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.

Actor portraits of Sasha Fazulyanov

Sasha Fazulyanov needed updated actor headshots and portraits and came to the studio in Provo to get that done. Smashing and likable, meet Sasha. Click any image to view it larger.

Engagement pictures on film

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.

Provo wedding and portrait photography
Provo engagement photography
film photography for wedding

Trevor Christensen is a real good guy

When I have a picture that I think is funny but I’m not sure, if I have a picture I’m proud of and want to show it off, if I have a picture from an experiment that failed but I still want to tell someone, I text all those kinds of pictures and many more to my friend Trevor Christensen. We met years ago. He was young, and even back then, I was old. He’d ask if I needed him to chew my food and I would put my teeth back in and yell, I’m not that old, now get me a sweater.

Some of that might not be true. The thing to know is that I’m grateful to have a friend in Trevor. He used to call me and ask me photography questions, now I call and ask him questions, too.

Here’s a portrait I made of him some time last year.

Videographer and photographer Trevor Christensen

Birthday self portraits - 54 of 'em

In my early 40’s I started taking self portraits on my birthday, as many portraits as I am in age. This year, I’m 54, so here we go, 54 self portraits on the occasion of my birthday. (Click on any image to view it larger.)

For part of the day, my son and I drove to an old mining town about 40 miles from where I live, called Eureka.

And if 54 portraits of me just doesn’t satiate you, here’s the self portrait birthday posts from 2021 and 2020.

This is fun for me to do. I look forward to it all year. But it is challenging. For one thing, it takes all day. Also, it’s hard to make 54 unique portraits, let alone, something that’s not a repeat of previous years. But some repeats I favor, and lean into, like starting each time in my bed. So some are repeats and some I’m trying to make new each time, and then overall, I just know not every picture is going to be a home run, and I can live with that. But I do feel like if I can get 5-10 that are interesting or surprising or compelling or amusing, then by golly, I’d call that a success.

Meet Justin Hackworth Photography's office manager

I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but when you run your own business, you do a lot different jobs, from marketing to janitorial. This summer we hired Brenna Christen-Server as an office manager and she made an immediate positive impact. Meet Brenna!

Ilford Sprite: Using a $39 film camera on my family vacation

Every summer in July we load up the minivan for our family vacation (and that’s when we say, maybe we should get one of those luggage racks) and we head to Island Park, Idaho. As a kid, that’s the place we’d camp on weekends, it’s the place I learned how to fish, it’s the place I learned to drive a pickup truck before I had a license. It’s heaven on earth, that place, and I love that I’m able to take my boys there, too, and give them similar experiences.

I took a lot of pictures with my digital cameras, but for this post, I want to show some of the film images. Most of these were taken with a $39 point and shoot film camera called Ilford Sprite II and I love the old timey look it gives these images. They feel like how a memory might feel. A little bit blurry, not 100% sharp, and some of the information your imagination has to supply on its own. I know this look won’t suit everybody. And this tool wouldn’t suit me for most of the things I photograph. But for a family vacation I think it really hits the spot. The last three images, those that are square, were taken with a twin lens Rolleiflex. Those cost a liiiiittle bit more than $39.