A beautiful sunset -- in black and white.

Just letting the clouds speak for themselves today.

And you feel like it's a beautiful day

Last Saturday we had a double location shoot with Lafayette High cross-country runner and class of 2012 senior Hannah, who was fresh off a college visit to Loyola. We started off at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, one of Hannah's favorite places in the 'Lou (especially the Japanese Gardens). After the Botan, we headed 1 mile south to Tower Grove Park, dodging kickball games and farmer's markets, to find some new, unique places that we LOVED. Thanks for a beautiful day, Hannah and mom Chris!

Add two to the crew

Left: Sam Emerson, born June 30th at 1:01am, weighing 7lbs and 20" in length.
Right: Eli Craig, born June 30th at 1:17am, weighing 6lbs 5oz and 19 3/4" in length.

Identical, but not without their differences. However, both were just sweet, sweet, sweet to photograph. Thanks for having us, Ashlee, Craig and Grant!

U. City. Great for concerts. And senior photos.

Saturday, July 2. Hottest day of the year. And where were we? In the Delmar Loop.
Paige, a Parkway West senior-to-be, picked the locale (not the weather!) for her passion for music and the eclectic nature of University City. We're big fans of the Loop, although it's been a long time since we have gone there to make photos... Yeah, most of our time there is spent at Fitz's (mmm... root beer...), Blueberry Hill, and The Pageant (one of the best places in the world to see a concert*). We love a good concert, but it was definitely nice to get out and do something different there this time!


Did you know? The Delmar Loop is one of America's 10 Great Streets, according to the American Planning Association (2007). We'd have to agree.
*According to Pollstar 2010.

The last of Utah... until September

Fun Facts about Becca's "home" state:
1. Utah mountain peaks, on average, are the tallest in the country. The average elevation of the tallest peaks in each of Utah's counties is 11,222 ft.--higher than the same average in any other state.
2. Utah is the only state whose capital's name is made of three words. All three words in Salt Lake City have four letters each.
3. The name Utah comes from the Native American Ute tribe meaning "people of the mountains."
4. Utah has five national parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce & Capitol Reef.
5. Utah has seven national monuments: Cedar Breaks, Natural Bridges, Dinosaur, Rainbow Bridge, Grand Staircase-Escalante, Timpanogos Cave & Hovenweep.
6. Utah has six national forests: Ashley, Dixie, Fishlake, Manti-LaSal, Uinta, & Wasatch-Cache.
7. The federal government owns 65% of the state's land (it is any wonder with all those national parks, forests and monuments?!).

Ben has has yet to visit all the sites listed in #4. This September, he and his father will head out to photograph Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef. That will make him 100 percent complete. Then it will be on to the national monuments... someday.

A little Utah rain goes a long way

Here are a few more images created in Utah last week... Some in and around Bryce Canyon (bottom row), some in Panguitch (the balloons), some in Tropic (top middle and middle right), one in Richfield/Glendale (center), and one from a Delta Skybus (take your best guess).

Utah couldn't have been more beautiful last week. Everywhere you turned, you heard comments and news stories about the amount of rain, moisture, runoff, snow pack, snow melt, flooding, etc., in Utah. No doubt, it has had a significant impact on the scenery in parts all across the Beehive State. Yes, it's amazing what a little rain and snowfall can do to a desert.


Organizers of the 50th annual UPAA Symposium and the Munson family reunion couldn't have picked a better week to invite me out west.

*Technical details on the last image, which has absolutely nothing to do with the rain: Canon 7D, Canon 24-70mm lens (Thanks, Kristen Hines Baker!), 800 ISO, 1/160 sec., f/4.0, approx. 7:30 p.m.