I heart faces: hilarious outtakes

Love this week’s theme! And we’re allowed to post 5 photos… wow!

Make sure you head over to www.iheartfaces.com to check out all the other entries.

Donnel, Sylvia, Alexandra and Johanna wanted to take some nice Christmas photos… but only Johanna would look at me!

Abbey makes a lovely bride! But it was so cold outside that she had to wear Kevin’s jacket. And her veil flew over her face! Adorable.

It snowed here in Kansas, and apparently Americus did NOT like it.

So we went sledding. But Sam got snow all over his face!

Eventually he cleaned himself off and showed me his usual face. Charming, brother

Donnel, Sylvia, Alexandra and Johanna

Donnel and Sylvia have two GORGEOUS little girls, and they haven’t had family photos taken in a long time. What a better time than just before Christmas cards go out? We headed over to one of the Divinity School courtyards to have some fun.

Look at these beautiful faces!

SO CUTE. Sylvia was trying to get Alexandra to “behave”… but if she had, we wouldn’t have gotten this AMAZING shot!

It was great when only the baby was looking at me. Alexandra clearly loves her daddy.

Merry Christmas, Donnel, Sylvia, Alexandra, and Johanna!

katie and peter, always.

Katie and I were accountability partners when we started our volunteer program, so we talked each other through some really tough times both of us had with our placements and with the program. Of course I said yes when she asked me to photograph her and Peter’s wedding! Here are photos from the wedding day – more details from the wedding weekend to come soon. Enjoy! (PS – this is my first wedding with my new 50mm 1.4f lens… LOVED IT SO MUCH.)

At the reception, Katie and Peter had us decorate Jenga blocks for them to have – what a cool idea!

above: Katie’s mom made her AMAZING dress. K&P’s books made a perfect nerdy frame for her shoes. The flowers were all dried, and all GORGEOUS.

below: Katie getting ready, and a super-sweet first look.

What a fun portrait!

above: Kissy face! Taking advantage of the beautiful garden. And some pretty swell foot action – check out that kilt!

below: K-k-k-Katie, beautiful Katie! K&P served communion at their wedding – here’s P with K’s mom. Our dear friend Dave played guitar.

I was trying to get sweet photos of them walking down the aisle, and THIS is what Katie gave me to work with – LOVIN’ IT!!!

above: Men in kilts + some super sassy ladies = one amazingly fantastic wedding party!

below: This was Katie’s idea – loves it!

Congratulations, Katie and Peter! Blessings to you!

Back From Hiatus! I Heart Faces week 30 – Summer Fun!

Well, I’ve been gone for some time… and I want to share all the great things I’ve been doing the past month! So it’s convenient that this week is a just-for-fun week at I ♥ Faces. Enjoy!

This is a rockin’ slam poet I heard at the Utah Arts Festival named Flora. I’m a little in love with her.

Here’s my friend Sarah who was visiting from NC. This photo was taken up at Silver Lake. She’s so pretty!

Sarah was in town to see the Indigo Girls concert with me, and this photo came from the concert.

I visited North Carolina with my family, and we went rocksliding at the Potholes. This is my brother Sam.

And this is his buddy Liam enjoying the… umm… cool? water of the mountains!

I photographed Katie’s wedding in Madison, Wisconsin – this is just a preview!

Back in NC, Kody, Jay, Aaron, Sara and I went out on the boat in Lake Toxaway. Here’s a gorgeous one of Sara. Aaron and Sara got engaged later that week! Woo hoo!

Then it was time for Solange’s wedding. This is one of my favorites of her and her stepson Marcus.

My BFF Karen on Solange’s wedding day – we stopped to pick some wildflowers that matched Solange’s wedding colors.

And just this weeken, Sarah M. and I went on a hike with the Mount Olympus Hiking Group up to Broad Forks. Utah is so gorgeous. I may actually miss it!

So that’s my summer in photos. Next… on to Berkeley!

Good Weather, No Whammies…

I may be absent from posting for awhile. The next two weeks are SUPER busy! Two weddings, two different family visits, and a gathering of friends to end my term as a missionary. Oh, and a visit from a North Carolina friend and an awesome concert! Since most of my plans include there NOT being torrential downpour, here’s hoping for some sun!

10-day forecast has Madison rainy on Saturday… but full sun on Sunday! Verdict is still out on Brevard the next weekend.

In the meantime, behold my new beauty:

So excited to break her in at Katie K’s wedding!

Updates in the next two weeks as I can…

I heart faces – Wedding Week!

SO STOKED for wedding week on I heart faces! This week’s guest judge is Jasmine Star. I read her blog and LOVE her work. This is from Amanda and Matt’s wedding – it’s the first wedding I shot on my own. It was a tough decision, but the recommendations of several folks put this photo over the top.

Be sure to head on over to I ♥ Faces and check out all the rest of the great entries.

Friday Focus

I’d like to take Fridays to Focus on one aspect of photography to blog on. I’ve been working on editing some family photos from (yikes!) last Thanksgiving for my parents, and I’d like to touch on retouching today. Most specifically: dealing with acne. It happens to all of us, and it especially happens to teens. My sister Emily is 13, and she is no exception. You couldn’t pay me to go back to my teen years… for so many reasons, blemishes just one among hundreds. Emily works really hard to keep her acne under control, but she had a big breakout the week I was home for family photos. Here’s one of the original portraits of Em:

She’s got GORGEOUS blue eyes, a beautiful smile (which she’s hiding because of her braces), and that pesky acne. So here’s the photo post-retouch.

So much better! No one wants to deny that Emily is a teenager. We’re not looking to airbrush her skin smooth. But it’s nice to take out some of those big blemishes. Also, if acne scarring has left the skin red and blotchy, we can counteract that with a (believe it or not) green tint. I cleared up Emily’s forehead and nose, evened out the tone a little on her chin, and removed a little dandruff from her hair. Then I fixed the lighting and bumped up the saturation a little bit and was done! I think this photo is one Emily will be very happy with.