Before and After Photos

Lately I've been experimenting a bit more than usual with my editing. Most of my photo editing is general cleanup work, but I've been trying to be a bit more creative. Some of my pictures have taken on a more HDR-like appearance, some look more like paintings, some times I add textures. I wanted to use this post to give you a sense of the changes that have been made by giving you a Before and After look at the images.

All of the effects are done in Photoshop using various plugins. I have found that I'm rarely satisfied with the output of any given filter or plugin. Instead, I usually have to create multiple layers and layer masks in order to keep the parts of each layer that I want while revealing other parts underneath.

As some have asked what plugins I use, the following are my most used:  Topaz Labs Adjust 5, Topaz Labs Simplify 3, Alien Skin Snap Art 3, Nik HDR Efex Pro and Nik Color Efex Pro 3 (I have version 4 but find it is much slower than version 3).

To view the BEFORE image, roll your mouse over the image and wait a few seconds for the image to load.

Progressive Maternity - featuring Becky

Most maternity pictures are scheduled to be taken near the end of the pregnancy - usually at around 32-35 weeks, when the mother's belly is well defined, but before she feels too big or before we start running the risk of an early delivery happening before the photo session.

 I met Becky just over a year ago when I was doing pictures with her and her boyfriend. I found out soon after that she was pregnant, long before she would be showing, and I quickly asked her if she wouldn't mind letting me do a "progessive maternity set" with her. Starting so early, we could show her figure long before any changes have happened right up until she delivered. She recently announced that she was starting to dilate so we did our final pictures and I can now show these to you. Hopefully she will soon be bringing her baby girl Lillian into the world.


8 Weeks - 18 Weeks - 29 Weeks - 35 Weeks


Below are some of my favorite pictures of Becky that were taken during this time:

8 Weeks



29 Weeks





35 Weeks



Becky is a gorgeous momma-to-be. I look forward to meeting Lillian soon.

Fitness with Michelle Ulibarri

Michelle Ulibarri is obviously a gorgeous gal with big eyes and a beautiful smile. But more than that, she is a professional model and a fitness and bikini competitor who is from Utah and is now living in Las Vegas. She came up to Utah for the holidays and we decided to get some fitness pictures done while she was here.

I had previously done some fitness pictures in my studio with a plain white background. While this makes the images very useful, the white background doesn't give them any context.

So I wanted to try something different ... I wanted to use a real gym, with weights and machines and all, to help give meaning to the pictures we would be taking.

One of my big concerns was that, today being the first Monday of the new year, the public gyms would be jam packed with new year's resolutionists. A fellow photographer friend, Steve Vogl, offered up a gym that we could use and so everything was set.

We started out fairly light (lighting Michelle up as well as the room in the background) and later on moved to more contrasty / controlled light images.  All in all, a very successful shoot.

Below are some of my favorite images from the session.

Fitness with Taylor Tabarez

It seems like Taylor is always promoting well being, both in physical fitness as well as a positive attitude to help improve mental and spiritual health.  Recently we got together for a Fitness Photo Shoot and these are some of the results of that set: