Hannah McKinzie Fitness Model

I had worked with Hannah McKinzie about a year ago. Recently she approached me saying that she had a Fitness Competition coming up and asked if we could do a photo shoot prior to that. So Hannah and I went to the Provo River Falls. Part of the photo shoot was to get some nice head shots, another part of it was to show off her fitness, and another part was simply to have some fun.

Shortly after these pictures were taken, Hannah took 2nd place overall in her Fitness Competition and from there was moving on to national championships.

These are some of my favorites from the photo session:

ProvoCreative Models and Photographers - Trash the Dress

A year ago I wrote a blog entitled "How do I improve my photography" in which I discussed the idea of joining a photo group in order to gain experience and step outside your box to try new things, meet helpful people and learn more about photography.

One of the funnest photo groups I belong to is the ProvoCreative Models/Photographers Group.  This group, led by Pete Hansen, consists of a wide range of experience in both the models and the photographers and gets together at least once a month.  These meets are generally intended as a great opportunity for networking (photog to photog, model to model or model to photog).  Plus, it's a great way to get to know each other in a photographic setting which allows for learning techniques from experienced photographers, sharing what you've already learned with other photographers and meeting models who may be beneficial to your goals, etc.

Some of the reasons I like this group are:

• Working with a model allows me to experiment with photographic styles or techniques that I might be afraid to try "for the first time" with a paying customer.  So while I'm a little more conservative with a paying customer (knowing that I need to guarantee a set of useful images), I'm a lot more "out there" trying something I've never done before with a model.
• Working with a model generally means that I can concentrate more on the photography and worry less about poses.  That's not always true - some models are a lot more experienced than others.  But with a good model I can spend a lot more time thinking about angles, lighting, composition and technique.
• On the other hand, it's also a great time to work on poses because, again, there is no pressure from a paying customer to deliver.  So I feel greater freedom to experiment and try new things.
• I also love to share what I know.  My philosophy is that "What goes around comes around." And so by helping others, I figure we all benefit.
• And one of the biggest reasons I love working with this group is the opportunity to visit new places, to try them out and see what it is like to shoot there.  I may bring a paying customer back to the same location later based on my experience from the group.

This past week I had the opportunity to go to Utah Lake with the ProvoCreative Models/Photographers group for a Trash the Dress/Suit photo session.  

I've blogged about this subject before.  My first Trash the Dress photo shoot was a little over 2 years ago with Heidi (a friend/co-worker) who volunteered to go to the Great Salt Lake and be photographed by over 50 photographers.  More recently, I talked one of my co-workers, Tyler Willey, into helping out with a Couple's session (he in a suit and Carolina Castillo in a wedding dress).  We went to the Grotto (up Mt. Nebo Loop near Payson) for these pictures, which is the same location where I shot Laura just a few weeks prior.

So for me the Trash the Dress idea was not new.  But the location ProvoCreative had selected was brand new.  A new location is always high on my "want" list.  So we went to Utah Lake, about a half mile south of the Lindon boat harbor.  And these are some of the pictures that we got:

The group invited models to come dressed in wedding attire or a prom dress or any kind of fancy clothing they would like to use and abuse out in the lake. So here are pictures of a few of the other models:





Photographers and models alike should realize that these meets are NOT about getting the perfect picture or building your portfolio. Why? (you ask in shock) Because the situation is not ideal. With 50 photographers or models surrounding you it's hard to get the perfect shot without someone being in your frame. And with the model trying to pay attention to the other photographers, it's hard to coordinate the perfect pose, expression, composition or light.

But as I mentioned above, what the meet is good for is networking, socializing, learning new techniques or new locations.

Having just experienced a photo shoot at Utah Lake for the first time, I wanted to quickly return and try it on my own - in a more controlled situation where I could pay more attention to my model and my surroundings.

I met beautiful Alyssa VanLeeuwen probably almost 2 years ago and had talked to her about doing a Trash the Dress photo session almost that long ago. Well, it finally came to pass yesterday!

Pete Hansen volunteered to help me with lighting. And so back to Utah Lake we went. And these are some of the shots I got with Alyssa:



















Photographers, please note: The above shot was done entirely "in camera".  No special editing has been performed.  The secret?  A CTO Gel (orange colored gel) on my flash.  With the CTO gel on the flash, and the flash lighting up Alyssa, I set my in-camera white balance to Tungsten to match the CTO gel.  The camera is then subtracting orange from the scene - which makes Alyssa look normal and sends the already bluish colored background (which is not lit up by the flash) into a deep blue.



At the last minute, we tried to find a Groom to model with Alyssa because I love couple's sessions (a natural extension of my wedding photography). But not having found someone in time, Pete volunteered to help out!



Thanks Pete and Alyssa. And thank you ProvoCreative for the awesome opportunity to get together just two days prior to try out this wonderful location!

Trash the Dress / Suit at the Grotto

I love the idea of Trash the Dress (using your wedding dress in ways you might not have dared prior to The Big Day). Read more about it here.

Carolina Castillo had arranged a male model / groom to be with her for a Trash the Dress AND Suit style photo session. I really wanted to do this and was looking forward to it. And then on the morning of the shoot, we found out that the male model had to cancel. So we quickly began the search for another model to step in and help out.

With no male models available at such short notice, I asked a co-worker, Tyler Willey, if he'd be willing to wear a suit and get wet and ... hold a pretty girl in his arms doing it. I don't think it took even a split second for him to think about it. He said yes. And off we went. Less than an hour later he met Carolina for the first time. And less than an hour after that, we were shooting the following pictures.

I had a lot of fun and they say they did too. Check out the pictures and let me know what you think.











As an interesting side-note:  Tyler and Carolina later got engaged (the proposal) and married.

Trash the Dress - Laura at the Grotto

The idea for Trashing the Dress has been around awhile, and I've blogged about it before, and still the opportunities for doing this seem few and far between.

I LOVE the idea!

In my mind, it's not really about ruining (trashing) the dress, but is more about using it in ways that you might not have dared to use it prior to your wedding day. What else are you going to do with your wedding dress? Hang it in the closet for 20 years and hope that your daughter (who thinks it looks old fashioned) will want to wear it?

Why not put it to greater use and make wonderful memories with it by doing a Trash the Dress photo session?

A little about this latest photo session:

Laura isn't married (though she tells me she came close). This isn't Laura's wedding dress (though she does have one hanging in her closet). This wasn't even a "planned" Trash the Dress session! I had asked Laura to show me around the Grotto and she just happened to have a wedding dress sitting in the trunk of her car. Are models always this prepared?!? Laura was fantastic!

With no warning, no time to put on makeup or get herself ready, we ran off to the Grotto for some quick pictures. And here is a sampling of what we brought back:











All of the above pictures are pretty much unedited with only some minor tweaking done in Lightroom. But for this last image I wanted to show something a little different. It came to my mind that I might like something of a fantasy look. So I gave the background something of a painted look, see what you think:



Thanks Laura! I had a great time, and really appreciate you showing me around the Grotto and letting me capture some awesome images at the same time.

Salt Flats and Ballerinas

NOTE: Be sure to check out images from some of the other photographers (I'll add to this list as I find more of them, so please come back to this page):

Joe Casalino

Scott Jarvie

Jeremy Stowell

Yesterday I had the opportunity of going out to the Salt Flats with a bunch of other photographers to photograph some beautiful girls (most of them ballerinas).

Luke Isley, with his connection to the ballerinas and as well as his connection to many photographers from Photowalking Utah, arranged this mini-photowalk.

At first, we weren't sure what to expect due to the weather (it has rained much of this past week, and it was almost monsoonal weather only an hour before we left to head for the Salt Flats).

But as it turns out, the biggest obstacle we faced in getting to the photo shoot wasn't the weather. But rather a fiery crash on I-80 in which a driver was killed and a big smoldering mess was left behind.
Link to some pictures

Cindi Jones had alerted me to the crash just as I reached the 2100 South exit of I-215. I quickly jumped off of I-215 and headed up 201. As it turns out, I was the only one lucky enough to do so. The rest of the photographers and ballerinas were on I-80. The collision delayed my arrival by 50 minutes. It delayed the rest of the troops by an additional 90 minutes!

Some of my favorite shots from the evening

I arrived about 90 minutes before the rest of the group. While there ... alone ... I really had nothing more to do except shoot my van, myself, my camera. :)









FINALLY! 90 minutes later the caravan arrives!



And now the REAL fun begins!


(Morgan Butler)

The light was fading fast! These were the last moments of the beautiful sunset that occurred shortly after the caravan arrived.


(Sarah Fink)


(Morgan Butler)


(Morgan Butler)


(Sarah Fink)


(Kimberly Ballard)


(Kimberly Ballard)


(Kami Christiansen)

One thing I didn't think I was too effective at, was making use of the water's reflection of the girls in the images I was capturing. Here are a couple of images where I purposely tried to get a reflection.


(Joanne Sandorfi)


(Joanne Sandorfi)

Experimenting with back lighting (my slaves are fired with RadioPoppers so line of sight is not required):


(Sarah Fink)


(Sarah Fink)

And one final capture with Scott Jarvie's car driving through the scene:


(McCall Butler)