Thredgold {Family} Portrait Session

OMG! These are some of my most favorite people! Even the littlest is so full of personality. I love it!

Tying the Knot Today!

Today is the day! I am so excited to be able to take pictures for this sweet family today! I have been dying to share their engagments with everyone, and I finally get too! I feel so lucky to be able to share a little, in their special day. Congrats to Heidi & Byron & their sweet kids!

Best Friends

I have had the privilege of seeing these three young ladies grow up, and I am still in shock that they are getting so big! Where does time go?!? As I went through all of these images to find some of my favorites, I just had to laugh because you can see their little personalities show through. One of them had to pull a funny face about every other picture or so, just to keep me on my feet. Love my job!

Why Hire a Professional?

So I don't share my before and after very often. But if you have ever asked yourself why you should hire a professional vs. a friend, family, or even yourself because they/you have a nice camera? Or why bother because, you can drive up the street to a place where you can have your prints in an hour? This image, is the perfect example why.

 I got to go to the park, with these three sweet girls, who are best friends, and take pictures with them a couple weeks ago. The only problem? The Mom's of the girls, couldn't meet, until just barely before sunset. Unfortunately, my flash was not giving me the look I needed, so I took a risk and just changed my settings to shoot in lower light. It's a risky move, because it can decrease the image quality, even if you are shooting in RAW. But I figured it was better to be too dark then too light. Most of the images, turned out pretty good, but by the end of the shoot it was just too dark. The result, I ended up getting more grain in the images, as I had to keep adjusting my settings. To add to the light issue, this picture was a struggle, because the bubbles just weren't working. So what are the results?? Well, your average person, would look at these images and just say, "Oh well, maybe next time." Why? Odds are, they don't shoot in RAW and they don't have non-destructive editing software.  So, they have no way to do anything with it. You see, every change made to an image after it is taken, decreases the quality of the image and causes what we call noise. If you look really close at a photograph, you should be able to see tiny little dots that make up the image, this is the grain. As the noise increases, the grain becomes more readily visible.  So the more you do, the worse it gets.  So trying to change this underexposed image as a jpeg, or say in iPhoto, it would literally destroy the image.

Fortunately for this image, I was shooting in RAW and have top of the line, non-destructive editing software.  So I am able to take an image, that would normally not make the cut, and I can make it into something beautiful and playful. Is there still some noise? Absolutely, but that is the advantage of hiring a professional photographer. I took what noise was left and made it look intentional. I made it part of the artwork. Then I took some bubble overlays and playfully added them in, to give the effect that the mom's of these girls were looking for.

So what does this all mean? It means, that when you pay for a professional you aren't just paying for images snapped on a camera. You are paying for hours of time after the picture and  time spent before making sure we have the best equipment, software, and knowledge available, to ensure you get the best image possible.

So should you hire a professional? Look at the before and after, and you decide ;)

Fall Mini Sessions!

Only $150 for Returning Customers!

Riker's {Newborn} Session

This little man was such a cuddle bug, I could love on him all day. At the end he was giving us some pretty funny little faces and poses, I still laugh every time I look at them. 

Dawson {Newborn} Post

Sweet little Dawson. He is my cousins 2nd son, they make the most beautiful babies! My family is lucky to be close for such a large family and I always feel blessed when my cousins let me share in the joy of their new arrivals and take pictures of their sweet babies. As I share these today, I am reminded how sweet and precious life is. We have welcomed 5 new babies, Dawson included,  into our family over the last couple month. We have been truly blessed,  but my heartaches at the news that we lost my sweet aunt, unexpectedly yesterday, after an 18+ year battle with cancer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when her youngest was just a baby. Over the last 18 years, she was has battled cancer 4x's successfully, overcoming it 3 of those times. Through all the pain and sorrow, she stayed positive and blessed the lives of others. Just over 10 years ago, while I was on bed rest at the U of U, with my daughter, she was receiving cancer treatments at the Huntsman. Despite what she was going through, she would come over and visit me to help break up the long hours of staring at the ceiling worrying. When they finally let me get up, I could only leave the room in a wheelchair, so she came and wheeled me to lunch. That kindness she showed me has stayed with me. I know that there are many others with similar stories of how she has touched their lives. How grateful I am for the knowledge that this life is not the end, and that she was greeted by those family members who have gone on before her. I am glad that she is finally cancer free, but I will sure miss seeing her sweet face.
Our prayers are with her family, love you Marci!