Milestone Image #2

A time of great progression for me, both spiritually and photographically was when I was serving a mission in the Czech Republic, Prague Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I had taken with me a standard point-and-shoot film camera that did a decent job. I don't remember the brand but it had an extra wide-angle lens which ended up being very handy and I remember it was on sale at Kmart. (After all, my sister left on a mission to Romania the week before I left so money wasn't exactly plentiful.) While I was serving in Zilina, Slovakia I bought a beautiful Russian Zenit 35mm slr. It weighed about 4 tons and its solid steel construction was basically indestructible so I hauled it around on all of our many adventures. (At' zije Hra Vlaku!) Being a poor servant of the Lord however, I didn't have tons of money for film. Cue a miracle in the form of a case of bargain basement out-of-date Russian b&w 800 iso film! I am hoping I kept a package from this film because I'd like to scan the box and post it--it lasted me about a year and a half of picture taking fun. You'll see that the skill with the fully-manualmatic auto-nothing camera was sadly lacking but the images are fun. They have so much character. Old emulsion, Soviet engineering and a complete lack of care by eastern European film developers left them with no contrast, oddly vignetted, scratched and spotted with dust. In short--I LOVE them. There are several which I consider influential images for myself so I'll be posting quite a few in the next little while.
The first is an old street performer on the amazing Charles Bridge in Prague. He looks haggard and a little bored as he plays the accordion in below-freezing temperatures. Everything from the stone bridge wall behind the musician to the people in the background paying him no attention made me realize how important the context is to me.. Even now I shoot with shorter lenses and smaller apertures because the location and context is so important to me and the style of the images I like to make.

To fit with the theme, here are a couple of other shots of Prague street performers on Charles Bridge from the same roll.

Capitol Idea!

I wanted post these earlier but Brenda and Angel just got married yesterday so I didn't want Angel to see the dress (You cheeky monkey blog-looker.) They got married at the Salt Lake Temple and we had a great time at their reception at the Woods On Ninth. Brenda looked absolutely gorgeous and Angel didn't look too bad himself. (a bit too much tush grabbing in the groomsmen photos perhaps?) There will be photos of their wedding as soon as they get processed.
We took Brenda's bridals at the Capitol building. It's both a beautiful and challenging place to shoot. I feel like I have just scratched the surface of its many possibilities so I'm excited to shoot there again. Here are Brenda's bridals for all the world to see...you too, Angel.

Thanksgiving Point Wedding Show

So you're still reading my blog, huh? I'm good with that. (As long as you're hanging out here you could at least do the dishes or something to earn your keep?)
Well, tonight and tomorrow we will be at the Thanksgiving Point Wedding Expo. We do the TP several times a year and we like it. It's so dang much work and money but we get to talk to people. We LOVE to actually talk to people and it works for us. When brides see the personality that comes WITH the photos we don't have to sell much of anything, people sign up. Plus, it's fun! So here are some preview photos of some of the large canvases and prints we'll be showing off at the show.

Oh how cute! (WARNING, GEEK ALERT!.)

I found something nostalgic recently. It's my first ever memory card!
I probably bought this in about 1998 when I owned my Handspring Visor PDA. It had a Compact Flash adaptor to expand the memory...and expand I did, baby. I paid $40 for a whopping 8 mb! Talk about progress...I get emails bigger than this. If I were to put this card in my camera and shoot normally it would hold just over half of one photo. Not even ONE PHOTO! (I'll try to control my geek-out.)
I own memory cards that are 1000 times bigger than this. That's amazing progress in only a decade. I just thought I'd share for all you tech geeks. You know who you are.

Bring on the class of 2009!

It's SENIOR PORTRAIT season! Kim and I went up to Rice-Eccles Stadium to shoot something a little different. No graduation hats or robes accompanied this shoot. Just Kim, her violin, and her personality. We had a great time!

Winter, do your worst, your days are numbered!

Even though it's supposed to snow today, I am feeling good about the weather. I shot two weddings this week and both took place under beautiful, warm skies. Both weddings were wonderfully fun with two great couples. I say this a lot but we work with the best people in the world!
Wednesday was Colleen and Derek who got married in the Provo, Utah LDS temple and had their reception at the White Willow reception center in Provo. The highlight for me HAS to be the top hats and tails of the groomsmen. Classy.
Amy and Geoff got married in the Salt Lake temple and had their dinner at The Old Meeting House.
There will be some pictures of both of these events in the future but for now I am going to bid adieu to winter (despite the snow) with some images of the coming of the snow last fall. The pond by our house was frozen over before the fall leaves were even gone. Never one to leave a good photo alone, I threw the baby girl into the stroller and we went for a walk to document the phenomenon.

Milestone Images #1

I decided I would post a series of shots that I consider milestones. I anticipate this will be a fun process. I think I will just post one occasionally as they come to me. The first shot that comes to mind is a frame of film from back in the day. It's called "Forest for the Trees". I took it in Oregon on a family vacation probably in the early 1990s. I remember it being so beautiful and wishing I could capture it and keep it forever. It is that drive that pushes all photographers to want to capture a moment and immortalize it on film or in pixels or in whatever medium they work. It's the first time I remember wishing I could be a photographer for a career. (Honstly, I didn't think it was even possible to so something so fun for a living.) Even more so, the photo turned out wonderfully.
(A little plug, this image will be among those for sale on my website as soon as it is finished. I'll keep you informed.)

Why I Love Weddings #2

My Birthday shoot

For my birthday bought myself a few things. I got a radio slave system for remote flashes. I wanted to try out the system, which leads to the main thing I wanted--the chance to do a photo session with my OWN family! I guess the cobbler's children tend to go without shoes, eh?
Well I at least got a few minutes. Wednesday we went out to the Great Salt Lake and played around for about 20 minutes until Hannah (and Lori, but the one-year-old can take the wrap.) got cold. We didn't shoot a ton (we got a grand total of ONE frame of all three of us before the bitter end) but got some fun stuff that I'm going to post as my official birthday post for March 13, 2009.
PS. The sailor outfit was Lori's idea--don't hate me, future Hannah.


Best family ever.

Elyse & Rick

Elyse and Rick's nuptials were all sorts of fun. I actually knew a lot of people because this one was in my own family! Elyse is my 2nd cousin (based on my limited knowledge of the complex system of genealogy) so it was more like a fun family gathering than work.
But work, I did. Some of my best if you ask me.
The wedding was in the Salt Lake Temple and I have no explanation for the way the temple was lit! It was December so they had all the bubble decorations floating in the reflection pool and that's the only explanation I can give. The bubbles threw this amazing yellow stippled light onto the east facade of the temple! The odd thing was that the sun didn't seem to be in a position to light it that way. It was just incredible!
The reception was in the Utah State Capitol rotunda. (I posted a shot of the capitol building from this wedding in a previous post) The capitol rotunda is a gorgeous, albeit challenging place to have a reception. It's cavernous, which makes it tough to light but also dramatic and interesting. I've always loved architecture and really showing the location so I saw it as a challenge. You can judge the results.
The Bride and Groom formals at the reception are some of my favorites, despite having all of about 10 minutes for all of them. We only took about 10 frames in front of the capitol but they are worth every effort.
I've posted some of my favorites here and you can click the link below the slideshow to go to www.collages.net to see the rest.

Lori on TV! (Cue up the Mr. Jones montage...)

I haven't posted many actual photos for the last week. That's probably because we've been focusing so much on flowers. Don't worry, I've got a lot to post this week, so there will be photos again.
The really fun news is that Lori (my beautiful wife and favorite sexy florist) was on the BrideAccess.com TV show this morning. She did an awesome job. Our crusade against the Clawhand has begun!
The website for Lori's flowers is located at www.weddingsbywoodbury.com.

I made the trailer!

A few years ago, I made a list of things to do before I die. Now it's called a bucket list but this was before the movie had come out so I just called it my Someday List. I try to do at least 5 things from the list every year. At some point I'll post the whole list but I checked one off this year: Get a role in a movie. It doesn't matter how big the role is, just that I have one. I did it this winter as I won critical acclaim from my mother for the role of Couch Boy in the movie Melted Hearts. As many of you have asked for more info, here it is...hot off the press...a film by Jorge Ramirez...the trailer for Melted Hearts.

Unfortunately, I can't embed the video but you can watch it on Jorge's Facebook page.

But this would be a great time to post the photos I took on the set. I had a small role but I don't go anywhere without my camera so of course I got some shots of the REAL movie stars.

PS. Monique sacrificed for her art. She smeared her face with guacamole to which, she told no one, she's allergic. Her face was red for a bit but nothing too serious.

Artistic Souls

Have you ever known someone who has an artistic soul? I met a girl in Prague when I was a missionary named Vera. She's the one in whom I noticed it first. Everything she said or did was art. The way she expressed herself verbally reflected it. (Her accent is the way Czech is supposed to be spoken in my opinion.) We became good friends. I loved hanging out with her because she always helped me see things differently. Since then I have noticed it in others. They're the artists who have the rare ability to move people in unique or even revolutionary ways. They're not painters, photographers, writers, poets--you know they could do any of those things perfectly without trying...they're just artists. I've found one I can use to demonstrate. He's a photographer in Atlanta named Zack Arias. He made this video with a cheap HD720p camera modified MacGyver-style with glue and some adapter rings. The first part is odd and kind of funny but once he starts talking about being a photographer I couldn't believe how much his words could have come directly from my brain. It's not pretentious, he's not trying to be artistic and deep. He's just thinking out loud. Artistic soul.
I would love to be one. I'm not. But I love them and I look for them. They're people who help you absorb every drop of life.

Abby & Gabe

I want to post an amazing wedding! We met Abby and Gabe a little bit differently than usual. We were at a Bees game last summer and, of course, I had my camera. I was playing around shooting some baseball. As you often see, a young man proposed to his girlfriend in between innings. It's always fun to watch. I snapped a couple of photos of the proposal then found the couple and gave them a card so they could contact me and I could email them the photos. Abby emailed just a couple of days later and we emailed her the photos. We were thrilled when they looked at our website, loved what they saw, and decided to hire us! What an amazing wedding it was! Abby's mom, Wendy, made sure every little detail matched the vision. It really was a pleasure to work with them and the results were gorgeous.

I will never be able to narrow down my favorites to any sort of manageable size so I recommend you go check out the highlights gallery on my featured events page on www.jonwoodbury.com.

As always, you can see the entire event at collages.net too.

Zachary Franklin Marold, 8.25.1985 - 2.25.2009

When a loved one of a friend dies, everyone wants to help but it's hard to know what to do. I can't do much but I can build a slideshow. I figured I'd post it here because I haven't really posted a full-on slideshow, just the automatic ones. I am very grateful that Bequi and Anthony actually let me help. Good luck at the funeral today. I hope it brings spiritual insight and comfort.