I’m excited to bring you the wedding of Samm & Nathan which took place on a (rare this year) beautiful spring day at the amazing Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane. I think you’ll notice the sweet & overwhelming emotion of the day that I felt fortunate to see & be able to capture with my camera. I had a blast during their wonderful day, beginning to end. Congratulations, Samm & Nate.

Sometimes the light is ‘good enough.’ Sometimes it’s decent. Sometimes it’s terrible—which means I’m using my own lighting. In all of those situations, I’m limited by the light in some way.

And sometimes it’s ridiculously amazing. Case in point, Rachiah & Andy’s ‘save the date’ photos. It seemed like no matter where I turned my camera, the light was perfect. Take a look for yourself.

It doesn’t hurt that Rachiah & Andy are so sweet together & didn’t stop smiling at each other the entire time. Basically, this was about the easiest time I’ve ever had taking pictures.

Just had to add, just like usual, I didn’t use ANY Photoshop in editing these photos.

These next 2 photos are an example of what perfect light is capable of. I’ve seen photographers use all kinds of Photoshop tricks to make eyes & skin look this amazing. Perfectly soft skin & eyes that explode off the page—all done in camera. Believe me, you can ask Andy & Rachiah, it stopped me mid shoot to focus on Rachiah’s beautiful eyes.

**For the best viewing experience, open up the first photo & use the left & right arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate through the photos.**

Yet another super awesome incredible wedding to post! The whole time I worked through these photos I had a smile on my face. Every once in a while I had to take breaks from it just to give my cheeks a rest. It was a bold move having a wedding & reception in the early fall outside. Amber & Alex must have paid somebody off, because the weather was about as perfect as could be—even after the sun went down.

Even more important than the weather were the great moments that occurred throughout the day. Hopefully you get the same feelings looking at these that I had while I was following Amber & Alex around on their big day.

For those of you paying close attention, you’ll notice that this is the second Glover Mansion wedding in a row. It’s such a great venue for a wedding. For all of you future brides still looking for a place to get married, give Ali or Kellie a call. They’ll take great care of you. Then give me a call right after that.

For photographers: Make sure you have Talking Carl on your iPhone for the kids. It will take those super shy kids & turn them in to camera hams. If you photographers have any other kid-friendly iPhone apps you use on a wedding day tell me in the comments.

Big thanks to Alissa Floyd for helping out with the photography!

**For the best viewing experience, open up the first photo & use the left & right arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate through the photos.**

Disclosure: In the photography industry there’s been some recent controversy about photographers hiring models & staging weddings then posting them as actual weddings. So I feel like I have to explicitly say: These are real people, not models. I know you’ll look at them & think otherwise, but I assure you Tiana & Matt are an actual couple who are absolutely in love & hired me to shoot their wedding.

I’m thrilled to finally be able to post photos from this wedding that took place a mile down the road from my house in the backyard of Tiana’s mom’s Spokane Valley home. I spent an entire day being surrounded by some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. The day went off without a hitch &  everything about the day was amazing. Thank you Tiana & Matt for the opportunity to photograph your wedding.

In addition to being one of the most beautiful brides ever & a total sweetie, Tiana’s an amazing hairstylist. She just gave new back-to-school haircuts to all the female members of the family & they all LOVE them. You should call her if you need something new.

Last weekend Hallie, Lee Roy & I set out around downtown Spokane to get some portraits for their engagements. These two were so easy to take pictures of that I could have shot them for the entire day—if it didn’t get windy & cold so quickly.

One of the best parts of an engagement session is getting to know the couples whom I ‘ll be photographing on their wedding day & to get those “in front of the camera” jitters out of the way. As you can probably tell, there weren’t too many jitters and we went straight away in to getting great photos. It seemed like we were buds instantly.

I had a blast with these guys. I don’t think we stopped laughing for the entire session. In fact I’d say the only time they weren’t cracking up was when I was forcing them to show their more romantic side (of course, I didn’t have to force them too much).

I can’t wait to shoot their wedding day. I have no doubt it will be an outstanding & beautiful wedding.

Many, many thanks to H + L for trusting me with their special day.

Click the thumbnails to see the photos…

I was asked to take photos at an elementary school dance and decided that it could be a fun project if I break outside the norm of what’s expected for the genre. So I set some rules for myself.

1. Photos have to be affordable. I saw the price list of previous photographers who did this and I was astounded by the prices. I felt like these should be priced like an impulse item rather than something that needed to be worked into a family’s monthly budget.

2. Photos have to be fun. We’ve all seen the all too common and boring photos of people standing there looking blankly at the camera.

BOOOO-RING.

The dance was fun. The photos should reflect that. My answer: PROPS!

3. Photos should be printed on location. People don’t really want several 8x10s or wallets of the dance photos. So what’s the reason for filling out forms and waiting to get 1 or 2 photos? After doing tons of research and finding a portable photo printer that could print 5x7s and get great photo quality, I ordered it and figured out the best way to get it to print at the dance (the toughest & most time consuming part). More fun for everyone that way.

What I learned: Doing it the old way has to be way easier. Boring photos are easy. Getting a reaction is tough. Expensive photos mean less photos to take. That’s easier. Sending the files to a printer and dropping them off at the school a couple of weeks earlier would have been way easier.

I worked my butt off for a couple of hours. That was harder work than shooting a wedding. Was it worth it & would I do it again? Without a doubt. It was a blast!

P.S. As a little extra, I emailed digital photos to everyone who ordered a photo so they could upload it to facebook or whatever they wanted.

Here are a few of the photos:

Last night we had our Inland NW Photographers Assembly (INPA) meeting where it’s always nice to talk to people who enjoy the minutiae  of photography as much as I do. Afterward a few of us headed  in to downtown Spokane for a photo safari. We started taking pictures of the normal downtown things (hence the trash can hand warming shot). We were across the street from the bus depot and I saw some interesting people hanging out so I grabbed Shane Savage (who volunteered to be my voice activated light stand) and headed over there to make some portraits.

LIke my business card says, I shoot people. I really enjoy the interactions with people, asking strangers if I can make a portrait of them is a lot of fun for me. When the results are great, I enjoy it all the better.

I wasn’t sure what I had but when I got them on the computer I was really pleased with how they turned out. Hopefully you’ll think so too.

Big thanks to Shane, Jon, Lacey, & Tyson for the invite and a really fun evening

As usual, click the thumbnails to see the photos.

P.S. The officer was fine with us taking pictures, even of him, and didn’t try to stop us at all. He and his partner even did some joking around with us.

Here’s a family that I was lucky enough to be able to shoot. Each one was adorable and quite a bit of fun. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such patient children. Each child waited their turn and when it was their time in front of the camera they were raring to go.

Honestly, when kids are this cute and fun in front of the lens, the best thing I can do is get out of the way and follow their lead. Besides, if I could get away with a mohawk, I’d wear it in a second.

Here are some of the photos from the session…

I recently had the opportunity to shoot a little girl named Taylor. She was quite a little personality and it oozed out of her in the session. I don’t even think her parents expected her to be such a ham in front of the camera. We both had a lot of fun and her parents seemed to be pretty happy with them—especially the shots in which she insisted on playing with her toes. I’d have to say I am pretty happy with them as well.

If only all of my clients were as easy to photograph as Miss Taylor was.

Here are the photos…

(click to view larger)

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