Shadow

My beautiful cat, age 20, passed away last week. Farewell, pretty kitty.

Anders

My brother Anders turned 18 today. He is so talented and incredibly intelligent (he got a 36 on the math portion of his ACT) and right on the cusp of heading out into the world. I know he's really going to go places and shake things up.

Anders, the world is yours to conduct.



Sinar 4x5 Tmax 400, xtol 1:1.

Graduates

I apologize for the recent silence here on the blog - things here have been so busy, starting with the end of an era.(How long is an era anyhow? I've been in a school a long time, so I'm sure I qualify!) Jeff and I both graduated with our Bachelors degrees from BYU last month! Jeff got a degree in Exercise Science, and my degree was in (what else?) photography.

 There were probably some people who wondered if this day would ever come, and I have to admit I had wondered a few times myself. When I got into the photography program and essentially started my college path completely over just a semester shy of graduating in my previous major, I had to take a huge leap of faith, believing that this was what I really wanted to do and that it would be worth it. I'm happy to say it was more rewarding than I ever could have imagined. Difficult, time consuming, anxiety-bringing, but rewarding. I've had to stand up to people who tell me that photography is not a "real" major, and learned to let other ignorant comments slide off my back, ranging from people expressing shock that photography was something you could study to assumptions that I was in a foofy major where we didn't even really get graded. Does every art major go through these things? I'm sure that they do.

 I've learned so much in the photography program at BYU, and seen my work grow by leaps and bounds. The wonderful professors helped push me beyond where I would have gotten by this point had I only been in this journey myself. I'm so thankful for everything that they have taught me, both on the subject of photography as well as finding the type of person I really want to be.

 I would apologize for the large amount of pictures about to come, but I'm just ridiculously proud...so I won't. :)

 Also, a handful of these black and whites were taken, developed and scanned by the guy in the bowtie (my dad).When your brother is nine, every family picture gets a crazy face.
I am so grateful for my parents. They have supported me both financially and emotionally throughout all of this, and I never could have done it without them.


Obligatory 'We did it!!' excitement-

The Chocolate

I just love The Chocolate. Cazookies, cakes, lemon bars - all in such a cute little house. What could be better than relaxing on a couch with friends while munching down delectable desserts? If you're in Orem, you should go check it out.



On the left above is the Kitty Katrina cake - my personal favorite. And yes, that is me on the right. We realized my shirt was the same color as the wall, and had to get a picture of that.

Not another like it in the world...

When I was 13, we spent the summer in Scandinavia. I remember shopping with my dad on a pier in Norway, where he found this hat. He fell in love with it right away. He paid for it and proudly wore it out of the shop, all the time telling me that this hat was really unique, that there was no one else who would have a hat as cool as this.

We had only walked a few feet down the road when a man passed us...wearing the same hat.

My dad will now tell you that no one else in the world has a hat as cool as this - except that one other guy on the pier.



Contax 645, Portra 800.

SOS Drugstore

Located on Main Street in Springville, Utah.

Good morning, lemon!

Some mornings I'm a sunshine.
Some mornings I'm a lemon.

Jeff

I love Jeff so much. Every day I feel grateful to have such a wonderful, loving and funny husband.



From my first roll on my new contax 645, can't wait to shoot more!

First Year Bonding

Last semester I worked on a project focusing on the bonding between a mother and baby throughout the first year. I have lots of wonderful outtakes that I will hopefully post another day, but here is the series I turned in. A huge thank you to all of the mothers who let me come spend time with them and their beautiful children.

Merry Christmas!

Jeff and I had a lot of fun putting together our Christmas card this year - a nice little tribute to Norman Rockwell.



I also had to be creative brainstorming for my parents this year - with two children living out of the country, we had to find some way to get us all on there. Love how it turned out -



Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Kari's Alligator Shower

My family moved across the street from Kari's when we were both four years old. We instantly became friends, as four-year-olds tend to do, and we have stayed close ever since. In fact, throughout middle school and high school I never took a single math class without her right by my side.

She'll be having a little baby boy this month, and I am so thrilled for her. We threw her a shower a few weekends ago, alligator themed (just like her nursery!) It was so much fun, full of friends (and their babies), laughter, and yummy food.

I wanted to share a few pictures, mostly because I'm so incredibly proud of my pineapple alligator sculpture. So easy to do, but made me look amazingly crafty and creative.

























Obviously we all have very similar taste - because Kari ended up with three of the same onesie!!