Kelli Brown Photography

Cayson Renshaw

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

Like him on Facebook.

Kylie & Ryan

2012-01-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Film

2012-01-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

I found these in my drafts, waiting to be published.

I guess these cold winter months are the perfect time for remembering warm summer months!

Freshman Friends

2012-01-10T22:01:00.002-07:00

Caitlin & Kevin - Engagements

2011-10-28T16:30:00.000-06:00

Whitney & Greg - Engagements

2011-10-25T16:30:00.000-06:00

Hayley & Gavin - Engagements

2011-10-20T20:14:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been too long since I've updated!

I'll be updating more this week with some engagements I did this summer.

Andrew.

2011-02-22T11:13:00.006-07:00

This weekend Andrew and I had the opportunity to go to the Brian Regan show in Logan, and we got to stop by the Logan Temple as well! I got to snap a few shots of Andrew while we were there (which I never do!)

Update

2011-02-01T00:15:00.006-07:00

Well, it certainly has been far too long since I've made a photography post. I'm hoping to update this blog more often from now on - hopefully I'll get a few jobs to do in between schoolwork this semester - but meanwhile, I'll keep you updated with any personal work! Here are a few film photos from what I've been doing that past few months.

Mistakes on film

2010-10-29T15:41:00.009-06:00

Sometimes when things go wrong with film, it's better than it could have been anyway.

Lacey & Nate - A few more

2010-10-26T00:36:00.012-06:00

Turns out school gets really busy after the first month... so here are some more of Lacey & Nate, finally!

Lacey & Nate - Engagements

2010-09-21T16:14:00.011-06:00

So I think it's safe to say that I'm obsessed with these engagements. The more I edited them the more I loved them. Lacey and Nate are pretty much every photographer's dream couple - they had great ideas, went along with my ideas, had great props, we had a good time out on the Great Salt Lake, and of course they looked amazing. And this is only the first session we did!

I figure since I haven't posted in forever, I'm allowed to post as many of these as I want, so stay tuned for more!

Spiral Jetty Take 2

2010-08-19T12:37:00.017-06:00

Last summer we went to the Spiral Jetty on the salt flats, and this summer we went again, but this time we explored the salt flats a little more.
This is all film taken on my Yashica FR 35mm SLR Film Camera.

Stephen & Lisa

2010-06-30T00:13:00.009-06:00

I met Stephen 2 years ago while we were in the same ward, and he has stayed a good friend over the years, so it was fun to finally see him with the girl he wants to marry and take their engagements! We just did a quick little photoshoot around campus and came up with some good ones. This was a good challenge for me because they wanted a different style of photos than I'm used to doing.

Shout out to the EFY kids that had fun watching us.

The Renshaw Family

2010-05-13T00:23:00.024-06:00

Now that they have their pictures in their own possession and I won't spoil any surprises, I feel fine about posting these! I went home to California a couple weekends ago and had the chance to meet up with the cute Renshaw family and do their family photos again. Thanks again, Renshaw fam!

Film

2010-04-26T18:09:00.006-06:00

I just bought an old school Yashica FX-3 35mm SLR Film Camera and I loved testing out the first roll of film. These are just some pictures I took around my apartment. (Notice the snow still on the mountains? Yeah. Well, that was from a week or two ago, but yeah.)

Road trip

2010-02-25T01:36:00.003-07:00

Somewhere in Central Utah

2010-02-21T16:47:00.003-07:00

2010-02-10T12:06:00.004-07:00

This is an old picture from this past spring, but I never posted it on here.
Also, it's Mikey's birthday today so I thought I would give him a shout out.
Happy birthday Mikey.

Cabin Weekend

2010-01-18T23:23:00.006-07:00

It's a little late but...

2010-01-07T17:49:00.004-07:00

Happy 2010.

I spent my New Years on a beach in San Francisco with a disposable camera. It was quite enjoyable.

Contra Loma

2009-12-22T03:10:00.005-07:00

Took these over Thanksgiving break, and realized I should have posted them earlier! This is a reservoir in good ol' Antioch that my parents like to call "the lake". The color is drained once the photos are on blogger, so just imagine them as a lot more colorful and pretty.

First snow

2009-12-07T21:03:00.006-07:00

Provo was awoken to a fresh blanket of snow this morning, and I whipped out my Polaroid to capture it's beauty. The scan is terrible quality, but you get the picture (pun intended).

And yes Sean, that is your car, thank you for the bright red contrast it provided.

Goodnight Annabelle

2009-12-01T15:27:00.010-07:00

I took pictures for my friend's band a few weeks ago and forgot to put these up!

Look for them on Facebook or buy their EP on Amazon!.

2009-11-10T19:46:00.007-07:00

I've had this Polaroid camera for a while (I bought it at a thrift store for $4 this past year) but have never gotten around to buying film for it since it's been so expensive. But I thought, why not, it's just going to get more expensive, or just go extinct.

Well, I finally busted out the camera and film tonight. I've been wanting to take a Polaroid of THIS house with THIS bike (it reminds me of Italy) every time I pass it on my way home from school. I finally did and it turned out too dark. Oh well. Next time.

B&W Mexico Holgas

2009-10-27T22:16:00.009-06:00

Not my best work - but, they're growing on me.

Ensenada

2009-10-19T19:29:00.005-06:00

I spent this weekend in Ensenada, Mexico where I played with orphans, slept on the beach, and ate delicious tacos.

I took a bunch of black and white Holga pictures as well, so those will be up soon.

Ohhhh, Mexico

2009-10-07T21:19:00.006-06:00

I took these pictures with a waterproof disposable camera in July of 2008 on a cruise to Mexico with my family. I was disappointed with them when I first got them developed but the more I look at them the more I love them.

P.S. I'm going to Mexico next weekend for a service trip, and I plan on taking lots of pictures.

SaraBeth + Jordan = Engaged!

2009-09-23T11:30:00.016-06:00

August Holgas

2009-09-22T21:31:00.010-06:00

I have become addicted to film. And buying vintage film cameras from D.I.

Floating the Provo River

2009-09-08T14:00:00.012-06:00

All taken with a trusty one-use waterproof camera.

Stephanie + Luke = Engaged! (And married)

2009-09-04T10:26:00.013-06:00

I just realized I never posted the engagement pictures for Stephanie and Luke before I posted their wedding photos! Here they are.

Oceanside

2009-09-03T12:39:00.010-06:00

I bought a waterproof disposable camera one night while in Oceanside in order to take pictures while boogie boarding... but unfortunately (but also fortunately) the only other time we went boogie boarding was at midnight. So here are the few that I got when the current was too strong to go in the water.

2009-09-02T11:16:00.004-06:00

School has started, summer is over, and life has gotten busier. I apologize for the lack of blog updates.

Went for a bike ride/swim to Utah Lake a couple weeks ago and got some good pictures.

Stephanie + Luke = Married!

2009-08-14T16:18:00.022-06:00

I've been working on editing these photos since last weekend, so hopefully they will be done soon! Stephanie and Luke got married last weekend in the San Francisco bay area. Stephanie found some beautiful locations to shoot at! People have been asking me to see some of these photos, so here are some that I have finished so far.

Bryce Canyon

2009-08-05T13:36:00.026-06:00

A few weeks ago I went on a spontaneous road trip down to Bryce Canyon with some good friends. It was a nice change of pace from being in Provo, and we had a ton of fun, and of course I took a ton of pictures.

Masai Tribe

2009-07-30T13:09:00.002-06:00

And now for the final installment of the Africa pictures. FINALLY.

On our last Safari day we visited the Masai tribe. It's so crazy to see how they live... they make their huts out of cow dung and mud, they live off of cows (cow meat, cow milk, and cow BLOOD. gross.) and they know about the outside world (well, some of them) and they still love living the way that they do. Craaaazy.

Second Safari day

2009-07-30T12:58:00.014-06:00

First Safari day

2009-07-30T12:41:00.019-06:00

We had the best "campsite" for our safari. Definitely got our money's worth.

Last day in Butere

2009-07-30T12:30:00.008-06:00

I loved our drivers, we all did. I miss these guys!

We made our last day worth it by painting a community center at Lufumbo Primary School. A day well worth it!

I love this picture, but I didn't take it because my hands were too dirty. So I won't take credit for it. Thanks, Emily.

The finished product.

The sunset in the rainstorm. I miss this.

These kids were so cute, watching us outside the school. 50% of the kids in the area couldn't go to school because they can't afford it.

Last teaching day.

2009-07-29T01:57:00.018-06:00

I'm behind.

We taught in a Secondary School (High School) for the last day of teaching.

I wish I had the energy to write more about the photos but I think they're self-explanatory. Life is busy, and very, very good.

Faces

2009-07-22T13:14:00.018-06:00

At the little school we went to, I had the opportunity to get some really good single shots of the kids. Usually the kids would swarm you when you pulled out your camera, but at this school, they had never seen a white person before, and therefore, they had probably never seen a camera, nor knew what it was. Here are a few of my favorite faces of the sweet children!

A little school

2009-07-22T13:04:00.011-06:00

One of the last days of teaching was probably one of the best days. We got two AWESOME schools and had a ton of fun with the kids. This is the second school we went to. There were only about 200 kids in the whole school, and the school was in the middle of nowhere in a corn field. All the kids we so cute (well, they all are)!

Yes, this was one of their classrooms!

They would usually have little performances lined up for us at each school we went to. So cute!

The presenting of the soccer ball. Notice the kids reactions in the background.

Us with the whole school.

This little boy was adoooorable and he just let me snap a bunch of pictures of him!

Eric impressed the girls with his jumping skills.

Yes, they ACTUALLY balance things on their heads in real life! And they are really good at it.

A video of the kids saying "one two, make a circle, three four, a BIG circle!"

Fun with the kids

2009-07-21T16:03:00.017-06:00

Every day when we were done teaching the kids about hygiene in their classes, we would go out and have an hour or two to play with them. They would just surround us and wait for us to entertain them. We had a few games that we would play every time and they would just laugh and laugh at how silly those white people were.

Most of the "wealthier" schools had a school cow in their yard. All the cows in Kenya looked like this - ribs showing, with humps on their backs. The meat is really tough.

I was trying to slyly take a picture of this little boy, but of course he turned and noticed the white girl taking a picture of him. I waved at him like a little baby waves (a flap of the fingers) and I forgot that that was signal to say "come", so he immediately came over to me and I played with him for a few minutes before I told him he could go back and continue playing with the group.

I thought this was a cool video to show how HUGE of circles the kids made.

As I was taking pictures of everyone playing outside, I heard someone BAWLING behind me, so I turned around and there was a little boy in tears. I rushed over to him and picked him up and tried to figure out what was wrong, but he didn't know English. Then his teacher came out and he immediately stopped crying for some reason, and she said, "Come, snap some photos of the children eating porridge." So of course I gladly accepted her offer.

I got to snap a few single photos of the kids before the whole group came over and saw my camera.

This little boy was my favorite. We connected immediately.

The whole group of cuuuuute little ECD (Early Childhood Development) kids with their porridge!

The kids gathering for a "closing ceremony" before we left.

A Sunday in Kenya

2009-07-21T15:44:00.015-06:00

On our second Sunday in Kenya, we drove, oh, about 3 HOURS to get to a random church in the middle of nowhere. We got lost a few times I think. But you know, we still had a good time on that bumpy van ride on the dirt roads. Just about every car ride was at least an hour long, so we got used to making up our own entertainment.

This is the building where we had church. A lot smaller than the first one we went to in Kisumu. I don't even know where we were!

After church, we stopped by an orphanage that Suchi had been wanting us to go to. When we first got there, the kids all sang hymns for us! The American couple that started the orphanage were LDS, and the Kenyans that run the orphanage are LDS as well, so all the kids their practice LDS beliefs.

The team with the whole orphanage! Some of us didn't get the waving memo.

We gave the owners a bunch of maize to feed the kids with. They definitely needed it.

We made the kids line up and we handed out clothes to them, one by one. We just wanted to give them one item for the time being, and then the owners of the orphanage could sort them out and divide them to give to the right kids later on.

It was so cute seeing all the kids after they had received their "new" clothes. They would go off to the side together and put on their miscellaneous clothing item right away, even if it didn't fit them. They were so excited. Shows how spoiled we are...

This little girl was so cute in her new little hat!

Later that night, a bunch of us decided to whip out our new cards we had bought from our layovers, and play games together. We ended up doing that just about every night until we left for the safari! We also watched the FIFA Soccer Cup with the bus drivers. Here is a video of the excitement that erupted when USA scored on Brazil.

Field day

2009-07-20T17:04:00.019-06:00

On one of the Saturdays we had a HUGE (I mean huge) field day at Lufumbo Primary School. There were THOUSANDS of people there from the community. It was amazing to see. We did some Tug-of-War, Futbol (soccer), and wrestling with them, and they did some potato sack racing, bottle balancing contests (on their heads), and handball (kinda like basketball). It was so much fun to interact with everyone and get to know some of the kids a little more. They also had a performance for us, just like they did on the first day we were there.

Before we went into the school, we took a little tour of the gardens on this lady's property, and these kids followed us around the whole time! 50% of the kids there cannot afford to go to school, so they will just hang around outside the school, looking inside and watching the kids play. So we decided to cheer them up a bit.

The children are so helpful to each other... we would always see the older kids holding the younger kids.

They loved to learn the "cool American handshakes!

These are some of the kids of Lufumbo Primary School. They loved us!

They had different booths set up for everyone to see how to do things, and for us to see how well they were applying Reach the Children's community projects, including the "Milk Goat Project", the "Cow Project", the "Poultry Project", etc. It was so cute to see all the posters and examples and things!

Holding hands is a sign of friendship in Kenya. We saw men holding hands ALL the time, it was so cute!

Here is a video of the kids doing a fun dance for us!

In the classroom

2009-07-20T16:08:00.018-06:00

It was such a cool experience to teach in the classrooms in Butere, Kenya. I loved seeing the reactions that the children had to our lessons and to the toothbrushes we handed out. They would get SO excited about the toothbrushes. They have mostly just used a stick to brush their teeth their whole life. The teachers would always tell us, "They will remember this day for the rest of their lives." We (the team) would always joke about how if we went to schools in America and did this, they would just saw, "I don't want a stupid toothbrush, I already have an electric one" or "I want a different color!!" We are so spoiled.

Here is a video of us in the vans on the way to the school. The drives were long, so we had to keep ourselves entertained. That morning our driver, Jeff, decided to teach us a song that the Kenyans sing for the tourists a lot.

This little boy was outside one of the schools we visited. He didn't say a word to us, but he was adorable.

There was a lot of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in the classes.

We went to a music competition (there were probably 50 or so schools there) one of the days, and it was so cool to see all the different performances! Here is one of them.

Kenyan Hospitals

2009-07-20T14:04:00.028-06:00

Sorry for the delay, I would have updated earlier, but I went on a quick camping trip this weekend in Bryce Canyon, UT. Which - by the way - was BEAUTIFUL. So be looking out for those pictures after I finish updating about Kenya. Which might be a while.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took while we visited a few hospitals in Kenya. It was so sad to see the conditions of the hospitals... even their "nicest" hospital is not anywhere near the hospitals we have in the U.S.

We got to hand out blankets to the new mothers for their newborns. They were so, so grateful. They would just gladly let us take their pictures and hold their babies. I'm pretty sure American women would not let a random foreigner just come into the hospital and hold their baby.

We gave hygiene kits to the patients that were in the injury ward. I loved seeing the smiles on their faces as we handed them their "present".

In the children's ward, we handed out stuffed animals and fun toys to the children. The mothers and family members were so happy and grateful. The children loved the toys.

We also gave out hygiene kits to the patients in the HIV/AIDS ward. Our leader, Jastus, gave an amazing little pep talk to the people and everyone was touched by it. He told them things like "You don't have to give up on your life, you can still raise a family. You can still have hope." Jastus is such a great speaker!

First few days in Kenya

2009-07-17T09:43:00.012-06:00

I'm finally getting around to posting these, so here you go!

Most of the children did not own a pair of shoes, so they would walk around barefoot all the time.

This is how they would start off a performance. "Class 22B performing a poem entitled 'Milk'. Stay tuned."

I loved the trees in Kenya. This was at one of the schools that we spent a lot of time at. The "older boys" would try to act cool and sit in the shade under the trees while we played with the younger kids. We would have to force them to play with us, even though we knew they wanted to play the whole time.

Such beautiful children! They loved having their picture taken and have you show it to them on the screen. Some of them have never seen a picture of themselves.

The kids loved to touch your hair and skin.

The kids LOVED to play games with us. Most of the time they would sing a cute little song ("One two, make a circle, three four, a BIG circle!") in order to get into a circle so that we could play Ring Around the Rosie, or Duck Duck Goose, or the Hokey Pokey.

And, last but not least, the video that will forever bring a smile to my face and joy to my life.

More to come soon!

Shelby's Seniors

2009-07-10T10:49:00.019-06:00

While I'm sorting through and organizing my Kenya pictures to put up, I thought I would put up these pictures that I took a month or 2 ago. Shelby is one of my sister's best friends, so she helped me out a bit. Thanks Paigey09! (I couldn't get all of the pictures to load off of the DVD I put them on, so these are only a few of my favorites)

Kenya pictures to come!

2009-07-07T22:22:00.015-06:00

I just got back from a 3 week humanitarian trip to Kenya (with a small 48 hour trip to Paris beforehand) so I will be posting pictures from the trip in small segments as time goes on. Be looking out for them! Here's a sneak peak...

The Renshaw Family

2009-06-04T11:43:00.021-06:00

Hilary and I had been emailing back and forth for a while, and we finally got together to take the pictures and they turned out great! I had so much fun photographing them! My favorites were the ones in the orchard, which is probably made obvious by the amount that I posted from there. Carter is such a cute little boy! And of course he got it from two awesome parents. Thanks Renshaw family for being great subjects!

Utah Lake.

2009-05-04T21:36:00.017-06:00

Probably one of my favorite "secret" spots in Provo. One evening my friend Jamie and I decided to go to D.I. and buy some props for my photography endeavors. We then headed out to Utah Lake docks and tested out my good buys. They are good buys.

Melanie & Scott

2009-04-26T23:10:00.028-06:00

Okay so I haven't updated this in FOREVER! Finals week was crazy, then my parents came in town for Brooke's graduation, then I was in the process of moving out (still am) but I found a free moment to update.

These were my first ever engagement photos, and they turned out great! Melanie is a girl from home whose family I grew up with, so she was a good sport at being my "experiment". I was pretty nervous about it, but I had some good ideas in my head and they all worked out. I had too many favorites to choose from, so here are a bunch!

Riots of Eighty - In the Studio

2009-04-06T11:15:00.015-06:00

I'm finally getting around to posting this one! Riots of Eighty called me up again because they needed some pictures for their Bio in AP Magazine (which I'm VERY excited about!) and the ones that I took before were too "artsy" for the magazine I guess. We needed some studio shots, so we rented out East Bay Studios for 2 hours and went to work! I had a little scare with my camera... but I had never used studio lighting before so luckily, it wasn't broken like I thought, it was just lighting issues. Since I thought my camera was broken I had to run over to Springville and borrow my Grandpa's D200, which I didn't mind using too much. Thanks Grandpa!

On another note, I figured out how to do a cool thing on photoshop... this is an old picture I took in Puerto Vallarta last summer.

MOAB. Day 3. Part 2.

2009-03-31T15:52:00.014-06:00

After our lovely morning of shooting the sunset, me, Sean, and Lexi decided to have our own little photoshoot.

We got a flat tire. And then it started snowing.

Our faithful professor fixing the flat tire.

After we fixed our flat tire we got back to camp to find this snowstorm. It was insane! We had to quickly pack up so we could get out of there before it REALLY got bad. There was even THUNDER! Some of the girls were being wimps and I swear they almost cried. But the boys and I (and Lexi) made the best of it and had our fun.

Our trailer broke off of the truck after the girl driving it decided to pump the gas going over a huge pothole... yeah.

I just discovered this one looking through all my pictures and I don't know why it didn't catch my eye the first time! This is from day 2 when we were walking back from Double Arch.

And that's all from Moab!

MOAB. Day 3. Part 1.

2009-03-26T20:17:00.015-06:00

We woke up on Saturday morning around 5:30AM (we didn't have to drive as far as the previous day for sunrise) and drove to Dead Horse Point. As we were driving there we drove through some snow... luckily we didn't get any snow on us that night.

Beautiful.

Everyone was busy taking pictures of the non-existent sunrise (I see a lot of those) but I decided to wander around and take some other pictures.

MOAB. Day 2. Part 3. [Last one]

2009-03-24T15:39:00.019-06:00

For the next part of our loooong second day, we went to a different part of Zion's National Park and did the hike inside the "Fiery Furnace" with a tour guide. Supposedly it was a really "intense" hike... pssh. Intense, shmintense.

This is what it looked like pretty much the whole tour.

Here is our lovely tour guide, Sierra, explaining how the arches and stuff in Zion's were created. It was pretty interesting... but I don't think I could explain it as well as this Geology Major.

All of the adventurous people climbed through this little arch right here. I was one of them.

This tree reminded me of something that would be in Jerusalem.

Stopping for another little nature lesson from our guide.

Can you guess what this arch is called? ....... Yep, it's called "Skull Arch".

Mouse tracks! Or some sort of small animal...

This looks like a dangerous leap, but it really wasn't. Sean is just really tall. Okay, so I couldn't do it, but that's because I don't have long legs. At least I didn't kill myself trying!

Surprise! This arch is called "Surprise Arch". Because the owner guy (or whoever he was) of the park was hiking through here one day mapping out the trail for the tour we went on, and he couldn't see this arch because of his ranger hat until he was leaving and turned around to see it.

Before we left Zion's for the night, we took a vote and decided to shoot "Balance Rock" before the sunset and before we ate dinner. While we waited for the sun to go down some more, Peter and our other mentors gave us a little lesson on different types of lenses. The coolest lens was a Nikon. Take THAT Sean!!

After our little lesson, we headed up a little hill to take pictures. It was freeeeeezing and I was tired of standing, so I took a few pictures that luckily turned out good. But the sunset wasn't even that cool, so I just left the group and went to sit and wait in the truck. No, I was not being a poor sport. Just a cold sport.

We ended the day with a hearty all-you-can-eat pizza and salad and soup bar at Zax restaurant in downtown Moab. I wouldn't recommend it. I was dying of starvation and wanted something warm so I chose that since it was the best deal (only $12!) and it didn't taste as wonderful as I was hoping.

Up next, Day 3! This might take 2 posts, but we'll see.

MOAB. Day 2. Part 2.

2009-03-19T15:20:00.023-06:00

During the daytime of the second day in Moab, we had a lot of "downtime." We made breakfast after shooting Mesa Arch, and that was an adventure in itself. It was so windy and cold and miserable, and our camping stoves kept blowing out, so we ate lukewarm oatmeal. I don't even like oatmeal.

Sean was so good to me for sharing his stove and his love of oatmeal with me.

Of course, the jumping picture.

Sean failed at getting a picture of me in the air. It's okay Sean, you're still my friend. But at least you get to check out my ridiculous outfit for the day. I think I was wearing just about everything I brought.

I was exploring on those rocks/cliffs, and Peter was watching me and saying, "Kelli..... stop that.... you're scaring me...." I told him, "My mom would say that too" and so he told me to pretend like he was my mom. It didn't really work.

After that we had a little workshop on the edge of this cliff (no joke) where Peter (our teacher) and the other 2 adults on the trip (photographers and friends of Peter) talked to us about different photography stuff.

This scene reminded me of the movie/book Holes. So I had to take a picture.

Then we stopped at this cool gas station in the middle of nowhere and got some good shots of all the cool stuff around us. We didn't stop there because of the cool stuff, we stopped there for a bathroom break, but we were lucky to get some cool shots anyway.

I rode in the "man truck" for the whole trip, just me and the "men" the whole time. For some reason they took longer at the rest stop then I did.... it reminded me a bit of Sunday mornings at home with all the girls waiting for my dad in the car to leave for church. (Yes, I have a lot of memory pictures in this post)

Before the trip I took out some plastic bags and labeled them (yes, for each day and meal) for convenience. Everyone was jealous.

Following our rest stop, we drove back to Arches National Park and took pictures of Double Arch. It was a pretty huge arch.

Here's another memory for you. I saw this lizard and I tried to catch him but he was too fast. It reminded me of catching lizards when I was little with my cousins Tanner and Cory. Those were the days.

MOAB. Day 2. Part 1.

2009-03-18T11:23:00.017-06:00

After we shot at Delicate Arch on Thursday night, we waited for the sun to go completely down, and we hiked back using only the light of the moon. It was a beautiful hike and we could see the stars perfectly! That night we drove to camp and set up our tents and ate some food, then went to bed. I don't think I slept at all that night. My toes were completely frozen all night, and I just couldn't get comfortable.

So when the time came that Peter (our teacher) woke us up at 4:30AM with a lovely story, I was so ready. We all slowly got up and came out of our tents, and the sky was AMAZING. It was still pitch black and you could see probably every single star in the sky. I've never seen the stars like that. And being in the middle of nowhere definitely helped the amazing factor. So that morning we drove out to shoot Mesa Arch for sunrise. We just had to walk a little bit along a trail to get to it. Me and my friend Sean were the first ones there. We saw the arch and we were amazed, but then we stepped up to the arch and looked out over the edge and were even more amazed. The view was breathtaking. It was freezing cold but I have never seen a more beautiful sunrise. But that's probably just because I never see the sunrise.

There's a ghost in my picture.

Check out that VIEW!

Everyone was trying to get the best angle/spot for the sunrise, so it was tough to get a good shot without someone in it.

Silhouettes are cool.

I love this one.

Still tons of photographers there.

None of my pictures got the whole view of the complete scene... so I stole this panoramic picture from Sean (sorry Sean) to show you the beauty! The picture is a little small, so you'll have to click on it to make it a little bigger.

Day 2, Part 2 to come soon! (Day 2 was a very looooong day, sorry)

MOAB

2009-03-16T16:06:00.025-06:00

So, I have like a million pictures from my Nature Photography Moab class trip a couple weekends ago. So I'm just going to update my blog with a few posts for the next few weeks with those pictures! The trip was crazy and hectic and tiring and beautiful and amazing all in one. Here are pictures from Day 1.

We drove from Provo to Moab and it took about 5 hours or so, and when we got to Moab the first stop we made was Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Supposedly it is "THE arch" to photograph in the whole world, so I guess it was a good choice. It was about an hour hike up there but it wasn't a bad hike!

PS you can see the pictures a lot better if you click on them to open in a new tab.

Finally at Delicate Arch

There were a ton of people there - mostly photographers. There were even people from Germany and all over Europe!

I was enjoying the sunset and my tripod.

Can you see Orion?

That's all for now. Day 2 to come soon!

Riots of Eighty

2009-03-03T17:34:00.025-07:00

I took pictures of these guys this weekend, and we had a ton of fun! They were all really nice guys and easy to photograph. We pretty much just drove around Provo and found some really cool spots to shoot in! Check out their Myspace!

I <3 Film.

2009-02-25T11:04:00.023-07:00

I had a Pentax 645N for a while, but never tried it out until right before I sold it on Ebay. I had been meaning to use it more, but never got around to it. I wish I had used it more and gotten more practice out of it!

And some Holgas.

This one was an accident, I forgot to twist the wheel so it's double exposed. But I actually really like it.

Inspired.

2009-02-18T14:27:00.026-07:00

Last week my portfolio was due to apply for the photography program at BYU. I wasn't feeling too good about a few of the pictures I had after talking to the professors (they don't really say much so that you will choose what YOU want in YOUR portfolio). So one evening I was walking home from a hard day at work in the McKay building... looking at photography blogs all day can really be draining. As I was walking down the hill from campus, I watched the sun starting to set and I could tell it was going to be a good one. I saw a bunch of things all over that I could make pictures out of. So I walked home a little faster than normal, and grabbed my camera and walked back out. I got some sweet pictures, and I ended up using 2 for my portfolio. Here are some of my favorites that didn't make the cut for the portfolio.

Cheerios anyone? I just found these in a pile in the dirt...

Portfolio - Wish me luck!

2009-02-11T12:45:00.020-07:00

So I'm applying for the photography program at BYU within the next couple days... I have to narrow down my portfolio to 10 pictures only! Here are my top 18 so far. I know there are some that look the same but I want opinions of which one is better. Let me know your thoughts!

Click on the pictures to enlarge/view titles:

A good photographer is always prepared.

2009-02-09T11:49:00.016-07:00

So, here's the story... my friend Sean and I are in a Nature Photography class together and we decided we wanted to go out and take nature pictures together. I told him we should go at sunset because it's the best lighting (other than sunrise) and I really didn't want to get up early for the sunrise. He said that he thought sunrise would be better, and we both had things to do that evening so why no do it early? Well... the day before that I had been snowboarding all day, so I was dead tired and sore. And I sprained my thumb or something. So getting up at 6AM did not sound good to me. But, being the good friend I am, I woke up on time at 6AM and walked out my door to meet Sean. I was in my PJs and slippers and I threw on a jacket before I left. I meet up with Sean and he is wearing jeans with thermals underneath, a sweatshirt and a jacket, a beanie, some gloves, and hiking shoes. He asked if I would be okay wearing what I was wearing and I said, "Yeah sure, I'll be fine."

Clearly I was not able to think straight that early or being as tired as I was. I did not realize that Sean was wanting to go on a hike to see the sunrise. So we head out in his warm car and go to Rock Canyon Park. When we got there it was still dark outside, and so we decided to make the trek up the trail into the mountains. The trail was covered in snow. And remember, I am in just my slippers, with no socks, and just one pair of sweats on with a t-shirt and a jacket. So we start hiking and I was getting warm from the hike, but then when we got to our spot I started to realize how cold it was. Then Sean saved the day and pulled out a thermos of hot chocolate he had prepared. That kept me warm for about 5 minutes. Then Sean gave me his gloves, but that didn't really help either. We waited for what seemed like forever for the sun to come up, and finally we saw some light so we started shooting. We took pictures for a while but we never saw the sun... we just saw the beautiful lighting. We wanted to see the sun! Finally we gave up and walked back to the car because I was frozen. Sean graciously accepted my offer of going to Kneader's for some french toast and hot chocolate and treated me to a nice breakfast where we thawed out on the couch.

So, moral of the story: always be prepared for a photoshoot. I was too cold and miserable to get very many decent pictures, but luckily I got a few. Here they are.

New Job

2009-01-28T11:42:00.004-07:00

By the way...

I just got hired to be the photographer for the YServe organization at BYU! I am way excited. It's my first official job as an official photographer, so this will be good for me to learn. It's only 5-7 hours a week, so I get to keep my other on campus job as well. Look out for some picture updates from the service activities!

My pictures will soon be covering this website!

Return to Byron

2009-01-28T11:24:00.022-07:00

I went back to Byron after the successful photoshoot with my sister and her friends with a fellow photography loving friend. We walked around and got to cool stuff for our portfolios!