It is about 683 from Las Vegas to Keystone Bike Park in Dillon, Colorado. According to Google Maps that’s approximately 9 hours, 40 minutes of drive time. After wrapping up a wedding shoot on Sunday, my good friend (and biking partner) and I  jumped in the wagon and headed for Denver to spend a couple days riding cross country and downhill at the Bike Park. I have duel Yakima Cobra Racks that are currently sporting two, KHS 304 Mountain Bikes. We call these our “tweener” bikes. Light weight, but rigid, with about 3 inches of play in the front and rear shocks, these 8 speed mountain bikes are a nice blend of cross country and uphill as well as versatile enough for some light to moderate downhill (with a little experience). So anyway, after nearly 12 hours of driving through the night, (not 9 like Google suggested), and 3 hours of sleep at a friend’s beautiful mountain home, we arrived at the River Run village and hopped on the Ski lift for a ride to the top of Dercum Mountain and the beginning of the 5 mile system of trails to the bottom. I will be writing a review of the trails in a later article for mtobikes.com but suffice to say that after only 15 minutes of riding, my buddy misjudged a jump that resulted in a 3rd degree fracture of his collar bone. 12 hours of driving, 683 miles worth of gas, 3 hours of sleep, two days worth of lift tickets and McDonalds for breakfast……$450.00. The look on my partners face after only 15 minutes of riding, knowing we were done and heading home… well you know the answer to that….

(ps. I still had a great time and we will be heading back as soon as the snow melts in May 2009!)

Spent the day with Matthew & Roxy. Saturday was their wedding day and we began at the Green Valley Ranch for some getting ready shots before moving to the Revere Golf club for the ceremony and a really fun, lively reception. The couple reserved the entire venue and the whole feel of the party was club like, yet intimate. As the guests finished dinner, we were able to sneak off unnoticed for a few minutes, to capture some romantic shots as the sun set over Las Vegas. To Roxy and Matt – thanks for your hospitality and for trusting me to “get all the shots”. Here’s a teaser and I can hardly wait to show you the rest…….

My brother and I took a few hours out of a very busy schedule to do some mountain biking up at Mt. Charleston this week. Located just below the Ski Resort, the Bristlecone Pine Trail is friendly to both hikers and mountain bikers alike. We pedaled up the lower trail for about 4 miles of double track through beautiful groves of Aspen and Pine before reaching the top. After a short rest to get our lungs back, we launched into a very fast, narrow, and exhilarating single track downhill run. Shooting through the forest, between narrow gaps in the trees, over exposed root systems and some great drops was a blast. Unfortunately, the downhill ended way too soon and having arrived late in the afternoon, it made a second run imprudent because of fading light. However, we will definitely be running this trail again before winter hits the summit. If you’ve done this trail before, leave us a note or comment and tell us what you thought. Or, if you’re interested, shoot me an email for specifics / directions to this great single track ride. Next week we are heading to Denver for some more single track and hopefully a little white water rafting, stay tuned……

Going 80mph with your tail only 2 inches off the ground is quite an experience. I’ve been in race cars before and have driven my share of go carts but these things were scary fast. Talk about an adrenaline rush. After covering the event for Bodog.com and the 2008 World Series of Poker, I got a chance to run 8 laps in racing karts at Spring Mountain Raceway – about 45 minutes outside of Las Vegas in the middle of the desert near Pahrump, Nevada. We also rode along with professional drivers in Road Racing Corvettes that reached speeds of over 150mph while only inches from each other and got to drive high performance Corvettes on a closed skills course. Needless to say, if I wasn’t a photographer, I would definitely want to be a race car driver…, or a WWI Flying Ace, but that’s another story.

Here are a few of my favorites from a wedding I shot several weeks ago. Amanda and Jordan were truly wonderful to work with. Their wedding took place in a small town right on the border of Oregon and Idaho. It had a very quaint, backyard-wedding feel to it, which I found to be quite pleasant – especially since I’ve been seeing a lot of glitzy, Vegas chapel weddings lately. I was very impressed with how they were able to dress up the reception hall, which was actually a Japanese cultural center (picture a big, community-center style room). They covered the tables with red and white tablecloth and topped each table off with impressive Japanese inspired centerpieces. My favorite part was how they hung beautiful red lanterns and over 1,000 hand-made paper cranes from the ceiling as a sign of good luck. 1,124, to be exact. You wouldn’t know it, but Jordan can be pretty precise – a characteristic that his friends and family seemed to like to joke about. (Hi, Jordan!) I thought the cranes were such a great idea and really showed how much time and effort was put into everything. I’m glad to have been able to photograph their wedding day. Jordan and Amanda have an album on the way and it’s going to look great.

So I finally gave in to all the rave reviews and went to see the new Batman movie. I would say that it was well worth the $20. I mean, who doesn’t love a good comic book movie? (Oh wait, I believe the preferred term is graphic novel.) If you are a fan of Batman, or if you just like some good old on-screen action, this movie won’t disappoint. It is dark and sinister with a villain that makes all other comic book screen villains look like Baby Huey, as Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips puts it. Definitely not for kids. Heath Ledger really did do an incredible job at playing the Joker. Even the makeup job was so good that you wouldn’t know it was him. Now I’m inspired to go save Gotham.

Synopsis: Director Christopher Nolan returns to Gotham City with this sequel to the critical and fan favorite Batman Begins. Batman, played by Christian Bale, joins forces with Lieutenant Gordon (Gary Oldman) and a fearless district attorney (Aaron Eckhart) to take on new foe: Gotham underworld and a wild-card villain, the Joker (played by the late Heath Ledger).

And just for kicks, my favorite Batman movie promo:

Just finished another Bridal Spectacular show this weekend. As always, we had a great time meeting some fantastic brides (and grooms)-to-be. As one soon-to-be groom pointed out, it’s not just about the brides, right? I wouldn’t know anything about that – after all I’m just the photographer. It was also great meeting a few other industry pros. Las Vegas has a number of very talented wedding vendors. If you were in attendance, I’m sure you weren’t disappointed and I hope you were able to find everything you were looking for. Here’s a look at the JMP exhibit from the previous show. We decided to stick with the same setup this time around and got a lot of positive feedback since it seems to fit our style – simple and elegant. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth – we hope to hear from you soon! Best wishes, John.

Is it 4th of July again already? Time sure does fly. I remember going out to watch the fireworks just last year with k_kidd, JMP’s creative director (below, left). I would love to be heading out to the coast for the weekend, but with work (and the ridiculous gas prices), I’ll be staying right here at home this year. Once again, happy 4th of July everyone! Hope you all enjoy the 3-day weekend. As for me, I’ll be working all weekend (but hey – I’m not complaining). Have fun and be safe! ;-P

Yes, it’s official – welcome to the brand new blog of John Morris Photography! The new design is now easier to read, includes commenting features, and of course, has more space for bigger pictures. I would love to hear your thoughts on the new look so if you have a moment, please drop me a note and let me know what you think.

If you’re a first-time visitor, I would like to welcome you and thank you for visiting the site. My name is John and I am a professional photographer based out of Las Vegas, NV. I offer a variety of services including event photography, wedding photography, and senior portraits. If you haven’t already, please feel free to visit one (or all) of my websites to view my work:

Event Photography – Wedding Photography – Senior Portraits

This blog is where I will be posting my most recent work, personal thoughts and adventures. I am excited to begin sharing my latest work with you – check back often for more updates!

Here’s a peek at the previous JMP blog. As you can see, the layout was similar but the main difference (and a big one for me) is that the layout before was limited to much smaller images. Aside from that, I was pretty content with the look. WordPress does have some great looking themes, but I finally decided that I wanted something a little more custom.