Sadly for us, Tuesday was the scheduled shoot day. McKell and I chatted over IM and mulled over some options, eventually deciding on shooting her engagements with Jeremy at the Salt Lake City Public Library. I called ahead to make sure we were okay to do so, and we met there at 5:30. There was a slight gap of pleasant weather so we decided to try and get some of the red trees around involved in the photos, but it was short lived and we soon found ourselves setting up on the 3rd floor amongst isles of books and study tables. The shoot was fun, challenging, and sometimes a little creative with some decent results. Check out the whole shoot over at Smugmug!

The nice thing about working in digital is we photographers are no longer confined to trying to only capture the best moments of a photography shoot – sometimes we get to catch the bad, the blah, and the entertaining.

Meet my sister Calli and her family: Tyson, Sydney, Hope, and Zack. Just like typical kids, Sydney, Hope, and Zack love to throw tantrums. This particular location took several minutes to get setup, during which time the two girls ran around and had plenty of fun. However, when it’s time to take photos, the fun stops, and the frowns show up.

Sydney, the older of the two, decided that she was suddenly very bored and wanted nothing to do with family pictures. Hope, on the other hand, was still having plenty of fun but had no interest in trying to look at the camera. And then you add in Zack, who just wanted to cry, and we had the perfect storm for a perfect family photo.

Eventually, happiness prevailed and we did manage to get some great individual photos. For the main family shot though, we ended up heading back up Provo Canyon to try again and the kids were much more cooperative this time.

If you’d like to see what kind of family photo adventures we can have together, go ahead and send me an email to jj@joeljenkins.me and let’s make it happen!

One of my favorite features about the website is that it’s built on a responsive foundation, which means it’s ready to scale for any screen size on any device; iPhone, iPad, Android, Netbook, Laptop, Desktop, and more. Go ahead and resize your browser window and watch the layout adjust accordingly. Pretty cool!

I’m excited to start focusing on photography as a business again. Over the last 18 months or so I’ve been studying more and learning new techniques and skills that deal with lighting, from using and manipulating existing light to creating light of my own to get the exact shot I want. Along the way I’ve had lots of help and inspiration from some of the great photographers I know like Kenneth Linge, Zack Arias, Scott Jarvie, Pete Stott, Jeremy Hall, Jess Curren, Ryan Romeike, and many others. I really love the photography community here in Utah and around the world. It’s a fantastic hobby and profession to be in.

So welcome to my new site! Have a look around, and be sure to bookmark the RSS feed so you can follow me around on my adventures!

Meet Lindsay Aline, the super talented pianist vocalist from San Francisco. She recently released her debut album filled with songs written and performed by her (remember how I said super talented?). As she’s picking up steam she also recently acquired a few members to join her band, and pooled them from the Salt Lake School of Rock. Yesterday she was doing her first mini-concert with her band and asked me to come along and take some photos – to which I enthusiastically said yes! So, without further ado, I give you Lindsay Aline.

Be sure to check out the whole mini-shoot on my smugmug gallery.

A few years ago my sister Calli set me up with her good friends across the street to do some family photos for them. And now a few years later they asked me to do them again! Only this time we had a much better setting (yep, my parents backyard again) and I had a much better camera and a lot more experience.

We had a lot of fun, and the kids did a marvelous job of cooperating. I just love how the pictures turn out back there, it’s such a gorgeous setting. If you want to get some photos done there, or are a photographer and would like to shoot there, let me know and we’ll get something worked out!

If you’re interested in seeing the whole shoot, go ahead and check out the gallery on my Smugmug.

It was just a few short weeks ago that they got engaged, and just a few days after that that we took their engagement pictures, but it’s been long enough and now John and Charisse are married!

It was a slightly blustery day at the Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, Utah, and even just a pinch rainy right before they came out, but the deep blue sky and fluffy white clouds paired with a beautiful building made for a fantastic backdrop. Throw in a little gusty breeze every few minutes and you get a nice mixture for some dramatic shots. See for yourself!

Sorry for the lack of updates for the last few weeks, I myself just got married on the 11th and haven’t been picking up the camera a lot lately! But I think it’s a good excuse cause she’s a photographer too and we all know 2 is better than 1 right!

Check back soon though as we’ll be hitting the photography hard in the upcoming months and years. THANKS!!

Joel

Yesterday at church Charisse came up to my dad and asked if she could use their backyard for some engagement photos, to which he quickly agreed to. Then she said “now we just need a photographer”, to which my dad pointed over at me and said “he takes photos!”

So this afternoon Charisse and her rad fiance John came over and we had some fun in the yard taking some photos. She was deadset on getting “just one” cause that’s all they needed, but Alicia and I quickly convinced her she needed more than one. We also convinced her they needed some kissy shots too, so we made sure to take care of those.

The Tidwell children were visiting their mom from Arizona and wanted to get a family picture so we happily obliged. The location was a fantastic backyard in Alpine complete with lots of trees, great sunshine and a beautiful stream.