Bakersfield Wedding Photography - A vow renewal

Here's the vow renewal ceremony of Sherrod and Emily in Bakersfield, California.

One the best parts about being a wedding photographer is witnessing the happiest days in someone's life. I leave the event feeling good about the world, about life, and love.

Emily and Sherrod's vow renewal ceremony felt just like that, except newlyweds often have no idea what they're getting into and have a wonderfully optimistic, yet untested sense of hope. Emily and Sherrod, on the other hand, after being married for 20 years, knew just what that marriage road looked like, and they loved what they saw. The whole event was very inspiring. 

(Click any image to view it larger)

 

The best vendors were involved, of course.

Flowers: Amanda, from House of Flowers
Band: Lonely Avenue
Caterer and Event Location: The Padre Hotel
Event Planner: Cassandra from The Fairy Godmother
Cake: Anamie Mahanke

Park City Wedding Photography

Mackenzie and Dylan wanted to get married in the mountains. Mackenzie's family cabin seemed an ideal spot, and getting married in September would be an ideal time. So, it was quite a surprise when Mackenzie woke up on the morning of her wedding to see snow on the ground. No problem, they decided, they'd just scramble and get everything ready to have a party inside. Then the power went out. A family member drove into town and picked up a couple generators. Mackenzie took it all in stride, and by the time I arrived, was laughing that classic Mackenzie laugh. And by the time the group pictures were taken, about 30 minutes before most of the guests arrived, the power came back on.

Oh, sure there were a few hitches along the way, but mostly, it was a perfect wedding. Certainly memorable.

It looked a little something like this. (Click any image to view it larger)

Provo Engagement Photography - Austin & Elise

Bikes play a pretty big role in how Austin and Elise met. The first time he saw her, she was stopped, trying to fix her broken bike. He knows a little something about bikes (he started and runs the Provo Bike Collective, after all) and stopped to help, to see what he could do. He fixed her bike, but more importantly, got her number. They subsequently started going on bike rides, fell in love, and got engaged.

Meet Austin and Elise.

Dispatch from the road - Bakersfield, CA

I was in Bakersfield for a couple days this week to photograph a vow renewal ceremony. (More on that, later). I had some time to walk around, just to see what I could see. It's one of my favorite ways to pass some time in a new town. Reminds me of this quote by Robert Adams. "No place is boring if you had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film."

Bakersfield environs

Bakersfield environs

bakersfiled-california-9805.jpg
Kern County Fair, Bakersfield, CA

Kern County Fair, Bakersfield, CA

Kern County Fair, Bakersfield, CA

Kern County Fair, Bakersfield, CA

Wedding guests

I photographed two weddings last week. Both, originally intended for outside. After all, it is still September. But, cold weather forced a change on the days of both weddings. Here's a photograph from my friend and former UVU student, Mackenzie's wedding. I'll post more from this happy day once I have them all edited.

candid wedding photography Utah

First day of fall

Today is the first day of fall and it’s raining outside.

Raining day in Provo

I have the back door open so I can hear the thunder. It seems like a good night to have a cup of tea and watch a good movie, but there are photos to edit. I love what I do, but it sure would be nice to just sit here and listen to the rain. 

Amy was gone for a couple days for a women’s conference with friends. I stayed home with the boys. The first day did not go so great. I was too harsh when they took too long to clean the front room and also when they didn’t do a very good job cleaning the front room, and then again for their resistance when I told them to go back and clean the front room. You gotta pick your battles, they say, and I don’t want to stand my ground on having a clean front room at the expense of souring our relationship. Lesson learned.

Today went far better. I kept telling myself love was the most important thing. Love was the answer. Then I drove to the market and bought some ingredients for each boy to make their own pizza for lunch. After yesterday, I was going for father of the year, but have you ever made your own pizzas? We could go out for pizza every night for a week for the amount of money I spent for lunch. The pizzas were good, though, and they boys were pleased as punch about getting to make their own pizzas, and they loved me, again, and man, you can’t put a price on that. Oh, wait. Yes you can. $70. 

pizza

Two days ago it was 85 degrees. Tomorrow it will be 50 degrees and raining. But I didn’t have a wedding to photograph two days ago, and I do tomorrow. That’s the way it goes, I guess, unless you live in Southern California. Rain and 50. After all, today is the first day of fall.

 

 

Family portraits - The Gochnour Family

One of the best things about working as a photographer is the people you get to meet, hang around, associate with.

Back in the early 19...well, a long time ago, I worked for company in Salt Lake called Gastronomy and one of the coolest people in the world was my boss, Mr. Jeff Gochnour. As a boss, he was fair, funny, honest, a good example of how far hard work can get you, and a thousand other worthy ideals.

After leaving the company, I never really saw him or heard from him, but last year, he was a guest at a wedding I was photographing. He said he was following me on Instagram and wanted me to photograph his family.

It was an honor for me to photograph the family of someone I admire so much, and after being around his kids, it's obvious that all the things I like about Jeff are rubbing off on his offspring.

Meet the Gochnour family.

Justin Hackworth photographs blasts from the past, former bosses, happy families, and he wants to photograph you. Interested? Let's talk!

Film images scanned and developed at Alpine Film Lab.

Utah engagement photography

Clint + Olivia got married last week and I'm be looking forward to posting some of their wedding pictures. In the mean time, here are pictures we did a month or two ago when they were engaged. Some were taken at my studio in Provo, some were taken in Provo Canyon. 

Meet Clint and Oliva.

Provo engagement portraits

Mackenzie and Dylan are getting married and I'm looking forward to photographing the wedding, soon.

I met Mackenzie when she was a photography student in my class at UVU. She then came to work at Justin Hackworth Photography in the fall of 2014 when she did a fantastic job as an intern. Her very first day at work we had a photoshoot at the studio with about 30 people, including the Mayor, Donny Osmond, Mindy Gledhill, C Jane Kendrick and a whole room of Provo movers and shakers. Not every day was as exciting as that. But that was a long time ago. Now, meet Mackenzie and Dylan.

 

Film images from this post developed and scanned by Alpine Film Lab. 

Las Vegas family portrait photography

Jeff and Laura and great parents. I go to their house sometimes, and the kids are reading books or making stuff, or involved in some creative task. I don't know how they do it, but I want them to come do a four week hands-on workshop at my house on how to get parenting right. 

Here they are, photographed in Las Vegas (where they live).

Meet the Archibald family.