Welcome to my Blog!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I am a photographer who loves to capture the real you by telling your story, showing your emotions, and having fun during the photo session. I am a wedding and portrait photographer who captures your life's story through a journalistic style.

Enjoy the blog! I try and update it often, so come back and visit. I hope you will comment, I love hearing from everyone!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

my first client. . .

I don't know if you would call taking pictures of my sister's family a "client", but she has been around a long time while I improved my camera skills. We used to go in the back yard and take "senior" photos for fun on the weekends. She loved to model and I love to put the blur lens on my dad's old SLR camera. We would spend hours getting all prepped like models and taking photos upon photos. Wish it was digital, but it still was an amazing start and fun!



They are so great. I love my niece and nephew. Always cute and make a morning so much fun. This photo session was not work, but an hour of play, visit, and fun!

Look at my nephew below. This was his best photo shoot by far and on the same track to being a model like his dad. Okay ex-model. He came up with all the poses during this shoot and they were great.



Now Brinnley was another story. All her mom wanted was a nice 2 year old picture to hang on the wall. Preferably large like 8x10. We struggled to get her to give us a smile. She was either smiling so big we couldn't see those beautiful eyes or else she was not having it. I think I got a couple, hope you like them. I just love the photo below, too fun.



Now weather or not these two are one of your favorites, I LOVE them. Love her eyes.





I am so happy that we finally found a weekend that worked for everyone. Beautiful family!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Jeff & Lisa

I was so excited to hear that Lisa was engaged and honored when she asked if I would photograph her wedding. Lisa and I grew up together since we are cousins and spent many holidays playing and causing trouble. I was excited to meet the man that stole her heart and throughout pictures I understood what she sees in him. He is a great guy and they make such a beautiful, happy couple. Congratulations!

This wedding took place in Cody, Wyoming at the Chamberlin Inn. I fell in love with this cute hotel as soon as I drove up. The court yard was perfect - well manicured, trees, and awesome details everywhere. If my family ever goes to Cody to stay for a weekend I will definitely be staying at this place; so clean, well kept, and perfect for a wedding!
I love this picture below.

Lisa getting ready to see Jeff in her wedding dress for the first time prior to the ceremony. Love the stairs!


Isn't she beautiful? Lisa you were a stunning bride. Look at those eye lashes!
I just had to post the photo below. They were laughing all day and make each other so happy. I have a great time during pictures when couples have this much fun.


Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of your day. I love photographing family and this was a great day for me. Thank you!

To see more detail pictures, wedding party pictures, and Lisa's awesome shoes click here to see the slide show.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Johnson Family



This family knows how to have fun. Such a great family and wonderful friends for the past 16 years! Can that be right? Man we have played and watched our fair share of basketball games and tournaments.



Hopefully the whole family will be back in the same town before too long, it would be hard to be away from these cute grand kids. Thanks for thinking of me for family pictures, I had a great morning.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Mandi & Laron

What a beautiful couple and wedding day. I am behind in posting and very sorry that this is a week late! This wedding took place last weekend at DanWalt Gardens. I have never heard of this facility and it is gorgeous! They even have a little reception hall on site to have a full wedding day event. I love to start the day out taking photographs of the bride getting her hair done and makeup on.



Maybe this took a week because it was too hard to decide what photos to post. I photographed their wedding story for 9 hours and am really struggling which pictures are my favorite. This wedding party was a lot of fun and we got some great pictures.



Details. . . Details. . . Details. Once again a bride and groom with a talented family. The brides aunts helped with the flowers, made the bridesmaides necklaces, and helped out where needed. The brides sister-in-law is a graphic designer and created the invitations, signs, programs, and helped where needed. She is also a great friend of mine and is awesome at what she does.

This wedding was full of wonderful details. Their reception was at the Billings Hotel and this couple added some details that really made a big difference during the reception. They rented table clothes and napkins in their colors, gorgeous! I loved the center pieces and all the flowers. They had a candy bar for guests to pick up all sorts of favorite candies. The atmosphere in the room was fun and elegant.



The bride and groom. Such a great looking couple. They choose to wait and see each other for the first time after during the ceremony. This worked out well for a early September wedding the evening light was perfect. I love how their portrait photographs turned out! We had a great time walking around the facility taking pictures all throughout the gardens. Below are only a few of my favorites - I have way too many.







I love this picture. I really need to get my off camera flash set up working because this is one of my favorite dancing pictures!


Mandi & Laron thank you so much for asking me to be a part of your wedding day. It turned out amazing. You are such a wonderful couple.

To see more photographs from this beautiful day, click here.

Congratulations!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Norman Family



What a great looking family and our great friends. I LOVE taking photo of my friends children, their families, anything. I love to get to know my clients so they become wonderful friends. It makes it so fun to go to a photo shoot, visit, have fun, and capture some great moments while talking. It is my girls night out when I have a photo shoot. This photo session was pretty special. I love Sammy and got to know him really well last spring when I watched him two days a week. He was pretty reserved back then, quiet, and a little cuddler. He can give the best hugs! Well tonight was a new Sammy, this kid was EVERYWHERE, very busy! He was pulling the shy card when I first got there. It has been awhile, and he wanted nothing to do with the camera or me.

I love the photo below, little mister independent. He really didn't want to sit with his parents or join in a "family" photo, he wanted to be out on his own. Growing up way too fast!



There is something about the picture below I LOVE! This was one of the first couple of pictures, love his look concerned and very serious.



Then we start to warm up. Look not only a smile, but teeth!



This is the smile I'm used to seeing. Not really a smile, but it is.



Yes these few are at the end. He is holding a grasshopper. I guess he loves these things and it kind of surprised me. He would let it crawl all over him and didn't care. Not me - especially if it jumps!



I am so glad we finally got something to work out with our schedules. This is a perfect location and I love how all these pictures turned out. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Also sorry it took so long, I had a 10 hour wedding on Saturday and feel like I'm getting further and further behind.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Largest Group Session

This is the largest family session I've done and probably will do outside of weddings. What a wonderful family and they came ready to take pictures. For the most part all the kids were awesome and we charged through the list of photos wanted of this continually growing family.



Two family pictures were combined to get this group shot, but it was only one person that I needed to change. Carter has his eyes closed, and now they are open. To only have to change one thing with this picture is great!! Usually I'm combining three different pictures to get that "one" perfect shot. Such a great looking bunch.


All the grand kids.



Sorry this is such a late post. With Labor Day and the short week, it just flew away from me. Enjoy the sneak peek!

Monday, September 7, 2009

McKay & Ashley



What a wonderful day! Their ceremony was last Friday, it was a little bright and warm, but they still had a great day. They make taking pictures way too easy. Constantly smiling and they were up for anything. I had a great morning with their families, all the kids, and the couple taking pictures.

I loved the colors they picked out - black, red, and white. These were also my colors for our wedding and they look so good together. The group pictures turned out amazing. Below is the couple coming out of the Temple husband & wife. I just had to smile as all the kids came running up to congratulate them. Their nieces and nephews were so excited!



All morning long they were smiling and laughing with each other.





I love the laughing picture below.



It was a pleasure meeting you and your families. Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of your special day. Have a wonderful time at the next reception and have fun at school.

I know a few of McKay's cousins couldn't make it to the wedding. I hope you enjoy the pictures from the slide show, and hopefully can feel like you were there. To see more from their wedding day, click here.

Friday, September 4, 2009

McKay & Ashley



Congratulations McKay & Ashley! This picture was taken this morning after their ceremony. What a beautiful day and beautiful couple. I will post more from their portrait session later, but I wanted to show some pictures from the bridal session we took two weeks ago.

Ashley is a gorgeous bride and this is a gorgeous dress. Below are my favorites.







This was my first time ever doing a Bridal session - usually I do an engagement session with the couple. If the bride wants to get some fun shots before the ceremony this is a great way to do it. It is less stressful then the wedding day. I love the pictures from this session.

Congratulations and have fun today - it is YOUR day!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Luke & Samantha

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What a great couple. All day they were looking at each other and just smiling and laughing. Very happy and should be - it was THEIR day! There are many more photos on a slide show below - I just couldn't post all the pictures I wanted to. They choose to see each other prior to the ceremony. This allowed the couple to have fun with the pictures, visit with family/friends, and enjoy each other's company before the ciaos of the ceremony and reception.

The cake was made by Jayne's Signature Sweets - she makes wonderful cake and the bride was so excited because it looked just like the picture she gave her. Beautiful cake! All the flowers were created by Vans IGA and turned out great.



I love shoes - really what girl doesn't?




The next two pictures are my favorite.



I love this one below. Black and white with just hints of color. They had such a great day.


Luke and Samantha, thank you so much for having me be a part of your day. You were a beautiful couple and your wedding was perfect. I hope you enjoy your photos and they bring back memories of your wedding day for a life time. Congratulations! If you want to see more photos from this wedding click here.