rawlinson family

These dudes will always be one of my favorite families to photograph! When Kaelin married Trevor she got promoted to stepmom status with Rylan, and they've got a super cute family dynamic that makes them super fun to take pictures of. (What photographer doesn't love NOT having to pose every single moment and just letting the magic happen!?)
We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon before it was all wintery and enjoyed the big pines and mountainy greenness. Trevor and Rylan just HAPPENED to wear exact matching outfits which turned out to be the cutest thing ever! And while we were playing around, a bunch of people coming down from a hike started making a commotion about something happening across the road, so we walked over to check it out. There were 3 huge moose [meese, mooses] head butting each other right on the side of the road! It was pretty crazy to watch- some people thought they were invincible and went down into the brush just a few feet away from the moose, and Trevor was about ready to call 911 in case someone got decapitated. Crazy!

Enjoy this cute little family! And the crowning moment of my nature photography career at the bottom.

































































My focus was a little off, but I'm still a teeny bit proud of this one:

bryce canyon national park

Last year marked the 100 year anniversary of the national parks service. I have always enjoyed visiting the many nearby national parks in Utah with my family growing up, and Travis and I would like to continue visiting all that we can. We were able to go to Yellowstone together and more recently, to Bryce Canyon (T's first time). I had a family photo shoot in the area over the summer so we decided to make a trip out of it! We are so lucky to live in a state with so many national park treasures to visit.

I graduated from Utah Valley University last year, and as my last 'hurrah' I submitted some photographs from Bryce to a collaborative art book the Art & Design department put together at the end of the year. It is entitled Uncommon Ground - The National Park Service - 100 Years in Utah, and it contains a multitude of photographs, drawings, paintings, writings, etc. inspired by Utah's 13 national parks and monuments. Since some of my images made it into the book, I was able to receive a copy and share it with my family. It's beautiful! For anyone interested in viewing a few pages from the book or purchasing one (each purchase goes towards funding more annual projects for the Art & Design department), the link is here: http://www.uvu.edu/arts/books/

Although only a couple of my images made it into the book, I (obviously) took like a thousand (what did you expect) and so I'm sharing a sampling of my favorites here. :)