At WPPI, David and I went to a class that I won’t soon forget. It was David Beckstead’s “My Biggest Mistakes”. He started out by showing us all of his horrible mistakes in photography. From accidentally cropping out arms and legs to the ‘that was so yesterday’ selective color fad, he had a LOT of mistakes. We have them too. Heck, we all do, what would life be without mistakes?

But if it weren’t for those mistakes…

I wouldn’t be the photographer that I am today. Every single day we need to sit back and find gratitude for our past mistakes, because they are making us the people we are meant to become.

 I stumbled on this quote in the Reader’s Digest this morning and just HAD to make it into a poster. Feel free to right click and save for printing!

 

This is the kind of post in which our clients will most likely find out  how big of nerds we are. Just going to throw that out there.

Dave and I had the amazing opportunity to go to a photography convention in Las Vegas in February. Not just A photography convention, but THE photography convention, Wedding & Portrait Photographers International. It was such a great experience for us, but mostly for Dave.  I have been before, but to be able to watch him learn and get excited about photography and business more and more with each class was great. We aren’t the type of people who get all hyped up about Las Vegas itself, but we did go out and see the sights and had a lot of fun. 

I didn’t take pictures very often, it really was go go go all day long, but there were a couple of classes that I was really excited about and I did get some shots.

Jasmine Star was packed. We were in line for about 45 minutes before they let us all in. Jasmine is like the Jennifer Lopez of photography…or maybe Beyonce. Not sure, but she’s pretty cool.

Then there was the highlight of the entire trip. THE reason for going…Justin & Mary.

Before I write my next paragraph, I feel the need to add a little disclaimer here…I DO NOT get starstruck. To me, everyone  is just a person. BUT I love Justin & Mary. No, you don’t understand, think about your favorite celebrity. The celebrity you most admire and want to be more like, you follow their work and hang on their every word..and then imagine how excited you would be to be able to finally meet them in person. That’s Justin & Mary for me. I attended their class two years ago and they forever changed the way I did business. Up until I got pregnant with Pepper (and gave up completely!), business was THRIVING because I implemented what I had learned from them. Needless to say, I couldn’t WAIT for Dave to have the experience of hearing their marketing advice: Dream BIG, DO BIGGER. Soooo inspiring.

And then, if it wasn’t for Dave’s complete lack of….um….shyness I suppose, I would not have had the amazing opportunity to not only meet them, but to chat with them for a minute or two and get all sorts of hugs and yeah, even tears. We shared tears with Mary. I am STILL totally geeking out…I didn’t think it could get any better..

And then we made their blog! HERE So grateful for these guys and I hope they never read this. They will probably get a restraining order against me. Just sayin’.

Anyways, here are two pictures of my man Dave. Have a great Tuesday everyone!

 

David and I drove all over. We just..drove.  At one point we didn’t know where in Cache Valley we even were, but that we were somewhere…in Cache Valley. Then we saw it. We knew right then it was calling our names…just waiting to be photographed. I could almost sense it’s loneliness there in the nowhere..or the somewhere rather. This little caboose, which, at the time we weren’t exactly sure what it was, but that we loved it. It was nestled in the side-yard of an old house out in the country, all caddywompus with it’s peeling paint and broken windows. I knocked on the door of the eerie old house in the yard, and a younger man answered. I giddily gave him our card and asked if we could take pictures there in the yard, by that…thing. He gave me a quizzical look, nodded, and shut the door. As I walked back to the car I may or may not have had myself a little victory dance over our find. You’ll have to ask Dave. It was an awesome location, we had a lot of fun, made a few bloopers(make a heart with your arms!) but I only made them pose next to a dead deer once;)

There we met Derek and Danielle. My favorite moment at an engagement session is meeting our couple for the first time. They are always so much more beautiful than they sound in their email inquiry, which is a silly thought to say the least. We are always just so incredibly blown away at how we get so lucky to photograph such gorgeous and IN LOVE people! (I’m not exactly sure how we are going to handle it when we meet up with a hideous couple. I’m not gonna lie, it’s always in the back of my mind.) Dave and I couldn’t believe how incredibly photogenic they both were! As I brought that up to them, they laughed and replied that they were just talking in the car about how NOT photogenic they are!

You be the judge.

Without further ado, here is

Derek & Danielle.

 

I LOVE Pinterest. I mean, what’s better than a website where you can put together inspiration boards of all of your favorite things? It’s friggin’ genius, right? I am an avid pinner, and I don’t just ‘PIN’, I actually ‘DO’ all of these great ideas and wonderful things I’m pinning about.  I have a board for my baby girl’s first birthday party next week. I have a board that inspires me to work out and eat healthy. I have a board that completely defeats said ‘work out and eat healthy’ board. Our 2 little boys and I have dubbed Saturday nights “Pinterest Night” where we do as many activities we can off of Pinterest in one night. It’s a blast!  David LOVES Pinterest. (Pinterest has made his tummy very very happy!)  It  goes without saying. Pinterest is pretty friggin’ cool.

So what’s the big deal? The word on the web is that “Pinning”, although fabulous, wonderful, and amazing, may not be completely legal. Pinners are being sued by photographers over pinned copyrighted images and Pinterest has claimed no legal responsibility.

I personally love it when my pictures are pinned, I have even installed ‘Pin It’ buttons beneath every post on this blog.

What do you think?

Here’s some food for thought, this is a must read:

A Lawyer Who Is Also A Photographer Just Deleted All Her Pinterest Boards Out Of Fear

 Should we freak out and delete our boards, or just be more cautious about our pins?

I want to know what you think. Read the article and come back here and let me know your thoughts!

 

There are days where I feel like going around to all my FB and blog posts and commenting just so there will be comments. There are days where I feel like I am blogging and posting to a void. Over the past year and a half, due to having a baby and health issues,  I haven’t done much by way of blog, and for that all of my readers got bored.

COME BACK!

I promise I will post and give you wondrous gifts of visual imagery!! What do you want? Tips and tricks Tuesdays? Wild and wondrous Wednesdays? What do I gotta do to get my peeps reading?

David and I went to the most fabulous photography convention in Las Vegas 2 weeks ago, which I will be posting about, and learned from this wonderful, exciting, bubbly lady…

MeRa Koh

…that you have to post four times a week at least to get your readers to stay.

FOUR times a week?!? FOUR!

Geez Louise people.

I’m lucky if I post once every 4 months!

So, it’s a goal. I know I can do it.  But y’all better read it.

 

David joined me in photographing couples and weddings a little over 2 years ago, and we’ve been together for nine.

Nine years.

You’d think by now we would have the working together thing  figured. That we would be meshing together, like the little cogs on a clock.  I’m here to tell you we’re not. It’s a challenge for us on every shoot, at every wedding. On more than one occasion we’ve sat in silence on the 2 hour ride home from a wedding or session, angry, frustrated. We’ve cried, we’ve argued, we’ve wondered, “Will we ever figure this…working together thing out?” And I don’t know the answer. I don’t. But I also know that we’re both too damn stubborn to let go. We’ve never uttered those debilitating words “give up”. I’ve never been great at being a team player, and I’m working on that. I have a difficult time letting go of certain tasks, or handing over the camera to Dave during that moment..the moment when I’m sure cake is about to meet the bride’s face…that moment when I’m sure Dad is about break down in tears at the mere thought that his little girl is all grown up and married. I’m a moment hog.

Yeah, we’re still figuring this out…what I’m good at, what he’s better at, and where we can give and where we can bend. We will continue to grow…to work to figure it out, because I love that man. I love that man by my side, during those moments….those moments..like the couple’s first dance or the chocolate ganache up the groom’s nose… where we look at each other with tears in our eyes, remembering, we had those moments once. Our moment, June 28th two thousand and three, when we promised that no matter what…no matter what….we’d figure this thing out. Together.

 our honeymoon 6.29.2003

 

December 30, 2011. What a beautiful day for a wedding it was! We could not have asked for nicer weather in the end of December! It was a bit windy up on that hilltop at the Bountiful LDS Temple, but everyone made it through without blowing away! Catherine and Dalton looked so happy and they were a great couple to work with! Here are some highlights from their day. Enjoy!

 

Wow. 2011 was quite a year for us. Let’s just say we’re super excited for 2012! Here is a teaser from our last wedding of 2011..

 

Yes, I’m still here! We have just been so busy with fall family sessions and taking care of our own little family, that I haven’t had a moment to blog any of the awesome sessions we have taken! Here are two of my favorites from a recent engagement session. LOVE this couple. Check back later for more!!