Congratulations Marcio and Rosilene

Congratulations Márcio and Rosilene!

This wedding was special for me. I have known Rosilene since she was 2-3 years old. I met her and her family while serving a mission in Brazil. I affectionately refer to her mother as my "Brazilian mom" because she did so much to take care of me for the first 7 months of my mission. So in that sense, Rosilene is like a little sister. :)

Later in life, Rosilene and her sister Roseli, came to the U.S. and lived with our little family for about 6 months while they looked for a place to stay of there own. (long story, we've had several Brazilians who have lived with us over the years, mostly as foreign exchange students, but these two gals came up for the purpose of starting a new life in the U.S.)

And so with that background, I wish all the best to Rosilene and her soul mate Márcio. May they have long and wonderful lives together.

These are some of the pictures I captured to help them remember their wedding day:

Maternity is Beautiful

I've been wanting to do a Maternity Photo Session for a long time, even while being afraid to suggest the idea to potential customers. I just haven't known how it would be received ... or, for lack of experience, how it would even turn out.

Saturday was my first ever attempt at this sort of thing and I am so pleased with how it turned out that I had to ask Jennifer if she would allow me to post them publicly. She, without hesitation, said yes ... telling me that they turned out more beautiful than she could have hoped for.

And so here I am posting the images on my blog so that you, too, can see just how beautiful pregnancy can be.

A note to the photographers out there: All of these images were done with natural light coming through a bay window in her home. Some of the images used a reflector to bounce the window light.

Thanks go out to our wonderful model Jennifer and her beautiful family. And thanks again for allowing me to post these pictures.

Kristina Baskett - U of U Gymnastics

Confession time!

I don't know much about gymnastics other than I love to watch it during the Olympics. I don't know the rules, I don't know the traditions, I don't know what makes a good gymnast good. WHAT I DO KNOW is there are some people that are just FUN TO WATCH.

There are some gymnasts who, when they finish their routine, they may or may not get high scores, but I find I just don't care. There are others who, if I could watch them "all over again", they would totally make my day.

One such gymnast is Kristina Baskett. I saw her last night. I was touched. I can officially say, I love this girl! She has grace and style and an excellence that earns her top scores in one of the highest scoring teams in the nation. I could watch her all over again and enjoy the experience more and more each time.

Now admittedly, at some 30 rows up, we didn't have the best seats in the house (how I would love to be down on the floor!), but I had my trusty sports shooter Canon 1D Mark III with a long Canon 100-400 f/4-5.6L IS lens. It's a relative slow lens (which meant shooting higher ISO than I would have liked), but the length of the lens let me get some decent shots even from high above.

On to the pictures!


The very first thing that I noticed right off the bat watching Kristina was that I love her lines. My daughter asked what I meant by that. My answer is the way she holds her body. Everything seems to be on purpose. Fully extended, or bent whichever way, it's like poetry in motion.

Just ... take a look!


Even while her arm is fully extended (seemingly drawing attention to that part of her body), even her feet and toes are purposely posed.


Again, watch the fingers and toes.


And what a gymnast! Such grace AND power! Pardon me for not expecting her to leap so high that I cut off her fingers! (but again, fingers, toes, leg position)


And talk about fun to watch! :)


Wow, I would love to be where those photographers are sitting!


Well deserved hugs from her teammates!


Shoulders, hands, toes. I love watching her!








She won me over with her smile!


Super girl! She flies!!! :)


I could almost swear she caught me looking at her!


I'll say it again. I love her lines!


So much fun!






More well deserved hugs!


Top scoring gymnast of the evening!


Go Kristina! GO UTES!

Do you agree with me? I think she's definitely worth watching. I would love to see her again. I'll be routing for her!

Cool video link I found: Meet Kristina Baskett

More pictures of Kristina and many others can be found on my website.