2009-07-10T22:58:00.004-05:00

Rock on!

Bay Area clients

2009-07-09T16:47:00.001-05:00

I still have some openings available in the bay area when I'm in town July 26-30th. Let me know if you'd like to schedule something! Thanks!

Emily and Peter

2009-07-09T16:39:00.002-05:00

When I booked this wedding, on my twin sister's due date, I thought, "Oh, babies are only born on their due date about 5% of the time and most first time moms typically go about 10 days late, no biggie." Guess who decided to come on her due date? And guess who barely made it back in time for the birth? My last nephew that was born came 4 weeks early the day I graduated from college (I missed commencement, barely made it to graduation). I think it's some kind of conspiracy.

Anyway, I digress.

Emily and Peter had such a lovely wedding and I was so honored to get to spend the day with them. The details all came together beautifully and I loved that they added their own unique style to the day (check out the groom's cake below!).

They looked so happy to be together.

The wedding cake was cheesecake! This is my kind of wedding!
YUM.

Congratulations! It was wonderful to be there.

Karen and Chandler engaged!

2009-06-26T13:20:00.005-05:00

This was my first real shoot with my 5D Mark II! It actually got rescheduled due to the torrential downpours Utah was experiencing. I heard that out of 17 days it rained 12 of them. What is this?? So I actually had to leave my sister while she was in labor to do this shoot, lol (the baby still didn't come for nearly another day).

I met Karen last year on a trip to Mexico with a non-profit group called Kaiizen. They go with huge groups of mostly college students to orphanages down there and put on parties for the kids along with service such as building schools and painting murals. I can still remember Karen talking all about Chandler on the drive down there :). The trips are always a lot of fun and a great way to meet awesome people! Awesome people like Karen.

Favorite.

Another favorite.

Their eyes are killing me.

Heavy Weight

2009-06-25T02:18:00.004-05:00

I hope she doesn't hate me some day for saying that :). After 3 days of trying to get this picture we finally succeeded. By the way, don't try and make her do something she doesn't want to do.

Robyn and Kevin's Wedding!

2009-06-24T01:45:00.004-05:00

Here are the rest of the pictures from Robyn and Kevin's awesome wedding! I think I told her about 50 times, but I LOVE her dress. I love that it's not white and I would totally wear it myself. If only I was tall enough to get away with flat shoes though :).

Robyn really loves sun flares. The the day we shot their engagements it was raining. No sun. Then the evening before the wedding when we did the pre-wedding pics, it was overcast. No sun. At the temple the sun was far too overhead to get good sun flare, so on the way back to Ramona for the reception we stopped at this field. And got several of these (not without about 87 prickly things attaching themselves to my legs and dress or ants crawling through her bouquet, but I think it was worth it).

I always love the dancing pictures :).

Congratulations!!

Happy Father's Day!

2009-06-22T14:34:00.003-05:00

I know I'm a day late, but better late than never, right?? And a super special Happy Father's Day to the newest father in my family, here with his 7-day-old little monkey.

Robyn and Kevin...on the beach

2009-06-21T01:20:00.004-05:00

I got to go all the way to San Diego for Robyn and Kevin's wedding! I really love Southern California and they took me to an awesome beach for some pictures and a first look the evening before the wedding. It was super super overcast and we lost the light pretty quickly, but we got a lot of awesome shots in!

More from the rest of the wedding coming on Monday!

This is Houston

2009-06-17T12:14:00.004-05:00

Who's up for a shoot in Houston?? I never knew how much I would love this city, but I do. So far. My BYU photographer friend Whitney who's in town for a few months wanted to go on a walk along the Buffalo Bayou trail (I think that's what it's called) from her apt to downtown so I took my camera along. After about 30 minutes I seriously regretted it, but once we got to the rockin' parts I was SO happy. These are all taken with my brand spankin' new Canon 5D Mark II (which I'm in-love with) and the Canon 50 mm 1.2.

These were all either IN downtown or really close to downtown under the overpasses. I LOVE those overpasses.

Please forgive us for being in running clothes with no make-up or showers, but I didn't expect to love these pictures enough to blog them!

Claire Nicole

2009-06-15T01:59:00.006-05:00

Is the name of this little beauty...

In the first picture she's only about an hour old and the rest she's 24 hours old. If you've called or emailed me without a response, this is the reason why. With labor starting on Thursday, but no baby until Saturday night (and only about 5 hours of sleep for me), plus a wedding 2 hours away (and barely making it back in time for the baby's birth), I've been a little distracted :).

She's the lovely product of my identical twin sister and her husband and I nearly cried when they told me her full name. Those are quite the cheeks, eh? 10 lbs 3 oz of adorable baby chub to love. She doesn't even fit into the newborn clothes we have for her :). I'm sitting here in the hospital on a tiny little love seat to sleep on and I'm so so glad to be here. Welcome little girl!! You are so loved.

Brittney and Brett!

2009-06-10T15:11:00.004-05:00

Brittney was my roommate my last semester/year at BYU (I continued bumming on the couch sporadically after I came back from Africa) and she's the first from our apt to get married :). I got all the texts throughout the beginning of their relationship about first dates, holding hands, and first kisses. So fun to finally get to meet the guy! Congratulations! Can't wait for the wedding!

Brittney and Brett sitting in a tree...
K-I-S-S-I-N-G (sorry, couldn't resist)

Toolson family

2009-06-10T02:12:00.005-05:00

The day after Andrew & Carrie's wedding I photographed the groom's side of the family while they were all still together! They're one of the most beautiful families I've ever known!

Keep an eye out in Pottery Barn kids for this one :)

After successfully ignoring and pushing away his sister this little guy suddenly lurched at her and threw that chubby little arm around her neck. Adorable.

Help?

2009-06-04T12:21:00.002-05:00

Anybody seen one of these on a blog?

Maybe I'm completely technically inept (though I can edit html on my own website and figure out other computer things...), but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to post a comment using one of these. I'll be logged into my google account and will select that as the profile (I've even tried using the anonymous profile when allowed), but as soon as I try to either preview or post a comment it just deletes it. What is wrong with me?? Anyone?

It's Travel Time!

2009-06-03T11:13:00.006-05:00

For those of you who don't yet know, I'm now living in and running my business out of Houston, TX! I even have my own bed, a desk, and a dresser. It's pretty exciting. However, I'll be traveling a lot over the next few months so I thought I'd put down my dates on here. Also, if you're looking at my blog (opposed to google reader) you can see on the right where my current location is and what's coming up next.

Here it goes:

June 7th-June 25th: Utah. I have a wedding and several other shoots scheduled, and my twin sister is having her first baby and we want me to be there. Any shoots scheduled during this time will have to be slightly flexible, on the off-chance that she is in heavy labor during your scheduled shoot (if she happens to be in labor the day of your shoot I'll contact you as soon as possible).

July 24/25th: TriCities, Washington! Excited to shoot the wedding of a close friend's little sister.

July 26-30th: San Francisco bay area.

July 31st/Aug 1st: LA for a wedding!

August 2-13th: Minneapolis, MN for a family reunion. It will be the first time my family has all been together since my sister's wedding 5 years ago! I have 4 siblings and they each have children, so it will be soooo fun to all be together. I won't be doing much work during that time, but could possibly squeeze in a shoot if I happen to have any blog readers out that way!

August 14/15th: Utah! It's wedding time! If I have any clients that would like to schedule shoots in the days following that I can extend my trip by a few days.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for the fall schedule in another month or two!

Carrie and Andrew!

2009-05-30T14:04:00.007-05:00

Despite the rain, this was such a beautiful wedding! Congratulations!

Aren't these flowers amazing?!?

30% off Canvas Sale!

2009-05-28T15:56:00.002-05:00

Order now until Saturday and get 30% off any canvas prints! Contact me for orders.

More of my family

2009-05-27T22:31:00.003-05:00

Ran across these today...from about forever ago. I suppose I forgot about them, but I loved some of these so much I wanted to share (plus it's easy to blog when you suddenly come across several already edited pictures)!

Max, again

2009-05-27T11:01:00.002-05:00

Somehow I forgot about this one, but just found it on my computer and I love it. I love that it shows how white his eyelashes are too. He's now 1 month 3 days old and I miss him!

Veronica-Senior #3

2009-05-23T12:10:00.004-05:00

I've probably known Veronica since she was born...yep, pretty sure. I used to visit California every summer and play with her older siblings and I also shot her older sister's wedding a couple of years ago. I didn't know Veronica very well since she was so much younger, but we had too much fun on this shoot! We didn't have much planned besides heading into San Francisco and we discovered soooo many ridiculously cool locations. See for yourself :).

I had her stop at Kara's cupcakes for her first one ever (I'm slightly obsessed). She loved it. And this is really making me want one right now!!!

Susannah-Senior #2

2009-05-21T13:53:00.002-05:00

Susannah and Michelle are best friends (they're the 2 featured in this shot) and after Michelle left we focused solely on Susannah! She was totally awesome and wants to be a photographer! I graduated from BYU (where Michelle is going) and Susannah is headed to BYU-I (where my twin sister actually went). Good luck to both of you!

Michelle

2009-05-20T12:39:00.004-05:00

Michelle was my first of 3 seniors a few weeks ago and I had such a great time with them!! Anyone else who wants to do a senior shoot...ever...let me know. I'm up for it :).

Rain can't stop me...sneak peak of Carrie and Andrew

2009-05-15T09:57:00.004-05:00

Hopefully you can see just what we were up against. It was POURING. By the end we got some rain-free shots, but you'll have to wait to see those.

I was standing in the normally dry creek bed here with this lovely lady holding an umbrella over me (the groom's sister).

Jen and Spencer's Wedding!

2009-05-13T16:02:00.003-05:00

It was a beautiful day (though a bit chilly in the shade) for a wedding in Salt Lake City! Jen has the coolest blog and she and Spencer are both very talented designers! Which might help explain how freakin' awesome their wedding was.

Spencer sang to Jen! Sooo sweet.
First dance :). I love these moments.

Congratulations! Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of your day!

Max at 14 days

2009-05-09T16:37:00.003-05:00

He now smiles on demand.

Max at 13 days

2009-05-09T16:36:00.002-05:00

Max at 12 days

2009-05-09T16:30:00.003-05:00

With big brother Ty (who was a great sport, especially after being peed on. He was very concerned about being pooped on as well).

Max at 11 days

2009-05-06T14:42:00.003-05:00

Max

2009-05-04T19:34:00.005-05:00

Here are a few pictures of the little guy as soon as he came home from the hospital at 2 days old! He weighed in at about 5 lbs 12 oz. He was born on April 24, so now he's 10 days old! Can't wait to see him again.

Daddy with the new big sis while Max took a nursing break.

It's official!

2009-05-04T00:23:00.005-05:00

I graduated! Granted, I could have graduated much earlier, but if I had I wouldn't share my graduation day with the birthday of my newest nephew (born at the U of U hospital...our rival).

For those who don't know the story, this little guy surprised us all by coming 4 weeks early! My sister and her husband and 2 kids were moving to Minnesota from California when her water broke in Winnemucca, Nevada! It was a bit of a frantic day for us all, but they made it to SLC and she delivered safely early the next morning. 6 lb 4 oz, 19 inches long! Besides being a bit yellow he's perfectly healthy. It was so fun to all be there (my mom, my pregnant twin sister with our other sister on the phone, and the baby's dad of course) when the kid popped out and we discovered he was a he! He got down to around 5 lbs 12 oz so I'm going to have a tiny little peanut to photograph when I get back to Utah in a couple of days! Stay tuned for lots and lots of pictures.

Unfortunately, due to not sleeping the night before, I fell asleep plenty of times during my own graduation, but hey, I graduated!

And no, he still doesn't have a name. Update. His name is Max.

Welcome to the world little man!

Oh yeah, so I went to Italy...

2009-05-03T00:29:00.005-05:00

Here are a few more pictures from my trip!

Double Seniors

2009-04-30T21:35:00.003-05:00

I did a double senior shoot the other day at one of my favorite locations in Danville! (I seriously don't know how I forgot about this place). These 2 girls are best friends and both were so much fun and up for anything! More of both of them coming soon!

Baby Wes

2009-04-28T16:33:00.004-05:00

This little guy is the youngest of 4 and looks just like his older siblings! He has the bluest eyes and is a good example of what happens when you're patient :). Eventually, ALL babies will fall asleep. Eventually...

Ellie

2009-04-21T18:25:00.003-05:00

I got to photograph this little cutie, who was so great for me!! We spent a lot of time running around at the park having fun :). Hopefully more later when I get the chance to go through them all!

Jen and Spencer's Wedding!

2009-04-20T17:38:00.003-05:00

Thought I'd put up a quick sneak sneak peak of Jen and Spencer's wedding from Saturday! Congratulations! Spencer, you are one lucky guy!!

First Taste of Italy

2009-04-13T07:29:00.004-05:00

I thought I'd grab one quick pic from my trip to Italy as I've been bombarded with people wanting to see some :). This is Vernazza in Cinque Terre, coolest place ever.

So...I'm leaving

2009-04-02T08:20:00.004-05:00

Again. My life is a constant whirlwind of travel. Today I think I'll go to Italy. If you need me, I'll be back on April 11th. Ciao!

Jenna Cole

2009-03-26T00:29:00.004-05:00

Here are the promised pictures of Jenna! After one of Jenna's shoots we were driving home and stopped the car to take a few pictures of each other before the light ran out and we found this awesome wall! It matched Jenna's shirt and her eyes perfectly. Unlike many photographers the two of us thoroughly enjoy having our picture taken, even if it still feels a little awkward :). So much fun!

This is why I like being a photographer...

2009-03-25T00:53:00.008-05:00

with photographer friends! I'm up in Dallas right now visiting my friend Jenna and we took a few pictures of each other this evening. This is the only one I've edited so far, but I really like it :). I'll get around to some pictures of her too, I promise!

A bit more of Africa...a year later

2009-03-23T23:50:00.003-05:00

I've finally been able to upload the rest of my Africa pictures and I've even been able to glance through them a little. I've only edited this picture so far, but this little girl's face just jumped out at me. I spent the afternoon with this family and about 10-12 kids running around jumping in front of my camera :). This one was completely naked the whole time without a care in the world. Hopefully there will be more soon!

Sometimes, I neglect my family, & then I discover these, months later

2009-03-13T11:31:00.007-05:00

It's kinda like Christmas. With pictures from October being finally uploaded in March. I apologize to my family for neglecting all their pictures (but give me a break, I have 4 siblings and they're all married and all have children).

Stringer family

2009-03-10T20:00:00.008-05:00

Bronwyn and I went to high school together and now she has a beautiful family that I had the pleasure of photographing! Isn't her little girl darling?!? I love those huge brown eyes!

Mom especially wanted me to get some pictures of G and daddy together. I think we got some super cute ones!

Telling secrets :)

The Pout

2009-03-05T01:24:00.003-06:00

I have plenty of smiling pictures of this little beauty, but I'm such a sucker for those serious faces. I'm pretty sure my hair wasn't this long until I was about 9 (and she's only 2 1/2). More coming soon of the whole family!

Noah at 8 days

2009-03-03T12:52:00.004-06:00

Photographing this little guy was fun...and messy! It's always something you just have to expect when working with naked babies.

Looks peaceful here, doesn't he? What you don't know is that he's making a big mess on that plate :).

However, he was great on the beanbag and didn't make even one little mess on any of my stuff!

They were nice enough to help me move the couch and take down several framed pictures for these shots!

Clean-up break. While he kept my things spotless he didn't seem to care so much about his parents...or the carpet.

Mom had this awesome chest they keep toys in (big sister kept trying to get the toys out when we weren't looking!) and I knew I wanted to use it! This is one of the last shots we got and I think we were all amazed he fell back asleep for this!

It was raining outside, but I just loved this path they have in their backyard so we had baby all bundled up and dad holding an umbrella above him! We had a hat on him for a few, but I just love this one.

Jen and Spencer engaged!

2009-02-23T22:35:00.006-06:00

I am soooo happy with this shoot! It was great to go around to various locations that I've never shot at in San Francisco (where this couple lives). I have so many favorites from this shoot it'd be impossible to pick one!

Reflections. I love them. So much.

I saw this purple wall and had them pull over. I love these!!

It was so wonderful meeting you!!

Mammoth Men!!!

2009-02-19T05:13:00.007-06:00

I'm home for a few hours of sleep (and apparently blogging) before I head out again to the land of no internet, but I pretty much would have shot myself before waiting 4 more days to post these pictures.

I went to the BluDomain party Tuesday night at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas (part of my WPPI extravaganza) and got a few shots of some of my favorite people :). The Mammoth Men were featured and the 12 guys each karaoke'd for us. It was special.

Bobbi sure knows how to rock.
Mammoth Men wives rocked the floor like groupies, which made for some great shots!
Michael Norwood got down with his bad self.

Matt Sloan showed us how to rock the air guitar like a superstar.

Nate, well, he glistened.

And proved that he's a rockstar.
Chantastic killed it.
Meet the suave Gabriel Ryan
Justin and Amelia Lyon taught us all about thongs and the cool way to wear red pants with pink shoes. And yellow skinny jeans.
Mark Brooke got everyone feelin' it. Especially Gabriel.
Kyle Barnes somehow got Jeff to start taking off his clothes.
Jeremy Parsons swooned us. And his wife on her voicemail. At 2 am.

A quick photo-op with Mammoth Men wives plus Jessica Claire! My head looks huge. I know.
Eligible bachelor Fred Egan everyone...The ONLY single mammoth men.
Jory Cordy amazed us all with his mad skillz.
And Jeff Newsom, well, lets just say he knows how to ROCK.
I think it's obvious.
Dave and Quin partied right along with the rest of us.

AND the MAMMOTH MEN

Best. Party. EVER.

Vegas, California, Arizona, and Houston

2009-02-16T01:09:00.006-06:00

In several hours I'll be boarding yet another plane and this time I'm headed to Vegas! Sin city is going to be (well, already is) inundated with lots and lots...and lots of photographers this week and I'm excited to be one of them :). I don't know if I'll have any internet access while I'm there but if you need to contact me just give me a call or please be patient :). I'll be traveling a lot the next two weeks and will be in Northern California, Southern California, Vegas, Arizona, and finally finishing off in Texas (yes, I'm driving there).

Anyone in Houston need a photographer? How about a friend? I'll be living there for the month of March so feel free to call me up if you want to get together for any reason!

And a picture of an adorable couple that I am soooo excited to blog! Coming soon!

Tessa

2009-02-12T18:51:00.003-06:00

I love her and her big blue eyes and her curly hair and her polka-dot jammies and all the attitude that comes with it :)

Robyn + Kevin engaged!

2009-02-11T03:51:00.010-06:00

See this first picture? This is why they should get an award. I was bundled up in a wool coat, scarf, and hat. Though Robyn did have a man to keep her warm...And ya know what? If you look hard enough at the last picture you'll see why we ended the shoot at that point.

Robyn and I used to work together at BYU and I remember meeting Kevin one day long ago in our lounge :). I remember thinking he had really cool hair. At one point Robyn commented "You must have a really strong stomach." Lol! I just like hanging out with couples in-love! I'm also pretty much in-love with their color choices (and I love that his shirt totally matches her eyes). We started the shoot off at Robyn's family's cabin and it had gorgeous light on the porch, despite the horrible weather! Pretty sure a May wedding in San Diego will be much, much warmer.

Carrie + Andrew engaged!

2009-02-07T23:23:00.007-06:00

So somehow I've sorta fallen into the roll of official photographer for this guy's family. I've photographed his sisters and their families here, here, here, and here! Oh, and here. I'm so excited for Carrie and Andrew's wedding in May at my favorite temple! They were so relaxed and fun and Andrew had Carrie cracking up the entire time. Congratulations!! It was so great to meet you :).

Robyn + Kevin

2009-01-24T20:15:00.003-06:00

Wanted to post a quick picture from today's engagement shoot! Same story as before, I've hardly looked at a handful of pictures, but wanted to show off my attractive clients. I'll tell you more about the shoot next time :).

Oh, and funny thing about these shoots, both couples are getting married in California! And I'm doing an engagement shoot in February in California for a couple that's getting married in Utah. Go figure.

Carrie + Andrew, just one

2009-01-24T11:28:00.004-06:00

I'm in the process of uploading/importing/converting/backing up the pictures from this fun engagement shoot yesterday, and I just wanted to post one to show your their adorableness. This was one of my most relaxed, fun, happy engagement shoots yet. I've only seen about 15 pictures so far, but I'm excited to get through the rest and show you more!