Congratulations Garrison and Jennifer!

It's 100 degrees on October 14th. That's hot any time of year, but on a wedding day in Mesa Arizona it just feels hot.

But that didn't seem to bother Garrison and Jennifer. They were real troopers, from the time they came out of the Temple right through to the famed "upheaval" and then some. (she knows what I mean)

What a FUN couple! It was with Garrison and Jennifer that I shot what I think are some of my most favorite engagement pictures. Ever.


(blue ribbon winner at the Utah State Fair photography contest)



Originally that was all I was going to do ... the engagement pictures. Because the wedding was planned for Mesa Arizona (and I live in Utah) it didn't make too much sense to drive all the way down. But they asked me to come anyway. And I am SO glad I did.

The wedding photography was spread out over three days. We did wedding pictures on Thursday at the Mesa Arizona Temple where they were sealed for time and all eternity. Then on Friday we went out into the desert to shoot formals (bride and groom together) with some "authentic" Arizona landscaping. And finally, on Saturday they had the reception.

I just want to share some of my favorite pictures from the wedding, formals and reception.





















And thus they survived the 100 degree weather on their wedding day.

Next up was a trip to the desert for their formals pictures. Check these out:

















And this one image was the source of inspiration for the session ... the "must have" shot. I love it:



The reception was in the background of a very secluded home (yes, what I'm trying to say is that even the GPS didn't know where this home was). But it was a lovely setting and even mother nature helped out by cooling things down.

























Congratulations again Mr. and Mrs. Burton!

Congratulations Matt and Anne!

Anne contacted me just one week ago. She desperately needed someone to cover her wedding and asked if I was available on Thursday the 7th. I already had a wedding scheduled for the 8th and really don't like to schedule back-to-back weddings (what if something goes wrong, like a camera breaks ... and one did). Still, I told her yes. And WOW am I glad I did.

Matt and Anne were the most adorable couple ever!!!

Below are some of my favorite pictures from their day.

























The weather turned bad and rained on us so we hid out under the archway and took a few pictures.









And then headed for the reception in Springville.



























Congratulations again Matt and Anne. And THANK YOU for letting me share your wonderful day with you, what an honor and a pleasure!

Fernanda Sonai

Brazilian top model Fernanda Sonai in studio.  Watch and see for yourself.



View large here.

I love the details!

I love my camera. Why? Well, one reason is because of the excellent detail!

A friend of mine asked me to take a picture of an heirloom map.  I've already forgotten the details, but I believe it is about 60 years old. He wanted to ensure the map's survival by getting an electronic copy of it made.

At about 3.5' wide and 2.5' tall it is too big to make a copy using a copy machine.  So we hung the map vertically on a background stand and used my camera to take a picture of it.

Using my most favorite / sharpest lens, the Canon 85/1.2L lens, set at f/11 for a very sharp capture, mounted on my Canon 5D Mark II (a 21mp sensor), I took the following picture:



Due to its size, and because of the telephoto length of the lens (85mm), I had to stand back about 12 (TWELVE!) feet in order to take the picture.

Now THIS is what I really want to show you.  This is a tiny 1.7% crop of the above image.  Look at the detail:



I love it when I take pictures and see details in the eyes and eyelashes of the people in front of my camera.  Especially when it is a group portrait.  And this tiny crop just shows how much detail is being captured.

Anyway, I'm geeking out over the detail that is captured by my camera and had to share.

How do I Improve My Photography - Education

I've already covered the topic of How do I Improve My Photography on two previous occasions (Photo Groups and Working with Models).  Today I wanted to discuss education.

I have been a member of the Intermountain Professional Photographers Association (IPPA) for about 5 years.  I joined up because I realized I couldn't "do it alone".  I had many things to learn, from posing, to lighting, to marketing, to business practices and more.  They IPPA meets several times a year (generally once per quarter with one annual convention in there).  There have been many classes taught by photographers from around the country and around the world as well as local photographers.

Often I would find myself buying some cool toys from visiting photographers, or some other educational material (books, DVDs, etc).

But one of the things I picked up along the way and have never regretted is my subscription to PhotoVision.  They put together a series of DVDs that are produced approximately once every 2 months featuring various photographers teaching many of the topics I needed to learn.

While I've paid as much as $200 for one instructional DVD ... this amazing collection of 6 DVDs is regularly just $149 and right now is being discounted all the way down to just $39.  That's a lot of "learning" at an unbeatable price.

Now, I generally don't like pitching other people's goods on this blog, but this is a good deal.  So this is what you do:

Click here to go to the PhotoVision site and check out the various photographers that will be featured on this year's DVDs (from Julie Klaasmeyer to Travis Gugelman to Lori Nordstrom and more). Check out the sample videos even.

And then, when you get to the check out ... be sure to enter PVFAN as the promo code to get the $149 DVD collection for just $39.

I think you'll enjoy them as much as I do. I hope you'll write back and let me know.