Beautiful Day For a Wedding in Salt Lake City

Today I had the great pleasure to work with Diego and Berenice as they got married in the Salt Lake Temple. In the morning, when I was on the way to do their first look, it was snowing. I drove all the way down to the Temple, fully expecting to see Berenice in her wedding dress, with makeup dripping off her face, and mad that we couldn't do the formal portraits, or first look.

As I arrived to the Temple, I quickly learned that Berenice was running late. She was not thrilled with her late arrival, but apparently there was a plan that was beyond our control.

I waited with the photographer and the Groom for a few minutes until the Bride had parked. At which point, I walked back to my car, which I had parked down the street. As I was retrieving my camera bag and other video equipment out of the car I was a little nervous that my expensive camera gear might get wet. I opened my umbrella and started making my way back to the Bride and Groom. Just as I opened the umbrella, the rain stopped.

When I got back to everyone else, the rain had lifted completely so we were to do our photo shoot as scheduled. What a wonderful day! Here are a few images that I snapped along the way.

Erin + Rob | Solitude Mountain Resort Wedding Photography

I had the absolute honor to work with Erin and Rob at their wedding yesterday. It was a perfect sunny day at Solitude Mountain Resort. What an amazing place to hold a wedding. The venue was so simple, yet elegant.

Erin and Rob got married on top of a huge boulder outside The Inn at Solitude just after 4pm. What a wonderful memory!

Having not met Rob and Erin, it was very easy to see their love of life, and of each other. They were simply adorable together, and absolutely inseparable. Their love is so deep, yet so simple. During the reception, a friend of the Bride told the story of how the couple met. Erin was dressed up in costume as a "nerd". "Tragically unattractive" as it was put. Rob knew right then that he had to ask her out. Here we are two wonderful years later at their wedding with family and friends.

I have shot a lot of weddings, and this group was by FAR the funnest group to work with. They partied hard, and late. Nobody held back when it came to dancing. Not to mention the DJ who really brought the house down!

I couldn't wait, so here are some of the images from the night. So much fun!

I Have The Best Clients

August 7, 2015

Maybe I'm a little biased, but I work with some of the most amazing people. One of my favorite parts of my job is spending

 the day with a couple, getting to know them, and their families, and friends. Then when editing their wedding video, I 

get to piece back together the speeches, toasts, and vows for all to see. 

I've worked with professional sports stars, incredibly accomplished outdoorsman and everything in between. I truly love

 working with the incredible people that I do, what a blessing it is! They say that if you want to be the BEST at 

something, spend as much time as you can around people that ARE the best at what YOU want to be. I do just that! So 

maybe one day I will be worthy of being in the presence of these amazing people. :)

I finished the highlight portion of the video for Erin and Rob. I hope you enjoy it like I enjoyed putting it together. https://vimeo.com/135489676

Preserving The Heritage | Trek 2015

August 18, 2015

I had the absolute honor of going on Trek this year. I took a break from shooting weddings to do a Pioneer reenactment with the youth and leaders of my Stake. I filmed the 3 days that our group spent on the trail. Miracles happened over those 3 days, and most, if not all of the people who participated experienced an increase in their own Testimony. I am grateful for being asked to put together a video for the group. Click below to watch the video. 

From humble beginnings

Pioneer trek reenactments have been happening since at least 1947, when Utah Latter-day Saints commemorated the 100-year anniversary of their arrival in Utah, said Tyson Thorpe of the Church History Library. In the years following, certain LDS wards and stakes began organizing their own treks, though it wasn't common practice. Treks gradually became a Latter-day Saint youth activity, becoming a part of youth conferences at Brigham Young University in the 1970s.

The church-wide popularity of treks, however, began in 1997, at the sesquicentennial mark of the Mormons' arrival in the Salt Lake Valley. In the summer of 1997, hundreds of church members retraced segments of the 1,300-mile route from Nauvoo, Ill., to Salt Lake City. The new trek got considerable media coverage nationally, and sparked exponential popularity of these recreations within the church.

Martin's Cove, a part of the Mormon trail near Casper, Wyo., has become the go-to trek site for Latter-day Saints. Elder Lorin Maunch, who serves as director of the Martin's Cove historic site, said it has received approximately 23,000 people this year coming to recreate the trek — the most the site has ever had. The trek phenomenon has also spawned a number of trek sites across the country, including locations in California, Washington and Florida — a mix of Church-run and privately owned locations.

The Physical Cost Of Being A Wedding Videographer

August 8, 2015

As much as I love shooting weddings, they are so physically demanding.  Every wedding, I spend a full day before the wedding day preparing. Cleaning lenses, cleaning off memory cards, making sure everything from the previous event is backed up, adjusting settings of all cameras, replacing batteries, charging batteries, accounting for every little piece of equipment that may have been misplaced so that it can be replaced before the next shoot. 

Photographing or Video taping a wedding used to seem so simple, but nowadays, with all of the extras that I do in order to make an amazing wedding video, it really is a LOT of work, just in preparation, not to mention the shooting, and editing. 

I remember my own wedding day, and what I went through to prepare for the day. Sometimes I feel as though, in my own preparation for shooting someone else's wedding, that I have as much getting ready to do as the families do. 

It really is fun, and very rewarding, but I am looking forward to playing catch up on current projects over the next few weeks. Tonight I am doing video for a wedding in Layton, which is a wedding that I've been looking forward to for months, but this is the last one until the end of the month. But, with time off, comes more "work". Since we're closing on our house in a few days, there will be lots of work that needs to be done in the house. I'll also get lots of time to play catch up on my video projects. 

Here's to a good night tonight, wish me luck!

​​Wedding Photography Vs Wedding Videography | Wedding Videos

July 30, 2015

When I first started shooting wedding videos, I never expected that I would end up shooting still photos at weddings as well. When I shot my first wedding, my state of mind was so different than it is today. I was there as a "spectator" and I was "just documenting what happens" and then piecing it together into a video. I thought of myself as less important than the photographer, and I was happy with that. 

Over the years, I have gotten great at creating beautiful wedding videos. I have an artistic eye for detail that I am very proud to put to use. Nowadays I take my job very seriously, which is why I require contracts with each of my clients. If they want me to take them seriously, they must also take me seriously. 

I've had clients stumble upon my wedding videos and ask if I would be willing to shoot their wedding, but not a video, still photos. Why not? I say! 

Just the other day I was shooting a wedding at Solitude Mountain Resort. The weather was perfect. Occasionally it would get a bit warm, but with the mostly constant cloud cover, the weather was amazing. I didn't realize how warm it was until one of my cameras started heating up, and was flashing an overheating warning (which is never a good thing). You see, cameras are black, with more black, and more black. Black attracts heat, and being in direct sunlight, they were heating up a  lot. I covered one up a little so it was in the shade, and that seemed to do the trick, then the other camera started heating up as well. I felt trapped, I had no choice but to keep recording, cover up the camera, and hope for the best. 

These types of things are the down side to making wedding videos. I sometimes want to move around and grab a different shot here, and another one there, but it's not possible while recording video. As a photographer, I just need to get a few great still shots, but while shooting video, I've got to get every single frame, start to finish! Thats a LOT of pressure! Which is why I always use 2 cameras minimum. 

I used to think that being the one person (photographer) to have to deliver all of the images from a wedding was a lot of pressure, but having to capture every single second of a wedding ceremony is far more stressful!

I get asked all of the time what I like most, shooting wedding portraits, or videos. I have to say that I like them both equally. Some moments I really wish that I could break free and get a still shot while leaving the video running, but then I wouldn't be able to monitor audio, and make sure that my framing is still right on. 

While shooting wedding videos, I always grab a few photos as well, for practice, and to add to my photography portfolio. Shooting photos allows me to be creative in the moment, but then the creativity basically ends, but with video I can be a little bit less creative during the shoot, and the creativity comes into play in the editing. 

Erin + Rob | Sundance Mountain Resort Wedding Photography

I had the absolute honor to work with Erin and Rob at their wedding yesterday. It was a perfect sunny day at Solitude Mountain Resort. What an amazing place to hold a wedding. The venue was so simple, yet elegant.



Erin and Rob got married on top of a huge boulder outside The Inn at Solitude just after 4pm. What a wonderful memory!



Having not met Rob and Erin, it was very easy to see their love of life, and of each other. They were simply adorable together, and absolutely inseparable. Their love is so deep, yet so simple. During the reception, a friend of the Bride told the story of how the couple met. Erin was dressed up in costume as a "nerd". "Tragically unattractive" as it was put. Rob knew right then that he had to ask her out. Here we are two wonderful years later at their wedding with family and friends.



I have shot a lot of weddings, and this group was by FAR the funnest group to work with. They partied hard, and late. Nobody held back when it came to dancing. Not to mention the DJ who really brought the house down!



I couldn't wait, so here are some of the images from the night. So much fun!

Grateful To Be a Part Of It

June 5, 2015

Yesterday was a very eventful day! Wedding days are packed full of all sorts of adventure, but to get the day started 

off right, why not throw a couple aerial video shoots into the mix! 

We finished the aerial video shoots earlier than anticipated, so we got to the wedding venue early. Oh.. and yes, I said 

WE! For the first time ever, I had a helper/second shooter. My little Brother (15) is staying the summer with us, so I

 decided to take him with me and show him the ropes.

At first, I had plans to just have him point the camera down the aisle during the ceremony, and then be done with it,

 but then after watching him enjoy it more than I thought he would, I gave him the task of shooting the rest of the night. 

I would have NEVER thought of a wedding being held at the Tracy Aviary, but Brooklyn and Cade really pulled it off! 

What a beautiful venue, and unique. Gorgeous forest atmosphere right in the middle of the city! You seriously could not 

ask for more. But, with Brooklyn, you get more. 

When I spoke to her on the phone earlier this week, making final preparations, she made no mention of an injury, but 

when I showed up and saw her in a cast, I couldn't help but wonder what happened. Apparently she broke her ankle 2 

days before the wedding! So, that changed the plans a bit. Instead of walking down the aisle like everyone else, she was 

wheeled to the door in a wheel chair, and then walked with crutches to stand next to her husband. 

What a trooper! She ascended the tall flight of stairs with her new husband immediately following the ceremony. 

She didn't complain, she didn't whine, she just made the best of it. 

First dances were done with her in the wheelchair, and not one person questioned it. Then the party went on into the night, ending a long, amazing day. 

For this event, I was not the photographer, I was shooting video. So, out of respect for the photographer, I didn't take any

 pictures of the Bride and Groom, and instead focused on the venue itself. Here are a few of my favorite images from the 

night. Enjoy. 

Uptown Funk a Parody by Taylorsville Elementary School

May 20, 2015

I had such a blast making this video. Now it is finally up and ready for the world to see! 

I was contacted months ago to produce this video. The Principle, Mrs. Love-Day wrote new lyrics for the popular song, and Mr. Hilder the music Teacher performed the voiceover. We incorporated the whole school in the making of the video. What a blast!

During the one of the shots, we had the full student body in the multi purpose room where some Teachers took it upon themselves to spray silly string all over the 6th graders in a last prank. 

The video has been done for some time, but with the School wanting to unveil the video in the presence of the whole school, and local news organizations, we've been keeping it under wraps until NOW! 

Please share the video with everyone you know!

Danielle + Andy - Millennial Falls Draper Utah

One of the biggest parts of planning a wedding is picking the perfect wedding venue. Have you chosen yours yet? 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing a wedding in Draper for Danielle and Andy. The venue was called Millenial Falls, and it did NOT disappoint! Beautiful gardens on the back of the property, waterfalls everywhere, top notch catering, and plenty of room to dance made this venue a place to remember. 

If you haven't booked YOUR venue yet, it may be worth checking out Millenial Falls. I don't get any sort of compensation of course, but if you found an amazing place to get married wouldn't you share it with YOUR friends? 

Here are a few of my favorite images from the wedding.