I’m so very thrilled to be featured on Ruffled Blog today! Seriously, if you are not using this blog to inspire your wedding, you’re missing out. Check it.
See the full feature here.
I’m gonna be sharing lots more from this shoot, so stay tuned.
Interested in what it’s like to have Brooke Schultz shoot your wedding? Read what peeps have to say here.
Anna wanted to surprise her boyfriend with some fabulous photos for his birthday, and let me be part of the gift–so much fun! We headed to the Riverwoods for some snowy, wintery portraits.
Anna has such class and style–I love when clients bring their personalities and tastes to our sessions. It instantly lets me know them, and we create pictures that are so much more meaningful than a canned I-do-this-with-everyone shot.
A huge thanks to Anna for tromping through the snow and being such a fabulous model!
Film: Canonet QL17 Portra 400, scanned by Indie Film Lab.
Interested in some fabulous portraits of your own? Only 3 March mini sessions remain, so snap yours up.
I’m making no promises that mini sessions will ever come back again, so hop on it!
Janine and Kevin are everything an engaged couple should be: fun, laid-back, and completely in love. We met up at Rock Canyon park, where Kevin proposed, and got to know each other as we tromped through the snow. (Janine in her cute little heels! What a trooper.) The sun was out and lemme tell you–I may or may not have freaked out. A little. A lot. Insert excessive squealing and delighted giggling here. Oh, pretty please, summer: come soon.
It was such a joy to document the fresh love between these two. Thank you, Janine and Kevin, for letting me in on your beautiful relationship. Can’t wait for your wedding!
Favorite. Only love like Janine and Kevin’s can bring this kind of summer love in February.
Freshly engaged and in need of some romantic, soulful photos of your own? March engagement sessions are 10% off, so let’s talk about it.
Brooke Schultz is a Utah wedding photographer crazy about telling wonderful love stories and documenting unique weddings. She really loves yoga, baking, and handwritten love notes. She shares exclusive content for creative types and holds secret sales via The Soul Train, which you can sign up to receive straight to your inbox below. (And she promises never to spam you or sell your email or any of that weird creepy robotic stuff. She is just a nice human who wants to connect with other nice humans.)
I am getting very, very sick of winter. The brown and dead and gray have been doing nothing for my creative juices–but I decided to be a big girl and make something beautiful anyway.
Add a luxurious fur and some baby’s breath along with a gorgeous Lauren and you just can’t go wrong.
…unless the wind comes at you a hundred miles per hour and freezes your face clean off. But even then, you just take the hair out and let it blow wild and free.
Yes. There were llamas.
Favorite.
Is she not completely stunning?! Llamas, dirt, and icy wind are apparently flattering when you are so beautiful.
Happy Friday, folks.
Brooke Schultz is a Utah wedding photographer passionate about telling wildly romantic love stories and capturing soulful, handmade weddings overflowing with people in love. She loves dingy bookstores, Amos Lee, and bright lipstick. She shares exclusive, fabulous and free content for creatives and peeps interested in secret sales and goodies via The Soul Train, which you can sign up to receive via email in the jazzy little form below.
A client called me today to tell me how breathtaking the photo I posted was.
While shooting yesterday it was freeeeezing cold, and the wind almost blew us over. But while my model’s eyes were watering from the frigid wind, she was thanking me and telling me how much fun she was having–like, for genuine realsies.
Because I’m always trying to improve my art and hone my craft, I sometimes get sucked into the vortex of seeing only the flaws in my work, where I want to go, and how much I feel I have to learn. That insatiability is kind of what being an artist is, I guess. It’s what keeps me hungry, and it’s a good thing.
But today I’m reveling in the success and beauty of what I have already produced. I’m focusing on the giddy-energized feeling I had while editing the photos from a recent personal shoot where I experimented with new techniques. I’m letting myself enjoy how far I’ve already come in this incredible journey.
As creatives we so often don’t let ourselves enjoy success.
As soon as we accomplish something, we’re off to the next item on the to-do list, forever refusing to be happy now.
This whole artist thing can be horribly lonely, and your own thoughts can be suffocating–refer back to your list when you feel rotten, no good, and downright miserable.
We don’t give ourselves nearly enough credit or happiness. Take a few deep breaths and breathe in the joy you already deserve, the love you already have.
A taste of the personal work that’s filling me up with creative butterflies:
Happy Wednesday!
Today I come to you with real love–the kind that keeps people together for 50th anniversaries and beyond.
Meet Jessica and Zach, a crazy-in-love couple overflowing with joy and good laughs–even in the snowiest, most freezing weather. (Brave points to them!)
Oh you two. Go on!
Interested in an engagement or anniversary session of your own? I’m offering special rates for sessions happening in February and March (so I can snuggle my new little babe in April and May!) so let’s chat about it.
Brooke Schultz is a Utah-based wedding photographer who tells unique love stories bursting with soul. She’s appalled by reality TV, romance novels, and Crocs but is just a little obsessed with rose gold, windswept hair, and fresh flowers.
You can find her other places on the world wide web like this:
facebook (for even more pics and random musings)
twitter (for little snippets of her personal life and cool links to the cool things other people are doing)
pinterest (for all kinds of wedding inspiration and pretty things)
instagram @brookeschultz1
Jason and Sharolee are great parents precisely because they are great people. Maybe that seems lame, but I really believe it. I’m reminding myself of it, too, when I look around ten times a day and wonder, “how in the world am I going to raise another human?” I’ll keep being me. And this mothering thing will come.
Baby Aceton is the cutest, sweetest, most well-behaved little newborn on this earth probably. He was so angelic for our session, peacefully sleeping away
and then waking up happy. (Do any other newborns do this? I’ve always thought that they instantly start crying the moment they wake up.)
Jason and Sharolee, thank you so much for letting me into your home to document such a sweet, new time in your lives with your darling little man.
Interested in a snuggly, warm, cozy-and-oozing-with-joy-and-authenticity lifestyle family session of your own?
Today I made cinnamon rolls.
The homemade take-3-hours-kind.
Baby Girl, you better love me–I’m doin all kinds of things for you…
including blaming you for the pile of cinnamon rolls in my kitchen waiting to be devoured for second breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all in between.
But today is a holiday, and we’re celebrating over here.
Lots of delicious photos to share with you this week–and for now, just a taste of Janine and Kevin’s engagement session.
Happy President’s Day!
P.S. I’m guest posting on my dear friend Becky’s blog–check out How to Take Better Photos in 5 Minutes or Less over there if you missed it here. =)
P.P.S. Mini sessions. 3 spots left. Get yours.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what makes a good photo.
I’ve spent a lot of time practicing making my photos better.
That last part is way more important than the first part. And yeah, everyone tells you: to take better pictures, you need to practice, practice, practice—it’s true. But. If your practice isn’t guided and mindful, if you go into it blind and annoyed that your pictures aren’t magazine-worthy yet, you’ll either 1. Quit very soon or 2. Take a long time to get photos that make your heart sing.
This is the part where I tell you how to make your photos better in 5 minutes or less—whether you’re capturing photos of your adorable babies or your impeccable dessert or your beautiful grandmother.
Since our world is so flooded with pictures, we don’t often think about why we’re really taking a photograph. Are you making art? Documenting a precious moment? Trying to capture a feeling? It might feel a little woo-woo, but say that intention aloud before you take a photo (aight, you can whisper if you’re feeling shy.) This gives you a direction and focus and a meter by which to judge your resulting photo: did you accomplish what you intended? Of course you’re not going to do this for every photo you take, but it’s good practice to slow down and get purposeful about your photos.
My life changed the day I learned that you can control exposure on an iPhone by tapping the subject you want to expose (and yes, some of you are rolling your pretty little eyes right now. It’s fine.) There are so many simple things that will change your photographic world and make you think omgosh WHY didn’t I learn this sooner? Google is your best friend, along with your camera manual. I’m still learning new techniques that help me up my photographic game.
Find the kind of light you are attracted to, and here’s where the “practice, practice, practice” advice comes in. It’s the only way to learn to use light to flatter your subject, elicit emotion, and create the mood you want in a photo. Notice, too, that we’re experimenting with ALL kinds of light and not just window light or golden hour light or even just natural light—if you have a light bulb you’ll be set for hours of experimenting. (Or as long as your subject will tolerate you… J)
Send your favorite few photos to a variety of people: a photographer, a different kind of artist, a friend, and a stranger. Ask for a general reaction, how the viewer feels looking at the photo, and then ask for any other thoughts. Be proactive in letting your people know that you don’t need to know if they ‘like’ the photo or not; you’re simply discovering whether you accomplished your intention for a specific photo.
Whenever I’m feeling photographically stuck, one of these 5-minute solutions is usually the answer. I hope they lend some insight into your own picture-taking, regardless of whether you’re a photo lover or just trying to capture your world as beautifully as possible.
Now you’ve read this, and we know it’ll be useless to you without accountability. So choose a 5 minute exercise now–either schedule it in your calendar or just go on and do it–and tell me which one you’re doin’ in the comments below.
P.S. I wanna see the results of your 5 minute photo adventures! Post ’em on instagram and holler at me @brookeschultz1.
Thank you for validating my voice, photographically and just regular.
Thank you for your comments, emails, questions, and “me too!”s.
Thank you for showing me that people still care about other people–that the world is good, that humans are nice, and that love and life are abundant.
Thank you for energizing me by sharing your dreams and hopes and silliness right back when I share mine.
Thank you for congratulating me and supporting me through Baby Girl’s growth in my belly. She feels the love.
Thank you for letting me know that people care about art, fabulous photos, and the process behind all of it.
This internet thing is kind of strange–I can feel so close and connected to people I’ve never seen face to face. I can even say I like, love you.
…Or maybe I just need to get out more. Or get a dog or something.
Thanks for the love, peeps.
…………..
If you’re feelin’ the love, check out my new mentoring options for creatives who want to get their businesses flourishing. Or, let’s start chatting about a cozy winter mini session—only 3 spots remain, and I want you to have one of ’em.
