Go to my new blog at blog.iamcasey.com

This will be my final post on this blog because I have a new blog which you can get to at blog.iamcasey.com Please take the time to link to this new blog cause a lot is gonna be happening this summer. You will be able to find all of my old posts on my new blog as well so come on over blog.iamcasey.com

Thanks for following!!

On the way home from Ovid

I love small town weddings. JaNea and Shawn had their reception in Liberty, Idaho just north of Bear Lake on Saturday night. I look forward to getting out on the road and seeing new places, especially small towns like this. Without fail the guests arrive 30-45 minutes early and many of them stay the entire evening. Some of them have to get back to the farm. I love talking to the old farmers that show up. I talked with a guy whose grandpa (not great grandpa) was sent by Brigham Young to settle Ovid forever ago. If you get a chance take a drive this summer past Preston and then through Riverdale and take a right on Highway 36. It is beautiful in the summer and their are wild turkeys everywhere. It will take you right to Bear Lake.

This image was taken on the way home Saturday night. It is a 30 second exposure so you can begin to see that the stars visibly moved even in 30 seconds. I love the country! Click on the image to enlarge.

Grandpa Ford: 90 years of pure man

This is a tribute to my Grandpa Ford. He just turned 90 and I think everyone could benefit from hearing a little about him.

The following images are from a "field trip" we took around my grandpa's 150 acre farm. I mean really how many people have a grandpa that has a school bus. I do!! It is a full size, state of the art, yellow school bus. The conversation we had as we went around the farm may have seemed normal for a farmer just starting out but as my grandpa stopped and showed us how he would love to buy the adjacent 150 acre farm it shows you his mindset. He acts like he wants to expand operations when most people wouldn't dream of it.

Grandpa Ford is a beacon for me. He is someone who sees big and acts big. When so many people are so pessimistic he sees only opportunity. He had a TV iPOD before me, an iMac 24 inch, Nikon with video function and many more things way before me. He is cutting edge.

Last year he decided to create a lake on his property in a vacant gravel pit. He stocked it with 1000 trout and he and my grandma went out every morning in the canoe to feed them. Last fall we had our own private fishing sanctuary and the fish got to be between 3-6 pounds.

At one time it was difficult for me to locate their house on the long highway in Blackfoot. It isn't any more thanks to the gigantic power pole grandpa bought from Utah Power so he could hang his 9x12 foot American flag on. He bought 5 of those poles for $5 each since they were trying to get rid of them.

And yes, he is a Ford man. He drives a Ford F350 and makes it look nice. Above all he treats my grandmother with unwavering respect. She calls him Sir Handsome and often rides in the tractor with him and bails hay with him. I will let you in on more of the culture we have built around my grandparents farm in a later blog because it is worth sharing. These are some pics from our last field trip with Grandpa at the wheel.

Ford at the wheel.

My family

Maddi's signature smile.

Grandpa has a hat collection which we tap into every visit.

Jack and my woman.

Kelli and Sophie

A little country and a little city in this shoot. Kelli's horse is named Sophie. Her dad brought her down from Montpelier. His picture is below with the mustache. Sometimes when I want to take a picture of a mustache like this I back down because it is so intimidating. I complimented a man in Las Vegas last week on his mustache which was similar to this one and he almost killed me with his glare. Most times these guys are softies and want you to photograph their mustache and can't wait for you to ask but that one time they don't is what scares you.

Back to the horse. This horse means a lot to Kelli. She grew up with Sophie and I can relate to that. These pictures will become so valuable to Kelli as time goes on I believe and I am always conscious of that while I photograph. Anyway, I photographed Kelli's sisters wedding like 6 years ago and just have always really enjoyed this family. They are getting hitched April 2.

You can click on the image to make it larger. It is so annoying that they are so small. I am switching to another blog host soon and that will be fixed.

Happy St. Patty's Day

We are all green here at our house, not in the sense that the world uses the term going green but literally we are clad in green. My kids are scared out of their minds of leprechauns! Sami saw one last year. We have a beautiful neighbor who is in her 70's who told the kids that she has a leprechaun named Jolly the Jelly Leprechaun (I have done a spell check on each time I spell leprechaun and I haven't got it right yet) and he eats jelly. The kids put some jelly out and I went and made jelly footprints all over the porch. The kids have been real jumpy on St Patty's ever since.

Anyway, I took all these pictures yesterday. These ones of Jack are in my living room. Move the couch and voila, we have a studio. I have taken a lot of client's portraits against that wall. I always wonder if my clients think I am ghetto when I move the couch and find treasures under the couch like candy and pennies and crayons that have been there forever. In fact, I have to work hard to lose the ghetto image on a lot of things I do. You can take the kid outta the ghetto but ya can't take the ghetto outta the kid, they always say!

Beehives are a new fascination for me. My friend's daughter won half a beehive by entering an essay into a beekeepers organization. They went to a 5 hour class on beekeeping a couple weeks ago. Bees rock! I saw this yesterday in Hyde Park and had to snap a pick.

The side of a Schwann Truck in a junkyard in Cove, UT.

Looking forward to summer albums!

Here is a few pages from Cade and Tosha's album. The wheat was out in Richmond and the wedding was at the Logan Temple and the Old Rock church outside.

The Old Rock Church has a great outdoor venue now which I am happy about because I have never been fond of shooting inside that building. My favorite reception halls in Cache Valley are The Riter Mansion and The Alumni House at USU. Both have outdoor and indoor capabilities in case of bad weather. More importantly they both have great lighting in the evening. I should also mention that I like to shoot at Sherwood Hills in the Summer. It is great, even lighting.

So just a tip: Lighting is everything in photography and you can have the most beautiful place on earth to take pictures and if the lighting is crummy, the pictures won't be as pleasing( They won't be crummy because we can compensate for bad lighting). I have always appreciated when a bride consults me on locations and times because they both can make my job really easy or really difficult. More importantly the pictures can be so beautiful in favorable lighting conditions. I have yet to find a photographer who has been able to control the sun!

Viva Las Vegas!

I just spent 4 days in Las Vegas. It was the annual WPPI photographer convention. It was amazing!! I am not the same person I was a week ago. I assure you I have so much to learn and I don't feel like I am scratching the surface yet.

It brought back a "flood" of memories. Pun intended. Ten years ago I witnessed the worst flood Vegas has had in its populated history. I left for work one morning early and the skies were clear. By afternoon there was a humungous river one block from my house. I literally watched buses and cars getting swept away and finally even a house floating down that river. It was like nothing I have ever witnessed. I have video somewhere.

Anyway, I have lived in Las Vegas twice, once when I worked the summer doing concrete when I was 16 and then again when I was 21 fresh off my mission. About six years ago I even had a very large clientele down there. I was going down about every other month and taking a lot of family and children portraits. Eventually I ended up buying a condo down there as an "investment" thinking that I could use it and ride the real estate wave that was surreal at the time. I literally spent 10 minutes in that condo, total!! I sold it just barely in the nick of time before that house of cards came tumbling down. Disaster averted big time. After the housing bust down there no one was in the mood to spend money on photography any more so I haven't shot anything down there till this week.

My brother had a friend who was kind enough to let us stay at his house. They were great hosts. The kids weren't cooperating so we literally did a 5 minute photo shoot. I always try to take some pics of families who host. So if you are in Hawaii and reading this keep that in mind.

Back to back Groomals last week

I just spent 5 days in Arizona with some of my best friends in the whole world, Janet and Clint Andersen. I guarantee Clint is the only 58 year old ever who had 9 splints put in his heart( in the last year) to play 11 games of basketball like we did 2 nights ago. Yeah, 11 games. Janet said that the doctor wanted him to exercise and test out how far he can push his heart. We pushed it to the limits. They were shorter games but 11 games of playing with Collin, Matt and Clint is like playing in dog years, it is 7 times harder than a regular game. Collin was on my team and on game 6 he hurt his hand twice and we thought he may have even broken his hand. He didn't even consider the option of stopping and since I needed him I just smiled and told him to take a couple minutes to let it heal. Collin and I ended up winning best of 11. We ripped through that court like a CAT 5 hurricane!!

I was down there mostly to finish up a project that I started in December down in Terlinqua, Texas on the border of Mexico. It is a documentary of an extraordinary man who has worked for Clint for 17 years as a concrete laborer. His wages were less than most but he saved and sacrificed and now owns 8 homes outright, paid for in cash. He is a fascinating character and has been gracious enough to share his story which I will post when it is done.

I will do an entire post on Texas when I get a chance because I loved it down there. I ate a hamburger in Terlingua that was bigger than my smallest child. If you are someone who wants to hide from the law I have the perfect place for you. Stay tuned..

Most of my photo shoots I put a lot of time into prior to the shoot. I spend a lot of time location scouting because every couple is so different. I have learned over the last ten years that you can't set your plans in stone because things change so quickly. Everything I do revolves around light. Light changes frequently which is why I have to be familiar with how a camera records light in every situation. These two shoots were within 24 hours and yet the light changed so drastically that I only photographed 1 of the 10 locations I had planned. Everything you see here was completely improvised on the shoot. We started at an elementary school because Anna forgot her bouquet and for the sake of time I met them out by their house which was by the school. We shot these first two right there then all heck broke loose when the school bell rang to let school out. We moved quickly to another location a block down the road where I had never shot (the second image).

Just about anywhere can be a great location if you understand light a little bit. I don't know why I am telling you this. Maybe a little bragging and complaining. Honestly, mostly a photographer's job consists of making lemonade out of lemons.

If I had one advice for brides I would say if you want great photographs consult the photographer on lighting before you choose where you have your reception, ceremony, time of day, etc... IT IS ALL ABOUT THE LIGHTING!!!

Of course there are ways of making the best of a bad lighting situation but some weddings just look better because of lighting. (Tangent, sorry)

This entire shoot was improvised. We didn't go to one spot that I planned but sometimes that is the funnest way to shoot. The important thing is the couple. Anna won a free bridal session from the USU bridal faire so I had not met them till that day. Great couple and I wish them a long and happy life together!

I smell spring...

Well, variety is the spice of life they say. A few years ago I coined the term "varietist" to explain to someone that I have a hard time doing the same thing over and over. I love new things, new adventures, new places, new people. Not to take away from old people, old places, etc. I still love those things but I am more like a stream than a pond. I don't like stagnancy. I love photographing all sorts of different things. Anyway, last week I had the opportunity to shoot Steven Covey and Jon Huntsman down at the Huntsman headquarters. One of the side benefits of being in situations like this is that I get to learn from great people. My favorite quote from Covey was that "retirement is a sick concept". He has 10 books in the works and has just become a tenured professor at the Jon M Huntsman school of business at Utah State. I love his principle based thought process. I think that some things will always be relevant. I highly recommend reading The 7 habits of Highly Effective People. Life changer! This picture was these two getting interviewed by Fox 13 Neil Cavuto.

You might not know this but a few years ago I worked briefly for a company in Salt Lake. While I did not enjoy it and I missed photography greatly I did have one or two highlights. One was that the night I saw Jason Hewlitt perform I was awarded a new car, a nice new car. I was awarded a Mini Cooper which as you know is built by BMW in their Mini Cooper factory in England. It was very exciting choosing everything and finally getting it a few months later. Anyway I had the opportunity to shoot pictures at a birthday party at the Salt Lake Country Club on the 12th and Jason was the main act. He is a phenomenal performer. Check him out at: jasonhewlett.com/

Meanwhile, I had the privilege of going up to Beaver Ski Resort with Dakota and Heather. We were able to get an entire ski lift to ourselves because of Heather's connections. It was snowy on the way up by died down. Going out to these trees was more of a chore than it looks. I was soaked all the way up my thighs when we got done. Snowshoes would've been nice. This is a stark contrast to their wedding location, Hawaii!! Two extremes.

Been cold lately.......

I'll tell you what I have been having a blast in this cold weather. These photos are from last friday with JaNea and Shawn and their dog Duke. I saw JaNea at a wedding I was shooting last summer and I knew her name, where she was from, that her family had a grocery store, and all sorts of eery details that only a stalker would know and neither of us have any idea how we know each other. Like my dad I have a gift for remembering "important" details such as birthdays from kids who sat next to me in first grade and where I was when I ate just about any meal I have ever eaten. Anyway, it is twilight zone material.

I am way looking forward to shooting this wedding in Logan and then the reception in a small town that I forget the name of but I love small towns.

A recap of last week...

I have decided that rather than battle trying to blog everyday I am going to try for once a week. I have so much material but I am going to start over and move forward cause with wedding season upon us in the spring I am beginning to get busy with bridal and engagement sittings.

I am thrilled with this upcoming season. I have so many things I want to do and try and then in March I am going to Vegas for WPPI, a photographer conference. I can't wait. I have a lot of fun weddings booked. I will be in Long Island, New York in May for a fun wedding. I look forward to spring here though cause it is incredible.

Anyway, here are two couples who I got to know this week. I look forward to Dan and Laurel's wedding coming up in March. Great people.