We were so excited when Bo contacted us for his senior portraits!  We take lots and lots of girl senior portraits, which means it is even more fun to do portraits for a guy!   This Herriman High School senior was so much fun to work with!  He has a great personality.  We spent some time doing an organic/passion session and had a great time.

Bo loves playing basketball and wanted to incorporate that passion into his photographs.  We had a great time trying to find the best place to get some great shots to highlight that passion. But basketball isn’t all that he is passionate about.  He also loves lacrosse, eating, and, well, girls.  He is a high school senior!  In addition to all that, when he does have a free minute or two to himself he enjoys FIFA 12.

He is more than just an athlete, Bo is most proud of his academic accomplishments.   Which is particularly great because he has ambitions to become a doctor someday.  Those academic accomplishments will really come in handy during the middle of med school!

He is really looking forward to graduating, mostly so that he can go on his senior trip!  If it was the trip of his dreams, he would be headed to Australia.  That would be one amazing senior trip!

We really enjoyed our experience with him, and we hope that he did too!  He said, “My mom loved it! Monica and Jacob were fun and made it painless. Monica is very artistic and has an eye for what makes a great picture. ”  Thanks, Bo!  If you are interested in having your senior portraits feature one of your passions, be sure to contact us.  You can also check us out on our Seniors Facebook Page. We would love to work with you!

One of the best perks to being a professional photographer is that I can document my own child’s growth frequently with portraits. I feel lucky because it is crazy how fast kids change and grow up. It really seems like just yesterday that I was propping my daughter up in our new little portrait studio to get some photographs of her as a baby. It’s been 7 years since then and now she is off at school all day, playing soccer, planning her own play dates, and reading almost as well as I can.

Every year on her birthday we do a portrait session of Chiara wearing and doing things she loves. The last couple of years I’ve turned some of the creative reigns over to her and had her plan out her own birthday pictures. (She loves fashion and definitely has a flair for the dramatic…so she is a natural at this!) We planned a weekend trip to one of my favorite locations, a ghost town about 6 hours from where we live in West Jordan, Utah right around my daughters birthday and figured it would be the perfect place to create some beautiful portraits for her 7th birthday!

One of the funnest parts of coordinating a photo shoot is figuring out what to wear. So with that goal in mind, we set out to the mall and Chiara picked out an adorable outfit that would be perfect for our ghost town adventure. (I was especially in love with the shoes she chose.)

Next, we needed to figure out some fun props to bring. We opted for an old lace umbrella and found a grungy suitcase at a local 2nd had store. I panted the suitcase cream, then antiqued it with brown tinted wax to make it look aged. I then added a pretty cameo applique on the front and back in Chiara’s favorite color pink to “girly” it up a bit. The two simple props proved to be the perfect accents to the rusty metals, peeling wallpaper, and rotting exteriors of the old town.

We were lucky that we had the entire town almost entirely to ourselves. We could be as creative as we wanted and explore freely. These portraits have a totally different “feel” than her 6 year old portraits which focused on her love of rock music and fairies! These portraits are pensive, dramatic, and a little somber as she connected with the vibe of the old town. I didn’t tell her how to pose in any of the shots. I let her have complete artistic freedom with her expression and choice of backgrounds. I find that most of the time children at this age already have their own ideas of how they see themselves and I like to capture that in our portraiture!

If you are interested in more information about our children’s portrait sessions please contact us at 801-413-3434 or check us out online!

We had a nice little change from all of our senior portraits lately, with portraits of little Drake and Cole.  Not that we don’t love you seniors!  But it was so fun to spend some time with these adorable little boys.  We have been priviledged to be taking portraits of these cuties for pretty much their whole lives!  We love the family and a photo shoot with them is more fun than it is work!

These boys have grown up so fast. It seems like yesterday that we were doing Drake’s newborn portraits, and he was only ten days old.  It wasn’t quite as easy this time to get them to sit still, but the pictures still turned out wonderfully.  We were lucky enough to work on a bright sunny day.  We were able to find a great field with lots of tall grass to work with.  The highlight of the day, however was our trip to a local beach.  The sand and the water were a hit!

And we couldn’t have taken pictures of Drake and Cole without including their best friend, Dexter.   They adore that little dog.  And he adores them right back.  So, we had to make sure that Dexter had his chance in the sun, literally.  He got to romp around in the sun and grass, as long as he sat still for a picture or two.

We had so much fun doing their portraits again, and hope to be able to continue to do so as they grow up. If you are looking for portraits of your precious ones, you can check out our portraits page or contact us through email or twitter with any questions that you might have. We love to work with little ones, just as much as we love our seniors!

We had a great time at this organic senior pictures session with Ashley Heuser of  West High School in Salt Lake.   Ashley just happens to be one of our 2012 Senior Reps. Each school year, we spread the word to Seniors across the valley, looking for a representative from each school to spread the word about our senior picture program.  Then, we choose one or two from each school and hope that their experiences with Photoumbra make their friends want to see what all the fuss is about!  Ashley was chosen from West High School in Salt Lake. We hope that they have such an amazing time with their senior picture sessions that it will be less work and more privilege!

Ashley was a blast to work with.   We had her working hard too. Jumping all over the place!  In addition to jumping, Ashley love to play softball.  She also loves music and writing.  Ashley has a great personality and she was game to try out any thing we could think of!

If you are interested in applying for one of our Model Rep spots, be sure to keep a close watch on our Facebook page.  Keep your eyes open for any new updates.  You can find our previous model reps on our blog.   You can also subscribe to the blog to watch out for more of our 2012 Model Reps.

Every once in a while we get an extra fun high school senior with an obvious passion.  Chelsea Bastian’s is Tweety Bird!  We had a lot of fun at our senior portrait shoot with her stuffed Tweety Bird and her fun personality.  Chelsea was great to work with and has an awesome tan as a result of her job as a lifeguard this summer.

Chelsea is a senior at Lehi High School.  She loves to play guitar, sing, run, hang out with her friends, write poetry, play piano and sports.  She also loves to dance and is even considering teaching dance someday. That is in the instance that she doesn’t get her dream job at the FBI.  Which happens to be what she looking forward to most after her graduation.  Well, that and acquiring a puppy!  But isn’t that every girl’s dream?

In addition to her love for Tweety Bird, Chelsea is also passionate about helping animals.  Her favorite color is blue and her favorite food is ice cream.  She is most proud of the fact that she is confident enough to talk to anyone and be herself no matter what.  She is crazy and fun and has no intention of changing for anyone!

She had a great experience with Photoumbra and said “Taking pictures with Photoumbra was exciting and fun, they knew how to make me feel welcomed and comfortable. The first day we met, we talked and were able to get to know each other so that the day the big photoshoot came, I was able to do everything and not feel stupid.  They are super nice and I love how their photos turn out!  BEAUTIFUL!”  Thank you so much for your sweet words, Chelsea!  If you would like a session highlighting your passion, please check our our senior portrait web page for more details.

We have had a summer full of amazing senior picture shoots! Rachel Ramierz was born in Las Vegas, but is currently a student at Copper Hills High School in West Jordan.  For her senior pictures she chose an urban and organic two hour session.  We had a blast experiementing with a beautiful and colorful wall of grafitti.  While we were there, Rachel let her personality shine through with a little bit of blue lipstick, which we loved. The urban setting created a piece of pop art.  Incidentally, her favorite color is also blue!  Or maybe not so incidentally!

Rachel is a busy and talented high school senior. She dances when she gets the chance and sings every Wednesday night with her church youth group. She also plays softball, basketball and she loves to swim.  Not to mention her part time job. And if all of that wasn’t enough, Rachel will be graduating from Copper Hills in West Jordan with not only her high school diploma, but her associate degree as well. Way to go, Rachel!  She feels like that is her greatest accomplishment to date, and we have to agree!

Rachel’s favorite food is Italian and it follows that her dream vacation would be to go to Italy.  She is looking forward to college and living in a dorm room. Rachel is planning on being a business major, and from the looks of things she is off to a great start.

She had a great experience with Photoumbra and said “It was awesome! Photoumbra made me feel so comfortable posing for them. I mean, come on, if you have never done that before, it’s intimidating.  But I loved it.” Thanks, Rachel!  If you are looking for a great experience with your senior pictures, check out the Photoumbra Facebook page or follow us on Twitter.

Our senior portraits with Heidi Fishburn were beyond fun!  Heidi is a Davis High School  Senior and wanted an original photo shoot for her portraits.  Well, she got exactly what she wanted.  While we were in Salt Lake, a carnival was being set up and Heidi’s mom decided to see if they would allow us to use the carousel in some of our photos.  The carney was happy to oblige and all of Heidi’s dreams came true!  We had a great time playing around, and Heidi’s fun personality came out in full force.

We were also really excited to pull out Betsey, our new mannequin bust.   She will be appearing in the future in some of our couture photo shoots.

Heidi’s passions go along with her personality.  She loves baking cupcakes (see video below) tumbling, coloring, cooking and frolicking. She even won first in State with power tumbling.  I wonder if there are any competitions for frolicking?  She is quirky, fun and a blast to spend time with.   Her dress was perfect for her, as her favorite color is sparkly.   She and Barney Stinson would be best friends, because when Heidi grow up she wants to be Awesome.  She is most looking forward to some freedom after graduation, and if she could go anywhere, she would go to Las Vegas and stay there!

She said of her experiecne with Photoumbra, “I loved working with Monica and Mirenda. They made me feel so comfortable and natural. They were so great at giving me ideas on how to pose and even better at taking my suggestions!”  Let’s be honest, Heidi, you did have some great ones!  If you are looking for a one of a kind senior portrait experience, let us know!  We would love to work with you. You can leave a note on our Facebook wall, or shoot us an email.  Any way you do it, we can’t wait to hear from you!

We have had a great time this summer photographing all of these beautiful Bountiful girls.  We were happy to take senior pictures with Jamie Schooly,  a Senior at Davis High School.   Jamie wanted an urban/couture senior session, and it turned out wonderfully.  Jamie was happy to indulge us our posing requests, even when we asked her to show off her dance moves in her prom dress.

Jamie is one of the busiest seniors that Photoumbra has ever worked with.  She is an amazing dancer, if you hadn’t guessed from the pictures, and she loves it.   In fact, one of her favorite things about herself is her long, thin legs, perfect for dancing!  When Jamie does get a spare moment or two, she loves to spend it watching movies and hanging out with her friends.  Her favorite musical artists are Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears and her favorite color is yellow.  Jamie is planning on attending Salt Lake Community College in Cosmetology after graduation to get a degree as a  hair and makeup stylist.

Jamie’s wardrobe choices were fabulous.  We had a great time playing around with her prom dress.  The urban settings made the dress that much more breathtaking!  She wanted a couture session as well, during which we try to make it look like you just stepped out of your favorite clothing catalog.  We hope that she thinks we succeeded!  She wanted to show off her style, we think it turned out great.

Jamie had a great experience with Photoumbra and said: “I absolutely loved it! It was a great experience, and the pictures turned out great.”  If you are looking for a couture session like Jamie’s, or even just simply an urban one, contact us to schedule your session.   You can also follow our Senior page on Facebook.

Our senior portraits have been in full swing all summer!  The last senior pictures session was with Senior Macayla Stewart.  We had a blast with Macayla, and couldn’t get over her wardrobe choices.  She looked amazing in each of her outfits.  If you have a senior portrait session coming up and need some wardrobe ideas, be sure to check out Lookbook for inspiration.

Macayla is from Bountiful and is a senior at Viewmont High School.  Macayla hopes to make it to Greece or Figi someday. She is a dancer, but also loves music and art. In fact, her favorite band is A Fine Frenzy, which also happens to be one of our favorites, here at Photoumbra.  Macayla must have excellent taste!  Some of her favorite things to do are hang out with her friends, play the piano, draw or sketch, read, and do makeup.  On anyone who will let her!  In fact, she is looking forward to graduation so she can finish a makeup program.  So really, it’s no wonder she looks so fabulous!

We were able to find some great locations while working with Macayla.   We focused mainly on organic settings, but we threw in our vintage beach cruiser for an extra touch.

Macayla enjoyed her time with Photoumbra and said, “I have loved my experience with Photoumbra.  Jake and Monica made me feel like I wasn’t just a client, I was a friend who they wanted to make feel special and look awesome.  They have that creative eye and always know what will look good. Our shoots were so much fun, I’m sad it’s over!  I love Photoumbra and the amazing work they do.”  Thanks, Macayla!  If you are looking for senior portraits like Macayla’s you can hop over to our Senior’s webpage or follow our Seniors page on Facebook.

Our latest senior portrait session was with the lovely and talented Brianne Fowler.   Brianne is from Bountiful and a devoted Dart!  If you don’ t know what that means, you probably didn’t go to Davis High School.  If you do know what that means, go Darts!  We had a blast with her.  Her gorgeous smile made every picture a success.

Brianne is an artist. She learned to draw as a child and developed a passion for it.  That passion has carried her through her high school years. She has also danced since she was four years old.  That is another one of her passions.  The list is rounded out,  however, by boys and chocolate.  Not a bad list, Brianne!

She is planning on taking her artistry to a career by attending cosmetology school after graduation.  Brianne wants to work toward becoming a nail technician.   Although, she wouldn’t mind getting married, either!  Her favorite thing about herself is her lovely eyes. And it’s not because of their color: it is because she has the same eyes as her brother and her father!

Brianne chose an organic session and we were able to find some amazing locations during our shoot.  At this time of year the wildflowers are out in full bloom and created an amazing backdrop for her portraits.  The sage and the sunflowers were particularly gorgeous and we had to take full advantage!

Brianne enjoyed her time with us and said “I love having my picture taken, and Monica and Jake made me feel really comfortable and they’re hilarious!”  We are so glad! We had a great time getting to know Brianne, too.   If you are interested in checking out  what you can expect from a session, whether organic, urban, passion or couture with Photoumbra, be sure to check out our You Tube Channel.