Sometimes we can try too hard to get kids to pose and put on their best “cheese” grins, but some of my favorite images are taken when they aren’t posing…

Kendall and Dayton called me in March wanting to do a fun, casual engagement session. After reviewing our calendars, we scheduled the shoot for the 12th of April at one of my favorite locations, MonteLago Village at Lake Las Vegas. It’s a great place for engagement sessions because of the breathtaking view and quiet, serene setting. However, upon arrival on April 12, the village was anything but peaceful.

It seemed that the Easter bunny had just visited and over 400 kids along with their families were on a frenzied search for the eggs he had apparently laid all over the village. Not a single square inch of the property was unoccupied. Surprised and slightly disillusioned, we recouped to consider our options. You would think we might have thought twice about picking Easter Sunday for an engagement session, but it has been a while since I’ve had to worry about Easter egg hunts now that my kids think they are too old for that kind of thing.

Since we all liked the location we considered rescheduling for a later date. Another option was to change locations which I knew would be tricky since it was a particularly bright day. In the end, Kendall and Dayton were game for a location change. So we headed out to an old mining town about 30 minutes away. Well, as you can see, things worked out perfectly (with the help of a few old school lighting tricks). The rustic atmosphere led to some really nice, romantic images as well as some very cool, movie poster like stuff. On a side note, we saw lots of bunnies there too, but they didn’t seem to be laying eggs?

Despite its Spring Break reputation, I found the town of Cabo San Lucas Mexico to still be a remarkably small and quaint Mexican fishing village ( that just happens to be a hot spot for timeshares and fisherman alike). Cabo San Lucas became a well known fishing haven around the 1930’s, back when the population was roughly around 400 and the town was only accessible only by boat, plane, or anyone willing to travel 1000 miles of rutted dirt “roads” to get there. Only since the 1970’s has Cabo become a wildly popular tourist destination, after the Mexican government created the infrastructure to turn Cabo San Lucas into one of the most attractive centers for tourism in Mexico.

Rather than staying at one of the many big, plush mega resorts or timeshare properties, we chose to stay at a small but friendly and elegant hotel in the Marina District.  We were just on the edge of the actual town itself and enjoyed the local hospitality and restaurants that the locals frequent. We also enjoyed a piece the nightlife that Cabo is well known for at Sammy Hagar’s famous Cabo Wabo club, El Squid Roe, and the lively Mango Deck beach club on Medano Beach.

But the real charm in Los Cabos Mexico was driving down the one lane highway known as “The Corridor” to San Jose del Cabo, the quieter, artsy side of Cabo and meeting some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered. We also visited the very small town of Todo Santos and took a detour along the way to discover an awesome private beach with beautiful, calm waters. After the one week trip, I learned that seven days in Mexico is not long enough.

Karlie and Steve held their wedding ceremony at St. John, a beautiful Greek Orthodox Church in southwest Las Vegas. Afterwards they moved on to Anthem Country Club for everyone’s favorite part of the night, the reception. It’s one of my favorite places to photograph a wedding because of the gorgeous setting and amazing view of the Las Vegas strip. Of course, it helps that the service is incredible as well. Thanks to Staci, Juliet and Joy at Anthem for helping to make my job easier. Also a special thanks to the newlyweds. We here at John Morris Photography wish you all the best. The perfect night of great food, music, family and friends ended with a round of tequila shots. That’s my kind of ending, or at least it used to be when I was a little younger.

You would think that watching a race from the pits is as good as it gets, but to be completely honest, Nascar, like golf, is one sport better watched on TV. Well ok, the live sounds really can’t be replicated. The whole “crank it up” thing (when the announcers stop talking so you can crank up surround sound and hear what a race is supposed to sound like live) doesn’t even come close to the real thing, sorry. Oh, and the flying Elvis you don’t get see on the pre-race show on television. That, and my favorite shot of the day, a flyover by the Thunderbirds.

Aside from those few bonuses, most of the view from the pits were of crewmembers’ backs. It’s actually kind of cool to see the “working side” of Nascar, but I noticed this time that all of the drivers were introduced as they whizzed by on the back of pickup trucks. In previous years, they would walk out to mingle with fans and sign autographs before getting into their cars. This time there was less driver interaction which was a bit of a disappointment for me.

I did manage to watch some of the race from the pits. The second shot is of the eventual race winner and home town boy, Kyle Busch. Kyle and his brother Kurt, who attended Durango High School right here in Las Vegas, learned to race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s half mile “Bullring”. Congrats Kyle, (but I’m actually a Tony Stewart fan).

If you are into snow sports, SIA (SnowSports Industries America) is a must-see show. It is a great experience and one of the largest snow sports conventions  in the world. SIA 2009 took place at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. This was my third year in a row photographing the event and as usual I had a great time. This year I focused on photographing the many faces and personalities at the show. There were more than enough willing subjects - at least on day one when everyone’s feet were still feeling healthy.

Even though the hours were long, no one seemed to mind. It’s easy to forget that this is a trade show. When SIA comes to town, the convention center becomes one big party. Everyone was having a good time and you wouldn’t even know they were there to work. In fact all the exhibitors were hard at work showing off the hottest new gear and chatting about their latest “powder” adventures.

Next year the show will be moving to Denver and I have been asked to tag along and capture this young, energetic event in 2010. I can’t think of a more appropriate place for SIA than the Mile High City. I have a feeling that I will somehow manage to stay a few extra days and take a detour through Keystone to get some boarding in after the show (wink). Already can’t wait..

Their makeup artist was two hours late. The limo from the Las Vegas Boulevard wedding chapel was late as well. When Tijana and Davor frantically called to tell me they were way behind schedule, I said “No problem, we’ll have plenty of time for photographs.” Even though the sun had set long before we finally got started and everything up until the shoot seemed to go wrong, in the end the earlier events of the day didn’t seem to matter. The magic was still there and I was able to capture quite a few beautiful, tender moments like this one. Did I just say “magic”? Oh well, I can’t help it.. I really do love this image.

I’ve had a few clients wonder what engagement sessions are all about so I decided to post some images from one of our latest shoots. I would like to introduce Stephen and Erica, both of Las Vegas, who will be getting married at the beautiful Anthem Country Club in March. Seems they are both into mountain biking and we cooked up this idea to shoot part of there engagement session at Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City. For those of you who don’t know, Bootleg may be not only one of the most difficult and hairy downhill bike parks in the country but possibly one of the most difficult parks in the world. That being said, if you can ride Bootleg, chances are you can ride just about anywhere. If you have followed my blog you know that I too am into mountain biking, so after a little time in historic downtown Boulder City, we took some killer extreme style photographs of the couple in action. What do you think? We are open to any ideas you might have for your engagement session so let us know. These are certainly not your parents’ engagement photos. (But I’m sure their photos were nice too.)

Every new year it seems like there are so many things to do… take down the Christmas lights, file taxes returns, dentist visits (for those like me who can only tolerate going once a year), and the big one for me - getting organized. For the past week or so I have been working on re-organizing photos from last year’s weddings. Going through the old photos reminded me of all the wonderful people and moments I have had the honor of capturing. It’s amazing that you don’t quite realize how many things you’ve done until you’ve taken a moment to look back. Thank goodness for photos! I would like to say thanks to everyone I’ve had the pleasure of working with and I look forward to meeting and working with many new people in the coming year. I wish everyone all the best in 2009. But for now, here’s one of my favorites from 2008.

Emma  and her mom Diane called a few weeks ago wanting to do a senior portrait session at the dry lake bed just outside of Las Vegas. The lake bed makes a unique backdrop and is a great location for my style of fashion inspired senior portraits. Usually any day is great for shooting out there,  but the day before our shoot  we got  several inches of rain that turned the lake bed into, well, a lake. The one day a year it rains around here, go figure. The entrance to the lake bed was closed off so we ended up rescheduling for the following Monday. Luckily for us it worked out well because we got some amazing light and lots of killer images. We shot at the lake bed up until sunset and then went downtown to wrap it all up with a few Vegas themed shots.

After sending them the images we got this kind note from Diane: “Wow!.. Too many choices - great shots!!”

Emma  and Diane, thanks for a fantastic shoot - you two were an absolute pleasure to work with.