Birthday self portraits

Yesterday, on my birthday, I did what I’ve been doing on my birthday for at least ten years. I took as many self portraits as the age I turned. This year I’m 56, so I took 56 self portraits. It’s hard (for me) thinking up that many new pictures every time, so there are some repeated ideas from previous years. But there is something new. This year I wanted to ask strangers if they’d be in a picture. So, there’s some strangers in this year’s self portraits, and some familiar faces with friends. This might be my favorite year, yet. Every year, I wonder if this is the last year I’ll do this. I don’t know. I guess we’ll cross that bridge a year from now. For now, I’ll be glad I had the time to do this again.


Click any image to view it larger

If you want to see previous years, here are the images from the following ages:

2023 - Age 55

2022 - Age 54

2021 - Age 53

2020 - Age 52



That time Calvin + Olivia got married in Hawaii

In 2014 I photographed a lovely wedding in New York City. The bride, Aly Keller. She’s amazing and the wedding was perfect. A couple times since then, I’ve photographed the family and I got to spend some time around them all, including the youngest in the family, Calvin, who’s not so young any more. He’s old enough to get married, in fact. So I was pleased as punch when he texted and said he wanted me to photograph their wedding, and I wasn’t mad when he said it would be in Hawaii in February. A fun coincidence, because Hawaii is just where I would want to be in February.

To make it even better, my wife Amy was able to join me and after the wedding we stuck around for a few days to soak up some sunburns.

The wedding was at the Oahu LDS Temple and the party was at Kualoa Ranch. Because everyone involved was traveling from somewhere other than Hawaii, it was a small guest list. Very intimate and special. One of my favorite weddings of all time. Congratulations Olivia and Calvin.

Just before they got married

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." - Dorothea Lange.

I love the power a photograph can take on, and it’s ability to immortalize a moment from the past. Here’s Landon and Brinley, married now, but they weren’t just yet when these pictures were taken. Some day Landon and Brinley will have kids, and maybe those kids will look at these pictures, the beginning of their parents love story, and get a little insight into what their parents were like when they were younger.

The images are nice to view, now, but just think of what they’ll mean in 50 years from now.

I’m sure this is probably quite obvious, but I just really love photography. I know—duh! I love looking at photographs, I love taking photographs, and I particularly love family pictures because they just become more valuable as the days go by.

Some advice: Go take a picture of your family today, your phone will do, and then— and this is the important part, go make a real nice print of it and keep it somewhere safe where it will last and last, and be seen many years from now.

Shaun Johnson

If you’re not already following Shaun Johnson on Instagram then that’s really your top priority today, but only if you like to laugh.

We had a great time when he came to the studio to be photographed. And we laughed. Well, I did. Like crazy.

Headshots for actress Suzanne Pereira

Suzanne Pereira lives in NYC but was in town filing a movie. Luckily we found a time while she was in Utah when she could come to my studio in Provo to be photographed. Suzanne is a delight, just pleasant as can be, and easy to photograph. We had never met but it turns out, we know a handful of the same people. I do hope our paths cross again.

My approach and philosophy for family portraits

I’ve always loved this quote from Peter London in his book “No More Secondhand Art”, he says, “It is not beauty we are after, but meaning. Big, deep, wide meaning.” That strikes a chord. While I sure appreciate aesthetically pleasing moments with family pictures, my primary aim is to capture authenticity and something that is true, and I value that over an idealized version that might not actually exist in real life. So, I look for genuine, unscripted connections that not only look amazing, but are real. And heartfelt. So, if you are looking for a family portrait that gets at the depth of your family’s story, let’s chat. — All that said, I just got some film back from my time with Shay and Ryan and I think this image gets at the heart of what I’m talking about.

Demi Tebow

Demi Tebow is rad. (Miss Universe 2017, for one thing). She’s cheerful, kind as can be, and a real pro. She was up for whatever we asked. She made the shoot feel like a real collaboration and gave it her all to get the best images we could. This shoot was for Mixhers, a company that is made up of some of the best people I’ve ever worked with. The founders are amazing, I love the company mission, and the folks they hire are just the sort of people you’d want to spend all day with.

Kirby Heyborne portrait

I’ve known about Kirby Heyborne for a long time and always secretly wanted to be his friend because he just seems like the coolest person around. Well, as it turns out as I am so often, I was correct in my assessment. He IS the coolest person around. Here’s a portrait I made of him when he came to the studio a while ago.

Among all the other things Kirby is doing these days, he is the host on a BYUTV show called Making Good and if you want to feel like there is some goodness in the world, if you want to see something that will make you laugh and make you cry and make you feel good inside, then you should watch his show. Here’s where you can see all the episodes. www.byutv.org/making-good

Quarenteens exhibit!

The very kind and exceptional painter Pam Beach asked me if I wanted to collaborate with her on a portrait project and I said yes. I would have said yes no matter what her idea was, just so I could work on a project with Pam Beach. (https://www.pamelabeachart.com/)

For this collaboration, we interviewed ten kids who were teenagers at the time of the Covid lockdown and asked them about their experience during all that. Then we made some art in a response to what we heard them say. I took pictures, Pam painted their portrait. Last week was the opening of the show and it will be up for another month.


There's a wedding on the horizon

Last fall I drove to Ogden to make some pictures of Colin and Hailey, on the occasion of their recent engagement. We started at their house, then walked to a nearby park, and finished up walking downtown Ogden, near the location of their first date. They talked about that night “remember when you said…and then I said…”

Next week they are getting married and I’ll be there to make a visual record of their day. Hooray for love!

Ken Potts is 102 today.

Today marks Ken Potts' 102nd birthday. He is a remarkable survivor of the infamous Japanese attack on the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor bombing. The ill-fated ship was carrying a total of 1,512 people when it was targeted, tragically resulting in the deaths of 1,177 individuals. Ken managed to survive the attack and is now one of only two remaining survivors still alive to this day. Here’s a portrait I made of Ken just a few months ago at his home in Provo, Utah.

Happy Birthday, Ken.

Ken Potts, photographed at his home in Provo, Utah, September 2022


Engaged in Utah, soon to be wed in Nevada

Madison and Jordan are engaged and soon to be wed. They are from Nevada, near Reno, where the wedding will take place but since we were doing the engagement pictures here in Utah, I wanted to find a location that had a landscape similar to the town where they grew up. We drove out west of Salt Lake, past Eagle Mountain and we found a great spot. The wedding’s not until this fall and I loved working with these two and can’t wait for the big day in September.

My old Rexburg pal and his daughter's wedding

This is a post about a wedding, but first, some back story. I need to tell you about my friend Craig Pack. Here are three quick stories about Craig, with whom I was friends in high school.

One time on the 4th of July, after the parade, we went behind the school and hit smoke bombs with a tennis racket out in the street. That ended when we mistakenly hit an unmarked police car.

One time around midnight, we drove to the Hibbard Bridge to jump off into the Teton River in pitch dark. We took off most of clothes, not all, but most, since we were wearing our good clothes having just come from a youth dance, and didn’t want them to get wet. After jumping off the bridge a few times, after we got out of the river, we didn’t have towels, so we just got back in the car “as-is” and headed into town before getting dressed. When we got pulled over for not having tail lights in the car, the officer’s face revealed quite a bit and suggested he was confused about why four soaking wet kids were driving around town in their underwear.

One time, me and two other buddies went to Craig’s house on a day he wasn’t around, and each took one of his shirts and one of his pants and all wore them to school the next day. When Craig came to school and saw that we were all wearing his clothes—and this next part will certainly come as a shock—he did not think it as funny as we thought it was.

Craig and I were friends in high school and had a lot of great times. We even worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken together. We’ve kept in touch and text each other every so often. So I was delighted when he called and asked me if I would photograph his daughter’s wedding. After high school, Craig joined the Navy, went to medical school, got married, and so hanging out with him on his daughter’s wedding day was really something special. I loved seeing the adult, grown up version of Craig, although I sure like the high school version, too.

Here are a handful of pictures from the wedding day. The third picture shows Craig and his wife Camille (who’s amazing) and their kids.

Ok, and just one more picture. That kid waving, that’s Craig when we were in high school.

Craig Pack at Madison High School

Father of the bride, my buddy, Craig Pack, from way back when.

Authentic Portraits: A Workshop

I’m pleased as punch to announce a full day portrait photography workshop on March 25, 2023 in Provo, Utah.

If you’re interested in photographing people but your current pictures lack emotional zing, then this workshop is just what you’re looking for. With in-class instruction and hands-on demos, I’ll teach you how to improve your portrait game through simple exercises and mindset shifts. I’ll share what I’ve learned and practiced in my own business for the last 20 years to make meaningful and memorable portraits and teach foundational principles to help you discover and hone your own creative vision. Whether you’re taking pictures of your family just for fun or making portraits for clients, this content-rich workshop is designed to help you build your portrait photography toolkit and your creative identity so your images are memorable, meaningful and engaging.

The full description is here or click here to sign up right now!

Birthday self portraits

For eleven years now, I’ve done this project. Since age 44, I started taking self portraits on my birthday. I take as many portraits as the age that I’m turning. So, yesterday, on my 55th birthday, I made 55 self portraits. Some were on my own when I was at my office, some were with friends that came over in the evening for root beer floats. I don’t know how long I’ll do this tradition, but at this point I can’t see a reason to end it.

(Here’s where you can see what I did in 2022).

Some of the images are repeat ideas from previous years. I kind of like shooting how my day starts and ends, so that motif gets repeated from year to year. And some of the images get repeated because, I’ll be honest, it’s hard to think of 55 brand new self portrait ideas that I’ve never done before. So here you go. Fifty five self portraits on the occasion of my 55th birthday.

Click on any image to view it larger.

Jake Van Wagoner is good at a lot of things

Jake Van Wagoner is a father, producer, director, actor, and who knows what else. He’s written and acted in movies, worked on the show Practical Jokers, he’s in the comedy troupe Thrillionaires and for the last couple years, show runner and director for Studio C. Here’s a picture of Jake during the production of one of the Studio C sketches.