Jessie and Dallin’s Adventures | Behind the Scenes 2020

We don’t think we have to tell you how crazy the year 2020 has been. For us, it has been a huge year of growth as well as an opportunity to create lifetime friendships.  All year, you’ve been able to see so many images that show what it’s like seeing through our lens when we take photos. This blog post, however, is going to show you what it looked like behind the scenes in 2020 with our clients as well as what it looks like when we aren’t photographing weddings. Without further ado, here is our Behind the Scenes 2020 with Jessie and Dallin!

Click here to see our 2019 Behind the Scenes and 2018 Behind the Scenes!

 

1. Our favorite assistant!

As weddings were moved during this last year, we found it very interesting that we had many current and past clients who wanted portraits sessions with their families. We think it may have something to do with people not being able to go on vacation, or quarantining around each other and seeing each other more, but whatever the case, we did a lot more portrait sessions this year than most. Whenever we have a random family session, or meet with venues, we try and bring our son Liam with us (DEFINITELY not on a wedding day or engagement session though 🙂 ). Not only does Liam provide us with our secret weapon to get others to laugh, but we love the extra time we get to hang out with him, and show him what his parents do when they go to do photography. Here are some of our favorites with Liam in our Behind the Scenes 2020!

2020 gave us the chance to photograph so many awesome families, which meant that Liam got to assist!

Liam was in Star Wars heaven during the Olsen’s family session! He got to hold Darth Maul’s lightsaber! The coolest part was that a few days later the Olsens dropped by our home with a lightsaber that bought just for Liam!

2. Adventure Sessions

Maybe it was the cabin fever this last year, or possibly just being inspired to try new things, but we traveled to more new locations for sessions this year than ever before! We traveled to the Bonneville Salt Flats, Little Sahara, Arches National Park, and Dead Horse Point just to name a few. Along with that we also got to do some of the things on our photography bucket list, including involving astrophotography in some of these shots.

We did our first Adventure Engagement Session this year in the red rocks of Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point in Moab!

Hanging out with our friends Julia and Davis during their Milky Way Anniversary Session at the Bonneville Salt Flats was one of the highlights of 2020 for us!

3. Jessie Behind the Scenes

Although Dallin tends to be the “model” during cake photos to get the lighting right, Jessie tends to be the one that makes the sacrifices to get the perfect angle with her camera, whether it’s almost being in the creek, or positioning herself in a crazy angle, she’s willing to do anything to get that camera in JUST the right spot for an epic shot.

The many faces of Jessie!

One thing we love about being a husband and wife team is all of the different angles that we can capture on the wedding day!

4. Dallin’s Best and Most Authentic Moments

Anyone who watches us closely during a wedding will notice the times when Dallin is used as a model during cake cutting to get the lighting honed in or is in a shot as the expert dress fluffer or veil flier. Why let this chance go to waste when it could be one for posterity with a hilarious Dallin face? Here are some of our favorites of Dallin from this last year.

Dallin with his many wedding cakes! We make sure we get a few test shots in at every wedding before having the couple cut the cake.

We always have to showcase Dallin’s feminine side! He’s way better at fluffing dresses than Jessie is!

One of the trickiest parts about getting ready is pinning the boutonnieres. Thank goodness Dallin has that down!

We think this one deserves a special title! 

There’s nothing better than a veil that can fly!

5. Traveling to Meet The Best in the Wedding Industry

Before Covid hit in March, we were able to meet and connect with more photographers than we ever have from outside of Utah, which has been a HUGE blessing to us. We had a chance to connect with photographers such as Ben Hartley, Ben Adams, Pye Jirsa, and Shivani Reddy that we have learned SO much from over the years. This connection has allowed us to grow our business and our abilities more than we could ever imagine. Before Covid-19 caused a massive shutdown across the country, we were able to go to our first WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) in Las Vegas, as well as go to an Abundance Workshop hosted by Ben Adams and Ben Hartley in Ohio to more fine tune our business and find ways to better serve our clients. For us, 2020 has been possibly the best year yet for our growth because of these relationships and connections!

Meeting Ben Hartley and Ben Adams of Style and Story Photography was one of the highlights of our year, if not the decade!

Jessie signed her first autograph! How fun is that?!!!!

Due to COVID breaking out literally days before our trip, we flew home from Ohio on an almost empty airplane.

Meeting two of our favorite photographer icons at WPPI in Las Vegas was the best and had to be added to our Behind the Scenes 2020!

This year before COVID hit we had the chance to meet and hangout with so many photographer friends locally and nationally!

7. Our JD Couples!

One of our favorite things about being wedding photographers is the long lasting friendships that we get to make with amazing couples. Our goal is to find ways to connect with as many of our couples as we can after they are married. Whether going to Top Golf (LITERALLY the week before Covid happened) getting hair cuts, or playing a virtual game, we love our couples! We always make a point to take a selfie at least once with each couple as well. These are some of our favorite photos because it helps remind us of how lucky we are to work with the people that we work with

Our favorite people of the year!!! Our JD Couples!!! What a year it was, but we wouldn’t want anyone else to experience it with!

 

8. Random Moments

Creating wedding albums has brought us so much life and we love when we get to package them up to send to our couples. Also, how fun was it to be able to watch Jamie and Jared be married over Zoom! We can’t wait for their wedding celebration this year!

Seeing some of our best friends at our couple’s weddings is always our favorite!! We had to include it in our Behind the Scenes 2020!