Whitney Lewis Photography

For the fourth of july, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity for some pretty neat backgrounds and scheduled Brooklyn and Kagan’s formals for the evening. We planned to take some normal photos at a couple of different spots in Springville that we had scouted out, and then play around when it got dark to see what we could get with the fireworks. A half an hour before the shoot Thomas and I decided to go get some smaller fireworks of our own to play around with between sunset and the fireworks show. I am so glad that we did! We got a great variety of photos, but some of the “small firework” photos are my favorites.

In light of the upcoming state holiday this saturday, I figured I would get these firework photos up now and share them with you all… :) (For all my out-of-state readers, the 24th of July is “Pioneer Day”, which essentially comes out to a second fourth where people barbeque, set off more fireworks, and have lots of parades. As for me, I think any excuse to blow things up and see pretty colors is perfectly fine.)

We really lucked out- before the sunset we got some wonderful daylight photos. Not too harsh, some nice backlighting, and enough direct light to manipulate to my heart’s content.

Something about this one just makes me smile…

Now you’re probably thinking as you look at these next photos “Oh wow, Whitney must have enhanced the colors on that sunset- no way that is real.” However, if you were to think that, you would be WRONG. wrongwrongwrong. I can say with absolute honesty that this sunset was just as incredible as it looks. If fact, I think I actually decreased the saturation of the colors a smidge. It was unbelievable.

And now that the sunset is over, we get to play…. :D

Brooklyn is a big fan of Harry Potter- I think it shows…

This shoot was so much fun, and there are a lot of other photos I would love to share- so be sure and check out the full gallery here.

Natalie and David got married in the Bountiful LDS temple, and had a reception in a local chapel. This couple (and family) was so laid back- it was a breeze to shoot them. I love when it feels like I am just hanging out with my clients, documenting them having fun on their own, without it needing to feel overly posed or forced.

Waiting for the bride and groom to make their exit from the temple…

The happy couple!

I loved the light that day- it was a gorgeous summer afternoon.

Sunshine and tulips make for a good wedding day….

The prep…



The mad scramble…



And the Victor…

During the dancing this old ska song came on, and the bridal party got down with their bad selves…

Check out the entire wedding, start to finish here.

Every now and then I have a shoot that I feel is a turning point in my photography. They are shoots that I look back on and in every session afterwards I see a marked difference- a boost in creativity and quality. I feel that this is a shoot that will meet those criteria. I loved doing Erin and Todd’s engagement photos at Wheeler Farm. They were a terrifically fun couple, great to both pose and simply react candidly, and they were both quite stylish. I especially liked Erin’s style, and felt we got some really good photos for their announcement and their reception sign-in book.

So when it came time to do Erin’s bridal pictures, I was definitely looking forward to it- she’s a gorgeous, stylish person who is fun to work with and I was confident that we would end up with photos to equal the engagement session. This shoot went beyond my expectations, so much so that I ended up with twice as many photos to give Erin as I normally do! Her dress, hair, and makeup were perfect, she brought lots of different shoes (at my encouragement- at the engagement shoot she had expressed a love of shoes), and she was happy and ready to go right from the start. We stuck around the City County Building in Salt Lake City, as well as around the Salt Lake Library.

Like I said, I have a pretty good feeling that this shoot will be one that will mark the beginning of even better things to come. Things just flowed…..

Erin brought this chaise lounge which fit the feel of the setting perfectly.



I was so pleased with this next one that I edited it before I had even processed any of the others and ordered a large metal print. It’s now hanging in the entryway to my office.

Sometimes I try to control the spill from a flash; sometimes, though, it’s just what you need.

I generally went with a very clean look for the processing for these photos, but there were a few where I had a bit of fun. This is one.

Click here to see the full, 176-photo gallery.

After looking at the post of Abbey and Taylor’s formals shoot, I realized that some of my favorite photos of Abbey didn’t make it into the post. Here’s a few that I really wanted to share. This first one is probably one of my favorite all-time photos….