On Saturday we had the honor of shooting the wedding of Kylie & Brock at Farragut State Park in Idaho. I wanted to a few preview photos up of the day before waiting for the full post which could take a few weeks.

The day was an absolute blast. Both the bride and groom as well as their families and are the nicest people in the world (it doesn’t hurt that everywhere I turned it looked like there was another model waiting to have their picture taken).

Kylie & Brock were middle school sweethearts(!) so everyone there has known each other for a long time. I’ll have a full post later but I wanted to say that days like this are the reason why I’m a wedding photographer. Hard work. Fun people (even with the requisite stress of wedding day which I was glad to help dampen). Perfect weather. Sweet couple. Oh, and hard work. I love it.

Many thanks to Jaqui & Travis my sister in law & brother who made the drive from Tacoma to help out. There are many shots I never could have got without their help in addition to helping me create the slideshow of the day which played during the reception.

Now for some photos.

The night before the wedding I was talking with Kylie on the phone and going over some details and she mentioned that she and her bridesmaids were going to be playing cards in the tent while waiting for the ceremony to begin. A lightbulb went off in my head and I told her I’d go get some “cigars” to complete the theme (unfortunately I couldn’t find any dry ice for “smoke” on a few hours notice). I’m always on the lookout for something unique to add. The girls loved it and the pictures are killer.

How cool is this. Brock’s gifts to his groomsmen were pocket watches. The guys and their pieces.

Beautiful mountain backdrop during the ceremony.

Groom & Bride.

The girls worked out a coreographed dance performance for the reception to the guests’ delight.

Escape.

We were eating dinner at the family reunion and while we were sitting around the table talking and I asked my little cousin, Paige, what grade she was going to be in. I was surprised by her answer, that she was going to be a senior, because I remembered her being barely a teenager. I must have assumed that by living in Enterprise, Oregon, she wouldn’t age at all—cuz I’m smart!.

Anyway, since we were heading out the next day for the trash the dress session I invited her to come along. While I was taking pictures of Jaqui in her wedding gown, Paige could help assist me by holding lights and cameras, then when I wrapped up a location, Paige would jump in for her portraits. Of course Jaqui would grab her camera (still sporting the wedding gown) and start shooting Paige as well. It was quite a scene and we got a few odd looks from the locals.

Paige was pretty excited because their little town has only one photographer and all of the senior photos end up looking the same (soft focus was mentioned). I had visions of collar grabbing at glamour shots. Since I was fresh out of vaseline to rub on the lens, these photos lean a bit more toward the modern side.

We all had a blast that afternoon and Paige is an absolute sweetheart as well as a great assistant. She was such a natural in front of the lens. After I gave her a few posing tips, she was off and running. I still don’t believe she hadn’t done some modeling before.

Click the thumbnails so see full size photos.

Also, if you are, or know of any seniors in need of having their senior portraits taken, give me a call or send me an email. We’ll hook you up with some creative and unique photos.

A few weeks back we traveled to Enterprise, a tiny town in the NE corner of Oregon for a family reunion. My sister in law, Jaqui (herself a great photographer) has been wanting to have her own ‘trash the dress’ (TTD) photoshoot and we figured we’d find some spots to take pictures while we were there.

A trash the dress shoot is a great concept that stems from monogamy and the idea that you’ll only need your dress once so you might as well get your full use out of it. Brides spend all this money on a beautiful gown only to wear it once then retire it to a closet never to be enjoyed again. The TTD idea lets the couple get a little more use out of the gown than the traditional idea of bagging it up and storing it in the closet. Of course, the dress doesn’t have to be ruined, but no worries if it gets a little dirty (dry cleaning will take out just about everything anyway).

Travis & Jaqui are the best people in the world. I always say that each of them are the only people good enough for each other. Our girls idolize each of them and love to see their aunt and uncle. Of course we had a blast taking the pictures and those two are naturals in front of the camera.  In my oh so humble opinion, I think the photos turned out to be quite special.

Have a look by clicking on the thumbnails below.

P.S. Do you have a wedding gown languishing in a closet? Do you want to get some more use out of it? If so, Let’s schedule a time for your own TTD photoshoot.

I recently had the opportunity to shoot headshots & promo photos for a local teacher & children’s book author. Aly needed shots to help promote herself as well as her hilarious children’s book she’s shopping to publishers. Besides a creative author she’s also an excellent teacher and tutor.

The only direction Aly gave me was that she wanted some brick wall photos (which I’m not really a big fan of) so I instead found a wall that had some really interesting textures to stood in place of the bricks. As a little bonus, It had a really cool doorway that we utilized to a cool effect. Another bonus was that the wind was swirling around making her hair bounce around and giving the photos a sense of action. I also wanted to take some shots with Aly in context as a writer so we headed for the library and got some shots with books & children in the foreground/background.

Then as we were wrapping up, I looked over at the sunset and it was vibrant so I offered up a change of plans. So off we headed for a clearer view to grab some portraits with the sunset background.

This shoot was a ball. Aly started out—like everyone does—a bit shy in front of the camera. Yet, a few shots in she was owning it and really got some great images. Check out the doorway shots for example. She did so well in fact, I’m convinced she’s spent years in front of the lens, even though she still denies it.

Here are the photos. Click to see them larger.