The Willdens - Coming Home

This is story about a house, rather a home, and the wife and husband, mother and father, grandmother and grandfather who live there. This is a story about the Emma and Ron Willden. As I listened to stories of family dinners on the back patio, seeing grandpa making his own wine, and grandma throwing her pots, I could sense the years and decades of life and love this house held. When their granddaughter contacted me she expressed such sadness that her grandparents would soon be moving from their lifelong home.

Visiting the Willden's home, Emma and Ron can be found sitting at the kitchen counter, Ron reading the newspaper and Emma doing the puzzles in the back.This is how I found them that day, at the kitchen counter, leaning over the paper. In my time with them I realized they have developed their routines of togetherness (each having their own spot on the couch, Ron watching the tv while Emma did her needlework), and yet they've maintained their own hobbies and passions separate from one another.

They showed me the things they love to do, took turns telling me what whey remember about how they met, and told me the stories of the various rooms and items throughout their home, many handmade by one of them. Ron was so eager to show me downstairs where he made his wine, developed film and printed photos, did his wood work and geology work. Emma, on the other hand, was humble and didn't see the need for the paparazzi. I worried that I wouldn't be able to get enough photos of her and her hobbies, because I didn’t want to impose myself and my goals to get her photos, but it became clear to me that although she was a potter, and made amazing cross stitches, her current passion and love was her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She has such a charismatic, and playful personality and it came out whenever she interacted with her great granddaughter.

Although this home held the stories and memories, it is clear that Emma and Ron were the ones that made the house a home and although they moved shortly after this session the connections and love would remain with them and the memories would love on through their photos from this session.

Hannah and Jon Wedded

I don't normally photograph weddings, but when one of my favorite people asks me to photograph her's, of course the answer is YES!
Hannah and Jon chose June 11th to get married in the Draper, Utah LDS Temple and planned a beautiful backyard wedding in rustic Alpine, Utah. The weather..... had different plans. Although it was rainy and windy, and an indoor reception was not what Hannah and Jon had in mind, it was so awesome to see their families pull together to make a magical indoor reception for these two. The twinkly cafe lights helped too...  We were fortunate enough to have a small break in the rain, just long enough to allow us to get some photos of the two of them at the temple. I feel lucky that I was there to document the day and these two and their families coming together. It was a ball getting to know their awesome families!  And I can see where Hannah and Jon get their sense of humors and whit, which explains why I am always laughing through our photo sessions. (Like I may have peed my pants a little....)
Wishing these two many years of good luck! They certainly deserve it for embracing the rain as a part of their special day!

























And a special thanks to my hunky assistant and second photographer, Damian Dayton.

Chipping Family, Welcome Home - Utah Family Documentary Photographer

When Jenni asked me about doing a documentary session of her family after she brought her new baby home I was so stinkin' excited. We talked about her session, her family, and what she wanted photos of. I knew it was going to be awesome! A few weeks later when as we tried to finalize details, not knowing when baby was coming, she expressed concerns that her family would be too boring.... I can assure you they are not boring. They are interesting and beautiful! The routines of kids playing with legos and watching ipads, baking cookies with mom, and kissing and snuggling baby brother on mom's bed are beautiful! The connections in this family are beautiful! And I feel so lucky that I was asked to document it!

A side note, I was relieved and ecstatic when I noticed that Jenni allowed the kids to be themselves, allowed the house to be what it was, without the stress of deep cleaning and matching outfits, trips to the store or salon. She really caught the vision of the documentary session and that makes my heart sing.

Sushi by Rob - Utah Food Photographer

Who wouldn't love to have a private chef come to your house and make sushi for you and your favorite people?! This is the only way to experience sushi! 

The day started out with Rob and I hitting up Fog River Fish Market in Salt Lake City, Utah. And then it was back to the house to greet our guests, eat some amazing sushi, enjoy the company of our guests and learn some cool stuff, like the proper way to eat nigiri. And I got to the best seat in the house to watch it all go down! As you can tell Rob also teaches. My next sushi endeavor will be taking one of his classes.  Goals!

I have to point out this is just my dream house, owned by my generous and very stylish cousins. Thanks Ken and Allison! (as my husband likes to remind me we are working on not coveting. The struggle is real...) 

And thanks to Rob for the amazing opportunity! If you want to host your own private sushi dinner or learn from Rob head over to to his website Sushi by Rob



































Hulet Family Photojournaling

The Hulet family is near and dear to my heart. I've been able to get to know them over the years as they have welcomed my little sis into their family.  I love them and I feel kinda bad for the times when we jokingly decided to monopolize my sister's family when they were in town so we wouldn't have to share them with the Hulets.

This amazing family invited me into their home to photograph them for a day. And I can see why my sister didn't want us to monopolize her time. Being around them feels like home and like my own family, just not as loud and obnoxious. As in many families, it is clear the heart of the Hulet family is Mom, Grandma, and Wife, Renon, and the reason for my being asked to photograph the Hulets. Renon was diagnosed with cancer last year. It's hard to put words to all of my feelings about Renon at the moment... I have seen her touch so many lives beyond just my sister's and I want to share all of the things about her... But that is just too much. So here is my short sweet version. She is charismatic, outgoing, fun, caring, artistic, creative, talented, confident, generous, and loving.  And I am in awe by her strength and courage and the positive attitude and faith she has maintained through all she has faced and endured. She has loved my sister like her own daughter. I loved watching her embrace each of her grandchildren with open arms and heart. And her own children are an extension of all that is good in her. It was such an honor to photograph her and her beautiful family.























Papillon Pots by Tari

All my life I have avoided pottery classes. I don't hate pottery but I hate the chalky feeling of dry clay that is left on your hands after you are finished…. It's like nails on a chalk board! But I did finally take a class a year ago and fell in love. It is, in my opinion, one of the most meditative art forms one can do (besides printing photos in a darkroom). I could get lost for hours in the process of working with clay.
And I discovered that it is equally as enjoyable to photograph that process as photographed Tari in her studio. Tari not only has her own line of pottery that she sells, but she also teaches! Watching and photographing Tari teach was a surreal experience for me. A flood of memories of my aunt LeOma, who passed away a few years ago, came flooding back to my mind. Memories of  doing arts and crafts with her and her caring and motherly nature. Why am I talking about my aunt while I share these photos of Tari...? Because Tari has that same energy and even though Tari is LeOma's niece (my cousin) the family resemblance was so apparent as I witnessed her teaching the craft to someone else the same way my Aunt LeOma taught me. She carried that same care, gentleness and joy in her face as my dear aunt.

You can see some ofTari's work at her website Papillon Pots 
















Sheridan Maternity

I'm so excited to share these photos from a maternity session I had with Sheridan! We had so much fun just playing around and she so graciously let me photograph her as she got ready. I love capturing the unseen moments where her mom helped her choose the perfect necklace, and the moment when her husband's sweet daughter watched and with a big grin said "you're so pretty." 
Melt my heart! I love them!

Spending the day with Sheridan reminded me of all the feels that came with my first.... Joy for this long awaited little soul, excitement and anticipation to meet them, some disbelief, worry, fear of the unknown, self doubt, and overwhelming sense of love for this person you've never met, and love from friends and family that encircle your life at that time. 
I am just so excited for her and her husband, Brian and can't wait to meet their sweet baby boy! And I am selfishly excited that my little guy will have a new friend to play with. 

 This new mommy is just glowing! (yeah... It's a real thing!) And it kind of made me want to be pregnant again.... There I said it! Gahhh! Don't worry, I won't be doing that for a long time, but a girl can dream...




























Hannah and Jon Engagements


Beautiful, sweet, and hilarious Hannah is getting married!  I would have never guessed that our impromptu poker game so many years ago would lead to many more poker nights, great stories told by this woman, so many laughs, so much Dr Pepper, swapping dating stories, and now getting to spend the afternoon with Hannah and Jon as I photograph their engagements, complete with puppies and all! (I like to think of them their love children.)

Hannah works as the "reproduction specialist" (yeah you read that right) where Jon took his beautiful Saint Bernard to make puppies. And so begins the love story of Hannah and Jon.... *Sigh* So romantic! And also a great pitch for a Disney movie (I'm thinking modern day 101 Dalmatians...) 

And now you can understand why we had to have their puppies present for photos. These puppies really are their babies. It was a little crazy, but so fun! And I think Hannah and Jon are the perfect match!







and a little puppy bum... because it's so cute!

Madison Senior Portraits

This is what I call a last ditch effort. Madison and I picked a super busy night out of an even busier week for both of us to do her senior photos. We were running late and honestly didn't have a location picked out. All she requested were fall colors in the background. 

The plan: drive up east canyon and start shooting as much as we could before we lost valuable sunlight. I would say our last ditch effort worked out pretty well.  I sure love the adventure of discovering a hidden location that is "off the beaten path" of where people usually request photos. And you would never guess she had just told me here hair wasn't working the way she wanted , because I think it's pretty amazing, and those eyes…. 

I sure love this girl! And I'm so proud of her, in an "other mother" sort of way. She is smart, funny and oh so talented; DECA president, makes me snort-laugh, and makes me want to be an artist like her some day…









and one last one for me….