Last night we had the our local photographers meeting. We meet once a month and it was just a great time to hang out, talk, and swap stories. A lof of times we have guest speakers but this was just a good time to relax. Since I’m in charge of the group I responsible for coming up with some topics. I would love it if those of you who read this would comment or e-mail me. One of our big debates is what should be on your blog? Is it only business things or do you add personal things. What do our customers prefer and why? Another thing we question ourselves on what are brides (couples) looking for in their photographer? their packages? What is important to them? Looking forward to hearing your answers. It just helps us serve you better.

  I just love this photo of the siblings awaiting there brother and sister.  Yes there are two of them coming and one of each.  I’m looking forward to meeting the two of them.

Kristi and Anthony are getting married in a few short weeks.  Here is their slideshow from their engagement at Stanford.

 www.jilljohnsonphotography.com/slideshow/kristiandanthony

Well we welcomed little kitty Ranger to our home this weekend.  He is about 3 months old and needed a place to live.  I have to admit he’s pretty cute and has helped with keep the kids occupied with the end of summer boredom.  They play with this kitten 24/7.

For those of you who don’t know yes I’m one of the crazys that go out into the woods with no phones, no t.v. and yes no toilets.  But this time I thought I would try something new.  I brought children.  I have to admit out of all the hikes I’ve done in the last 10 years this was the easiest.  I was glad too since I had not ventured out on a backpacking trip since before my youngest was born.  So my husband with about 70lbs on his back and me probably with about 40 we ventured in to the woods with the rest of the family (and there 2 dogs) on a 4 mile hike in really high elevation. 

 What was amazing to me about this trip was that I thought for sure since we didn’t hike in very far we would see more people. We didn’t see a soul except for the hike in and hike out.  Other then that we had remote and private spot all to ourselves.  This is what is great. Just the beauty of the scenery and the lack of noise and confusion.  We camped by a small run down cabin near the river.  What was different about this spot was that is was just a huge maze of beaver dams.  It was a great place to take the kids fishing.  We fished and fished. The first day we fished we caught 22 and the second day we caught 18.  They weren’t big fish just brook trout but they were excellent.  The kids just loved that they could get as dirty as they wanted.  Trying to keep them clean was just unimaginable.  One of the biggest things for the boys was to not have to sleep in a tent but to sleep under the stars with dad.  It was a great time for all of us.

So I told you about Red Rock in the previous post.  This is where I did the Senior session.  Check out Josh’s senior photos. No, the graffiti wasn’t at the red rocks but outside of an adult book store.  Its funny where you find the backgrounds you need.  We had a great time.

 Check out his slideshow:  www.jilljohnsonphotography.com/slideshow/josh

As you know we just got back last week from a trip to Denver. I had a senior session to photograph so the boys and I headed out a little earlier to do some sightseeing.  One of the things we did was we learned about mining.  We were able to visit two different kinds of mines.  A gold mine and a silver mine.  There was so much info to tell you I’d bore you but it was very interesting. I learned where turquoise comes from, whats a tommy knocker, and how the words like Jack Hammer came in to the English language.  I also learned alot about some of family history and how my great grandfather was a miner. We even had a chance to pan for gold and we found some.  The boys had a great time but was just fascinated by the chipmunks.  They would come and sit on your feet and hands and eat sunflowers.

 We did a trip on a steam engine through the beautiful rockies and we also went to a place called Dinosaur Ridge.  This was fascinating since there was a ton of fossilized dinosaur footprints.  This part of the country right outside Denver was a huge junction or pit stop for dinosaur migration.  They’ve darkend the footprints so that you can see them better.  It was pretty awe inspiring and fun to imagine that dinsaurs were walking where we were standing millions of years ago.

  This image here has footprints showing the migration of iguandons, brontasauras, and some type of prehistoric ostrich.  Pretty fascinating.  I doubt they were all their at the same time but just incredible.

 For years I had heard about the Red Rocks Amphitheater and it was the best place to see a concert.  There was no concert while I visited but the place was majestic and amazing.  I hope to see a concert there sometime.

                                                                                              It has been a while but I recently started back in to shooting high school seniors. I’d taken a small break and know am starting to do it again.  It is always so much fun.  Check out the sessions of these high school seniors.  It was fun trying to catch the true personalities of who they are.  Hopefully, these will be great memories for them of their senior year.  Check out the rest of their photos.

www.jilljohnsonphotography.com/slideshow/nate

www.jilljohnsonphotography.com/slideshow/joel