Meet Dani Jae

 

I met Dani Jae (see her on MySpace and ModelMayhem) a couple of years ago at an East Bay Studios event. I've seen her around many times since then, but never really had a chance to do a photo shoot with her until last week.

One thing I really liked about working with Dani is that she is very versatile. Not only did she arrive with several outfits to choose from, but during the photo session her range of expression and ability to find eye pleasing poses on her own were amazing. She is very energetic, always on the go and she really contributes to the success of a photo shoot.

Dani had Makeup Artist (MUA) Erin Chaney handle her makeup for this shoot.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from our session:

  























View more photos from our session. And if you ever get a chance to work with her, I highly recommend you do so.

A Day with Photographer Vincent Versace

Awhile back I heard that Natural Light Photographer Vincent Versace was coming to town and would be speaking at Digitalfest 2009, hosted by Salt Lake Pictureline.

I was excited about that and signed up for the seminar so that both my daughter, Cassie, and I could attend. Shortly thereafter, we received notification by email that Vincent would be hosting a hands-on seminar for 15 students. I thought ... wow, what an opportunity! I called Cassie and immediately got us both signed up for the class.

And so yesterday was the big seminar (I'm guessing 400 people attended) and this morning was the hands-on class.

Cassie and I had a great time learning from him. Some of his quotes:

"Take portraits like landscapes and landscapes like portraits."

"Know your camera as well as you know yourself and you know the outcome of every picture."

"Stop taking pictures, be taken by them."

"Cropping is for wussies." (I liked that one!)

So this morning, after about an hour of classroom talk, we headed off to Red Butte Gardens where the plan was to spend a little bit of time working with a model and then to do some flower and landscape shots.

The model that showed up was none other than former Miss Utah Julia Batchison (twice Miss Utah, once for Miss USA and once for Miss America pagaents). She was absolutely stunning. You can see how all of the photographers were in awe:



Here are just a few of my favorite pictures of her:











You can see more pictures of Julia on my website.

I think, because she was so gorgeous, we ran out of time for the rest of the photo shoot. Vincent spent the rest of the time talking with the students and answering their questions before we headed back to Pictureline for lunch and wrap-up.



I did manage to grab a couple of garden shots myself before we left:





Thanks again for coming out and spending the day with us!

Dan Bryant Music

Dan Bryant, a talented pianist, composer, recording artist, multi-talented musician ... who is also my son-in-law ... is about to release his latest CD, this time full of his own arrangements of his favorite hymns and spiritual music, The Refiner's Fire, to be released November 22nd, but available for pre-order now.




The Refiner's Fire features:

• Dan Bryant on Piano, Drums, Guitar, Bass, Vocals


• The Toronto Roland Symphony Orchestra


• Solo artists:


• Sam Fultz (Vocalist)


• Ken Ballash (Violin)


• Skylar Murray (Saxaphone)


• Kelly Ehlers (Vocalist)


• Andrea Groneman (Vocalist)


• Jeff Smith (Vocalist)


• Nikki Ehlert (Vocalist)


• Amanda Belshe (Vocalist)


• Tricia Fielding (Vocalist)

Baby's First Year

At the urging of a good friend (and former wedding customer), I've put together a new program for my photography entitled "Baby's First Year".

Baby's first year comes in two flavors:

Package #1 - Monthly
Monthly photos, from newborn to 1 year old. Each month a new photo session. Each month a new 8x10" photo. And each month a CD with that month's photos (4x6 size - 1200x1800 pixels). All of this comes at a cost of $594 for the year (equating to $49.50 per month), with half down at the beginning. The rest can be paid in installments.

Package #2 - Bi-monthly
Same as Package #1, but every other month instead. The cost is $396 for the year (equating to $66 per month), again half down at the beginning and the rest can be paid in installments.

Also, don't forget the possibility of Maternity Pictures.

Example pictures from the Baby's First Year program:





























Let me know if you are interested in participating in the Baby's First Year program.

Meet My Family

This is us... I don't get a chance to do much other than "candid shots" of my own family, but last Sunday the opportunity for Family Portraits arose and so we went for it.

This first shot was done by using a radio transmitter to fire my camera. I hopped in the back of the family and told everyone to look at the camera. AMAZINGLY... they did it. I have a hard enough time when I'm back behind the camera trying to get everyone to look at the camera at once. But here's the proof ... no head-swapping here, this is exactly how I shot the image:



After the big family group we decided to get a few pictures of each member of the family.

My wife, Marilyn, and I:


(yes, the wind is blowing ... we had a fan running to keep us cool - it's a small studio after all!)

Brandy and her kids:



Cassie and David:



Angie and Dan:



(they were having a lot of fun with that picture frame, click here to see more pictures)

And Devon:



And there you have us. Thanks for dropping by! :)