Marissa & Nate's Engagement Shoot

I recently went home to photograph one of my sister's engagement photos. They are such a fun, cute couple so it made my job easy :) I also designed their invitation, as you'll see below. It was a fun little project :) Congrats, Mars and Nate!!

Marissa being a model. She's a natural!

A little cheesy, but I love the lighting

Candids are the best!! He likes to make that face :)

I tell them to hold hands and look at each other and this is what they do... love my family (and family-to-be) haha 

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Rock Canyon Shoot

My sister, bro-in-law, and I did a photo shoot in Rock Canyon Park in Provo this past weekend. The intent was to get a super awesome action shot of my bro-in-law going off a jump...but then he got a flat tire, so we opted to just take a still shot instead...and then do a mini portrait shoot just for fun. It was the perfect day because it was just cloudy enough to make the sky look cool.

While I was editing the photos, my sister was amazed at how well Camera RAW retained the detail in a really under-exposed photo. One of the many things I like about RAW photos :)

Maybe next time my bro-in-law won't ruin his tire right before the shoot so I can actually get a cool action shot ;) Until then, here are the rest of the photos!

Chuy was going to jump so Chrissy tested it out for me

Buuuut then he had to get a flat tire, so I just took a still instead...

Under-exposed

Recovered in Camera RAW - AMAZING!

Then color-corrected/adjusted

Beautiful sunspot in the field

Aaaand just for fun...

Yeah, she's pretty cool

Beautiful lil sis :)

She found Iron Man!!

She tried to focus but failed...

Gettin my Chi on. It's harder than it looks!

It was reeeeaaally bright!

Hawaiian Adventure

It's been another long while since I've updated this, so here are a couple of recent happenings:

- After 9 months of working as a Graphic Designer at Xi3, I got laid off, along with 2 of my co-workers. It's a blessing in disguise because it's given me the chance to update my portfolio, but I also miss my old co-workers.

- Because of the free time I had, I got to visit my friend in Hawaii!! Oahu, to be exact.

It was my first time outside of the continental US and it was amazing. The people there are so nice and chill (sometime too chill, but I won't get into that now...) Not to mention the scenery was beautiful, which you'll see below. I was so impressed at the turquoise water and how green and alive everything was. It's almost impossible to take an ugly picture there. *almost* There were a lot of really cool-looking trees, too. Oh, and the weather was super bipolar. I thought Utah was bad, but during my first day there, it was sunny, then rained, then was sunny again - all within about 5 minutes. (as seen in the first photo below)

I brought a more compact camera than my huge Nikon D700 so I could carry it around more easily, so the quality of the pictures isn't as good, but for a fraction of the cost, I think it did it's job pretty well.

The trip was so fun. I went on beautiful hikes, learned how to surf, swam in a waterfall, saw a sea turtle while snorkeling, and got to swim in warm ocean water during the winter time. Needless to say, for someone who doesn't get to travel to new places often, it was amazing!! :)

Next stop: Australia and/or New Zealand!! (In like 10 years...)

(TIP: Click on the photos to expand them)

HAPPY 4TH!!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

In honor of this special day, I'm going to post a patriotic campaign I completed for work. It was so much fun! I arranged the modular computer cubes that Xi3 sells into the shape of an American flag, and it turned out more awesomely than I thought it would. There's a sense of excitement and accomplishment that comes with making art that many people will see. Here's a screenshot of the email that was sent out:

FREE SHIPPING email

On a different note, I really love this holiday, because it's not stressful and we get to celebrate our country's birthday by blowing stuff up! What's not to love?? ;)

I do appreciate the sacrifices that were and are still made so that I can enjoy my freedom. I'm also grateful that I get to spend this holiday with some of my family :)

ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY!!

Happiness

I recently got a new full-time job as a Graphic Designer/Photographer at a start-up i-sys tech company called Xi3. I have only been there for 2 weeks, but it seems like I've been there forever. I have my own cubicle, two monitors, and an Intuos5 Wacom tablet to work with. I feel like I've already landed the perfect job for me. It's great!

I love my co-workers and the my job description is awesome! I basically get to do what I love and get paid for it :) I've been shooting product photography and designing emails and landing pages for the various campaigns, and I do other projects on the side, which I also love. The best part is, I don't feel drained by the end of the day! At my previous job, I would come home and just feel like going to bed, but now I feel happy and energized at 6pm. 

I wish I had some samples of the projects I work on there, but I haven't had a chance to get any. I do feel very blessed to have landed this job, especially early in my career. I'm excited to learn much more about the Adobe Creative Suite, as I'm going to be using the programs a LOT.

Sugarhouse Park

Yesterday, I decided to explore/photograph a park that is down the street from my house, called Sugarhouse Park. It's pretty big and has lots of cool scenery.

When I first got there, I saw a TON of birds of all different kinds next to the pond. So I parked my car a little ways away from the lake (so I wouldn't scare them) and when I got out, all of the birds immediately flew towards me! I was kind of freaked out (if you have seen "The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock, you know why.) But I figured they just thought I had food, so I continued to shoot anyway. I'm sad I missed that moment when they were all flying toward me, but I was in a fight for my life (and my camera wasn't ready)! It was really cool photographing these birds because I could get close and they didn't fly away. In fact, to get them to fly, I had to kick snow at them (sorry) to scare them.

The line of ducks (below) were actually somewhat scared of me. They walked up to where I was right as I got back in my car. So I got out again and walked toward them and they froze in a weird cluster. So I got back in my car and they started walking again. Punks. So I had to get creative: I had to roll down my window and shoot from inside my car. I felt silly but it worked!

The last two scenes I stumbled upon while walking around. I didn't apply any color enhancement to the trees; they were just really pretty! Even though it's really cold, I love shooting in the snow!

These ducks seemed confused as to why this bird was joining them

 

Perfect landing

Just so you can see how many birds flew at me. This isn't even half of them!

Freezing Rain

Okay, landscapes aren't really my thing, but I had to capture this...

Yesterday, I had my first freezing rain experience. I was very confused as to what exactly was happening, because it seemed like it was just raining (weird for winter, but whatever), but then it turned to ice as soon as it touched any surface (the street, cars, snow, etc), a very strange phenomenon. I heard that some people had about 1/4 inch thick of ice covering their cars, and the freeway was a mess. Not a good day for going outside at all. Except if you wanted to skate around on the ice, which I saw (via video) some students at BYU were doing. It actually looked like a lot of fun!
Sliding Down the Ice
(I especially like the last guy's approach, haha)

Last night, I realized that my snow-covered lawn looked really cool with the sheet of ice on top of the snow. It was almost as if you could skate on top of the snow (but unfortunately, that wasn't the case...). It was also tricky photographing the ice because you can only see it at certain angles. In the first photo below, you can see the ice coating on the left side of the photo--it looks like a glaze. In the second photo, you can see the cool texture the ice adds to the snow. And in the last one, you can see how dangerous our driveway is. It's very deceptive: it looks like snow, but it's covered in sheet of ice, which you can only see at certain angles. I have *almost* fallen a few times.

And the last photo doesn't have anything to do with freezing rain, but I thought it looked cool, so I decided to add it on. Unfortunately, I only had my camera phone on me, so the quality isn't so great, but it's still cool. I love how the cool and warm lights are separated by the tree.

This has been a crazy winter for Utah (horrible air quality, freezing rain, followed by tons of fog... do I want to know what's next?)

Makes me miss this...