Holly's Bridals

Holly got a hold of this neat vintage wedding dress that she was planning on using for her upcoming anniversary. For their second anniversary Zach and Holly went to Las Vegas to get "married" a second time. (Elvis turned out to be the officiator- instead of "I Do" they were told to say "Uh huh".) Holly is an amazing dancer, and so we did a fun ballerina bridal shoot. These definitely were not your traditional bridals, and we got some really unusual shots. :)

See more of Holly's Bridals in her full gallery here.

Rebecca's Senior Portraits

After I shot her brother's wedding, Rebecca was interested in doing a studio shoot as a modeling agency is looking into her and she needed to build her portfolio. She and her mom showed up bright and early in the morning and we got started. She brought a couple different outfits and we played with a few of the props I have.

To see the rest of Rebecca's shoot click here.

Shelby

While in Austin, TX, I had the chance of meeting up with an old friend and practicing some modeling photography. This entire shoot was in Shelby's backyard. It was a playground back there! So cool! Once again, my favorite part about working with models is that I don't have to tell them what to do. Shelby posed very naturally and was awesome to work with.

To see more photos from this shoot, visit her gallery.

Emily Gee

My best friend's sister came into town and I was so happy that we were able to find a time to take her senior pictures. She's a dancer and an actor and so looked right at home in front of the camera.

To see Emily's full gallery, click here.

Heckenkamp Wedding

Doug and Cassie were married in Midway, UT - at THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE ON EARTH! Seriously, the grounds was a gold mine for photographers. Everywhere I went I was impressed. It was not a traditional or religious wedding, but represented the bride and groom instead of tradition. Such a beautiful ceremony, and they threw flower petals at the end! (my favorite part)

To see more photos from this wedding, click here

Why Wedding Photography Is So Expensive

I often have a bride and groom come to me grateful for my relatively low prices, but still amazed at how high photographers prices are! There are several reasons for it, one being the nature of weddings (can't be reshot or rescheduled, so you'd better have a dependable and talented photographer!)
I found this post and thought it might be interesting for some of you to read. Why is wedding photography so expensive? I'll summarize:
1. Time. The photographer's day does not end when the wedding is over. I usually spend 3 hours editing for every hour spent shooting.
2. Equipment. I currently have three digital slrs (one for backup, one for studio), two flashes, 3 lenses, a reflector, a tripod, and about 45gb in memory cards for weddings. I also have a car as weddings require travel (and cars require gas). I have two computers and some not-so-cheap editing software. For studio shoots, I pay for an extra room, props, light stands, backgrounds, and the above mentioned equipment. Reality hit really hard when I realized I had $7k worth of equipment in my bag at a wedding... it's a huge financial investment!!

3. Website and Advertising. To keep my business going, I need a high-quality hosting service and website. I also pay for business cards and magnets.
4. Other costs: DVDs and mailing costs, cell phone usage to talk to clients, TONS of hard drive space to store your photos... Wedding albums and reception display frames are much more expensive than I would have expected also (included in some packages).

5. Education. While I didn't study photography in college (my major is actually music!), I have invested a lot of time for online photography learning, free assistance to other photographers, free photoshoots for practice of new techniques, about 40 hours of workshops and classes, and I plan to continue to take classes as there is always more to learn.

Davis Wedding

AJ and Jeanne were married in the Manti temple. It was a beautiful day, and I loved the colors there!

To see more from this wedding, visit the full gallery.

Davis Reception

There was tons of DIY goodness everywhere as we attended Aj and Jeanne's reception. From the homemade decorations to the awesome color-coordinated punch, this backyard reception was gorgeous. The color scheme they picked made for some really vivid photographs. (I LOVE it when this happens, as a photographer I am addicted to bright colors)

I have no clue how AJ and Jeanne managed to remember everyone and talk to each person as they came by without collapsing from exhaustion! It sure made my job fun, though - lots of interesting people and personalities to record.

Oh yeah... the food was awesome! To see more photos from this event, visit: AJ and Jeanne's Gallery.

4th of July

Thomas and I got up super early in the morning and went on down to Provo to catch the final day of the annual hot air balloon festival. There were SOOO many people there, and I loved seeing all the colorful balloons as they were being filled up and prepared for launch. I felt incredibly jealous as they all began to lift off, one by one and soar away into the sky. Someday we're going to have to find an opportunity to take a ride in one of those things....

As they got ready to lift off I went to the edge of the field and Thomas gave me a lift up on top of this crazy high wall (Thomas thinks it was only 12ft or so, I think it was MUCH higher!) to get some better shots.

To see some more shots, check out the gallery on smugmug!

May God bless America.