American Legacy Academy: Summer Gala 2008, fundraiser & auction

The marketing director for American Legacy Academy stumbled upon my website and said she. "was very impressed with my work." ALA is a private school and they needed a photographer to cover their annual fundraising gala and for current marketing material. Roger Anthony a very successful motivational speaker was the main speaker. Jon Schmidt was the evening's entertainment. Both were very great, very nice and incredibly talented!

Other guests on the VIP list included Marvin Pain and his wife, Tom Holmoe and his wife, Zane Gray and his wife, Vance Law and his wife.
We had an amazing gourmet meal!! Wow the chicken would rival any, that I have ever had! The evening was filled with talk of the children, the gospel and a very exciting auction. I was more than honored to donate my time for the future of our community and education.

Vance Law eyeing an authentic, signed and framed Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson photograph. I heard among the bidders that it was actually shot at the Salt Palace.

Roger Anthony was a Gold Medal winner at the Australian Academy of Boxing Speed Ball Championship and currently a motivational speaker. Seen here practicing with the speed ball, for the visual demonstration he includes in his speech.

Here to support this great cause was Vance Law a former Major League Baseball All-Star and Tom Holmoe a former San Francisco 49er and 3 time Superbowl Champion. Vance is currently the BYU baseball head coach and Tom is the BYU athletic director.

Jon Schmidt is a new age classical pianist.

Karen Bohrer co-founder of American Legacy Academy.

It was very impressive to watch Jon's body language as he connected to the baby grand piano. It was as if his body moved to the exact sound and rhythm of each note. I had never heard him live and he was absolutely amazing. Great job Jon!

Now that's one very eager bidder!

Lots of laughs during a bidding War :)

If that's not the look of Victory.....it was.

Jeremy Elliot (a.k.a. Sam) from the movie Charly, with a very excited fan.

Steve + Karissa

I really wanted to see the wall's on both sides of me, but still have Steve & Karissa as the focal point.

I love the way the texture from the wall turned out. Also I'm very happy to see Steve's eye's and face really well, even with his hat on. Normally I'd say hat's like this are bad for engagements but his worked out and it really suits his personality too! Photo of the day^

Tall grass is a must this time of the year. It's everywhere and I LOVE it :) Karissa's mom came with us on this shoot and she was standing to my left when I asked Steve to go for the hiney! It was so funny. We all laughed for a couple of minutes after she gave him the Hand's Off Mister response. I love how the personalities come out with just a silly idea like that. If you are a prude, this is especially for you ;)

In loving memory of Don Morehouse

Great guy, Great businessman and most importantly a Great family man.

Don, you will be missed by many! We are all very sad that you have left this life early, but happy to know that you are home with our Heavenly Father!My thoughts and prayer's are with his wonderful family, I Love you guy's!

The following is the official report from KSL. By Whit Johnson.

Family mourns loss of man who drowned in triathlon
July 27th, 2008 @ 5:30pm
By Whit Johnson
Family and friends tonight are mourning the loss of well-known businessman and community volunteer Don Morehouse, who drowned Saturday while competing in a triathlon.
Morehouse was President and CEO of Slaymaker Group, which owns all the TGI Friday's and Winger's Restaurants in Utah and Idaho. Those who knew Morehouse say he was dedicated to his work, but more importantly, he was a dedicated family man and friend.

Morehouse leaves behind a wife, four children, seven grandchildren and countless friends. Family members say he was a busy man but always managed to go above and beyond for those he loved.
His wife, Fairy Morehouse, said, "If Don was in the room and you didn't get a smile and a hug, there would be something wrong."
By age 60, Morehouse accomplished success by all definitions of the word. Living in Provo, Don was a CEO and an athlete, he traveled, and he helped build a large, loving family. "I mean, there was nothing negative about him," Fairy said.
Today, his wife, along with friends and family, shared stories about Don's life. He was the perfect husband, the perfect grandfather and the perfect father and a perfect friend," Fairy said.
Morehouse died Saturday while competing in the Spudman Triathlon in Burley, Idaho. During the swimming portion of the race, witnesses say they heard Don call for help just before he disappeared under the water. Rescue crews were unable to revive him. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
"He'd buy his books, and he'd read his books, and he'd do the training plan. And he was ready to finish and complete another project, another dream," his wife said.
Don's family says he was healthy, in remarkable shape and recently competed in a number of marathons. Why Don went underwater is still unknown, but he was able to touch the hearts of many before he passed.
"My grandson said, ‘He was going to come watch my game Tuesday.' I said I'll be at your game on Tuesday. We're just going to fill his shoes."
Nearly 2,000 people participated in the Spudman. Besides the swimming event, the competitors bike 40 kilometers and run 10 kilometers. A spokesman said this is the first fatality that has occurred in the Spudman's 22-year history. "We've had some people that have needed to be pulled out of the water or hang on to the side of a boat," he said, "but we've never had anything like this before," he said.
E-mail: wjohnson@ksl.com

Spicing up the office, Stage 1

So amongst all of the shoots, editing and lack of sleep (this is normal) I....We have finally begun to paint and spice up the office. Dev you are the bomb honey! I have been putting it off for ummmmmm several years! Kind like the website, there's never enough time for it all :(

On the walls I have a NEW coat of paint called "Trench Coat." It is a warm beige tone. Also the very stylish furniture has been painted a NEW color; black instead of the old brown. We really loved the stained red that was on the walls but it was time!

Next up is carpet, base and the so very important NEW frames and enlargements. I will add pix when my o.c.d. wears off :)

Finally I have a NEW website!

Okay so I finally have my NEW website and it only took me 2 months to decide on one and another month get it where it's at right now, I think they call that OCD! There's still allot to do but hey I'm only one crazy person you know, see: (Nightowlphotoholic). But I will say that it's much closer to my style than the antiquated one. The old site served it's purpose and I'm happy that I've moved on. So my guess is I'll be ready for another new one in a year or less, we'll see :)

Tell me what you think, I'm excited to hear feed back.

6 months of blogging!

Well it's been 6 months since I started this photography blog. Allot has changed in my life and with my photography style. I'm so glad to just be me again! This artist has truly begun the next stage in his photography career. I hope the next 6 months are equally fun and exciting. Thanks for taking the time to hear my thoughts and see my photography evolve :)

Cheers, Michael.

Aah Sushi with Rhett and Ryan

So I just got back from SLC for a little business lunch at Aah Sushi in downtown SLC. It's a regular spot for Ryan and a first for Rhett and I.

Dang; I think the "Crazy Vegas" Roll was my favorite, not shown. It sure was tasty! Oh and a Diet Coke with lemon to wash it all down. We've been trying to get together since WPPI and we've all been so busy. In case you were wondering and would like to try them, the roll on the left and middle are "Playboys" and the roll on the right is a "Mars."

Ryan and I brought our cameras, his is some nikon whatever and I have the Canon 1D MarkIII, did I mention that I love my Canon camera? Now that we've got that out of the way, we decided to take some fun pix while we had 30 minutes before it was off to work. Got to pays bills :)

More pix to follow.........

Steve and Meghan's Engagement shoot

Steve, Meghan and I had the coolest engagement shoot Tuesday night! We shot in downtown Provo and at The Castle (which I LOVE) for their engagement session. When they arrived I was sitting on a chair watching them stroll up hand in hand and they were so cute and full of excitement! Our first spot was just along the parking way between the building's. I shot wide angle first and then some cropped in detail shots of their hand's and feet. Next we went to the stinky alley way (sorry guys!) and just around the corner from their were some window's. Meghan loves windows and stairways. A few kissing shots and then off to downtown. We stopped for a few shots with a Huge AMERICAN FLAG along University Ave.

Steve, Michael and Meghan

Next a wooden bench for a few shots. The next thing we knew we had an audience of a dozen or so and it was kind of awkward for Steve and Meghan, so we moved on for a little refresher at the nearby pizza shop. I LOVE Apple Beer...yummy.

We decided to make a quick stop at the Provo City Library. We did some cool shots on the stairs, up in the rail openings and in front of the monument. The monument shots were funky wide angle and their feet looked huge!

We were now on our way back to the cars and off to The Castle.

Photo of the day (above)

We pulled up and of course 6 bazillion people were there! I said, "We are going as far away from them as possible!" When we got out of the cars, the light was already amazing and holy cow we just went nuts with all of the fun, funky and crazy shots! Mixed hats, sun-glasses, mixed together etc.
Around the corner was a cool set of stairs with just Rad lighting! I shot some through a hand rail and some with the killer sky and sunset. Just before the sun went away we shot a few more with the Steve's yodeler hat and Meghan's pee-pee hat (inside joke).

Man they were so fun!!

Ryan in Las Vegas

Solarized in two layers. Mostly hand painted for the exact look I wanted.

Infrared B&W, I love the texture. It reminds me of a still you might see in a Quentin Tarantino film. I'm torn but I think this one is my favorite.

Color Infrared, cross-processed. I love how Ryan's left hand looks like it's on fire.

So I've been putting of tweaking these images of Ryan since our trip to Vegas for WPPI. I have looked at the vanilla version for so long now that I just couldn't wait any longer. At first you may think, "WOW....What is this??" But to be honest this is what I need to do every once and a while, when I am spending allot of time touching up and perfecting the "Traditional" images and filling print orders etc. It was sure fun to tweak these images!! :)