Happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happyyyyy anniversary!

12 years ago I got to marry a wonderful woman and I’m so blessed because of her. This past weekend we had the opportunity to go up to one of our two favorite places in the world, Yosemite National Park. I love the fact that 12 years later we still love being with each other, spending time just the two of us.

So I thought I’d share some pictures with you that we thought were fun or unique. There wasn’t that majestic, blue sky with beautiful billowing clouds like you dream of while we were there. Most of the snow had fallen off the trees and the days were mostly overcast and flat. But we still enjoyed using our cameras.

Enjoy!

On the way up we were forced, because of freeway closure, to go around the Grapevine. Sometimes misfortune can be so beautiful as long as you’re willing to change your perspective and recognize the adventure and beauty that is offered you.       Wow. That sounded so profound……. I just made that up, right now. Seriously.

These two images were shot at about midnight. The camera was mounted to my tripod, the exposure is 25 seconds long. The clouds kept blowing in and out over the moon. It was beautiful.

This is Half Dome the next morning.

We hiked to Vernal Falls which is the first watefall on the trail to Half Dome. We also walked up the trail to see Yosemite Falls, which this time of year is pretty frozen as you can see.

On Saturday we had our own personal guides, Emily and Andrew, who took us on a mere 3 mile snowshoe hike. Did I mention that the snow was up to our knees, even with the snowshoes on?!?!?!?

On our way home we stopped along Hwy 140 and took some fun pictures. It was so fun just being free to enjoy what we love doing in such a beautiful place. But really, California has so much to offer.

…often times as a photographer we ask our models, brides, seniors to do things that don’t seem to make much sense. More often though I put myself in interesting positions or predicaments to get the shot. In this picture, a friend of mine shot me shooting a model at last Saturday’s Salton Sea Trash The Dress Group Shoot.

I think it’s also fun for those that aren’t photographers to see what sets look like at model shoots. There’s a lot of people on sets, make up artists, lighting assistants and more.

It’s a ton of work and there’s a ton to remember but the outcome is always worth it. So, let’s go shoot!

This past Saturday we did a shoot out at the Salton Sea with several models. If you’d like to do a shoot out there or something like this let me know! Enjoy!