Shooting my Mom

So I had the rare privilege of photographing my own mother's wedding. With it being her second marriage and in the LDS Salt Lake Temple, there were no photos of the actual ceremony/bridesmaid shots etc. The only photos I took were really more casual and full group shots. Plus, my mother's new husband wasn't too keen on having a ton of pictures.

BFA Photo

So as some of you may know, I'm officially graduating in December (if I pass my last three classes). I thought I'd post the image I submitted for the BFA exhibition. The image is one of my very close friend, practically a sister to me, taken with a large format camera (negative is 4x5"). Light was coming from my open door to the left, which worked amazingly well for me not pre-thinking the lighting situation. It was definitely one of those "AHA!" moments that really made the image come together nicely. As far as the tech-y part of the image, the shot itself was (I think) an eighth of a second or actually a second exposure or so because of the bellows factor and low ambiant light typical in indoor situations for any of you working with one of those old cameras, but thankfully she stayed pretty amazingly still thus negating a ton of potential motion blur, a definite advantage of having a model familiar with the challenge.

Alexis' Shoot

So I got around to editing some of the other photos and thought I'd share some of my personal favorites with you all. We tried a couple different locations: one downtown in a fun, sort of funky painted area with awesome fountains and Reid Park. Both are excellent areas with great spots!

Alexis' Senior Portraits - Preview

So today I had the privilege of working with a friend's niece again. I'd photographed her and her family previously and really enjoyed working with them. This shoot went super smooth and beautifully! Here are just a few of the ones I've pulled off the card sofar! :)

Labor Day Fireworks

So the resort that I work at delayed the 4th of July fireworks till Labor Day due to all the fire hazards and the wildfires that were going on before the monsoon season hit us. A day before the event, I found out that they were letting employees park in the dirt lot at the bottom of the hill to watch the fireworks if they wanted. I haven't really been into fireworks in a few years, but I knew a little boy who probably hadn't ever been that close to a professionally done fireworks show. We set up a blanket on my car and sat on the hood. He made it about 10 mins in before hopping off the car to jump up and down in front of it! We were so close, we literally had embers falling on us! I was able to get some photos that really made my night! My knee ended up in one of them, but I can easily take it out at a later time. It was a really great chance to practice my timing as well as play around with exposure!

Sayef and Duha on the 15th

I've been pretty busy with life and work in general, so it has taken me some time to get these all loaded on this site. Here are some of the photos from Sayef and Duha's wedding ceremony on the 15th, starting at Sayef's parents house then on to the beautiful Skyline Country Club and ending with Sayef's and Duha's new apartment. I really wanted to get some good shots before I lost all the light outside at Skyline, I learned a hard lesson about scheduling in time as we only managed a few shots right as the sun was going down. Had to crank my ISO up way past my comfort levels to get anything workable. I know better for next time though!