I love photography! Pretty cliché I know. There is just so much to learn and explore. So many things to try. But the main reason I love photography is this "Photography is about savoring life at 1/100th of a second." - Marc Riboud
I am a portrait and wedding photographer based in Cedar City Utah. I also love landscape photography, but every great landscape I encounter, I can't help but think how much better the shot would be if I stuck a person in it.
This little gal had the coolest hair ever. Fourteen days old this one. Newborns are fun, yet challenging to photograph. The first two weeks of life goes by so fast and they change so much by the time they are 2 weeks old. You can’t get those fleeting precious weeks back. Good thing we have cameras.
So this is about as remote as you can get for a location shoot. For Maddie and her family, it was an 8 hour drive. Two of those hours were on a never-ending dirt road named Hole in the Rock Road. Maddie is my niece. Kids grow up so dang fast. We were on our annual spring family camping trip. This year we went out on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. I promised Maddie a photo shoot several months ago. Our paths only cross occasionally and most of the time there is no time for photos. This time, we made time.
The location is specifically Dance Hall Rock. We were camped a coupled miles south of it. By the time we got to Dance Hall Rock, the sun had set, so we were working in twilight. It was fun.
Also of note on this shoot, my 50mm lens took a huge tumble and survived. It rolled out of my bag, down the sandstone about 10 feet and landed in a big crack in the rock. I thought for sure it was toast, but there isn’t even a scratch on it.
Meet the Abster. So dang cute. She was so sleepy, yet she would not go to sleep for us. Little baby yawns are so stinkin’ cute. Two hours later, she was still awake and yawning. Mom and dad reported that she slept really well that night.
The one shot where her eyes are closed was actually a blink, not really sleeping:)
I hate that he has to grow up.
I gave him a hair cut yesterday and it made him look more grown up. He turned 19 months last week 
Gorgeous picture. But you are NOT allowed to cut his hair ever again!
I absolutely love the 1st one. That one needs to be framed. I love your photos and lighting.
Those are some of my favorite photos ever! Perfect lighting, perfect color, perfect angle, perfect subject.
It has been a tradition in years past for my family to go camping out on the San Rafael Swell over the Easter break. I have lots of fond memories of of hiking, exploring, four wheeling, and Easter egg hunting. The San Rafael Swell is an awesome place. It has been a while since we have actually gone, so it was really nice to get out there and spend some fun time with my family. Although the late March, early April weather is often windy, cold, and unpredictable out there, we still had fun. The kids didn’t even seem to be bothered by the weather. My boys loved every minute of it.
I am already dying to get out again. I am so looking forward to some good camping trips this spring and summer.
I love the look of tilt shift miniature photography. Even better, I love that you don’t have to actually have a $2,000 tilt shift lens to reproduce the effect. It can be done pretty effectively in Photoshop. I’m not sure how effective I was with it, but it is kind of fun. If you want to see much more awesomer (that’s right, I just said awesomer) tilt shift watch this day in the life of New York City in miniature video.
Easter egg hunting in miniature.
I’ve been inspired by photographer Johnathan Canlas to blog more personal stuff. My personal work is an important part of my photography. It has largely shaped my photographic style. My kids are one of my favorite subjects. They grow so dang fast that I try to take pictures of them on a weekly basis at least. My biggest joy in life is from being a dad. I have two boys and I love spending time with them. I also look forward to the many adventures we will have together. There will be no end to hikes, camping trips, and other adventures that we will go on. Right now they are young, so our adventures are pretty limited, but they happen none-the-less.
This winter has been an interesting one in Southern Utah. We have seen quite a bit of snow here in Cedar City. Our mountains are packed with snow. More than I have seen in the 9 years we have lived here. Most of the storms we have had haven’t dumped a lot of snow at one time, but we have had more frequent storms and many cloud covered days. More than usual. Spring around here is known for being unpredictable, so I don’t think we have seen the end of snow yet. However, we are longing for warm weather and the chance to play outside, go camping or something.
Today was another stay-inside day. The snow fell again. I get really sick of being cooped up inside the house. Cabin fever is raging within me. The snow did manage to draw us outside for a few minutes today to take these pictures.
Took these a while ago and realized I never posted any of them on my blog. This is Jarom, he is only about a week old in these pictures if I remember right. We had actually scheduled a maternity shoot with his mother and 2 days before the scheduled day, she went into labor and the little guy arrived.
I haven’t posted any pictures of my own kids on this blog before. Okay, so I have, but it has been a while. I figured I would keep that separate from my official photoshoots. But why? I don’t have a good reason. I take a ton of photos of my own kids so I figured once a month, I would share just a few of my favorites from that month here on this blog.
These are from January. My oldest is four. It is a fun age. He is definitely testing his boundaries and starting to look more like a little boy. He has grown almost 3 inches in the last few months. Still he is a lot of fun. It always takes some coaxing to get him to cooperate for photos. We usually come to a compromise of no more than 2 pictures that I can take at a time. I usually sneak in a few more than that:)
My youngest is almost 18 months old now. He is the cutest kid ever. We are going to have a struggle on our hands when it comes time to dump the binkies. Notice in this first shot he has two, one in the hand and one in the mouth. That is not uncommon for him. He’ll walk around like that and just keep switching every couple of minutes.
I tell people all the time that smiling pictures are over rated. I hear people say things like “oh I wish he was smiling.” Why? Don’t get me wrong. Smiling photos are great and it is always nice to capture kids when they are happy. However, the reality of life is that sometimes kids cry. It doesn’t make them any less cute though.
Now I feel obligated to show you that he does smile.
What can I say, the Rees family was great. This is the way all family photoshoots should go, especially big families. They were very relaxed and laid back. They wanted me to spend the first hour just taking candid shots of them doing their thing. The family had rented a cabin at Brian Head over Thanksgiving. It was an extended family photoshoot the way it should be done. Only one big group shot was taken.
The Rees family was different. They were very fun. They had no expectations of having everyone looking in the same direction. They also welcomed the fact that some kids would cry and get upset. They thought it was cute. They are right. As much as we would like to control how kids behave and how a photoshoot should go, kids are kids and I welcome that.
A beautiful family in a beautiful setting.
Last Sunday was a special occasion. My niece, the newest grandkid in the family, was blessed by her dad. This particular baby blessing was extra special because of what the little family has gone through in the last year. I am really proud of my brother, I can tell you that much. He is a great guy, always has been.
My sister in-law asked me to take some pictures of Ellie the day of the blessing. I was honored. I often take photos at family events without being asked, but if I get asked specifically, I will do a better job. This is because I put more effort into it. There is a big difference to me between taking pictures just because I am a photographer in the family and being specifically asked. If I know someone really wants pictures, I will put everything I’ve got into it.
The plan was to possibly find some outdoor locations close by, but we woke up to several inches of snow. So, we improvised a studio inside.
Ellie is just a few months younger than my littlest. I love this age. So stinkin’ cute.
baliHauh - July 11, 2010 - 6:10 am
Bravo, is simply magnificent idea
jhgHj.