Memorial Ride For Matthew Wagstaff

I had a great opportunity to photograph an amazing event that was being held in honor of Chief Warrant Officer 3 Matthew Wagstaff. A memorial ride was organized in his honor upon multiple reasons. Follow this link to read story of ride. It was amazing to see the amount of people who showed up to join the ride. These photos are not to be used, copied, or downloaded without permission. Thank you.

Utah Wedding Photographer :: Katie Bridals

One thing about being a photographer is being able to adapt to any situation that  is posed on the day of shooting. Katie and I hired my good friend Jared to do our wedding photography. As a photographer, hiring the right person was a big deal to us.
So we made the two hour drive out to the salt flats near Wendover. The weather all day had been kinda iffy and wasn't looking too promising as the afternoon came. Driving out there the wind was crazy and we weren't sure if we were going to get many photos. After about 20 minutes of sitting in the car the wind finally died down and the light was perfect. Jared did amazing work and so glad he was available. I was in most of the photos, but there was no way I was leaving without getting some photos for myself to use for portfolio, and plus Katie is my bride, and I needed photos of my bride. Enjoy.

Katie's sister got married a few days ago, so here is a collage of some of the decorations from her wedding.

New Website, New Pricing, New Look

Friends, I am really really excited about the very significant changes that I have spent hours and hours working on for my photography. New website is being launched. That will come with it's own special announcement and special discounts upon the launch of the new site. Also with the new site being launched and making my photography more about the art, rather than just being a business I have thought long and hard about the pricing for my work. Completely new options and packages to choose from that will make having me photograph your wedding that much easier. I will post with the big announcement of the new site when that time comes. Stay tuned, follow my blog and enjoy, as always.

Goals, Projects, and Making things happen...

Do you ever feel like you hit a wall, run out of ideas, and feel like the creative avenues have hit a dead end? It's happened here, and I am looking for some inspiration. Normally it's not like me to post things like this on my blog, but I feel like i've gotten to caught up in the business side of my photography and I have lost a little bit of the creative side of what got me to this point to begin with. So here is to goals, and new projects to make things a little more interesting.

I was at a customers home for my full time job, and the customer was this amazing 90 year old woman. She told me how proud she was of the artist that she is. She was bold and even bragged a little about the fact that she was a great self taught painter. I didn't believe her at first, until she took me into her art gallery. She had some amazing, amazing paintings. She told me one thing that has stuck with me and in a way has inspired me to look back at what this is all about, and for. She said, "I didn't start painting until I was 57, and I thought it would be fun to try. I thought if I can create a painting on a small canvas that is pretty good, and satisfies me, then I have succeeded." I spent some time today looking through some of the images that I took when I first bought a camera. I was 13 or 14 when I got onto Ebay and found my first SLR, a Canon T50. I still have the camera today, it still works and takes excellent photos. My next camera was a Canon FTB. The entire reason for me buying this camera was to experiment photographing the stars. A good friend of mine owned a photo printing shop in Provo and had told me about star trail images and how they can be done. About a month after learning about this, I went on a back packing trip to Coyote Gulch in southern Utah. I then took my first star trail image. The image below.

Canon FTB ISO 400 f4 6 hour exposure

To this day I still find this image to be one of the most inspiring photos i've ever taken. The fact that it even worked out was amazing. The camera was duck taped to a stick that was dug into the sand and supported by several rocks to attempt to keep from shifting and even tipping over during the night while I slept. There was a slight shift through the night, but I think it gives the image a great story. From this point on I probably took 25 rolls of film learning how the camera works and the things that a camera, film and light can do. Here are some of my favorite photos over the years. 

So there are just a few of the photos that I have taken that have kept me inspired and motivated to keep on taking pictures. 

Now with the goals and making things happen. I Realized yesterday that my camera has been out of the bag twice in the last three months. Realizing this made me kinda sad. So my goals,

1. Focus on themed projects. 

2. Experiment more with my camera.

3. Worry more about being creative and having fun than "running a business."

4. Have fun!

5. Make time to go on drives to take photos of things that are currently inspiring. Let my photographic eye do the work and the lens and light make it happen. 

Utah Wedding Photographer :: Merrill Family

After having to reschedule this session due to the horrible winter weather the last few days, the sun came out and the weather was perfect for todays session. Lousy Smarch weather! The Merrill's have been great friends for a lot of years, and it was awesome to spend the day with them and do these photos before some of the family leaves the state for awhile. Enjoy!

Utah Wedding Photographer :: Brittany Graduation

Well folks my apologies for the lack of posts lately, been a little busy lately. However, here is some new photos. I got the opportunity to do my friend Brittany's graduation photos last weekend. She is graduating from the U and I feel like these pictures suit her well. We tried to get down onto football field for some of the photos, as Brittany has been a huge part of The Muss recently, we were unable to, but maybe another time. Enjoy!

AND THE WINNER IS...

And The Winner Is...

THE WALKERS!

Comment #3

Please contact me at

capturedbydashphotography@gmail.com

Thanks everyone for entering. I will be doing these frequently, so be sure to follow my blog to see my recent work and future give aways!

FREE MINI SESSION GIVE AWAY!

With spring and warm weather approaching 

I am doing a give away for a 

FREE MINI SESSION

The session includes the following:

1 hour session of your choice

 (family, child, engagements, senior photos)

Any one location of your choice in utah or salt lake valley

cd of 20 edited images

one professionally printed 8x10

To enter the drawing you must do the following

become a fan of my Facebook page if you aren't already

and leave a comment on this post. 

Winner will be selected randomly and will be announced

tuesday March 22nd at 6:00 pm

The waiting game...

I sure apologize for my lack of posts recently. However I wanted to tell everyone about my experience with the Provo Bridal Fair. Over all it was a great experience. There were tons of people at the fair and lots and lots of potential business. It was great to be able to tell so many couples about Captured By Dash. This was my first time doing a bridal fair, and so a lot of the things that I did were completely experimental and I hope that I was able to make some impression in a few of the couples that stopped to talk. It was a great time and I look forward to the business that will come from it.

My Booth

After 7 hours of standing and talking, I needed a quick break.

On another note, I, myself got engaged last week. February 25th, 2011. As a photographer it's been really funny to talk to family and friends and constantly get asked, "well who is going to do your wedding photos?" Well, my Fiance, Katie, and I have decided on a great photographer, who we are excited about. Lots of my time is being devoted to planning my own wedding at this point, but stay posted for new photos soon. 

Is it spring yet?

So I have to say that there has been a lot of down time as far as the amount of photos i've taken recently. I haven't had any work since november, mostly because I haven't been pushing to find work the last two months, i've spent more time restructuring Captured By Dash. Making my pricing just right, getting the company registered as an LLC, and so many other things. Running a small business is a lot of hard, time consuming work. However I am excited and highly anticipate a busy spring and summer. This coming saturday I will be showcasing my work and selling my professionalism to dozens of brides at the Provo Bridal Fair. This has been a long tiring process to get ready for. I am sure excited to see the exposure it brings my business and the potential of many weddings being booked. Please come down on saturday the 19th from 10am - 5pm to see my booth and book your wedding. Im excited, and hope to see many people.

On another note, take a look at my most recent purchase!

Yes! That is a 1971 Polaroid! So here is the deal. I found the camera on ebay for 6 bucks, and shipping was 6 bucks. Film from uniquephoto.com 28 bucks, and tada im making Polaroid prints! It's been quite the process getting this thing working, the battery that it uses is a super old school 4.5 volt battery. I had to special order the battery from Batteries Plus. Kind of a pain. So whether or not the camera works is still a question, but everything on it looks amazing, Can't complain about the price if I find nothing to be wrong with it. If it all checks out good, then you will start to see some Polaroid work on here from time to time. Film is kinda expensive, about a dollar a shot. 

Anyway, I will have some photos of my booth for the Bridal Show on here to show everyone that isn't able to make it down. And sorry for the random posts lately, just haven't had any recent work to share, been busy too. 

What's in the bag?

I often have people ask me what equipment I use for my photography. So what's in the bag?
- Nikon D300s
- Nikkor 18-135mm
- Nikkor 50mm 1.8
- Nikkor 32mm 1.8
- Nikon Vertical grip
- Nikon SB600 Flash

Also with all of the preparation for the bridal show, i've again made some changes and decisions. This time it's canvas. Now offering premium prints, mounted canvas prints, and gallery wrapped canvas prints. below is a 16x20 premium canvas gallery wrap. See my pricing section of my flash website for print pricing.

Utah Wedding Photographer :: Kyliegh & Jim Engaged

Sunshine, freezing wind, beautiful snow, barns, trains, and an amazing couple

Utah Wedding Photographer :: Big News and Good News!

Well people, it's been several weeks since I have had anything to post on here. This is mostly because i've taken the last two months off from taking any photos to get back into school and work on some other projects that I have coming up. I've made some big and stressful decisions for Captured By Dash. So here it is. I recently have made Captured By Dash Photography a legitimate business. Now known as Captured By Dash Photography, LLC. This is both very exciting for me and incredibly intimidating at the same time.  I've gone back and forth on how far I have wanted to take my photography and if I really wanted to make it a legitimate business. Well after much thought and preparation, it's happened.

Next, another big decision. With the process of making Captured By Dash and LLC, I have made preparations to be a vendor at the Provo Bridal Fair on Feb 19th.

This is very exciting for me and more than anything I am excited to offer my services to as many couples at this show that I can and see where this takes me. Not complaining one bit. 

Lastly, in anticipation for this Bridal Show I have had my friend Josh design me some things for the show. His work is amazing! Everything he has done for me has been perfect and matches exactly everything I needed. The following images and designs are his designs and are not to be copied or downloaded. Thank You!