ashley thalman PHOTOGRAPHY

2012-01-17T18:23:00.000-08:00

4 Years and Counting

2012-01-10T20:55:00.001-08:00

MLK Monday 2008. I sat on the floor of Inkley's (bless my heart) wrestling with an enormous rush of buyer's remorse as I forked over a bunch of cash for a Nikon D80. We were poor, stupid, students and I was soon to be pregnant. I knew that I wanted to take photos so I staved off the nauseated reality of my electronic commitment. I wanted to be a photographer and I had no clue what that meant.

So I took pictures anywhere I could. What I mean is that I used my moderately popular novelty blog to peddle myself as a "photographer" for $75 a session. I worked my ass off. My sessions were, on average 3 hours long with wardrobe changes and multiple locations. I'm laughing just writing this. I gave people so many images. I ran like the beheaded trying to get a grip on how to be what I thought should be so I could eventually be what I wanted to be. I read and subscribed to blogs, I bought magazines and read technical stuff, I gear lusted.

So here I am. Four years later. I want to document (some of) what I've learned along with some favorite early-years photos from 3-4 years ago.

The Power of "No"
That is a power-packed little two letter pair. BAM! No.

I am not afraid of saying no. I was. I was afraid of the potential lost. The potential money, the potential lost opportunity, the potential recognition. Learning to say no has been one of my most important lessons as an artist, a business owner and human being. It's not so much a word I use with clients but more a word I use with myself. A mantra. Sure, its negatively reinforcing but I respond better to that and it works for me.
"No, I am worth more than that." "No, that kind of work is not interesting to me." "No, I don't like that." Within the no is the yes and in this dime a dozen industry "no" can differentiate the professionals from the eager, and less experienced, beginners.

Want the Best
I want the best for clients (and potential clients) and for myself. If we can't give clients what they want then we should decline the work. Clients do not have the tools to explain what they want so we need to educate and help illuminate that for them. Most clients are not artists and not all clients want artists for photographers. Or maybe they do. By talking to clients via email and on the phone we get a sense for their intention and vision as we share ours. If there is a misalignment proceed with great caution.

Slow Down and Do What it Takes
Haste haste makes waste. I've lost energy and opportunity over this. We don't need to add locations and wardrobe and more and more images to give our sessions dimension. We need focus. I've started brainstorming my sessions the night before. Before I move my client or change my footing I slow down and think. I'm cool with my clients thinking I'm nuts if it means I kick ass on their shoot.

Likes and Dislikes
Learning to distinguish the two takes time. The happy result of time is experience. These experiences are not all happy- they are often heavy and hard. I used to really hate growing pains as an artist/business owner/photographer, but about a year ago I realized that every mistake meant progress. Every discomfort was a chance to develop. Maybe I did it backwards, in fact I'm sure I did. I shot and worked and booked and emailed until I dropped in bed at night but I didn't know what I liked or what I was doing. I didn't know what my vision was. Perhaps it wasn't there. Wherever and whatever it was, I know what it is now-my experiences unearthed it. It glistens now. It is carefully crafted and fingerprint unique. I know what I like and what I don't. I am not attracted by potentials, trends or lucrative possibilites as they simply do not pay off for me if that's why I'm doing it.

Personal Work
I don't do enough of it. It can be hard as a mom. Paying for and arranging childcare is difficult enough when you have income as a result, but personal work is like high-interest savings. This much I know to be true for myself, personal work propels and fulfills more than client projects usually do. It is time and cost ineffective, but it is also essential and one of the best investments I've ever made in myself, in my interests and in my confidence.

This is a principal that could have saved me from a lot of hard and unproductive work in the beginning. Find your clients and work for free in the beginning. Don't wait for people to come to you before you know what and who you want to be as a photographer. You don't have the experience to charge yet and you owe it to yourself, and your clients to admit that. Go to them. Pay strict attention to the things you like and you will find unexpected interests in the medium.

Personal projects allow you to explore relationships with other people both in and out of your industry. They stretch you without the heavy, heavy hangover of an invoice to send. They also help to define your own like and dislikes giving more evidence to reveal it.

Mentor
Have one and be one. In fact, have more than one if you can and be one whenever possible. It is a hard thing being freelance. It is hard being visited by creativity- you must have someone to show you the way. Everyone need mentors like my Shawna and Justin. Period.

Friends
You need them. Industry friends. I am lucky enough to be a member of a great group of clicking friends. We meet, talk, encourage, lift and congratulate one another. Your spouse doesn't "get it"- don't expect them to. Your girlfriends aren't going to care about aperture- get over it.

Our group ranges in age, industry experience and style and we are all the stronger for that diversity. I'm not close to (either in location or long friendship) everyone in the group but I learn something from each of them. Those I am close to are essential in keeping my focused and sharp. We took a turn for the better this year as our collective vulnerability and sharing has deepened and challenged each of us to betterment.

**
I do hope this helps you all in some way. It was a great back-looking to write it.

Megan- Yoga Color

2012-01-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

Megan composed a beautiful evaluation of her experience being photographed for this project. To be appreciated with such grateful and profound words certainly lifts me and validates the things I see and the work I do. Thank you Megan friend for approaching this collaboration with the vulnerability and confidence you shared with me, and now with everyone who gets to see these photos and read your words.

Many thanks to Mallory Johnson for assisting, encouraging both photographed and photographer and for your perceptions and perspectives.

Megan- Yoga B&W

2012-01-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

Megan

2012-01-02T21:46:00.001-08:00

Holiday Children's Portraits- Lia & Jonah

2011-12-20T20:26:00.001-08:00

The Gifford Family

2011-12-20T11:20:00.000-08:00

The Edwards Family

2011-12-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Natural IKAT

2011-12-19T21:16:00.001-08:00

12 Months- Growing on Tables

2011-12-18T00:19:00.001-08:00

Holiday Children's Portraits- Lucas

2011-12-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

Holiday Children's Portraits- Cormac

2011-12-17T20:04:00.000-08:00

Holiday Children's Portraits- Tempest

2011-12-14T10:12:00.000-08:00

Few Are Frozen

2011-12-12T20:22:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, my husband Cade is an engineer and part owner of Black Pyramid Recording. This Christmas they recorded a great Christmas compilation for Deer Child that is now available FREE! Click HERE to download and listen.

My favorite tracks-
"The First Noel" featuring Lauren Smith, my cousin. What a voice Lauren!
"All I Want for Christmas" featuring Katrina Ricks who was featured here in the Say Yes to Hoboken Sister Style photos.

Almost gone...

2011-12-12T08:06:00.000-08:00

Sister Style Fall 2011

2011-12-11T21:07:00.001-08:00

Now that Liz Stanley's Fall Sister Style series has completed I can show these without ruining the big reveal. Can't wait to work with these ladies again!

Thank you to Katrina and Rebecca Ricks for being so beautiful and willing and to Ariel Martin for assisting.

The Wright Family

2011-12-10T14:04:00.001-08:00

Who wouldn't want to photograph Leah Wright and her family? She is confident, kind and talented and when she suggested a family session trade I jumped on it. Her home is light-filled and aesthetically perfect and that family! So sweet. Thank you Leah for suggesting this trade! To see Leah's work of our family see HERE.

Lucy and Red

2011-12-08T22:39:00.001-08:00

Overexposed Iris

2011-12-06T11:20:00.001-08:00

Holiday Children's Portraits- Iris

2011-12-05T16:32:00.001-08:00

Iris
Children's Portraits 2012

Horfrost

2011-12-05T11:16:00.001-08:00

octopus bottle

2011-12-02T23:30:00.001-08:00

Cobalt, Yarrow, Baby's Breath

2011-12-02T23:23:00.001-08:00

Party Dress

2011-12-02T23:20:00.001-08:00

T Max

Pentax LX

2012

2011-11-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

Contact me via email to book your session!

Session includes 20 minutes in my warm, well-lit studio and your choice of 2 high resolution images from the 20-30 I get during our session. If you want to buy the disc of all images it is just $25! My individual portrait session is $250 so this is a major deal! Get on it...only 7 more available!

On debris

2011-11-18T10:57:00.000-08:00

Jessica Todd Harper legitimizes my attraction to what she calls, "domestic debris". While some clients seem hesitant to allow this debris to be part of their family photography I ask, why not? Domestic debris sweetens with time. Evidence of this rests in the nostalgia that sweeps over us when we see photos of Christmas morning or birthday parties from the past. These photos are rarely formal and they fill the air with words like, "that nightgown!" "that wrapping paper Mom used!" "remember that awful couch?".

The fact is this- things are a part of us. What we choose to surround ourselves with and invite into our lives build the memories of our home life. The inanimate should be honored tastefully and casually, yet deliberately, through the increasingly accessible medium of photography.

If you have a deceased parent, spouse, or child these truths are second nature. Do you/will you cherish big formal posed photo or the casual captures of a life you actually lived filled with evidence of that life? I am, quite obviously attracted to the later but in no way do I devalue the former.

As a photographer I know that allowing this experience, and benefitting from the photos it yields, requires a certain vulnerability and aesthetic that not all clients will be attracted. But I'm attracted to it and my work has, and will, continue to move in this direction. Great portraits, as with all great art, fleurishes under the strain of struggle and personal (or in this case collective) vulnerability.

Take photos, especially photos of your seemingly imperfect reality and then wait for time to step in and add a sheen of nostalgia and history to the photo for they will indeed.

Bouquet Sale

2011-11-16T23:42:00.000-08:00

Many of you have contacted me about Mallory's work and I have some great news- She is having a sale on her floral paintings! Click HERE to see one-of-a-kind original paintings. Find one you love? Contact Mallory through her contact page. Be happy in your home with original art from a wonderfully talented artist.

All paintings were photographed by yours truly.

Caitlyn and Sam

2011-11-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

Nicole

2011-11-14T21:07:00.000-08:00

Cade

2011-11-10T08:21:00.001-08:00

What Inspires: Mallory Robin

2011-11-10T08:18:00.001-08:00

Mallory, the woman whom these things inspire.

Halloween

2011-11-09T22:26:00.000-08:00

twins, monsters

girl, cupcake

My Friend

2011-11-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it can be hard to choose between two good things. Color and black and white. And sometimes you choose both.

Tabletopped

2011-11-07T12:10:00.000-08:00

Pool

2011-11-05T22:29:00.000-07:00

Ashley Thalman as second shooter for Shawna Herring

Maria

2011-11-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

and burn them behind us

2011-11-02T21:53:00.000-07:00

Click HERE, turn up the music and then look...

Many thanks to Mallory Johnson for helping me pull images out of my mind and into reality. We made these pictures together. You are an inspiration and my creative confidant.

And thanks to my dear old Dad for stoking the fires.

Song by Low & Spring Heel Jack

Stoke It

2011-10-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

I'm gearing up to post a bunch of pics from my session with Mallory. Stoked city.

The Good Family

2011-10-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

To see more images from this session click HERE.

INSPIRED: Elizabeth Gilbert on Creativity

2011-10-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Daniel

2011-10-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

Recession

2011-10-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

Annie Clark of St. Vincent at Urban Lounge- SLC, Utah

2011-10-11T15:16:00.000-07:00

Click HERE to hear her new song Surgeon.

Redondo Beach Birds

2011-10-10T15:44:00.001-07:00

Mother Photographer!

2011-10-06T00:08:00.000-07:00

I often tell Kiera and Shawna that I feel somewhat jealous of my male colleagues who leave their homes behind for work. I imagine an endless well of focus, of brainstorming, and of planning. Stringless errand running! No babysitters to coordinate! Ah! The freedom. I do realize that I've created a covetous world that these man friends live in and I know it isn't real but still, but still. As a mother, as a full-time mother who loves mothering, I find myself making excuses for myself artistically and this male photog idealization is an example of one.

It feels nearly impossible to work at developing creative ideas when my work away from home seems like all I can do. If I'm out of the house for 10 hours a week and editing late into the night for 10, then I begin to feel that the only work I can do is the work that comes in. Forget personal work! Booking and shooting is great but it is no better than sitting down to paint without a concept, than trying to teach a lesson without putting in the time for inspiration. If I shoot to book then complacency results from exhaustion and I become overly confident about last years ideas, when this year had totally new and unique ideas to offer that I passed by because I "didn't have time" to explore them and develop them.

Here is the fact about my life as a photographer and a mother. I choose both of these passions. I choose two close-in-age babies. I choose the multifaceted heart-on-your-sleeve work of being a photographer. I choose the triumph and trial of both and I want to live the width of both. I cannot be away from these babies without it mattering. I want to be deliberate and if that means taking a few hours a week to brainstorm or work on something personal then I must. I owe it to myself first and foremost and if clients book then I count that as a blessing after an obedience so to speak.

Business, personal work, composition- the excuses are in the fabric of every creative vision and if they aren't sorted and burned then my work suffers. It is extremely hard to find ways to let ideas grow. And I am convinced that every artist needs to find their approach individually. For me, ideas come and I am fortunate in that way, but developing the initial impression is a thing I feel too guilty or too busy to do. Why? Isn't that bushel hiding? I realized a few weeks ago that it is. So I decided to brainstorm again. So I sat with myself and admitted what I don't know, what I like and what my strengths are. I dissected my Pinterest boards and I asked myself, of particular and compelling images, over and over and over, "Why do I like this?"

Unless my photographs speak to me of some fear conquered or some idea expressed then I loose interest quickly and I can't see myself in my work. At that point my time away from my family is, in my mind, wasted. I may as well work somewhere where my work can be left behind at night because though personal business ownership is filled with benefits and freedom, leaving it behind (mentally, emotionally or physically) is not often one of them.

Process

2011-10-05T00:02:00.000-07:00

I could wear on and on about the word "influence" and I could list long lists of places I find it. Lately I've been finding it in impressionistic paintings and really, I find it in painting in general. I don't want to paint my subject literally, but I want to be scrutinizing and still like a painter. I want to brainstorm like a painter who buys color and canvas with intention, who paints with patience and composes deliberately. Deliberately. Slowly. Consciously. Creatively.

That stillness does not come easy for me, but when I do it I get results. Until now I have perceived it as something that cannot be found but that just comes. Like a storm. It is not a storm. It's a chore that you can sit back after and say, "Wow, this looks better. This feels better."

Creation vs Re-Creation

2011-10-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

It is impossible and exhausting to try to create the created. As Joni Mitchell once said, "A painter does a painting and he does a painting that's it. He's had the joy of creating it...but nobody ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint the Starry Night again man!' He painted it- that was it!"

Sure, you can attempt to paint the same subject with the same paints but you can't paint the same thing twice. It's lame to want a photographer to paint you just like she painted the client before you and it's lame to be the photographer who tries to paint what someone else paints. Re-creation is futile, completely.

The cool thing about being a photographer is that work has the potential to be different every single time. Sure dudes, you can get stuck in repetitious ruts but the images are still different. A photographer's vision and perspective has the potential to superimpose themselves creatively and entirely every time, and every time that vision can be expressed through the variables of color, pattern, place, faces, light, composition, etc. My fascination with impermanence, timelessness, imperfection, reality and impressions can be represented in every image I choose to show or I can just take pictures. Pictures that say nothing, feel nothing, do nothing.

I do best when I ask myself, "Why do I like that?" to explore what I am drawn to. I think this is the only way I can close the gap between taking photos I hope my client will like and taking photos I am proud of. Get the picture? Sure, you get it. You get your own. No need to try and get someone else's.

Shelby

2011-10-03T19:39:00.000-07:00

The Russell Family

2011-10-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

Drawn

2011-10-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

My attraction to an artist's work is usually the result of them not fearing the very things I fear. These artists don't agree with my fears or limitations. They see an opportunity where I see a roadblock, they see freedom where I see restriction. These inspirers see differently and when I see their work I am driven to find my own fearlessness as they have found theirs.

When I realized these things a few weeks ago I realized how far reaching that realization reaches. Maybe these attractions are one way for us to discover a necessary direction. I am drawn to lighting and temperatures right now but you know what? I've felt actual fear in the fact that I don't know much about them. Choosing to perceive that fear as attraction and a necessary learning has made me feel more fulfilled as a photographer. Ah perspective! A gift from the gods.

Fearless folk:

Low at Velour-Provo, Utah

2011-10-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

There are few musicians that captivate me as well and as surely as Alan Sparkhawk. A few years ago he showed up at Kilby Court for a Retribution Gospel Choir performance wearing a ghost costume and put on the most amazing rock show. His charismatic stage presence is unmatched. Anyone who has been to a Low concert knows what I mean. I meant to communicate that in these images which I think I've done pretty damned well. Velour's drama queen lighting and smoke/fog machine don't hurt either.

Oh! I almost forgot! I made a crappy video and uploaded it HERE.

Kara & Casey

2011-10-01T19:31:00.001-07:00

The beautiful low-key wedding of Casey & Kara Cook in Zion National Park.

Celebration dinner and dancing at Springdale Fruit Company in Springdale, Utah.

What an amazing event in a singularly perfect place. The fact that rain threatened the even made the perfectness of it all the more magical.

To see the entire gallery click HERE.

Winded and Wedded

2011-09-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

Some events feel magical. This one did. At one point the wind was so gusty and determined that guests and family took turns holding the cake in place for fear it would fall on the apple studded grass. Yes, apple studded. This reception was in an orchard just outside Zion National Park. The forecast predicted a storm that would have put us inside but instead, mother nature just sent grey clouds and wind bursts.

2011-09-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

Summer

2011-09-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

Shot with Portra film

Pentax LX

Hawaii 2007

2011-09-23T10:36:00.001-07:00

Underwater camera, 5 years later

Thursday Night

2011-09-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

Fanny Packs and Maps

2011-09-21T22:02:00.002-07:00

2011-09-21T22:02:00.001-07:00

2011-09-19T21:39:00.001-07:00

Street

2011-09-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

Caitlyn and Samson

Kara's Bridals

2011-09-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

Vanessa and Steve Celebrate

2011-09-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Smash!

2011-09-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

Wood paneling, expressive bride, handsome daring cake-smashing groom! I will always do weddings like this, always. I must say a special thank you to Garrett Soong, Matt Kao and Alfreda Tsai of Mood Events for inviting me to be a part of a wedding this memorable.

More pics of Vanessa and Steve later.

Bridals

2011-09-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

Errin

2011-09-04T22:35:00.000-07:00

Kiera and Ashley

2011-08-28T01:28:00.000-07:00

The Richards Family

2011-08-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

Olivia is Two!

2011-08-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Olivia is a roll with the punches kind of girl! I'm glad I got to spend some time with her on her visit from Washington last week.

The Dixon Family

2011-08-23T22:35:00.001-07:00

My heart feels like its going to break through my chest with gratitude and shock tonight. As I edited these I kept thinking to myself, "from Canada, from CANADA!" Natasha and Damian, along with their two young boys drove from Canada to Utah for these photos. No, they don't have friends or family in Utah. No, they weren't planning to see the red rocks or temple square- they came to see my camera. It makes me blush to write it. It makes me feel so great that something I do was appreciated enough that Tosh would make the sacrifice of time, money and comfort to drive all that way.

Tosh is the complimentary, heart-sleeve sort and I am so happy I got to meet her and her family. Enjoy!

Natasha & Damian

2011-08-23T21:01:00.001-07:00

Poet Know It

2011-08-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

I know this poem. I've known it since I was 17. I don't know every line by heart, nor by grey matter but I do know it. I know it because it explains me to myself. This poem illuminates and names a lot of how I feel right now- both personally and professionally, spiritually and intellectually. Whenever I feel like I am leaving one season, one place, one mind-set, one rut, one success, one support...whenever I feel that I am making a leap from one thing to the next I think of this poem.

Ash Wednesday- T.S. Eliot

Because I do not hope to turn again

Because I do not hope

Because I do not hope to turn

Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope

I no longer strive to strive towards such things

(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)

Why should I mourn

The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know again

The infirm glory of the positive hour

Because I do not think

Because I know I shall not know

The one veritable transitory power

Because I cannot drink

There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there

Is nothing again

Because I know that time is always time

And place is always and only place

And what is actual is actual only for one time

And only for one place

I rejoice that things are as they are and

I renounce the blessed face

And renounce the voice

Because I cannot hope to turn again

Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something

Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us

And I pray that I may forget

These matters that with myself I too much discuss

Too much explain

Because I do not hope to turn again

Let these words answer

For what is done, not to be done again

May the judgment not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly

But merely vans to beat the air

The air which is now thoroughly small and dry

Smaller and dryer than the will

Teach us to care and to not care

Teach us to sit still

unfolded

2011-08-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

Cobalt and Baby's Breath

2011-08-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

Natasha

2011-08-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

Natasha and her family (two young sons and a very cooperative husband) drove (from Canada) to Utah (to have their portraits taken by me). Wow. Natasha is a great woman and I am honored that she is my client and now, my friend.

Cade, Shaded

2011-08-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

Rose Park

2011-08-18T09:24:00.001-07:00

Hadley

2011-08-09T21:50:00.001-07:00

Dash and Mallory

2011-08-08T21:26:00.001-07:00

To see all images from my session with Mallory click HERE.

Mind Blows- Lady Music

2011-08-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

This video is blowing my mind so I'm passing it on. The portrait work inspiration is making my stomach sick that its 12.32 am and I don't have a model and some light.

Surgeon- St. Vincent

Yo, St. Vincent is so lovely and smart she blows minds too.

Listen to her latest track

HERE

Kjerstin & James- Wedding Portraits

2011-08-05T22:01:00.001-07:00

It was just a few days before their wedding and it was early, windy, warm and the rest is history. Congratulations James and Kjerstin!

To see all images click HERE.

Mallory- In Lights

2011-08-05T01:52:00.000-07:00

To see all images from my session with Mallory click HERE.

Portrait of a Painter- Mallory Robin

2011-08-04T17:29:00.001-07:00

Mallory is an amazing painter and person. Our different mediums give us a lot to talk about and I value her perspectives. She and I have been working together for nearly a year archiving images of her paintings and processes (see site above). Today as I worked with her in her studio some magic happened. I love it when magic happens.

To see all images from my session with Mallory click HERE.

Through the Fence

2011-08-04T10:39:00.001-07:00

Bye Bye Bird Blog

2011-08-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

The Bird blog is gone. See me here or on Facebook.

Angie

2011-07-31T21:24:00.001-07:00

Danielle

2011-07-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

up and down

2011-07-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

Updates

2011-07-25T21:51:00.001-07:00

mt timp backside in a storm- from deer creek

I'm still here, still thinking things as per usual.

Thinking about my Dad's Pentax he gave me years ago. Got the light leak fixed up real good at Kews. Shot some T-Max and Portra over the weekend of my kids.

I have so many project ideas yet its hard to escape for the sake of the "personal" in art, especially when the professional side demands as much as it does.

Speaking of personal. Two of my closest friends moved away. One to Korea. One to Salt Lake. I don't like it. Not at all. Consolation? They are in happy places that they have been working toward for years. Congrats and bravo to them both. I miss them.

I've been writing a lot. In a personal blog that no one sees. I've been keeping lists and lists of things that I want to shoot. I can be such a slacker at the follow through. Kiera and I have the same problem (kids and no time) so working together will be the best plan to kick the limitations harder than they kick us. We work like champs together anyway. More Lange less Weston I say. Dorothea Lange's work has been through BYU a bunch and I remember it grabbing hold of my throat the first time when I was about eighteen. Full of ideals and energy then and something about her work touched me. As the Fleet Foxes say, "the world outside is so inconceivable sometimes I barely can speak". Kiera and I am drummin' up some imagery to honor the inconceivable we see. Sometimes words just don't cut it, in fact, they usually don't.

Happy to be working with Liz Stanley and her three sisters for the Fall "Sister Style". Turns out her younger sisters and I have a lot in common and they are cool cool cool. Can't wait to show those pics.

Speaking of working with people. Justin Hackworth is the best. Last weekend he opened (officially) his 30 Strangers project at BYU's Kimball library and invited Kiera, Brett and me to come shoot the event. Nice venue, nice people, great essays read by some very interesting women. It was a visual and audial feast! He and Amy are brilliant business people and great friends. Had the whole clan of theirs there which made it fun to photograph. Did I say brilliant? I mean it. See the show if you haven't. See some pics I took from the show on Justin's bloggity.

Oh, yes, and Justin invited me to work with him up at the EVO Conference in Park City a few weeks ago and MAN WAS IT AMAZING! Rode up with Trevor Christensen and I dished out all manner of teasings about his young age. We had a great team. David Miller assisted me and the thought kept revolving about how great it is to work with great photographers. I grow, I learn, I win, I wash off the things that don't matter, I am pushed.

I've been training for a half marathon. My cousin Steve calls it a half mary which makes him sound cool, which he is. I'm hunting the intertubes for a full next Fall. Don't suggest St. George. I want something sea level. A marathon? Am I nuts? Yeah. I am. I'll be glad to get my time back when the half mary is over. See how I snuck that in there? I'm cool like you Steve!

I'm getting a wee better at processing black and white digitally. Tones are changing my life as I understand them better. Sold the 24-70 mm and now I'm on a lens hunt. Fun to just have the 50 mm. Its all I ever used anyway. Ever.

Booked some weddings which I'm getting amped about. Deer Valley and Springdale. Find me two better or more diverse locations in Utah and I'll give you some gum. Wedding Portrait session tomorrow which reminds me, I need some sleep.

Dotter, Dirty

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digital shots from Click Clique film session

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Saenz Dye

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Boy with Cookie

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Middle Part Girl

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My Girl

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My Boy

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beets and green onions

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Summer Storm- Provo Canyon

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Trevor Christensen

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He shoots and works and has a mighty mind. Get to know him HERE. I really appreciate his essay on what makes art art.

The Bigler Children

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