I like photographing people at their own home. For the most part, people are comfortable there, and if it’s a place where the kids grew up or spent a significant amount of time, then it can make the photographs a little more meaningful.
Meet the Burton family, photographed at their home in Provo, Utah.
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There are five boys in the McKay family. The girls would have come along, too, but they don’t have any girls. When people ask me how I like living in Provo, the one thing I always say is, “We love our neighbors.” Well, you’re looking at the reason Amy and I love living where we do. An example of how great they are. My family and I were in Idaho all last week and when we came home, our lawn had been mowed. Now, nobody left an invoice or a note that said, “If you want to know who you should thank for this, it’s…”. But I’m pretty sure the McKays did it. Just one example out of many. By the way, if you ever run out of eggs, I know from experience they’ve got some.
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All his eggs in one basket
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This is one of my favorite ways to make family portraits. That is, at the family’s house, casually, hanging out, just being themselves. And I feel like these kinds of pictures will be the most meaningful in years to come.
Meet the Reymanns.
This is one of my all time favorite family pictures
The family chicken (one of five)
Thanks so much, Kate, for letting me photograph the three of you.
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Interested in getting non-cheesball pictures for you and the people you love? Well, what are you waiting for. Let’s talk.
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Rexburg environs, family portrait
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I know you’re not going to believe this, but Natalie is 8 months pregnant in these pictures. With a human baby.
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Want to know what the 30 Strangers project is all about? Then click here.
Want to have photographs like this for you and the people you love? Then give me a call.
Want to learn about a non sequitur? Then click here.
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Stephanie and John live in Maine. But they haven’t always lived there. They both grew up in Pocatello, Idaho (that’s where I was born!). And even though they’ve been married 10 years, they’ve known each other for quite a while. Get this. I didn’t know it at the time I was taking these pictures, but later in an email, Stephanie told me that she met John 30 years ago on that very street where I photographed them.
So now they live in Maine. I already mentioned that. John’s a doctor and Stephanie’s a photographer. Over Christmas they were back home in Idaho. So was I, and so I got to meet and photograph Stephanie and John, and John’s family. Stephanie was so fun and pleasant to be around. Since she’s a photographer, too, (plus a great conversationalist) I think I might have worn out my welcome.
Thanks, Hatzenbuehlers, for letting me join you for an hour or two during the holidays.
The street where they met 30 years ago
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A lovely family on a beautiful day, photographed at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.
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On Thanksgiving day 11 years ago Willie DeFord and I, both single, decided to take the day and drive, just drive, to see what we could see. I remember ending up at the El Bambi Cafe in Beaver, Utah. I don’t recall what I ate for Thanksgiving that day at the El Bambi, but I do remember it was about two steps below a TV dinner. Except for the food, Thanksgiving that year was grand.
Willie had just started getting serious with Sally. I’m nosy, so I asked questions about how that was going. Willie was willing to answer some of my questions but when I asked if he had kissed her yet, I got the sense that some of what I was asking was none of my bees-wax.
Willie brought a mandolin on our drive and at one point we stopped at an abandoned filling station and I took pictures of Willie playing the mandolin, sitting on top of discarded car tires.
Just four months after that, I married Amy. Willie came to the wedding in Rexburg. Later, he said he was inspired by what he saw that day (Amy and I really are a cute couple, see) and he left Idaho determined to marry Sally.
Jump ahead: Willie’s a lawyer, now, living in Grand Junction. Sally’s a photographer. They have two kids. Her folks live around here so we still get to see them from time to time, but this October was the first time I’d been to their house in Colorado.
Willie and Sally are two of my favorite people on planet earth and later this week, as people gather and think about all the things for which they are thankful, I will be thinking of the good times I’ve had with Willie and Sally.
And now, meet the DeFords.
Flashback: I’ve been photographing weddings for a long time. Here’s some proof. This is a picture I took at Willie and Sally’s wedding over ten years ago.
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When I was a kid, I’d get out boxes of old photographs. I’d stare at the pictures of my parents when they were younger and thinner and I’d try to learn something that I didn’t already know from those pictures. I tried to peer into the images and wanted desperately for them to reveal some hidden truth about my folks and about my life.
There’s a picture of me and Brad Edwards, sitting in the dirt, playing with a couple of trucks. I can’t be entirely certain if I can actually remember that day, or just remember looking at a picture of that day.
Another image: my father standing by a motorcycle he no longer had. He was skinny and his hair was dark brown, not gray. He must have been about 27. I was a little baby and sat on the seat of the bike. My sister, just a couple years older than me, sat there, too.
Sometimes I hear people say they don’t want to be photographed. They don’t like how they look, they tell me. They want to wait until they loose a few pounds, they say. That always makes me sad. Don’t they see, the pictures aren’t for them. They are for their children, for their families, who will look at those pictures and be so glad someone had the foresight to take them.
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One of the best things about my time in Seattle last month was being able to photograph these folks on Whidbey Island. It did my soul some good to be at such a lovely location. Thanks so much, Hunt family, for inviting me to be with you for the afternoon. I’m so glad to have met you.
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Justin photographs happy families and beautiful events and he wants to photograph you.
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Morgan heard from her friend Emily that I was going to be in Seattle so she told her sister Taylor about it and they gave me a call. I know Emily because she came from Denver to Provo to be one of our 30 Strangers earlier this year. Emily knows about me because of CJane. So often in life, all roads lead back to Courtney.
Now, meet four bright lights – Morgan, Taylor, Tyler and David.
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Justin Hackworth photographs sisters in Seattle or wherever such bonds exist and he wants to photograph you.
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The Burgoyne’s used to live in Utah. Back then, I got a chance to make some family portraits for them. Of course at that time, they only had one son. Now they have two, so it was time to get more family pictures. And since I just happened to be in San Francisco where they now live, the timing was perfect.
Here they are, photographed on the beach at the Marin Headlands.
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Justin Hackworth photographs happy families in beautiful locations and he wants to photograph you.
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I love how close I live to this place. On Sunday, the temperature at my house was 4,000 degrees. We drove 15 minutes up the road, just above Sundance in Provo Canyon, and it was 20 degrees cooler that it was in Provo. Not that it mattered to my son. He has little use for shirts in nearly any kind of weather.
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Amy and I had a great time in San Diego last week. One of my favorite things about the trip is that I was able to line up four portrait sessions while I was there and I got to meet some beautiful, fun, interesting, bright folks.
Meet Erica and her family, photographed in San Diego at Balboa Park.
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Justin Hackworth photographs happy people and beautiful weddings and he wants to photograph you.
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My wife’s friend Molly has joined a great Christmas cause called The Giveaway Giveaway. Originating from Miggy, the idea is to offer you a giveaway that you give to someone else anonymously. So you nominate a worthy friend, sister, neighbor, teacher, general loved one, and that winner wins a free portrait session, plus 20 high res files.
See all the details at Molly’s site, A Good Grief, where she is hosting the giveaway. Leave your comments on her post to enter. While you’re there, check out her story of grief, loss, connection and healing. She is one strong girl.
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The Hillmans, photographed in Provo, Utah on a chilly, chilly day.
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Justin Hackworth photographs happy families and wants to photograph you.
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Stephanie and Ben. They are great parents. Their kids are well behaved. They are pleasant to be around. They are happy. They ask questions and can carry on a good conversation. I know, I’m making them sound like the perfect couple, but that’s only because I think they are the perfect couple.
Oh, there’s more. Stephanie has a popular blog where she continually gives out insight and advice on how to live with style and good taste. (I know one thing. She’s got great taste in portrait photographers).
So we met in Midway. The weather was pleasant. A slight chill and clouds in the sky, but not so bad that you wished you were home with some stew and a good book. We walked, some. Got some of those stickers in our socks. And all the while, had a great time. In fact, I was sad when we were finished because I’d like to be around these folks more often.
Thanks, Stephanie and Ben.
Flashback. Want to see the photographs of their family from last year? Here they are.
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Justin Hackworth photographs happy families and beautiful events. Want photographs like this for you and the people you love? We should talk.
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My goal for a portrait is to give the viewer a sense of what the subject is like. Not just what they look like, but what they’re like to be around. I love to hear a parent say, “Oh, you’ve captured their personality perfectly”. Making a picture like that takes a certain amount of patience and paying attention to the details. A slight change in expression, a little hand gesture. Then, right at the perfect moment, click. So I had a great time with Jenny and her kids, all of them pleasant as can be. Thanks for coming in, Jenny.
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Want photographs like this for you and the people you love? We should talk.
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Want portraits like this for you and the people you love? We should talk.
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I met Crystal when she came to be a participant in last year’s 30 Strangers project. So I was really happy she wanted to me to photograph her again, this time with her girls.
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Justin Hackworth photographs happy families and beautiful events and he wants to photograph you.
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Justin Hackworth photographs kids, dads, jokers, laughers, playful scowlers, and he wants to photograph you.
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Want picutres like this for you and the people you love? We should talk. Getting married? We do weddings! Need carpets cleaned? Sorry. Can’t help you there.
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Justin Hackworth photographs happy people and beautiful events and wants to photograph you.
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Justin Hackworth photographs lovely weddings and happy people and wants to photograph you.
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Want picutres like this for you and the people you love? We should talk. Getting married? We do weddings! Need carpets cleaned? Sorry. Can’t help you there.
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The baby’s coming soon. Time for some family pictures.
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Last week we announced our 30 Stranger project coming up in April. I can’t wait. Well, once Gabrielle and Stephanie mentioned it on their blogs, it only took a couple hours to fill all the spots. (Last year when we did it in two days, I thought that was fast–but two hours? Wow. What’s going to happen next year?) And what to do about all those people that still want to participate, but contacted us after the 30 spots were filled? Well, we came up with a great plan and a super deal. If you want to know what it is, email me. That’s what Shelah did, because she knows the value of getting stunning portraits of her and her daughters.
Big, big thanks to the Penny Royal Cafe where some of these photographs were taken.
Next week we begin the 30 Strangers project and I’ll be making daily posts as the project progresses, so hang on to your hat. This is going to be great.
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The Robisons used to live right behind us. They don’t now, and we miss them dearly. And not just because Julie used to pass delicous food to us over the fence. (The dolmathes were my favorite and she made them from the grape leaves that grew on the fence between our yards). We miss them because they were fabulous neighbors.
So I was happy when they called and wanted some family pictures. Taken January 1, this is my first portrait session of 2009.
Here’s where you can see all of their family pictures
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