Bryan's Photo Blog

Katie & Cameron's Bridals

2010-03-08T16:42:00.001-08:00

Once again, Katie and Cameron were a blast to work with! Downtown Cedar City is a great place for photos too! There are tons of great places to shoot down there. Everything worked out great too. Katie looked beautiful, the weather was great, and the sunset turned out to be one of the coolest I've ever seen.

Katie & Cameron's Engagements

2010-03-08T16:16:00.000-08:00

Katie and Cameron were a ton of fun to work with. As you can tell, they had no difficulty acting like themselves and having a good time in front of the camera. These two are goofballs for sure! Because of that, you can't help but feel good and laugh when you're around them. Thanks for the awesome experience of being your photographer guys! I even had the opportunity to go down to Cedar City and shoot some of their pictures there. I love that city!

A Utah Fall

2009-11-01T13:13:00.000-08:00

Here in Utah, Fall came and went fast this year. When the leaves were just starting to change in the higher elevations, it got really cold and along with that came 8 inches of snow. The snow wiped out the Fall colors in the high mountains. It was another week or two before the colors in the lower elevations started to change, and there's still some lingering Fall beauty, but the peak has passed. Usually it's quite nice because you can shoot pictures in the high elevation the first week or two, and still have a couple of weeks in the lower elevations to shoot once the higher stuff has passed it's prime. We weren't so lucky this year. Here are a few Fall shots that I was able to get with what little Fall we had.

Brock & Cami's Wedding Day

2009-10-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'm months behind posting pictures from another wedding. Brock and Cami tied the know in August! It was a beautiful day for a wedding! They had tons of family and friends there to celebrate with them. The reception was awesome! Great location, and even better food (mint brownies and fruit tarts from Kneaders.......enough said). Best wishes to you two!

The Reception

Brandon & Brittany's Wedding

2009-10-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it's about time I got around to posting these. If you've been keeping up on my blog, you saw Brandon & Brittany's engagements and bridals, but probably thought they called the whole thing off. These two are too perfect to each other, how could you think such a thing?! I've just got workload up to my ears, and the blog is the first thing to be neglected, sorry. So here they are finally, their wedding pics. They had two beautiful receptions, and a ceremony to surpass them all in beauty. It was a bit of a drive to get to the ceremony location, but well worth it. It was a remote area which made it really intimate, which I thought was nice. Congratulations you two!

Albion Basin is My New Favorite Place

2009-09-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

I've lived in Utah since I was eight and have always loved all the awesome hiking trails, campgrounds, and wilderness areas. Growing up, I spent all my time on the mountains in Davis County, but for whatever reason never really was introduced to the great canyons and trails in Salt Lake County and other places. Now that I'm an adult and work down the street from Big Cottonwood Canyon, I'm discovering a whole new world full of photographic opportunities.

I recently discovered that Albion Basin (drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon, past Alta Ski resort until the road ends) comes to life late in July/early August with thousands of colorful wildflowers. It's a short, and mild, one mile hike to Cecret Lake. Just hiking this trail would hardly take me any time at all, but with all the photos waiting to be taken, I spent a good three hours to do the 2 mile roundtrip hike. You can see in the pictures how breathtaking the wildflowers are, and I even missed the peak of the wildflower bloom. I'll head back next Spring a little earlier and hopefully get an even bigger dose of wildflowers.

Brock & Cami's Bridals

2009-09-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

I posted some pictures a while ago from Brock and Cami's engagements. I also shot their bridals several months ago but just hadn't taken the time to post any of them (and I've since shot their wedding which I'll post soon).

We shot them at the Garden Park Ward building in downtown Salt Lake. It's an LDS Church building that has beautiful landscaping. It's not common for an LDS church building to have landscaping like this, but for some reason this one does, and they let you shoot photos there for free within certain hours. We also headed over to Temple Square to finish up. The pictures turned out great, and Brock and Cami were awesome to work with. They're really light-hearted and were willing to fully dive into any wacky pose I asked them to:

Never Posted Baby Pic

2009-08-13T08:46:00.001-07:00

I was looking through my old posts and realized I've never posted my favorite picture of my little girl when she was a newborn! She was only about a month old in this picture, but for whatever reason (and maybe this is just her Dad speaking), but she looks like she is much older. She just seems to be so aware in this picture. Enjoy!

Brock and Cami's Engagements

2009-07-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

B&B Bridals

2009-07-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

I had another fun photo shoot recently with a couple that's getting married in the next couple of weeks. I shot their engagements back in June up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

The new trend is to shoot pictures of the Bride and Groom in their wedding duds before the wedding. This is a bit untraditional because the Groom sees the Bride in her wedding dress before the wedding, I know, but it makes the wedding day a whole lot less stressful for everybody, photographer included. It eliminates the stress of getting your only pictures on the wedding day, when everything is stressful and going a million miles an hour, and everybody seems to need the attention of the couple, and also provides the opportunity to get some pictures in a cool location other than the wedding location.

This location is at Union Station/Historic 25th St. in Ogden, a very popular place for portraits. We had a ton of fun, even though I was stung by a wasp, the couple looked great, and the pictures turned out really well!

Step by Step Backflip

2009-07-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

I don't get to do much sports photography........correction: I don't take the time to do much sports photography......but every once in a while I'll be at a sports event and snap a few pictures. I always come away from these shoots wishing I had a telephoto lens, but end up getting a few good wide angle images. Because my lens selection is limited, some of my favorite pictures to do are the step by step action shots. This process consists of holding the camera in one place, and snapping several back to back shots in rapid succession of an action sequence, and then piecing them together in Photoshop. I love seeing each and every step all laid out in one image.

This is a shot I took at the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo. They had the guys from OGIO come and do a little motocross at the very end. This was the final jump of the night, and they saved the best trick for last. If you have any questions about how I do this in Photoshop, let me know and I can give you the details.

Portrait Portfolio

2009-05-20T22:33:00.001-07:00

I recently had a friend ask me if I had a portfolio of my portraits that I've shot lately, and it helped me realized that I don't have anything really put together! This blog is the closest thing, but there are a lot of portraits that I haven't ever posted. So, in an effort to display more publically, here are some of favorite portraits that I've shot recently. Some of them are repeats, so I apologize for anyone seeing them for the second time.

Allen & Alexis' Engagements

My Sister's New Little Boy and Her Family's Feet

John & Chrissy's Engagements

Brandon & Brittany's Engagements

Longing for Summer

2009-03-29T20:32:00.001-07:00

Lately, the "Spring" weather in Utah has been anything but Spring-like. I'm longing for some good weather to bring in all of the great photography opportunities that Spring provides. Here are a few shots taken in Springs past.

Cute Baby=Great Pictures

2009-03-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

I love photographing kids. I think one of the main reasons that I do is because they make it so easy to get beautiful pictures. They're naturally happy, and they are generally uninhibited in front of the camera. Adults are so concerned about what they're going to look like, that when you look at pictures of them, they look like.......they are so concerned about what they're going to look like. This little girl is all smiles, and all personality. I tried to capture mostly pictures of her smiling, but she had so many different faces that I had to try to capture some of them. Hence, the final picture in this series.

For those of you doing photography from your home, let it be said that these pictures were achieved by using the light that was coming through a window, and draping a white sheet over a tall piece of furniture for the background. The lens I used doesn't cost more than $120 as well. It's very easily done. Just make sure that there aren't any ugly shadows coming from your blinds, or the window pane.

Mo' Po'traits

2009-03-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

While in San Diego recently, I had the opportunity to do this family's pictures at Balboa Park. Balboa Park really is a beautiful place to take pictures. The pictures turned out great, but that isn't because of the location, but because of the subjects. These guys were so happy, especially their little guy. He's such a ham!

Wind & Sea

2009-02-01T18:34:00.001-08:00

Once again, Sunny San Diego lends itself to beautiful photographic places. While on my trip, I made it to the beach. The beach is named 'Wind & Sea', and is in scenic La Jolla. There are huge boulders on the beach that have had waves and wind pounding them for who knows how long. There are all sorts of caves and formations because of it that are fun to explore in and shoot pictures of. I was fortunate to have my wife and child on the trip with me, which made the beach even more fun. The best part about it is that where I live, it was freezing cold and snowing while I was romping around on the beach with my family with no shoes on!

My child's feet in the sand. It was fun to see her experience the beach. It's her second time there, but my first time there with her. We had a lot of fun chasing seagulls and being chased by the tide!

I have to give my wife credit for this silhouette picture. I also have to give her credit for introducing me to photography. She's been doing it for a lot longer than I have, and has taught me a lot tips and tricks that I use all the time. It's great to share our love of photography. (Plus, it's a lot easier to justify purchasing expensive equipment!)

This one is probably my favorite that I shot here. This is one of those formations from years and years of erosion. It's also one of my first experiments with HDR (High Dynamic Range). For those of you not familiar with the concept, it's a post-processing principle used by photographers to even out the exposure on high contrast scenes. It's hard to capture a scene the way you would like when it has really dark shadows, and extremely bright areas. You either have to expose for one or the other. Your camera can't do both. You basically take two pictures of the same thing, one exposing for the bright areas, the other exposing for the dark areas, and then blend them together in Photoshop. In this picture, the sunlight on the right wall was quite bright, but the back of the cave was extremely dark. I wasn't happy with the way my exposures were turning out. Generally, I'm not a fan of it. I don't like to take it to the extreme. However, in a case like this, where it just takes a little to make a subtle difference, and you really can't tell, I'll use it. However, I'm not about to take credit for setting the perfect exposure. I'll always admit when I use it.

Balboa Park

2009-02-01T18:13:00.000-08:00

I recently returned from a trip to San Diego. While there, I followed some great advice from a family member to go photograph Balboa Park. It's a beautiful park with lots of mission style architecture. It's the kind of place that you need to return to often to get the really good photographs. It was my first time there, so I didn't even know where to start, and I had little time, so I was hurried, which is never good for photography. I had a ton of fun though. If anybody out there is in San Diego and would like a good place to shoot, I'd highly recommend it.

You can get a taste of the beautiful architecture that's all around this place from this picture and the one below. I wish that there weren't quite so many people there. The picture below would have been much better without them. I get the feeling that I'd have to go early on a weekday to be more alone. Lots of tourists at this place.

Tried some fun, long exposure, night photography. I wished I could have stayed later to do more, but I had a schedule to keep.

I love the contrast of the warm tones in the bottom right half, with the cool tones in the upper left. It's definitely the colors in this photo that make it .

I was fascinated with all of the long corridors. They run the entire length of the main section of the park. This photo was taken as the sun was pretty much set. I wish that there would have been more natural light. That just gives me a good excuse to go back one day, right?

New Family Pictures

2009-01-13T20:06:00.001-08:00

I had the opportunity to shoot some more family pictures recently. It was cold! Granted, it was supposed to be snowing and in the single digits, and we managed to sneak away with the temp in the 20's and some good sun, but it was still cold! They were troopers about it though, especially the kids. You can see the bright red noses and cheeks on the little ones!

Christmas Pictures

2008-12-19T20:48:00.000-08:00

I figured that in the Spirit of Christmas, I would give you all a gift, a new post! You would think it would take something less important than Christmas for me to post some pictures, but that's Winter for you. I just don't get out to shoot as much in the Winter. A true gift to you though, is me introducing you to homemade Bokeh shots! Read on readers!

Here's a little taste of the Christmas Season!

These above two are my first experiments with my homemade Bokeh lens. It's really easy, and you get some fun results. These two shots are pictures of Christmas lights in my neighborhood. I rigged my lens so that the lights showed up as stars. You can manipulate it to any shape you want! It's abstract, but with a little creativity, can produce some awesome results. These ones don't count as awesome in my book, but hey, they were my first ones. This weekend I'll spend more time with it and post my results. Check out how to do it yourself HERE and have some fun this Christmas!

Portraits are my Favorite

2008-10-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of fun lately. I've had a couple opportunities to do some portraits. I think my favorite type of pictures to take are portraits. Landscapes are cool, but portraits mean so much more because of the emotional attachment we can have with the people in the picture. They're much more challenging to get right though, because your subject doesn't stay still, and changes each time the shutter opens. The challenge is part of what makes it so fun for me though. Hope you enjoy!

Babies....who doesn't love a cute picture of a baby?

I don't know what it is about feet that makes this picture so fun....feet are weird that way.

I had a blast taking this couple's engagement pictures. We thought we were in for some Fall foliage, but instead, got some Winter wetness. In my opinion, they turned out better with the snow than how they probably would have turned out with an Autumn backdrop.

Big Cottonwood Canyon

2008-10-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

God must have known that I would get into photography one day. I think that's why I ended up in Utah. What better place to be a landscape photographer?! Utah Falls are one of my favorite times of year to get out there and shoot. These pictures were taken up Big Cottonwood Canyon one evening after work. It's only a five minute drive from where I work. It really can't get any better than that.

I almost walked right by these leaves until I saw the water droplets that were resting so perfectly. I've always wanted to take a picture like this, but have always wanted it to be a scene that happened naturally. I've tried manipulating things myself to set it up, but it never looks....natural. I was pretty excited that I finally stumbled upon such a scene!

Hidden Falls

This one is definitely my favorite of the bunch, and has become one of my favorite pictures I've taken yet. I love the contrast of the yellow leaves and the bright green moss.

Fall 2008

2008-10-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

Leaf in Water at Lake Martha, Big Cottonwood Canyon

Aspens on Guardsman's Pass, Big Cottonwood Canyon

Fall Reflection on Lake Martha, Big Cottonwood Canyon

Lake Mary

On the Trail to Lake Mary

Aspens on Guardsman's Pass, Big Cottonwood Canyon

More Aspens on Guardsman's Pass, Big Cottonwood Canyon

It's been a while since I went out shooting just for fun, which is partly why I haven't posted for a while. I know at least once a year I'll get out and shoot though, a photographer can never pass up shooting in the Fall, especially when Nikon offers free reign to shoot with any camera and any lens for a day. I took out the new Nikon D700 and went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and Guardsman's Pass to get my annual Fall foliage shots. Hope you enjoy!

Ummm.....sorry

2008-09-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I know it's been too long. Thanks to my Sister who so kindly reminds me that I need to post new stuff. So, here we go. For those who I've kept in terrible suspense concerning my last posts challenge to guess what that one crazy picture is, it's a picture I took while driving in the car (not the safest, I know) at night as I drove down the street. The various light sources (car headlights, street lamps, stop lights, business signs, etc) created all sorts of light drawings that I thought were kind of cool.
Today I thought I'd post a few pictures of Texas I took while living there last Summer. Also, I've posted my new favorite picture. It's my favorite because not only is it my beautiful daughter, but it's also a really great picture, if I do say so myself. Hope you enjoy.

At my apartment complex in Texas

Fort Worth, TX Cityscape

Texas Thunder Storm

Cutest baby this side of the Mississippi....and probably the other side too!

Sorry, it's Been Awhile

2008-07-06T13:46:00.001-07:00

I didn't have many visitors before, but since I haven't posted for quite some time, I'm sure those few who were visiting this blog have long since lost faith in me. Sorry. If there's anybody out there still, I hope you enjoy these random few.

Taken at a local hiking trail called Adams Canyon. I like the timelessness of this particular picture. It looks like it could have been taken 20 years ago. You just don't know.

Utah really is the best place to be an outdoor photographer. Great landscapes, and tons of wildlife. This bald eagle was taken at Farmington Bay, which is only 15 minutes from my house. The bald eagles come down from the mountains in the early spring because the bays in the valley thaw earlier than the lakes in the mountains and there's plenty of fish. There are times you can see as many as 25 bald eagles at once.

I call this one, fun with paint. I was babysitting my nieces when I took this one.

The above two photos were part of a long exposure assignment I had to do for my photo class. If anyone can guess what the top picture is a picture of, you get.....a lot of respect.

Thanksgiving Point Tulips

2008-04-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

These are the tulips down at Thanksgiving Point during their annual Tulip Festival. I was hoping to get some more shots, but the "bloom-o-meter" said only 28% of the bulbs had blossomed when I was there. I like the second one a lot. The wind was blowing, and I loved how these three tulips were bending together. I think it's so visually interesting.

Antelope Island Sunsets

2008-04-16T13:42:00.001-07:00

Antelope Island is such a great place for sunset pictures. It's like a mock beach here in Utah since I can't be in San Diego all the time, where I'd really like to be! Thanks again for all of your kind comments. I'm happy to know other people are enjoying my photos besides myself!

Seaport Village

2008-03-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

My company sent me to a conference in Sunny San Diego back in February, a week before my wife's due date mind you, where I was able to capture these shots. They put us up in the Marriott, which is right next to a really neat place called Seaport Village. It's right on the harbor, and there's a bunch of what looks like old beach houses that are now shops. I didn't have a lot of free time, but what free time I had I spent in Seaport Village taking pictures.

Antelope Island Hot Air Balloon Festival

2008-03-17T21:06:00.001-07:00

I went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival out at Antelope Island back in the early Fall and these are a few of my favorites from that event. This Hot Air Balloon Festival was like Sundance for Photographers. It was hard to get a shot without another camera in it. It was great though. Great light, good weather, and willing subjects, including the buffalo!

Salt Lake Temple

2008-03-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

Here are two non-traditional pictures of the Salt Lake Temple. The first abstract one is the reflection of the temple in the reflection pool (imagine that).

Out of Categories

2008-02-29T21:50:00.000-08:00

So I've run out of ideas for groups of pictures to clump together. Maybe more will come later. But for now I think I'll post only one or two pictures at once and take a little more time to tell the story behind the pictures.

Thank you for your comments, and especially your compliments. It means a lot coming from my friends and family whom I love and respect. I know it's kind of a shot in the dark, but if you ever see a picture you think you would like a print of, let me know, I'd be happy to send you the file. I believe art really should be shared more. Of course, if I ever make money off of my photography, my view on that might change :0

My Favorite Wedding Shot

2008-02-29T21:31:00.000-08:00

I'm no professional, and I haven't shot many weddings, but this is definitely my favorite that I have captured while shooting the few weddings that I have. I know it's not one the bride and groom would choose to hang above their mantle because you can hardly tell that they are there, but I like it for the story it tells. I shot this at my brother's wedding in Oregon. He was married in an old Mennanite church. This was the first time he had seen his bride in her dress, and everyone cleared the room to let them have a private moment, except for me of course. I snuck up on the balcony, snapped on a fisheye lens, and was lucky enough to get the shot. Sometimes I feel like the pictures I shoot are more like a gift to me. On rare occassions, I get to share in intimate moments and capture true emotion in faces and moments in time that might never repeat themselves, and that is truly a gift.

The Water Works

2008-02-14T21:30:00.001-08:00

Nassau, Bahamas

Water Gardens in Fort Worth, TX

Adams Canyon in Utah

Perception Park in Utah

Adams Canyon in Utah

Multnomah Falls, OR

These shots are my favorites that have the element of water in them; natural and man made. I especially like this one above of Multnomah Falls in Oregon. Most people have seen these falls shot straight on, but I like seeing it from this different angle as well.

Mountain Pictures

2008-02-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

Antelope Island

Huntsville

Park City

Snow Basin

Trappers Loop

These are just a few of my favorite shots I've taken. All of them are here in Utah, mostly along the Wasatch Front. Enjoy!

2008-01-07T22:11:00.000-08:00

I recently returned from San Diego where I went out to Point Loma and got some shots of this amazing lighthouse.

2008-01-07T21:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a recent one of my brother-in-law & his fiance. This was taken on Coronado Island in Southern California.

Welcoming me, and other first timers.

2008-01-07T21:40:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my first posting on my new blog site. This site is designed for me to share my love of photography with others. I'll include a little information about each photo that I post. The photos I'll post here are going to my favorites from all the many pictures I've taken. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I've enjoyed taking them.