Oh, the humanity!! (Utah Family Photography)

The irony of my life is that when I have lots to blog about I have absolutely no time and when I have plenty of free time for blogging I have nothing to talk about...sigh. Right now the former would be the case so here I am finally posting my own family pictures that I took on October 17th out at Saltair. I was going for an edgy grunge look with the black and white attire and graffiti walls. I just want to point out here that I am so very sympathetic to how excruciatingly painful it can be to have family pictures taken. My family is just like every other, and believe me, I am not above threats and bribery. Lol, luckily I had my parents come along to help wrangle the heathens and push the shutter button. I'm now good for a year, well, maybe two. =)

This was the picture I had in my head when I decided on this location and I love everyone in it... except for me. But, oh well, I'm being the self-sacrificing mother and using this for the parental Christmas gifts. I do love everything else about it. My family is the cutest! =)

This is probably my favorite though the two stripeys were NOT supposed to be next to each other...family pictures are uber frazzling.

I love, love, love this photo of my children. Four of the stubbornest mules in existence but I love 'em for it (when I don't want to kill them, lol).

Not a huge fan of this shot but the setting is cool. My kids wanted to take pictures here SO badly and so we did, all a part of the bribery for good behavior. Mostly I look at it and want to move Todd and I to the right. I don't like it enough to go to all of that hassle in PShop so it's just gonna have to stay the way it is.
I love the composition of this shot with the repeating framing. Just thought the lines were cool. SO wish I could just switch my two boys so that the stripeys aren't next to each other. That's the kind of thing that drives me crazy. I knew I didn't want them together but you get there and there's tension, and whining, and grumbling, and that's not even counting the kids!! Haha ;D

Me and my fabulous husband!! I need to drum up my photog pals to do a couple shoot of the two of us, doing it yourself is just too hard. I love my boy! Here we are just a couple days back from him taking me to New York for the best birthday ever!

This is my oldest daughter. She'll turn thirteen in just a couple of weeks and she is almost as tall as I am. My literal words when I first saw this picture..."Oh, crap!"

This is my second daughter and she is a spitfire and then some! Tomorrow she defends her title as the Spelling Bee champ at her Elementary. She won it last year as a fourth grader beating out her older sister who ended up taking fouth place. yeah, that was a fun week at our house. The girls were actually great to each other but one was naturally upset that she got out and the other was upset that she got her sister out, Oy Vey! SO tomorrow I will be a nervous wreck waiting to hear the outcome, I'm already feeling sick about it. We've done the whole spill of "Spelling Bee's are a lot about luck" and "We are proud of you no matter what" but I know my daughter.

Here is my sunshine boy. The happiest, friendliest, most outgoing kid you will ever meet. Of course he has his horrifying termagant moments but apparently only for his parents. Good times!

And my baby. This is the only single shot I got of him not crying, he was ready for his fruit snacks. Quick anecdote. This last Monday was his fourth birthday but Todd and I were both going to be gone so we told him his birthday was Sunday. We made a big deal, did the whole cake and presents party, threatened his siblings with death if they ratted us out (his brother had to be "reminded" of that), even enlisted the Primary Presidency in the scam. Of course the next day on his actual birthday I went to wake him up with a big Happy Birthday and then realized I had to pretend all day that it WASN'T his birthday...I had to laugh.

So why am I juggling? Well, you know how New Year's resolutions are usually pretty lame like losing weight and all that? I decided I wanted to do something fun. Ages ago my Grandmother made all of the grandkids juggle balls out of balloons and sprouted wheat, no really, after awhile mine actually started to grow. Anyway, my cousin Tony got phenomenally good and I've always been a little envious. This year for New Year's I decided to juggle every day as best as I could. And I have. Sadly I'm still not all that great but I can, at least, juggle. I think I'll give it one more year and then it's on to the bagpipes! Sidenote: My mommy made me these juggle balls for my birthday and on my birthday I juggled with them on Times Square. So fun! They are silver and black with sparkly sequins. I love my Mommy!!


I heart this picture. I love the lines of the window above and the silhouettes. I just love it. Well, this is us, thank so much for taking the time to meet my family. Loves!! xoxox

I really should be working on other things. :S

I have so much work to do, but all work and no play, well, YOU know.
I played hooky and went light painting with some fantastic photographer friends out at Saltair last night. We had SO much fun. Light painting is a blast. Several of them had brought steel wool. You attach it to a chain, light it on fire, swing it around and PRESTO, fun pics!! I'm such a pyro, you'd better believe I was in there a swingin'. Here are just a few of my favorite pics. I can't wait for the next adventure!!


My awesome friend David came to help me again. He's my best light paining buddy. We laugh!

This cropped is now my new Facebook profile pic. It makes me happy...I actually did do yoga yesterday, lol.

At least I'm not as sad as I used to be.

Don't panic, this post title is the name of a song by my current band obsession, Fun!! Such a great name. "Where are you going?" "Oh, to Fun". "You're having fun?" "Yes, with Fun."
I'm a dork but it all makes me laugh.

Steel Train opened the night. The lead for Steel Train is a member of Fun so he was doing double duty. This shot is from their song It's fun to dance. It is and it was!!

I also like the crowd in these shots. I had as much fun watching the crowd as the bands, well maybe not QUITE as much, but I'm weird like that.

I love the color, light, and positioning in this one. It looks a lot better on my larger screen, oh well. See cute girl on the right. Her name is Emily and my brother is in love with her. She does have skills.
Another that I loved the light on the crowd. Awesome show and the crowd energy was fantastic. I moved from the top balcony to the side, then down to the floor. Had to be in the mix, loved it!
...and scene! This was the last activity in my best birthday week ever. I'll be posting the NYC pix as soon as I get caught up in editing...it may take awhile..good times!!

My Perfect Session

Fair warning, I am going to briefly mention religion. =)

Last Saturday (Oct. 2, 2010) I had the opportunity of going to the Saturday morning session of LDS General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. This was my first time attending General Conference live and it was an incredible experience. Getting there was a bit intense. I live in a Valley a little over an hour North of Salt Lake. My Dad picked my daughter and I up at 7:30 and as it was we barely made it to our seats for the 9:30 cut-off when they start giving your places away. Parking was crazy and though we were lucky enough to have a pass it was the actual getting there that took all the time. Herds of people everywhere!!! Luckily we're a pretty mild crowd though navigating the screaming protester (the rest were nicely polite) was a trifle off-putting. We made it to our seats just in the nick of time which was a bit sad because I was really wanting to wander a bit and savor the ambience. It's just this thing I do. Long story short, Conference was brilliant beyond words. I went with a heavy heart and came away with desperately needed answers, comfort, and hope that the particular trials that I've been dealing with for the past two plus years (August 14, 2008 to be exact) will soon be at an end.

After Conference I had lunch with my family. I adore my family. My Parents were there as well as my Grandparents, Brother, Daughter, Aunt and a lovely couple from Belgium who were staying with my Aunt. My Dad enjoyed speaking French with them, he isn't able to speak French very often around here. On the way home I was completely and utterly exhausted and was very worried that I wouldn't be able to do the upcoming family session justice. It takes a lot of energy to be perky. =) I made it home to complete and utter chaos. I rather expected this. It seems whenever I have an amazing spiritaul day I get pummeled even harder. I threw eveything in the car told myself everything was going to be fine and rushed over to my clients house. I was four minutes late. =(

This is the Warnes family. Bishop Warnes is my, well, Bishop lol. I believe this is the fourth time I have had the wonderful opportunity of taking their family pictures. They are an amazingly fantastic family and I love them all dearly. Our session couldn't have gone better. Fall hasn't been it's usual self here in the Valley but somehow the colors came through. The gentlemen needed to leave for the Priesthood session of General Conference so we took all the pictures that they were needed for first and they were able to go. I hope they didn't miss very much. Everything just went perfectly. Lisa told me that they had been praying for me and I definitely felt it. I told her what had happened at Conference ... I don't often cry at the end of photo shoots...


Anyway, it was a lovely day. I went home again to chaos but everything worked out and right now I'm just holding on to the knowledge that everything is going to work out. I get to go to N.Y.C. in three days, celebrate my birthday, see Wicked again, take a ton of pictures, and make a fresh start in my life.

Much thanks to all who have been so wonderful and given so much help to me over the past couple of years. I truly love you all.

Yes I'm editing pictures on a Saturday night...

It's that time of year again, the leaves are changing color, the air is getting crisper, and I spend many a late night/early morning with my best friend the computer. In all fairness I have had a great weekend. My DH took me to the Zermatt Resort in Midway for a little overnight get-a-way. Fall is both of our favorite times of year and we had a wonderful time rambling through the mountains and strolling the bustling metropolis of Park City, Utah. BUT, I have SO much work to do. So here goes.

September's photo project was a Trash-The-Dress shoot. I've been wanting to do one for ages but it's hard to mess with someone's dress so when I found one for $20 at Ross I was super-jazzed. I got help from the beautiful Kenzi Andersen who has been kind enough to let me photograph her for her Senior pictures. She is great to work with so I knew she would be perfect for this shoot. I think this is the fourth time we've worked together. Thanks Kenzi!!

I knew I needed help with hair and make-up and was delighted to get the chance to work with the brilliantly talented Aspen McKenna of Aspen McKenna Make Up Artistry. She is AMAZING!!
I can't forget to mention my Mom. I had an idea for a shot with a really long veil and though I was stalwart enough to brave the horrifying environs of the local fabric store *theatrical shudder*, she was kind enough to assist me in making my vision come true by helping to make the veil. By help I mean she actually made it while I watched and marveled, my Mom is the best!!

Ironically enough the dress sisn't end up trashed. In fact, it's cleaner now then when I bought it. I rinsed it out when we finished thinking the lake water would leave gross residue but I could probably dye it and use it again. Nope, perfectly clean, go figure. Quick dash of Febreeze to get it to stop smelling like dead fish and we're good! I'm not sure what to do with it now. Perhaps I will use it repeatedly and it can be a joke. Where in the world is the bionic non-trashed dress now? Good times!! =)

A funny thing happened on the way to the Salt Flats, and at the Salt Falts, and on the way home from the Salt Flats.

As all of you who are kind enough to read my blog know, I love adventures, the more random the better. Saturday September 18th found me leaving my house at 1:30 p.m. to meet up with the ProvoCreative Models/Photographers group for a shoot out on the Salt Flats. I have never shot or even been out there so I was extremely excited. We met at the Valley Fair Mall, hopped into each others cars for carpooling and headed out. A good ways out one of our vehicles started billowing smoke so we all came to a stop on the side of the freeway and we were shortly joined by a Sherrif who informed us that we needed to get off the road a.s.a.p. I should add that we had RV's pulling trailers, models in costumes, all sorts of fun stuff. I'm sure we made an interesting sight.

Someone was kind enough to stay with Pete while he waited for a towtruck and he instructed us to keep going for safety and the fact that we had other people waiting for us at the gas station by the Salt Flats exit. Yes, ironically the man in charge who knew what was going on and had everyone's numbers was the one in vehicular distress.

We met up with the group and headed out to the actual flats but were told we couldn't shoot there as there was racing going on the next day and apparently we would be in their way...okay. We settled for a fun spot and proceeded to have a blast shooting. There were photographers and models everywhere as well as about every prop in the whole world that you could imagine. Chairs, couches, balloons, motorcycle, family dressed as circus performers, a mini gas station set, you name it. Unfortunately where we were the ground wasn't as hard packed as the regluar flats and a car got stuck. Another car (the one I rode in) went to the rescue and it got stuck. Finally to get them out we had to deflate the tires but no problem, there's a gas station with air at the exit, right?? Nope. No air.

So that's how I ended up in Wendover and home at 1 a.m.

It was a great night, I got some fun shots, and had the opportunity to meet more amazingly talented people. =)

Sidenote: I also got to be a Vegas Showgirl this week, but that's another story... :D

The Swain Family

I love this family. Every fall the temperature changes, the leaves turn colors, and I get to photograph the Swain Family. I love my job. These are dear friends of mine from when my family used to live in Kaysville. I feel so blessed that I get to see them at least once a year. It's so fun to catch up as well as watch their children grow. Funny thing is, it never seems like a whole year when I see them again, maybe just a couple of months. Thank you so, so much for letting me be a part of your lives!

I love pictures of kids just playing and doing their own thing.

He's doing a bird call, I wish I could remember what bird. I do remember that we talked about owls so maybe that's the one. =)

This shot is a tradition. They have pictures like this from everywhere they've traveled together, ones I've taken, and I'm sure many more!