new blog... coming very soon!!

I have been upgrading my blog to a sexier look and feel and hopefully a much better experience for you! I am currently working on importing the posts from this blog into the new layout so this one will be going away. If you are reading this from an rss reader please unsubscribe from this feed and resubscribe to the new site which is listed below. The site is not up yet but will be in the next couple of days so stay tuned.

www.innovativephotography.net/blog

Antelope Island Sunset

Here is a quickie from a shoot i did for a fellow photographer friend of mine last month. I photographed her family on Antelope Island and this is a photo I took right after our shoot when I was driving back. It was my first time visiting the island and I have lived in Utah my entire life... crazy how that works.

Behind The Scenes At A Stock Shoot

It's been a crazy year. We sold our house back in January and have been living with family for the past 10 months while we looked at over 400 houses trying to find the right one. We had 4 different offers that we submitted during the past 10 months and all of them were on short sales or foreclosures and all of them fell through. We finally closed on a house this past week and now we have a ton of remodeling to do before we move in. Our hope is to be in before Christmas... wish us luck!

On top of all that I have been shooting and working myself to death. I realized the other day that I have completely neglected my blog since July... who does that? Bad blogger, bad blogger!

Anyway, I have a ton of stuff to post. Here is a behind the scenes look at a stock shoot I did a few months back. If you are one of my facebook friends you have probably already seen this but I wanted link to it on my blog as well for all of my readers (all 4 of you... lol).

I want to thank each one of the models and stylists I worked with on the shoot, you guys are AWESOME! Thanks for picking up the video camera and capturing some footage to make this video possible.

Images in my stock portfolio can be view and purchased at www.istockphoto.com/ryan_christensen.

Happy Independence Day!!!

I am so grateful for all of the amazing men and women who protect our freedoms each and every, without each of you this country would not be what it is today. It's easy to take our independence for granted but next time you kneel down to pray, remember to thank our lord for these amazing soldiers and their families... The next time you see a soldier in the Airport or in the grocery store be sure to walk up to them and thank them for their sacrifice and teach your children to do the same.

Here is an image that I took on my trip to NY last summer. What an amazing place to visit. I heard a rumor that as of July 4th 2009 visitors to liberty island are once again allowed to climb the 354 steps to visit Lady Liberty's crown.

Happy Fathers Day!

As many of you know, my father passed away this past December and not a day goes by that I don't think about him. This fathers day is bitter sweet for me with my father not being here. I miss him so much! However, it is going to be a great fathers day for me because I get to spend all day with my AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL wife and our AWESOME kids.

Here is my favorite image from our impromptu photo shoot today.

Hurry... Auction will be closing one June 1

Back in March I left a post here telling of an auction I was doing to benefit Paul Cardall and his family. The auction will be closing on June 1 (this coming Monday) so if you would like to find out more or place a bid click here and leave a comment with your bid and your email address so that I can email the winning bidder. Right now the bid is at $300 so hurry on over and place your bids.

Meet my new friends... Cynthia and Matt

So a lot of you know that I have had this idea for a personal project for about 5 years now and it is just barley starting to come to fruition thanks to my two new friends Matt and Cynthia... two of the raddest people that I have had the pleasure of meeting!

I was fortunate enough to met Cynthia about two months ago after her and her sister gave a presentation about their battles with breast cancer. Listening to them relate their story was somewhat depressing and extremely uplifting at the same time. They described how 3 out of the five sisters were diagnosed with breast cancer and how the disease changed their lives forever.

Their story is nothing short of amazing and I was honored to have her in front of my camera!

I met Matt for the first time today and I got goose bumps at least three times as he told me his story of his triumphant battle with brain cancer and how he had to completely relearn how to walk, talk, write and drive all over again after his numerous surgeries.

The entire time I was with them I kept thinking to myself... how could you have such a positive outlook on life when you have been dealt such a crummy hand? These two are stellar examples of what we should all strive to be like... I have so much respect for people who can go through struggles such as Matt and Cynthia's and be grateful rather than bitter for what they have experienced!

Cynthia and Matt... THANK YOU both for allowing me to capture a moment in your lives!

If you or someone you know has or is battling any form of cancer and are interested in participating in this project with me I'd love to hear from you.

Dustin

I spent some time in the studio today with my man Dustin. He's a singer/song writer and the lead singer of a local band. He needed some new photos to promote a gig he's playing in Park City in August. If you like talented singer/song writers who don't suck, you should check him out!

Here are a couple images from the shoot.

Do you Facebook?

I love Facebook... I opened my account about six months ago and I can't get enough of it!!! If you have a facebook account I would love to add you to my friends!




I also have a page for Innovative Photography and I just offered the fans of my page free head shots. I will be offering the fans of this page discounts and freebies so if you are interested please jump on over and become a fan.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Innovative-Photography/59540936220

Here are some images from the shoot I did today.

Do NOT read while eating junk food!

I had an awesome shoot this past weekend with some... shall I say perfect specimen. Aubrie and Matt are scheduled to compete in the NGA competition in a couple of weeks and judging by their looks, their competitors should be very nervous!

After working with these two, I feel like a fat old man!

Visit Aubrie's facebook fan page and cheer her on!!

Here is a quick peak at some of the images from their shoot.




Oh yeah... and they happen to be dating!

Auction for a good cause!!!

I just received an email for a benefit concert in honor of Paul Cardall and was greatly moved by his story.

To help out his family I am auctioning off a single portrait session for up to 4 people complete with a 16x20 print and up to 30 hi-res images from the session on a CD. This is a value of over $500 and the winning bidder will have until September 1st 2009 to redeem the session. I will start the bidding at $300, please leave a comment under this post with your bid so that everyone can see where the current bid is at. Please don't leave an anonymous bid, I will need to contact you if you win.

Every penny received from this auction will be given to Paul and his family so please don't hold back and forward a link to this post to everyone you think may be interested.

I encourage all of you to go out and read his blog (make sure you have box of tissues) and if you are interested in the concert, you can find out more information at here.



I did not take this photograph, it was borrowed from his blog.

Gotta love kids...

We took the kids out for a quick photo shoot (big mistake... hahaha) because we needed some new portraits of them. I wasn't able to capture even one image with all three of them so I will have to be happy with what I did capture considering they didn't want to be there in the first place. Oh well, they'll get over it. hahaha

And her name is...

First I want to thank you all for the great suggestions, Becca and I really enjoyed hearing them!

Three days after her birth we have finally decided on a name for our new baby girl. This is a trend with Becca and I, it took us about 10 days to decide on Ayden's name.

A lot of you have been texting, emailing, leaving comments and pestering me on Facebook (all well deserved or course LOL) to find out what her name is but we honestly didn't know until today. We have been going back and forth between two names and finally decided which one we like better.

Our baby guuurl's name is...

Ireland Rylee

Kind of fitting for St. Patty's day don't you think! Plus, I think she has a bit of that Irish temper!

She has a pretty mild temper most of the time but check out this shot of her screaming her eye's out... hahaha


Oh yeah... Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's a Guuurl... She's got kung-fu!

Last Friday the 13th Becca had our new baby girl! We are so excited to finally have our new addition here... seems like we have been waiting forever... well at least 9 months. We chose not to find out what we were having which made for a fun surprise when she was born.

We still have not agreed on a name but I think we will have it soon (I hope)!

Thank you all for your well wish's, my family and I really appreciate your support!

For now, here are a couple of quick snapshots from the hospital.

She was laying something like this when Ayden came up and lightly touched her head... her ninja like reflexes told her to quickly pull her hands up by her face startling Ayden. He jumped back from his new sister and proclaimed... "She's got kung-fu!" I seriously almost wet myself from laughing so hard.

Ayden and Bentley came to see their new sister in the hospital... they didn't know before they got there whether they got a brother or a sister.

As soon as Bentley figured out that the new baby was a girl she ran out into the waiting room and told her grandparents that it was a guuurl and she knew it because she had a pink bow in her hair. She proceeded to tell them that they couldn't come into the room right now because the baby was drinking her mom's boob. Kids are so AWESOME!!!



Excuse me buddy... can you stop with the camera already... I'm trying to sleep here!

Becca + Labor = Hours in the hospital

As a lot of you know, Becca is 9 months pregnant and the baby is breach. We came to the hospital today to see if Becca's Dr. could turn our baby. The baby turn was successful and now we wait. Looks like it's going to be a Friday the 13th baby... we can't wait to see if it's a boy or a girl.


Ready?

Still haven't picked a name so if you have a good one that you would like to share please leave it in the comments or email it to us.


Hopefully I will be posting baby pics soooooon!!!!!!

Mammoth Men Party... take II

Here are some more images from the crazy party!
These guys will do anything for a photo!



My friend Rhett.

New friend Justin.


Justin Neal Lyon

Jeff Newsom... check out his work... he's AWESOME!

Mammoth Men Party

If you're a wedding or portrait photographer there's no doubt you've heard of the Mammoth Men. Well, they are visiting the great state of Utah this week and invited a bunch of us up to party with them. They are renting out an amazin-licious house in Park City for the week and going on as many adventures as they can fit in.

The party was fan-tickle-astic! I met a lot of AWESOME photographers from Utah as well as all of the crazy Mammoth Men. Check out their blog to see images from the crazybooth during the party and to see their adventures in Utah! There are some images from the crazybooth that I'm sure will NOT make it on the blog! hahaha

Here are just a couple of the images I took.

Here's Mark! Check out the his crazybooth images... this guy cracks me up... he'll do anything! hahaha

Cameron Ingalls

THE P.I.M.P shoes as worn by Jeff Newsom

80's madness

This past weekend my family and I went to a birthday party for Becca's sister. The theme for the party was... you guessed it the 80's! As soon as I heard about the party I knew what I was going to wear... the hunt was on!

Here are some silly shots when we were looking for glasses. I can't believe these styles are cool again... what's happening?


This is what happens when you let a 4 year old dress herself! She thinks it's pretty funny to cross her eyes... I hope this phase passes soon!

Heidi tearin it up!

My HOT pregnant wife rockin out! She is going to be having our baby this Thursday!!!

Here's the birthday girl... so old she needs magnified glass to read. LOL

And here it is... the Miami Vice suit that my AWESOME wife found for me. Thanks babe!