Thanks for stopping by! I’m a wedding and portrait photographer, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. I’m a transplant to Utah from Northern California, where I grew up skiing and enjoying the outdoors with my family. I moved to Utah to go to college (and ski) and here I am, 13 years later, married to a wonderfully supportive husband and have two cute, black Labs. I’m passionate about photography and life. I get really excited when I get a great shot (as many of my clients can attest) and I’m not afraid to act like a dork in public.

Check out the video below to get a taste of what an engagement session with me is like. Let’s go!

Video by Orton Films

Woohoo!  I made it on the Utah Bride and Groom blog.  Utah Bride and Groom is only the most awesome bridal magazine and wedding planning source in Utah. Mikey and Machel are such a great couple and I loved their engagement shoot.  Thanks for bringing that champagne along, Mikey!

Check out the full post at Utah Bride and Groom, HERE.

And…you’ll be seeing more of me on the Utah Bride and Groom blog soon, as well as in the magazine.  I’m so excited!
Check out wedding planning ideas, photos,  and information at www.utahbrideandgroom.com.

Brittany and Braden are so silly and so in love. They’ve known each other for years, their parents are good friends, and they are best friends. Every time I’m with these two, I seem to get sucked into a time warp. Our session was 3 hours long! I think it’s because I’m so comfortable with them and have so much silly fun with them. The bridals/groomals, soon to come, were 4 hours long!!! Whoa, that’s a long session. Brittany and Braden will be married this Wednesday at the Salt Lake Temple and will have their reception at the beautiful, Cactus and Tropicals in Draper.

Thanks for being so fun to be around, you two. Can’t wait for your wedding on Wednesday!

Machel and Mikey looked like movie stars for their engagement photos, especially when they got decked out in their black and white outfits, Machel in a fresh, classic, white strapless dress with black belt and heels and Mikey, in his white pants, black shirt, and stunna’ shades.

Machel had seen some engagements I’d done overlooking the city, right on this-here blog! So, we did photos there, but first, we got together and did some “studio” style photos in their casual outfits and then, went to the field, overlooking Salt Lake City. I also had another awesome location up my sleeve, but we had to wait until dark to use it to its full advantage. Mikey brought along champagne and we decided to capture the opening of the bottle on film at the final location. Mikey looked so cool opening that bottle and then, poofshhhmmmmshhhh! it kind of blew up in Mikey’s face. Poor Mikey had it dripping from his face and on his shirt, but it made for a funny moment. After that, Mikey and Machel enjoyed their champagne and I got some of my favorite photos of them. Check it out below!

Remember how rainy June was? Kind of hard to remember, now that it’s so hot, but trust me, I made it through quite a few rainy weddings and this really rainy, but super-fun engagement session. Avery works at Anthropologie, which is probably my favorite store. It’s European sensibility, attention to detail, collected feeling, and modern, yet classic aesthetic are right up my alley. Avery and Matt wanted an Anthropologie/J. Crew editorial kind of look. Just wait until you see Avery’s bridals (after the wedding, of course)! They are gorgeous and very magazine-y.

Anywho, Avery and Matt and I set out to a gorgeous grassy field while the skies were still blue with those monster cumulus clouds that form before a thunder storm. We captured some amazing skies and then, came the thunder, and lighting, and rain…lots of it.

So, we finished up our grassy field photos under a cute, see-through umbrella and decided to go for it and shoot in the rain at Liberty Park. We sneaked onto the abandoned carousel and ran through the rain from covered spot to covered spot. We had a blast.

I’ve been wanting to use balloons in an engagement or bridal session for some time now, since I saw an ad in Vogue for a French perfume. When Cassandra asked if we could use balloons for her engagement session, I jumped at the opportunity.

We headed to the University of Utah for trees and greenery and a classic, but creative look. We got really lucky when we found the wonderfully talented, Benny Gilbert, playing guitar and singing on the sidewalk. We asked Benny if we could take some photos of Jacob and Cassandra while he played and wow, were those cool photographs. It was my favorite part of the session. I’m always looking for ways to inject something into my sessions that’s not going to happen again, that no one else will have.

I’m really looking forward to Jacob and Cassandra’s wedding and reception at the Salt Lake Temple and Le Jardin. They’re having a Midsummer Night’s Dream inspired reception with fairies and flowers and beautiful things. What a dream for me!

David and Catie of Montauk Motion Pictures came along to film the session as well. David’s style in unlike other videographers I’ve seen in Utah. David’s films have a cinematic Super 8 feeling and he sets them to the loveliest music that really sets the scene. David shoots in an unobtrusive manner, quietly observing with his camera. Here’s the film he created from Cassandra and Jacob’s engagement session:

Red Balloon from David Pilkington on Vimeo.

I sure like Asha and Daniel. Asha is a medical student at the University of Utah and Daniel is a biochemist (I hope I got that right, I can never seem to remember. I know, Asha, there’s no such thing as biochemistry, but that’s the best I could do). They both have quiet, easy demeanors and they’re just so nice to be around.

I knew when Asha sent me a picture of her Anthropologie dress, just what I was going to do. A week or so before, my friend Soozee and Ani and I took a walk in Sugarhouse through some back alleys behind the cool old homes. When I saw that dress of Asha’s, I knew that’s exactly where I wanted to go for their engagement photos.

I’m really excited for their bridal/groomal photography session coming up. They want to do photos together so we won’t be rushed on the wedding day. I can’t wait to see Asha’s saris. The colors she described sound sumptous. I’m also looking forward to their wedding at Alta Peruvian Lodge Lucky me!

Tom and Kristin are probably the silliest couple I’ve photographed. It may have helped that I brought toys to their engagement session-big, red bouncy balls. I think that got us started off right, but they would have been crazy without them anyway. We tromped all over Holladay, playing at a school yard and frolicking in fields. Thanks for a wonderful, silly time, Tom and Kristin.

You can see and learn more about my engagement and bridal portraits and wedding photography or my creative portraiture by clicking the respective links.

Holly and Eric’s engagement session pretty much ruled. The only time we could meet and have good sunlight was at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning in February. I met Holly and Eric at their place and off we went to the Great Salt Lake. It was really cold, but really beautiful with the clearest blue sky. Whoa-as I just wrote “clearest blue sky”, Johnny Cash sang, “clear blue sky” from my computer. Coincidence? I think not. Okay, back to regularly scheduled blogging…

So, Holly and Eric and I set off on our cold photographing adventure. I knew I didn’t have to do anything typical with them, and could really let my art out. The thin blanket of snow, crisp blue sky, and frost clinging to grasses was the perfect backdrop to Holly and Eric in their simple black and jeans outfits and their natural look. I teased them about how they had the same glasses and they told me that they are basically copies of each other with their glasses and long hair, often both wearing black and jeans. They both love and own Volkswagons. Eric sells ‘em and probably knows more about them than just about anyone. He also races them and wins a lot. Anything other than VWs are “off brand”.

Holly and Eric’s wedding is in September at Rose Sachs Gardens, a place I love to shoot. I’m looking forward to it. I also can’t wait for Holly’s bridal portrait session. I’ve got some awesome ideas for that and I got a sneak peek of her dress the other day. It’s gorgeous.

Sandie and Matthew were married in the Manti LDS Temple recently-many congratulations, you guys!  Now you get to do that thing you wanted to do on Valentine’s Day, Sandie!  wink-wink

They’re those kind of people who are smiley, sparkly, and totally into each other-my favorite kind of people to photograph.

While shooting their engagement photographs in downtown Salt Lake City, I got us in trouble because I moved a big ‘ol bicycle rack out of the opening of a parking garage because, frankly, it just ruined my shot. The parking attendant lady yelled at me, but I got her to let me finish my photographs. We put the thing back. Sheesh! No harm, no foul.

Toward the end of the session, we took Matthew’s Scion-esque vehicle to a cool spot and did some photos with it. Matthew demonstrated how much he loves his vehicle by crawling on it like a pinup model! Check out Matthew making out with his car below.

Click on the arrow to start the slideshow.