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!
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.
Father of the bride, my buddy, Craig Pack, from way back when.
Brock and Sage, photographed early in 2022. I photographed their wedding, too, so I’ll post some of those at some point. Brock’s is also a photographer and loves shooting film so that seemed like as good as any to use a camera I love using, my Rollei twin lens camera.
Back in the 90’s, there was in Salt Lake an organization called The Salt Lake Print Society. I don’t know if it still exists. A quick Google search turned up a website with that name, but I can’t tell how current.
Every year they would have a garage sale, and people would set up tables and sell their used and unwanted gear. I went a couple times and on one occasion, bought an interesting camera called a Rollei 35. It’s a 35mm film camera that’s very tiny, smaller than a fist. Many years later I ended up trading it for another camera that I’d use more often from my friend Jeff Archibald. He’s given me a few real gems.
The other camera I bought at the Print Society garage sale was a twin lens Rolleiflex. The one I have was manufactured in Germany in 1958. (That’s before the internet!) I can’t remember how much I paid for it, but I remember it was a stretch at the time and I wasn’t sure if I was making a good choice. But very early on after getting it and putting it to work, I realized that it was a real smart buy. So I patted myself on the back for being real wise. I remember Kent Miles was walking around the garage sale that day and I asked him if I should get it. He encouraged me to do so. So maybe I should have patted Kent on the back.
One time I sent it in for a camera’s version of an oil change. It cost me $500 for repairs and cleaning and getting the thing in tip-top condish. And I’m still using it.
It’s not the camera for everything, but for me, I love using it when photographing individuals and couples. There’s something about the square format that is well suited for that kind of subject matter. Some of my favorite pictures that I’ve ever taken were taken on that camera.
So here are three pictures from the engagement session of Brock and Sage with the Rollei. I took lots of other pictures with my digital camera that day, too, and I love of lot of those. But as much as I love digital photography, it’s just really hard to duplicate the look of a square film image combined with Tri-X 400 film.
Some time ago Kristen came to my studio for headshots and after that, I always secretly hoped that when she got married, she's hire me to photograph the wedding. So, I was delighted and flattered that she told her friends and family she had to check what days I was available before she picked a wedding day.
The night before their wedding in Salt Lake at the Memorial House, they had a dinner with close friends and family at the Salt Lake Hardware building. Beautifully decorated, of course, because Kristen's classy.
Kristen is the sort that's loved by all, and Matt is a lucky man.
Meet Kristen and Matt.
I photographed two weddings last week. Both, originally intended for outside. After all, it is still September. But, cold weather forced a change on the days of both weddings. Here's a photograph from my friend and former UVU student, Mackenzie's wedding. I'll post more from this happy day once I have them all edited.
