A while back when we were first considering expanding from weddings into portraits, I remember telling a relative about how I thought it would be cool to document families from year to year and to see and photograph the differences (and similarities) between family members.

Fast forward to this year where we had a number of high school senior siblings of previous seniors we’d photographed. Audrey and I are kind of weird…. so sometimes we like to look through the images, and especially to compare the books and framed products between the siblings. It’s really amazing to see the differences and similarities between the bodies of work. So today, we came across a couple images of siblings and thought it would be fun to put together a couple diptychs based on different characteristics of the images. Here they are

David & Freddy: Lathrop Class of ‘09 & ‘08

Anna & Emma: Lathrop Class of ‘09 & ‘08

Trevor & Tanya: Lathrop Class of ‘09 & ‘07

Mallory & Taylor: North Pole Class of ‘09 & ‘08

Dana & Kelsey: West Valley Class of ‘09, twins.

Abby’s senior portrait session was pretty much perfect, one of our favoritestmost ever. We strolled around downtown at old places I’ve shot but seeing things in completely new ways. While she had a very quiet demeanor, we really sensed a strong and completely original person that spoke much louder than words could. And I am really proud of the images…..On top of all that, Audrey was totally coveting her wardrobe…. I thought she might sneak off with some of it.

We’ve had an incredibly busy wedding season, and have our last one of summer coming up next week before taking a little break before our winter weddings start. So since we’re on our second to last of summer, maybe it’ll be fun to go back to our second one of 08, last March, and move forward through the summer.

Alicia & Shaun were a blast. And we shot somewhere new… the Chena River convention center. We started out at St. Matthews, photographed a few of their portraits downtown, and then headed to the convention center party presided over by one of our favorite DJ’s: Jim Matherly

High heels, snow & ice.

I like how dad was up on stage when he gave Alicia away….. so often we don’t get a chance to see Dads’ faces at this emotional time.

They giggled for much of the ceremony…….

For portraits….. I saw this stairwell in the back of the church and knew we had to shoot there. As I was leading them back, I ran into a church staff member in the area and I asked if he minded us shooting a little there. He said sure, but why would you want to photograph in an ugly place like this….. I gotta admit, I love hearing that

And then downtown to the footbridge. One great thing about winter shooting, is we had the bridge all to ourselves for the most part. In summer, it’s nuts down there.

One of Peggy Cordell’s always awesome cakes.

Competition.

We always love looking for random moments of visual bliss like this, just during the reception as some guests were talking to her.

These two flew in for their wedding here in Fairbanks coming up this weekend and we got to grab a little bit of their time for a few engagement portraits. They were pretty much a blast to be around and full of energy and happiness and we can’t wait for the wedding. See you guy’s Saturday! It’s gonna be awesome.

As of now, all our sessions for the class of 2009 are filled and we’re booked until the snow flies If you’ve already scheduled a time to chat about portraits, don’t worry, we have slots available for you. But, if you haven’t called yet, we won’t be able to get a session booked to meet the yearbook deadlines.

If you really want us to photograph for you, we do have portrait sessions available throughout fall & winter to create your portrait collection, but you’ll have to find another photograph for the yearbook. Also, we have a waiting list going in case our schedule changes and we can accommodate a couple more sessions. If you’d like to get on it, just drop us an email.

We’ve also started pre-booking sessions for the class of 2010, so if you’re a junior and are excited about portraits for next year, feel free to give us a ring.

PS… Have fun tomorrow. We’re going to sleep in just to rub it in

We can’t wait for Susan & Ted’s wedding in Anchorage next month. We went through all the initial details by email and phone, and it always makes it kind of exciting to meet for the first time in person. We were able to catch up in Eagle River, on the Eagle River, but fortunately not in the Eagle River, a couple weeks ago for their eshoot, chat a bit, and of course, make some portraits.

So Leanna & Tyler are pretty much two of our favoritest people. I don’t think we ever had a chance to blog about their wedding, but it was last November here in Fairbanks and they chose to hold off on portraits so we could do a more relaxed location session later. I was really moved by their relationship and deep intimate affection for each other. I think as photographers and storytellers, we are privileged with a more focused vision into the wedding day then a lot of the guests at a wedding, and it was really cool seeing a little of what these two have with each other. And they’re both crazy creative. So needless to say, we were terribly excited to make some bridal portraits for them.

We had a stalled attempt in winter. After much preparation, scouting, and more (I even got a killer new light special for it) we had all things ready to go in an awesome location that Tyler & Leanna thought of. But as the temp fell to -20, it looked like that idea would have to fall away. Which led us to a beautiful summer night with rainy, cloudy weather, deep in the shrubbery with 18 billion mosquitoes, and some of my favorite images ever

We had another couple take us to this place a couple years ago. And this time, as we were driving home after the session, Audrey remarked, “didn’t we say last time that it was a good thing that they picked this location since the bugs were so bad?” Oops. Could have used that info. 2 hours earlier

But it was pretty much awesome no matter what. The bugs were bad, but Leanna & Tyler didn’t even seem fazed. The skies were all kinds of awesome too. I love shooting on cloudy & rainy nights. They turned us loose to do whatever we wanted and I think all 4 of us came up with something pretty cool.

Dewel put a lot of thought into his session and chose important locations that helped define where he was right then in time. We encourage everyone to think hard about the place their portraits will be made, and to incorporate some part of their life into them. A portrait can speak louder and stronger from a meaningful place. - heath

We loved working with Sophie….she had a beautiful look and hoards of mosquitoes didn’t even faze her one bit. We photographed somewhere new for portraits, and Heath always likes the challenge of new scenery. In fact, our seniors have been coming up with some really cool, personal ideas for locations, and we love that. We’re going to have a bunch of interesting things in the coming months! -audrey

Forecast: pea sized hail, 1/4″ of rain, lightning, thunder. Reality: sun.

It seems like almost every outdoor wedding we’ve had in the past couple years threatened rain and storms as the day started. And then somehow the skies clear for the ceremony. We won’t complain about that

Weddings at Pike’s are always great, especially when the sun blazes through the windows of the Binkley Room. Ursula does such an awesome job with coordinating the events, and we were so happy to work with our favorite DJ… the infamous Jim Matherly

We’re doing something a little different with this blog post by putting up a link to their slideshow. Click HERE or the image below and you can catch a glimpse of their whole day.