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Utah Editorial Photographer | Ballet Shoot

Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.
— Martha Graham

It's is always a gift to collaborate with talented artists, and capturing the elemental beauty of florals and dance, motion and organic beauty was a dream long in the making. 

A forever thank your ballet dancer, Sophie Baddley. For her grace, hard work and strength. It is a joy to document what someone loves and has worked their whole life at. 

Another forever thank you to Allison Baddley, La Fête Floral, for being the best creative partner, mother to Sophie, and visionary floral artist. It was a dream working with you to create these dreamy editorial photos.

Ballerina: Sophie Baddley
Florist: La Fête Floral
Gown: LeAnne Marshall

Sante Fe | Travel Guide

It’s my private mountain. God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it.
— Georgia O'Keefe
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New Mexico felt like going to church. It felt like another country. It might have been the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The sky is infinity, the desert is ancient, and there's a sacredness to the land. We went in October, after the crowds, and the yellow cottonwoods washed with a red and blue landscape made me wish I was a painter, but my photos will have to do. Sante Fe is a place to linger. To stop at farm stands, wander into art galleries, get lost on a rutted out road, looking for the White Place. I fell in love with adobe in New Mexico, the lines and shadows. How the warmth held into earthen walls, and the shadows held secrets and stories. The buildings are old and the land is older. We wandered through the Sante Fe Farmer's Market, and bought sage bundles, jalapeño bread, watched peppers being roasted, our eyes watering. There were stand after stand of pinto and black beans, spices in jars, peppers hanging from string, fall apples and fresh lavender. 

We wandered up Canyon Road, peeking into art galleries, and feeling a little out of place. I was asked if I was ready to make a purchase on a 5K rug, dyed with crushed beetles picked by hand from cactus. I purchased a small bowl instead. I wasn't asked if I was sure I didn't want two. It was gallery stroll and I was half a second too late, as a gentlemen, lingering in the glow of an open door, dressed in black, wearing a fedora, paused, took a smoke, let it fill the air, then tossed it aside and entered, while a guitarist played just inside the window. We stopped at the tea house at the top, in my eternal quest to get Scott to enjoy tea as much as I do, and then held hands on the walk in the dark, the sky midnight, a sliver of light to the west, the galleries know yellow squares lighting our way. 

We fell in love deeper then I thought possible with Georgia O'Keefe. We visited the White Place, Ghost Ranch, and her home in Abiquiu. We saw her kitchen, her rocks on the windowsill, the bones she collected, her studio...be still my heart. We visited her working garden, looked out her windows to the Mesa and Cottonwoods and realized why she came and never went back.

We were seated in a the back room of a Spanish Tapas restaurant. Our server brought us an extra desert, the Columbian musician sang Rocky Mountain High, and patrons got up to dance and sing with him. It was the best dining experience of my life. 

We took the high road to Taos, stopping at abandoned churches, farm stands, and Chimayo, a Spanish mission and pilgrimage site. We had a fight, we made up we explored the grounds, the rosaries hung over every surface, listening to the service, and peaking in to the tiny room where the sacred sand is held, a row of crutches a testament to their healing powers. We stopped at a weaving studio, the rows of hand dyed yard in the yard a calling card. We met the artists, and they hand wrote an invoice. We were lucky enough to be able to visit the Taos Pueblo, right before it closed for the day. It was quiet, the Pueblo casting shadows upon itself, the river crossing through the center, and wooden bridges joining the two. A few other visitors wandered in and out of the church, visiting the few native shops open. The Pueblo is beautiful and stunning, rich in culture and history, still a working community and a tribute to a culture that existed long before America was colonized. 

I have a list of the many wonderful things we saw and visited. I wish we had a little more time to hike, visit the town square and most importantly visit Chaco on the way down or up. We did the drive in two days from SLC, stopping to hike Delicate Arch. If we were to do it again, we'd stop for another night in Durango and visit Mesa Verde. I would love to know your experience with New Mexico and Sante Fe/Taos. It truly felt like a gift to visit. 

Here is an except from The Deseret is Theirs, by Byrd Baylor that we purchased from the gift shop at Ghost Ranch, 

Anyway,
the desert has
its own kind of time
(that doesn't need clocks).
That's
the kind of time
snakes go by
and rains go by
and rocks go by
and Desert People
go by too.

That's why
every desert thing
knows
when the time comes
to celebrate

Suddenly...
All together.
It happens.

Cactus blooms
yellow and pink and purple.
The Papagos begin
their ceremonies
to pull down
rain.
Every plant joins in.
Even the dry earth
makes a sound of joy
when the rain touches.
Hawks call across the canyons.
Children laugh for nothing.
Coyotes dance in the moonlight.

Where else
would
Desert People
want to be

Georgia O'Keefe
Ghost Ranch
Georgia O'Keefe Museum
Abiquiu-Book a tour
The White Place-Get directions from the tour

To Eat
La Boca
Modern General
Vinaigrette
Cafe Pasquals
The Tea House
La Choza


High Road to Taos/Taos
Chimayo
Centinela Tradtional  Arts
Taos Pueblo
Twirl-Toy Store
San Francisco de Asis

Town
Loretto Chapel
Palace of the Governors
Town Square
General wandering
Canyon Road-Art Galleries

Georgia O'Keefe Museum is just off the square

Shopping
Collected Book Works
Modern General
Sante Fe Farmers Market
Doodlets-Toy store for kids


 

Miller Family | Utah Family Photographer

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
— Roald Dahl
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New Year, New Beginnings, New Goals and Old Goals. I'm entering a stage of motherhood that's foreign to me. Normally when my babies are nearing the 2 year-old mark, I get a little sad. It feels like the official end of babyhood, and in the past, it meant looking towards growing our family. That was really hard and complicated for us, and two year-old meant I needed to start dealing with that. But now, we are done having babies, and it means my Nora is moving out of baby forever, and I'm leaving that phase forever. ALL.THE.EMOTIONS. But you know what I used to do before babies? I set goals! Big Goals! And I pursued them. I went back to school after Scott graduated and got my degree in photography at 27, because I LOVED IT. It made no sense to anyone I knew except Scott. I started my way up from a small photography studio. I started my own business when it looked like a family might never happen. I FIGURED OUT TAXES (kind of) But here I am, leaving the last decade of my life, and looking towards a whole different kind of future. One that doesn't involve shots and doctors visits and late nights and no sleep. I've changed so much this last decade. My dreams have merged into my children's. But I still have my own. So, I've decided to ignore the voice in my head that says everyone can do everything better than you, and it's been done, and you don't have anything new to add. I mean, that might be true, but it wouldn't be true to myself. So, I want to create a new kind of session. One that doesn't have a checklist in my head of shots to get, or to make sure everyone is looking at the camera. One that doesn't worry deeply about disappointing people, because I know photos are an investment! One that honors parenthood and the fleetingness of childhood. So I wrote down what I wanted and it was too, FIND MAGIC. When your babies are crawling over you, when the light dances across your face, when your tired, and play the I lay down game. When your emotions are blurry and your heart is full. I want to focus on the emotion and not the technical, which means I'm giving myself permission to not be perfect. Maybe NO ONE will want these. That's okay, I'm going to track you down and force myself in your home...in a safe and respectable way! I just think we all deserve to have our magic captured. I think life changes quickly, and I don't want to spend the next decade chasing perfectionism, because that's my nature and that's been my whole life. I want to chase love, the feeling of it, the shape of it, and way it shapes your life.
Name in progress...just like my life.
Wonder Sessions
Magic Sessions
Childhood Series
Magichood Series

Either way, it's my goal. To add some imperfection and love into your life and mine. Who wants to play along?