Hartley Pool Party

Hartley Pool Party

As promised, here's the post covering the second half of the Hartley Family reunion. This was a pool party/barbeque/birthday party at the grandparents' house in Orem. They had a great backyard and a wonderful pool, and it turned out that "Nana" teaches swimming lessons there for all ages, from super little to adult.

Thomas was actually up by now and so accompanied me on this shoot (he wasn't about to get up pre-sunrise to make it for the more formal shots). We played the paparazzi as the family ate and chatted, and then as the birthday girl was blowing out her candles and opening her gifts.

As they got into the pool we began to really have some fun. Some of the guys started tossing the kids to see how high they could get them, and despite the failing light we got some shots I absolutely loved!


...and the food was GREAT. :D













You should click here and look at the rest! :)

Hartley Family Reunion

Hartley Family Reunion

After doing family pictures for the Hartley Family last month, and after hearing Meredith say that her nieces and nephews could give her kids a "run for their money" in the cuteness department I was looking forward to shooting their reunion.

After working it out scheduling-wise it was decided we would get up early in the morning to take more formal pictures just after sunrise at this great park in Orem (a new find... I expect to use it many more times in the future); later on in the day a pool party at "Nana and Papa's" house was scheduled and we were asked to take candid pictures there as well. (I'll do a post with the candids when I finish them up)

There were a ton of shots to get and so many personalities to try and capture- I'm glad that Matt was yet again accompanying me on second camera as we were able to get a lot more photos than we would have otherwise. Here's just a few of them....











To see more of the photos, and all the rest of the people click here.

1st Anniversary

1st Anniversary

Yesterday my husband Thomas and I celebrated our first anniversary. We went up Thursday and stayed at Johnson's Mill Bed and Breakfast in Midway (where I shot Doug and Cassie's Wedding earlier this year- absolutely GORGEOUS location) and we had a wonderful time. Our friend Grant recommended this pizza place there in midway that we went to for dinner, and it was some of the best true "italian style" pizza that I have ever had. As an additional bonus, they had some live music there the whole time we were eating.

The lake was beautiful, the room was amazing, and we went on leisurely walks to take photos of the grounds while we were there. It's a very peaceful place, and I highly recommend you look into it if you are looking at staying somewhere for a special occasion in Utah.







The swans, I am told are not the modest type. And it was true: they came right up to me as I was taking their photos as if they knew what was going on.







Thomas bought me some beautiful flowers and an anniversary band. I certainly feel loved.

Zander

Zander

I recently upgraded my primary camera (I LOVE my new d700!!), and so I did a quick shoot in my studio with my landlord's son. He had recently tripped and fell so he was sporting a nice cut on his face, but that didn't stop him from hamming it up in front of my camera. Thomas and I had also recently made a thrift store run looking for props and I found the most awesome miniature drum set and motorcycle. Zander had a blast playing with them, and Thomas' jacket and helmet were super adorable.







To see a few more photos of Zander, check out his gallery on smugmug here.

Look at me! Look at me!

Look at me! Look at me!

I love taking pictures of children. I love their smiles, adorable outfits, and the amazing amount of vitality and life that shows up in their pictures. Taking pictures of children is one of the rewarding things that I do as a photographer. It is also one of the most difficult. The sheer amount of energy that little kids possess combined with all the fascinating distractions around them make it difficult for them to look at the camera when they are supposed to, especially in a posed setting. The more children in the shot, the more difficult it can be to get them all looking the right direction.



I love having parents around, as they often know what to say or do to make their children smile and look around. However, here is an important tip to make your children's pictures come out well-

If we are having trouble getting everyone to look in the right direction, before you starting waving your arms, making funny noises, and saying "look at the camera! look at the camera!" consider where YOU are standing. 99% of the time they are going to be looking at YOU, so in order to make sure they are looking in the camera's direction, you want to be standing directly BEHIND me. Otherwise they may smile, laugh, and open their eyes nice and wide, but the majority of the time they are going to look at the source of all this entertaining distraction, instead of at the boring camera lens pointed in their direction.

Thus, remember the rule- unless you are standing DIRECTLY BEHIND the photographer, it might be best to just let me be the entertaining distraction. Parents often are the best people to bring out an awesome smile, but unless you're standing in the right place, it doesn't quite work. If it's not practical to be directly behind me due to space constraints, let me do all the work. I am more than happy to make funny faces, weird noises, jump up and down, and generally make a complete fool of myself in order to get everyone to look at me. It's in the job description. The problem comes when I am just one of a crowd of people jumping up and down making funny noises. :)

Of course, this only applies if we're looking for shots where they ARE looking directly at the camera... sometimes it's great when they are not.

Crystal's Bridals

Crystal's Bridals

After Mike and Crystal's formal shoot there were still a couple of shots that we had planned that we didn't end up having time for, so Crystal and I ended up shooting a second bridal session. We started out with a couple of fields near Pleasant Grove, and then headed on up to Thanksgiving Point to shoot in their reception areas. It was a BEAUTIFUL setting... I literally felt I could shoot there all day and still come up with new places and shots to take.

Crystal is from Oklahoma, so she really wanted to get a couple of field pictures in with her cowboy hat... I love being able to take photos that highlight something specific about who the bride really is and that allow me to try something new.











To see the rest of Crystal's fabulous photos, click here.