Portrait Portfolio

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!