The winds of change

Give it enough time and all artists will feel that their old work is making them look bad.

That's exactly how I feel about a lot of my shots on the website right now. And that can only mean one thing:

MAJOR OVERHAUL!

I haven't really been able to keep up lately, but I've caught up quite a bit just in the last few days. Enough that I'm approaching the point where I can address the overhaul now rather than waiting until the fall when things slow down again.

So for those of you who are lurking in the shadows, silently checking me out to determine whether I'm the right photographer, keep your eyes peeled.

Change is coming.

More stuff

Here they are:

Day 159/365

Nice shoes

Day 160/365

I'd never shot a Muslim wedding before. I can't quite describe how good that wedding made me feel. It's the second that's made me feel that way this year, and that's saying something.

Day 161/365

The obsession of designing my book, day 1

Day 162/365

The obsession of designing my book, day 2

Day 163/365

Singing for your lover

Day 164/365

My fence, up close and personal

Day 165/365

Look, I understand that you have to illustrate to the passing shopper that the book is designed for complete beginners, but do you really have to insult your reader base?

"You're an unbelievable idiot. Here, read this."

This is how I'm currently learning to use Cubase.

Day 166/365

GREENCARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 167/365

I Am Legend anyone? Watch out for rabid zombie dogs.

Day 168/365

This is why I love the field across from my house. Summer days are spectacular there.

Day 169/365

The beautiful Amy

Day 170/365

I just sent out a small batch of 5x7 postcard promos. I'm going to be adopting this marketing method for my potential brides pretty soon, but this was meant for potential commercial clients. The idea is pretty simple.

Art on the front, contact info on the back.

No big, obnoxious, multi-colored font screaming at you. No text explaining anything. I want this to be viewed as art that you could keep, instead of something that would inconvenience you by having to take time to throw it away.

Oh and some of my personal friends and readers, you should be getting one of these in the mail too.

Day 171/365

The other two contenders to replace my old self-portrait. The ones I chose are on the website.

More to come soon (hopefully)!

28 Days Later

Yesterday was 28 days behind. Today is actually 29 days behind, but 28 Days Later is the movie reference... So I decided on that for the subject line.

Wakka wakka wakka!

No more Photoshopping each shot I post. I need to make this process a bit quicker, or I really won't be able to keep up.

Here we go.

Day 134/365

Cory & Addisyn

Day 135/365

Boring shot, but crucial. I cleaned my sensor that day.

Day 136/365

Brad & Carley

Love the intense look in Carley's eyes. That wedding was spectacular. It was one of the rare weddings that had me choking up.

Day 137/365

Todd & Kristi

Day 138/365

I was very sick that week (bad timing with 4 weddings) and Sprite helps me.

Day 139/365

Dustin & Carrie

Yummy

Day 140/365

Very late night of printing, eating and blowing my nose.

Day 141/365

My new front room. This is where I meet my clients.

Day 142/365

Discovering that sticking your hand in a sprinkler's path is awesome fun

Day 143/365

I was coming back home from taking the boys out to a playground and I looked up and saw this. I thought "Cool, I get to watch a collision!"

Well, that or a bizarre American Airlines airshow.

Day 144/365

Out playing in the backyard, I had my camera in hand and we decided to see how high I could kick the ball in the air. This was as high as I could get it.

And this is a great shot of my oldest, Gabe.

Day 145/365

A play I went to see, starring Alisha; model, actress, singer, dancer, close friend and all around endlessly talented person.

Day 146/365

The amazingly beautiful Amela.

Day 147/365

I just had to make the time for some guitar playing. Before that night, I hadn't picked up my guitar in close to a month...

Day 148/365

The continuation of a series of hardware issues... This is the night my power supply decided to start dying on me. I might have opened up the computer to take a picture of it, but I was too angry to bother taking a proper shot.

Day 149/365

Only in a house with kids will you find a guy in a yellow jumpsuit lying face down in a bathroom with one hand in the air.

That or a frathouse.

Day 150/365

Another night of hardware frustration. That's a $20 ink cartridge down the toilet.

Day 151/365

Cubase!!! Now I can create some music! I should have gotten this right from the start.

Day 152/365

What's for dinner? Pot-Pourri. That's what.

Day 153/365

Freddy & Trisha

Incorporating my abstract, "colors and shapes" thoughts at a wedding.

Day 154/365

The Path to the Sun

A beautiful field near my house.

Day 155/365

Out with the old, in with the new. A continuation from the Cubase thing. I was sick and tired of fighting with my MBox audio interface, trying to get it to work at all on ANYTHING. Screw it, got a new one instead.

Day 156/365

Homemade pop-filter. Pop filters are designed to keep audio from being distorted, especially with vocals, where the performer has to say a word with a "P" or a "B" in it.

This was made with a coat-hanger and tights. Cost me zero dollars, versus paying $20 at a store where they would have pushed a 100-year warranty for what they'd insist is a reasonable $39.95.

No thanks.

Day 157/365

I have to admit, I've thoroughly enjoyed the weather of late. Rain is good in a desert as far as I'm concerned.

And my son Mason trying to dodge the camera.

Day 158/365

Looking out my dirty window into the blinding sunset.

Coming up is wedding, wedding, book, book, wedding, fence, book and the daily stuff I'll have done by the time I post again.

I'm a published author!!

Ok not really... I designed a book over at Blurb that I wanted to print and keep for myself. I'd been meaning to do this for quite some time, but just never got around to doing it. Finally, a few nights ago I decided to start, and once I did, I couldn't get myself to stop until I was done. So I was up until about 2am, two nights in a row, obsessively working on it until it was complete.

I was never really planning on sharing it with anyone. I just wanted to put together a book with my work in it...

Weird, I know.

But then I finished it and it felt like such a powerful and intimate visual diary of my experiences and my growth as a photographer and a person that I decided I had to tell everyone.

I'm anxious to get it!

Meantime, I'm almost, if not over a month behind on the photo blogging... I'm still taking shots daily, but I've been supidly busy lately... I'm getting to it all still, so hang in there.

Oh and I still see some traffic to the blog, so I appreciate those of you still keeping an eye out for me! I'll be blogging again soon.

One last thing. For those who haven't noticed, I now have a "know me" section on the website. This will take you to my Facebook, Flickr and Twitter accounts if you feel like getting to know me a little.

I hope to see some of you there!

Look... I'm alive!!!

I can't believe how long it's been... Sorry about that. Been busy and sick.

Day 117/365

Nate & Shawna wedding:

Day 118/365

WARNING: I did a shoot with a model and good friend of mine, Jayme Giordano, who needed some lingerie shots before she went to LA with an updated portfolio book so she could talk to MAXIM Magazine. Although the shot I'm linking to doesn't contain any nudity and shouldn't be offensive to anyone, it's still very revealing.

You've been warned.

Here it is.

Day 119/365

That was technically taken on day 120, because I went to bed late, then realized at 1am that I'd forgotten to take a shot that day. So I got out of the comfy bed to take a picture of something, anything. That effort is enough to make up for having been forgetful that one day, right? Cool, thanks.

Day 120/365

When I was settling into my newly finished basement some years ago, there was a wall I didn't quite know what to do with. I finally decided to throw up all the work I was proud enough of in a 4x6 format and arrange them kind of randomly. Like a collage of sorts. I don't think I'm that good, far from it, but it's been interesting to see my own progression over time.

The wall is expanding to another wall in the basement, but I'm going to be putting up a collage of photography I actually admire; stuff I've ripped out of Vogues and such.

Anyway, this was taken during a big update of my work, hence all the empty space:

Day 121/365

Colin & Emily wedding:

Day 122/365

My new, external, 1TB (terrabyte) drive. I plan on going through these about once a year. Faster as I get more work, but I was really starting to struggle when, in order to download the day's shots, I had to move things around to different drives, desperately hunting down every last megabyte, or backing everything up on tiny DVD-Rs.

A hard drive is cheaper and faster. I have no idea why I didn't do this sooner.

Day 123/365

Todd & Kristi "groomials":

Day 124/365

Mark & Trina wedding:

Day 125/365

New kitchen table. Needed a new one, finally broke down and got one.

Day 126/365

Jennifer, a dancer for a group called The Sugar Babies located here in SLC:

Day 127/365

Family photos:

I should explain though. That first shot is of dad and his girls.

Day 128/365

I won the iPod touch last year, but I bought this sound dock for it... Guess I negated the free iPod...

Day 129/365

You can't see it from this picture, but the piano is dusty... I really wanted to learn to play. There's just no time. My poor guitars are collecting dust too.

Day 130/365

Speaking of my guitars collecting dust:

Day 131/365

My TV's front panel:

Day 132/365

I wanted to do something that was unrecognizable, but just colors and shapes.

Day 133/365

My son Mason wasn't the birthday boy that day, but he wore a party-hat anyway.

Gabe, my oldest:

I had 4 weddings the week after that, so the next post might take a while to arrive. Hang tight.

Model shoot, two bridals and everything else

Lots to show this afternoon from all the days I've been away (up to May 7th - I'm not quite caught up yet).

Day 109/365

Many thanks to Natasha Roos for the brilliant ideas that led to this shoot. This is a bit of an edgier one.

Quinn:

Day 110/365

Shear material:

Day 111/365

A glimpse of my album collection:

Day 112/365

Lamp shade:

Day 113/365

My new car. I blogged about this a few posts back, if you recall. Now you get to see it:

Day 114/365

Dandelion:

Day 115/365

Personal favorite from Carley's bridals:

Day 116/365

Personal favorite from Emily's bridals:

More to come in a few days hopefully. Stay tuned.

Bridals, flowers and groomials

Ok, less talk, more photos.

Day 106/365

My favorite shot of Shawna's bridals:

Day 107/365

On my way out of the house to run some errands, I knew I had to take some cutesy pictures of a blossoming cherry tree:

Day 108/365

Blakelee "groomials" (combination of bridals with the groom in some of the shots - hint: he's not in this shot):

More to come in a few hours hopefully... Stay tuned.