heather and casey's utah engagement session

heather and casey's engagement session was a dream realized for me. let's take a minute to study the components of this dream: a. THE LIGHT. the heavenly angels singing. the hazy softness making, glorious glorious light.

b. THE extreme good looks of the couple (like you triple check them out to make sure people that good looking exist)

c. way more important than the extreme good looks --- the extremely amazing and kind hearts of the couple. the only other person i've met as nice as heather--is casey. and vice-verse. when i see a perfect match up of kindred spirits such as theirs, i'm not just happy, i'm inspired. p.s. casey owns a toy store. he's like a young, thin, good looking, tattooed santa clause.

d. the willingness of heather and casey to hike 15 minutes up so that we could traipse down into the perfect location. a little, secluded valley we had more or less to ourselves minus a few deer.

all this adds up to me jabbering like an idiot the entire session about how excited i was, how i couldn't believe how everything was perfect, how it all felt like the dream that it was....

sucked into the wppi vortex

okay, that just sooooo didn't count. as badly as i wanted to blog from vegas, i was denied internet access on every front! but i'm here now and back in the game, and trying to rack my brains for ways to prove i'm super duper serious about this daily blogging business. time will tell.

for now i'd like to share some images of a rockstar-esque couple. jessica and kevin are photographers in the denver area, and graciously agreed to model for myself and my buddy trish during a full day mentor session (the coolness, hilarity and talent of trish is a subject for a whoooole nother blog post). i felt like i was shooting famous people, that's how at ease they were in front of the camera. it was borderline make you wanna drop to your knees and cry and of cold, but jessica and kevin were capital T tuff, and game for anything. all i had to do was ignore that gleam of "i wanna kill you, let me go home," in their eyes and happy shooting times were had by all.

things i love: the gorgeous winter light--the way nature can bathe the coldest days in visual golden warmth. the couple's look: hi, pink hair. hi cool long gray hiar. high hobo gloves, and pink high heels. i think we're all going to get along nicely. last but not least, i love  their connection. that's the real reason for this whole gig anyway.

all images shot on contax 645 and canon eos 3. you know, the usual.

she dances, he makes music | boise north end engagement session

going into a couple's home let's me connect with them like nothing else. so here's the part where lauren and andrew are in love in their home.... going 

and here's the part where lauren dances and totally steals my heart. i know you're dying to hear the back story. here it is: we wanted to finish up the session by climbing onto the roof of the super cool historical building lauren and andrew live in, in the north end of boise. lauren had prepped me before our session, "it might be a little tricky, its kind of sketchy getting up there." i assure her, "oh, i'm pretty sure i can handle it."

HA. ha. ha. ha. i could not handle it.  after watching the incredibly athletic andrew basically hop up, and the extraordinarily nimble lauren scramble up like a pretty little  cat, i nervously tried to hoist myself on the railings.......and started sweating AND shaking within 1.89 minutes.

i looked down and saw the street, far below us, so very very very far below us, and it was at that moment that i   said, "guys, i don't think i can do this." and my pride was busted and bruised. we agreed to shoot the dancing portion of the session the following night in another cool location (yet to be determined), and lauren and andrew were so super nice and gracious about the whole thing. they really really tried to not let me be embarrassed.

but i couldn't. get. over. it. i knew there had to be away to get up that roof. i went home that night and brainstormed with my mom, who is the master of all resourcefulness, in case you didn't know. long story short, we devised a plan, i emailed lauren and said, "we ARE getting up on that roof gosh darn it," and as you will soon see, we did.

it was the bravest thing i have ever done for a client and it was 100% worth it. because, my goodness just look at her....(i kid you not she brought me to tears)