My World {365 day} Photo Project

On January 10, 2012 I finished my My World {365 day} photo project. Not to be melodramatic but this project may very well have saved my life.

Flashback if you will to January 10, 2011. A miserable day. I was in a terrible place at that time in my life. Why exactly? I’m not sure I remember accurately. Some things I do but I don’t really want to dwell on them at this time. Now I love a brand new fresh year. I’m not super jazzed about New Year’s Eve, it always seems a bit of a waste of time but I absolutely love New Year’s Day. I love new goals, dreams, and the feeling that you can throw off the old mistakes of the past and create a brand new better self. The beginning of 2011 was no different and when I found myself miserable on the tenth I was determined to not let the New Year get started off on a bad foot so I did everything I could think of to feel better. Practice my voice lesson (singing always makes me feel better), text friends, call friends (everyone was busy). Nothing was working and I was frustrated because I truly was trying. Finally I decided to get out of the house and call my sister Leah who lives in Australia. I took my kids to the library so they could be entertained by something other than me and used the Library’s network to Skype call my sister. I had a hard time getting through because she was in the middle of something. Perhaps you, dear reader, will recall the terrible flooding that occurred in Australia at that time. Well, she called me back to inform me that she was being evacuated, her husband wasn’t home yet, and she would have to do her best to get her pregnant self and baby son out alone. She would call as soon as she could, pray for her.

I sort of lost it.

It’s very selfish to say that, I know, but at the moment it was the straw that broke the camel’s back and I was a wreck of stress, misery, fear, and worry.

I probably should add that I had been praying for help this entire day. I really am not a fan of wallowing in misery without fighting to make things better and as I drove home I was still praying…pretty darn hard. Some may not believe in a higher power and of course I respect their views and only ask that they respect mine in turn. I, myself, believe unequivocally in a higher power and I believe with everything I am that as I pulled out of the library parking lot that the inspiration to undertake this project that came to me at that moment was of God. I can still remember everything about that moment. I was to photograph something every day that had to do with my world. It could be something I was doing, something that meant a lot to me, something that caught my eye, or to portray, without words, how I was feeling that particular day. I remember feeling immediate comfort and a lightening of spirit as I planned some of the things that I wanted to “say” and the “stories” I wanted to tell. I remember feeling strongly that my sister and her family would be all right.

January 11^th was day one and I remember that it was so cold, like only January can be. Bighting cold that seeps through your piled on layers and you almost want to cry you are so cold. I wanted to portray cold, solitude, loneliness, hope.

This is also a place that I see extremely often as I run or walk in the mornings and I have enjoyed the beauty of the scene at every season and pretty much every time of day. It means a lot to me.

As I look through the pictures of the last year of my life it reads like a diary. It brings back so many things; experiences, emotions, laughter, and tears. At one point I decided to write the stories but I stopped that quickly. I wanted to be able to speak straight from my heart without worrying about whether anybody else would approve or judge. I should add that I posted every picture on facebook and am in the process of uploading them to my online Fine Art Boutique. I cringe sometimes that they are public but that was part of the cathartic process. I learned to see the world around me, to appreciate the unexpected beauty I found, to tell stories and convey emotions without words, to really be in touch with myself.

The end of my project grew near and I began to get very nervous. I was so afraid of losing all that I had gained. I was afraid of stopping. The end photograph had to be something special and so I decided to do a self portrait. Have you ever wondered what super power you would want to have? I do all the time. My number one super power of choice is of course to fly but a while ago I decided that a good semi-useful super power to have would be the ability to yell “Confetti” and confetti would shoot up from your hands. Good to throw into the eyes of an adversary and fun at parties. I told friends about it and it kind of became a thing. Hence the pictures on facebook of either throwing confetti or rolling in it. Hence again the self portrait of me with confetti in the air to close out a wonderful year…. there really is only one more thing to say

CONFETTI!!!

p.s. Here is the link to all 365 images
http://fineart.illuminephotography.com/myworld

How I spent11/11/11 {Utah Wedding Photography}

I try to only blog once a week so that I don't annoy those who are kind enough (I really appreciate you all so much) to follow my blog but I find that I tend to get rather far behind. Here is the wedding storyline {album} for the wedding I photographed on 11/11/11. What a crazy fun day that was! I was very grateful that the wedding wasn't at the Salt Lake Temple. I had been there a few days earlier and they told me that there were around 150 weddings that day. I think Bountiful had closer to 65...it was really fun!

Hadn't Thought About It That Way {Utah Family Photography}

Greetings to the Longhurst family. There is a lot of love here. They like to laugh and be together and you can tell that they are very close.


When I was getting their print order ready I had an eye-opening conversation with Mary (the lovely mom). I've taken shots like the one above a few times before without really stopping to think about why I was doing it. Oh, I know that it holds to the rule of thirds and the added interest of foreground and background elements but I hadn't thought clearly about the emotional content. Mary told me that she had to have a print of this image because it reminded her of how important it is to have a relationship with your spouse outside of your children. Children are important and wonderful but if a marriage isn't strong then the family will suffer. It is so important to take time to just be with your significant other. I was so grateful that she shared that with me and now I lok at this photograph with new eyes. This is only one in a series of shots. Cory and Mary were in the background twirling and dancing and my favorite has a big dip complete with kiss.

The above was the "money" shot for me. As soon as I took it I had to show Mary. I absolutely love the connection between the family members and my favorite part is the daughter leaning her head on daddy's shoulder. This is the one they got printed large for their wall art and I am so very glad that they did.

I wanted to give them a different "look" to chose from for their big family picture so I took them over to the river. This is one of my very favorite locations to shoot at during late fall and it turned out very nice. They had to have a print of this one as well...I don't purposefully try to make it hard to choose. ;)

Twelve Months, Twelve Temples! {Utah Fine Art Photography}

I'm a little scary with resolutions. Once they are written down they are basically set in stone for me and I review my list every day. I was a little nervous to make photographing a different temple every month as one of my New Year's resolutions for 2011. I knew this goal would require travel and though I adore adventures more than I have words to describe you just never know where life will take you in a year.

I decided to photograph the Provo Utah temple in November. November is actually one of my favorite months to photograph in. I love the softer, more muted colors. My little boy came with me. I made sure to have plenty of snacks and Angry Birds on my phone for him to play and he was happy. We like to have adventures together.

It rained almost the entire drive down and I was discouraged, but it stopped just as we got there. The rain turned out to be a blessing because the light was pretty, the colors extra saturated and the clouds were a lovely added element. The rain also added a fun Hollywood effect. It wet-down the road in front of the temple which added a bit of reflection.


Manti was my final temple. I'd wanted to photograph it all year but was daunted by the three plus hour drive. My husband and I planned on driving down and staying overnight but that didn't work out. Todd is a lodging snob and when he looked into Hotels in the area he said that all he could find was a BandB where your rooms were named after LDS Prophets. His words..."I am NOT getting jiggy in the Joseph Smith room." I laughed hysterically and told him I was going to post that on facebook. He promptly threatened me with all sorts of doom and destruction if I did so....don't tell him I posted it on my blog! ;)

Once again my little five-year-old was my adventure buddy. I came prepared with even more snacks and games but he was more interesterd in just chilling on the drive down and sleeping on the drive back. It may have been the inversion. It was extra nasty during that week (Dec. 19th is when we went down) and though I thought it would clear once we got out of Salt Lake it lasted clear to Manti. It was a huge relief to get back to my beautiful Valley where there were clear blue skies. Y'all have my sincere sympathy for having to live with the yucky inversion smog.

We didn't have quite as much fun at the Manti temple as we did at the Provo Temple. There weren't any water fountains for Noah to admire and it was bitter miserable cold. We still had fun. Noah goes to Kindergarten next year and though I never thought I'd be one of THOSE Mom's I am already getting sad at the idea of losing my adventure buddy. We have so much fun.

I did it. Twelve temples in twelve months. I'm humbly proud of fulfilling this resolution. It really was an effort, which of course is the point of resolutions. I have something different in mind for 2012 which I am excited to get started on. The best way to learn and grow is to just get out there and shoot.

Happy Shooting everyone and to all a most Happy New Year!

p.s. There are more photographs of both temples on my Boutique site.

link to the Provo Temple Pictures
http://fineart.illuminephotography.com/provotemple

link to the Manti Temple Pictures
http://fineart.illuminephotography.com/mantitemple

Clark and Dana's Wedding Storyline Album {Utah Wedding Photography}

I was blessed with the opportunity to photograph the wedding of a dear, dear friend in November. It was a wonderful, wonderful day. I was so excited to get to work on the images and especially to create her Storyline. I take hundreds of photographs during a wedding but I don't feel that the story of the day can be told flipping through image after image so I love to create Storyline Albums. It's my favorite part of the wedding. The entire day is easily at your fingertips and the emotion just shines through. I love videos but I'll be honest, I rarely watch mine. But a photo album you can just grab when the mood strikes, start at the beginning or flip to your favorite part, and relive the day quickly and easily.

















A little fun backstory for this day...we tried photographing the shots above first thing but though a few lovely flakes were coming down while we set up they turned into a full on blizzard and we had to run for cover. Now their reception was at the Chateau Le Jardin which is exquisite but it's a greenhouse so my camera gear promptly fogged up and though I tried to appear outwardly calm and professional I was inwardly panicking because of course, our time was limited and we really couldn't wait for an hour to defog. I pulled my filter off and repeatedly wiped down my glass and took photographs as best as I could. If you look at the page spread two above this one you will notice how soft it is. I decided to just go for artistic effect. Luckily the snow calmed down (of course) and we were able to go back outside and that helped a lot. I didn't dare go outside for the rest of the night until they left in case it happened again so that is why I don't have a photograph of the venue from the outside at night. Ironically I have had people tell me that the softer photographs are actually their favorite!







Congratulations Clark and Dana!!!