Posts Tagged ‘utah wedding photography’

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2 days ago we talked about coming out of the SLC LDS Temple and some group shots… and more or less about the beginning of this wedding.

Read It

We shall now continue

We’ll focus on the kids themselves and then next edition we’ll end off with the reception

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I think this is a picture one of my interns took as I was setting up a shot… he got in close and photographed this neat moment. Go Will!

In any case you’ll notice a distinct usage of plant life in their pictures… a couple of reasons, she loves plant life, she studies it up at Utah St and she is even did her reception at Cactus and Tropicals and so I’m thinking I’ve done more than a few weddings at SLC Temple so I wouldn’t mind at all focusing on some places I haven’t been to a lot since often I’m focused on the building.

OK let’s meet them

This is Bret

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He’s older than you think… not like ancient or anything but he’s older than his brothers who we kinda met last time.

And this is Michelle

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OK we hope to hear from Michelle and Bret later with their stories and advice from the day and hopefully learn about what pictures are special to them with some fun stories why.

But for now I took a quick peak at the pictures she posted on facebook to see what she was liking.

She put up that first one

A couple of my favorites I put up last time

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And there’s nothing like a good ol fashion straight smiling at the camera kinda picture.

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How we met

So this is Carissa many people have her to thank that I actually started doing internships and training and teaching people on a more one on one sorta way.

She contacted me about 18 or so months ago asking to be an intern (for last summer) and I was like “What?!” you’re kidding right?! Well it happened and I’ve learned a ton since then, specially on the realms of how to share what I know, how to teach and mentor.
I’m happy to have gotten to know her, spent a bunch of last summer at shoots with her and in the office. Never got sick of her and I don’t suppose her of me.
She was always thirsty for knowledge and never a prima donna or felt that she knew it all, and it was that passion for learning and zeal for photography and her eye for a good picture that led me to tell her I didn’t have any qualms believing she’d become an amazing successful photographer.

Well back a year ago she already knew she was getting married, just had to return to Indiana (from Utah) and finish her last year of college (BA in Photography) and now she’s back.
Getting married next month and her bridal pictures are now done… and here they are.

The pics

Me and another good friend of ours David Terry were asked to shoot and since David is an over achiever he already blogged his pictures (which we took YESTERDAY) and so now I had to follow suit. Also because most of my pictures right now are weddings which aren’t as time sensative as a bridal session for an upcoming wedding.

Carissa informed David that Jake doesn’t check the internet a ton… so it’s alright to post these. So hope it’s all good for me too.

Here’s a gallery of the first set of 70 pictures

Royal Treatment

So she had two amazing photographers… and two assistants two those photographers.
Her mother was there.
We were shooting at a beautiful location (La Caille in Sandy Utah)

It all worked out swimmingly and I’m sure she felt like a princess, because she looked beautiful of course!

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Trying out some fun back lighting to make the Bride stand out!

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(above) Far right is probably one of my favorite pics

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having two photographers makes it fun because I get to photograph different poses I wouldn’t have done before. In different ways and different angles of course.

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Many of my favorite pics were actually asides that I said… let’s try this out for a moment and we ended up staying there for a bit, because my moment lasted many moments.

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Let this be a lesson to never cancel just cuz of weather.
Just be prepared.
Know how to make it work.

It might mean you have to different stuff than on a more normal day.
But that’s how a good photographer and a good photo shoot goes… Roll With The Punches.

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This was slated as an 8 hr formals shoot.
I didn’t realize it was a 2 and a half hour drive so it ended up being 6 and a half hours long.
I had several people asking me how in the world we’d be able to go for that long when most times it’s more like 2hrs.
Well I just told them several times to be prepared to work hard too… that’s 6-8hrs of modeling, it’s a two way road.

They were naturals and since they knew and picked how long it would last they never once complained and were totally into it.
What an awesome photo shoot.

By the end her hair was totally wet and nothing like when they started… but we adapted and adjusted just fine.
And we actually all stayed pretty warm.
We had a lot of traveling in between spots… abt 2hrs driving in the car… that was the saving grace.
Being able to warm up from time to time and to reset and find new places with new pictures.

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Just cuz it’s snowing doesn’t mean you’re excused from not laying on the ground.
You better have prepared for what you’re wearing to get down and make the shot happen.
If she’s in a wedding dress in 6 inches of snow you can lay down once or twice.

Thank goodness for a lightstand so that the assistant can park the car while you take advantage of the last reminents of twilight.

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On the left is a spot he was planning on for a while and very excited about.
On the right is a spot he’s probably past a hundred times and never even noticed… but I saw on the way down and new we’d need to stop there. Both winners!

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I took 1400 pictures many reasons
They were really good looking
We shot for so long
I loved the locations
When snow is falling you have to take a bunch to avoid the snowflakes showing up in bad spots like in front of their eyes.

But the picture above was in the first minute of shooting and is amongst my favorites.

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They did a great job at expressing emotions in their pictures… and that’s something you can’t really pose.

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Backlighting… my new play around thing.

There’s tons more pictures from the day as you can guess check out a small highlights gallery here
View the rest of the blog post to see more too.

i’ll be editing a couple hundred more for them when I get back from my travels.
If there’s interest I’ll share more.

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Ladies and gentlemen…

Props to the bride for not only being willing but more than happy to go out to the stinky gnat infested waters of the Great Salt Lake.

And to her Mom and two sisters and niece that came to help.

And to my wonderful Intern Heidi who braved the swarms of mosquitoes that came out about 5 minutes prior to this shot

Annika (the bride) had no problem going out into this little area in her beautiful wedding dress and in between being sucked dry by mosquitoes she even posed and smiled.

Now for the exciting part…

Usually I spend a good 10-20 seconds editing pictures… but I was happy to see with the great lighting and flash assistance from Two directions

There was NO Editing on this picture.

(It makes me happy to be able to say that)

I didn’t have time to really even review pictures because we had overstayed our welcome with the blood suckers. So I was just hoping things would be in focus.

And to top it all off it was pretty much the very last picture of the night. Huzzah

I kinda wonder what we could do to it if i do decide to edit it…
what a beautiful sunset and what a beautiful bride.

I will post the rest when i get to them i suppose… but for now back to the weddings from a few weeks ago.

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These pictures were taken at the Garden park ward in SLC, Utah

I actually went assistentless for this one and did the whole thing with a light stand.
It’s kind of funny because for years I did everything without assistants or lightstands.

I hope I’m not chained to lights forevermore.

Anyway I thought it was funny.

See the Full Gallery

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So many of you know the trick but for the rest of you… go high f/stop for the star effect.

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More pictures after the Jump

Or just go to the full gallery

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Wedding and Reception were both held at the Red Butte garden.

We didn’t have a lot of time for setup portraits between the ceremony and reception.
But that was just as well as they asked me to document and not be in their face too much.

I like that style anyway capture the emotions of the day.

The Engagements and Bridals were more about creation, this one was about capturing the feelings of the day.

To see the full post.

To see the full gallery of ALL the wedding pictures.
(Warning… there’s a lot. The first 150 should give you a good run down)


I sure made that place look like a forrest!


All prepped and ready to get married.


Still hasn’t seen her. But I’m sure he’s excited.

Some Details


Tried something new with the rind.
They had beautiful toasting glasses.
I don’t have a macro lens so I couldn’t get super close anyway.


The ring shots might have been forgotten if the best man hadn’t brought it to me before the ceremony.
Props to him.


When everyone is super excited about the flowers It’s time to start taking a bunch of pictures of flowers.
Probably would have done it anyway while I waited. But I more and more I see how much the setting of their reception means to brides.


What wedding event would be complete without a picture of the cake.


There weren’t too many posed shots that evening.


There’s a bunch of shots of them standing there as they listened to the pre-ceremony speaker.
This is just on of the ones i liked the framing of.
They’ll probably like the other pictures with more expression.

Bridesmaids watching the ceremony.


Exits are always a lot of fun.

Whoever told the mom that white pedals would be better… well they were right.

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