And should we not have the opportunity to say so later on... HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! AND, A HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Here's what I'll be making for this year's batch of cookies (truffles, bars, and brownies):

1. Peanut Blossoms


2. Chocolate Crinkles


3. Coconut Macaroons


4. Candy Cane Cookies


5. Peanut Butter Balls


6. Peppermint Meringues


7. Magic Cookie Bars


8. Apple Brownies


9. Chocolate Truffles

And because I have so much to do (between both of our large families and friends), I have made up a schedule for myself to keep things organized. Here's what it's looking like so far (see below photo):

Monday (12/19):

•  Prepare / bake Peppermint Meringues

Tuesday (12/20):

• Prepare Peanut Butter Balls
• Prepare Chocolate Truffles

Wednesday (12/21):

• Prepare Candy Cane Cookies
• Prepare / bake Magic Cookie Bars
• Finish Peanut Butter Balls
• Finish Chocolate Truffles

Thursday (12/22):

• Prepare Chocolate Crinkles
• Prepare Coconut Macaroons
• Prepare Peanut Blossoms
• Bake Candy Cane Cookies

Friday (Main Broadcasting) (12/23):

• Bake Chocolate Crinkles
• Bake Peanut Blossoms
• Bake Coconut Macaroons
• Bake Apple Brownies

This pretty much means I will be in the kitchen the majority of the week... For those of you in the area, stop by and say hi! Be a part of the process! I mean that both literally and figuratively, of course... 

Happy Holidays, everyone! And, be sure to keep an eye on our Twitter to see when we'll be broadcasting!

We met up downtown near an ol' favorite venue of mine and Eric's - Kilby Court. Kilby had been the place where I had seen Carissa's Weird, Nika, The Microphones. It was the place where I would first see Eric perform on the drums w/ The Annuals (later to be called Band of Annuals) before he decided to leave the band to live a life of spousal (and later parental) responsibility (hahahahahaha.... oh, wait).

Anyway, the area was perfect. The concept was perfect. The group was perfect.

Victus Creus is their name, and they are "a clothing and and art company working to empower everyone through artistic expression of all kinds." In other words, they are a unique group of people - Ned, Chris, Brin, and Amy - working to promote just the sort of thing we offer you here... art without boundaries, without exclusivity. Art that is not mass-produced or commercialized. Art that will lend itself as much to the artist as it does to the viewer.

And thanks to this awesome group of individuals, we are able to offer you a glimpse of just some of the art we produced that day! Here are some of my favorites: 

And, one more thing: a big THANKS to Mason for making our day! 

After we finished up at the Promenade Wetlands locale, we went to Lone Peak Park where we had done some maternity shots for my sister the year before. There, we got some of my favorite shots from the shoot while the sun was going down. 

It's nice to be able to do maternity photos for other women and make them feel beautiful in their skin. I remember feeling ugly and unnatural when I was pregnant with Colette. I didn't want anyone taking my picture, and, as a consequence, I have very few to document the occasion. I think I would feel differently now, though I would have to have very specific kinds of photos done. I would want the photos to express more of a feeling than of a specific look. Then again, that's how I usually prefer my photos to be. If you can somehow capture the way you felt in a specific moment, then that is more important to me than simply documenting the occasion.

Anyway, as always, these photos come to you courtesy of the couple themselves. Many congratulations to the couple when their joyous day finally arrives! It is truly a transformative experience, and it is like to never make for a dull moment ever again. There will be good days, and there will be bad. But, ultimately, it will be one of the best experiences of your life. 

I'm noticing a trend on most photographers' blogs where photographers tend to neglect their blogs more and more as life and the business of photography get in the way. I used to think it wouldn't be so hard to keep on top of... I was wrong.

Anyway, I did these photos for a friend of ours for her new skin care business about mid-August up Ensign Peak here in Salt Lake. I've never hiked Ensign Peak before, so it was a nice to finally be able to do so even though the heat and the steep incline of the mountains had me panting most of the time. And, I'm sure my face was beet red by the time we reached the top (I desperately need to get back in shape). Still though, Ensign Peak made for the perfect location to do these photos, and I'm glad we hiked it for that reason as well.

Tavish will be offering specialized skin care programs that are all-natural and tailored to your specific needs as she gets her business up and going. If you are interested, I suggest you check it out and stay tuned for more information to come! I can personally vouch for her integrity though I have yet to try out the program for myself. I hope that I will have the opportunity to do so in the up-and-coming months!

As per usual, here are some of my favorite photos from our session, again courtesy of our lovely client and friend:

Also, sorry to those of you who so diligently (or not) follow our work on here. We have been on a much needed hiatus from client work, choosing to focus instead on the countless other photos we have been taking since the beginning of this year. It may be another two months before we post again... or not. :P

But, yes, thanks to those of you who have and who continue to follow us as we continue to develop our craft. It keeps us going (even despite the hiatus)!

So, as I was saying before, I had a whole concept planned out for this shoot which involved a lovely picnic scene in a park. We had a basket, we had a blanket. We even had a bottle of mock champagne. And still I took photos of my sister, her husband, and her beautiful four month old daughter sitting together on a blanket beneath a tree. But my eyes started to drift towards this flowering tree to the left shortly into the shoot, and soon I could no longer resist the urge to make them get up and move over to this tree. The picnic basket and all the little props that I was hoping would help to set the mood for their photos were no longer required, and all I needed to work with was this lovely, little family radiating through the branches of the tree.

As I edited the photos, my eyes were naturally drawn to my sister, whose sincerest happiness was made clear to me by her ability to shine through every photo I took of her, and it made me happy. It made me happy for her and for her family which has grown since we last did pictures. She has had every bit in confidence in me from the moment we began, and so it makes me proud to be able to give something back and to give her something which I know will mean a lot to her as her family continues to grow and evolve over the coming years.

You can see all of these and more in the Families/Groups, Infants/Children, and Engagements/Couples galleries.

The reason why there haven't been any new photos lately is because we release any client-based work that we do fully to our clients who then must give us permission to share those photos here. We do this because we believe it's important that our clients gain the advantage of copyright privilege to their own photos. Otherwise, we just think it would be silly that we should maintain it for ourselves who really owe everything to our customers for their support throughout every shoot that we do. In the past, I have eagerly - perhaps overly so - shared photos of some of my family as well, but I've decided that it's really much more important to me to protect the interests of any and all "customers" we do work for. So, we share as we are permitted to do so...

These latest photos come to you courtesy of the happy couple we posted about not too long ago... Seth and Keesa. We met up on what was supposed to be another dismal day at the Temple grounds in downtown Salt Lake. Eric and I watched as the clouds blocked out the sun and threatened rain or even snow but then proudly rejoiced as they began to move away shortly after Seth and Keesa had arrived. The rest of the afternoon panned out to be quite nice, and we were able to get some nice photos at not just the Temple grounds but also this beautiful orchard my sister-in-law was nice enough to give us the directions to / contact information for.

As far as the post-processing goes, I wanted to try something different, so I did a Gaussian Blur on the vast majority of the photos, painting out various parts of the photos that I wanted to be in focus. You could achieve this same sort of effect with a shallow depth of field aperture setting on your camera, but it wouldn't be the same with wider angles like these (I was shooting with a 35mm prime lens). I also, of course, did my usual color treatment, playing up the greens, yellows, and blues for a more "Springy" feel on the Temple grounds and then emphasizing the greens, yellows, and reds in the orchard for a more country kinda feel. Yeah... I could go on, but I won't bore you with the details! Here then are some of my favorites from this particular series which you can see more of in the Weddings gallery: