Kelsey Bridals- Logan Utah

Kelsey is the daughter of my bishop in South Jordan who sent me off to Italy on an LDS mission. She was kind enough to drive down from Rexburg, ID and have me take her pictures. It was good to get to know her and her mother and her aunt a little better. She is getting married on November 22, 2008, right before Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I will be photographing Mark Watterson and Hillarie West at the Salt Lake Temple. This Saturday I will be flying out to Ireland on an extensive engagement shoot (4 days). I will try to post some of the amazing stuff we are going to be getting but I may have to wait till I get home next Thursday. I will keep you posted!

10 minutes with Jack-Boy

I have been bottling something inside of me for years and I think it is time to let it out. I think traditional kids portraits are too perfect. There, I said it. That is a load off my chest. Of course this is coming from someone whose favorite author is Mark Twain. I love Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Moving on.. you guys already know Jack-Boy. I am doing everything in my power to make sure he has a proper Huckleberry Finn upbringing only without the Drunken Father and all that. Bare feet are encouraged at our house. Melanie might beg to differ. Anyway I find with my kids that when I get an urge to photograph I just grab the first kid I see no matter what they are doing or wearing. They are used to it. When I shoot I imagine looking at these shots when I am 60. I think how much they will be worth to me. There is no price. It doesn't take long at all to capture a memory. I did this session in 10 minutes within 100 feet of my front door. I love these kids!!
P.S. You may notice Jack-Boy has some turquoise finger nail polish on. This may be a big difference between him and Huck Finn. The difference being that Huck never had sisters.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered--either by themselves or by others.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain

Eric and Caroline

Always racing against the sun!! Eric is the brother of Mark who you can see two posts ago. They are both getting married within a month and a half of each other. I have had the pleasure to get to photograph both of them and look forward to our upcoming photo shoots. They have some great ideas which helps a lot. Caroline is easy to shoot probably because her father is a photographer. I know my kids are surely used to being photographed. Eric if you are reading this I wanted to mention another book that I just read that you might like. It is called "King Leopold's Ghost". It is the story of a the King of Belgium and his not so kind take over of the Congo around the end of the 1800s. You may have already read it. Anyway here are a few pics of phase one of our adventure. More to come.......

Gramma Carol and Grandpa Ford

Labor day weekend we packed up the van for an All American voyage up to Yellowstone. My kids had a blast. We brought a little grill and marinaded some veggies and chicken on the kabobs. Fantastic!! My oldest, Sami, and I stayed up and watched falling stars. She was mesmerized. We promised the kids that we would see some buffalo. We only saw one lousy buffalo barely on the way out. Usually there are a ton. Yellowstone was only phase one of the trip. Phase two was going to my cousin Melissa's house in Rexburg. Her husband Derek and I went fly fishing and pulled about 20 out of the drink on Saturday. A couple were even almost as big as my finger. It was fun though. Phase three is the traditional fair time in Blackfoot at my grandma and grandpa's house. Words can not describe the joviality that occurs when we step foot on that 150 acre farm. When I say we I mean all my siblings, cousins, aunts, no uncles, nieces, nephews, etc... We have so many traditions when we go there that they are hard to count. The big one is going to the Eastern Idaho State Fair. Watching people at the fair is our favorite sport. An occasional picture of a mullet or something else spectacular is fair game. Arm-wrestling, hypnotists, alligator wrestlers, monkeys that ride donkeys, are just a few of the fantastic things we have witnessed at the fair. I could write a book on the things we do at Grandmas. To name a few: Bocce tournaments, fourwheelers, swim in canal or Snake River, make movies, eat, eat and eat, drink unlimited supply of Coke, farm dinners and breakfasts, trap racoons and skunks, pick corn, watch movies, play Atari, and much much more. We have been slowly collecting photos of the farm for posterity. Here are a few more to add to the quiver.