My wife and I have known Allie since she was in high school. Neither one of us thought that there was a man out there as cool as Allie, but of course Allie had to prove us wrong . . . . and found the lid to her pot.  I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Allie and Tyler in a grove of pistachio trees in Gilbert, Arizona. Here are some of my favorite images:

Note to self: buy mirror sunglasses.

I had a great time playing with the colors in this photo.  If I were 14 I would say it looks “chill” even though it is warm.

Long before he fell in love with Allie, Tyler fell in love with the outdoors. Not one to shy away from a little competition, Allie drummed up this little number to catch her man’s eye. I was laughing the entire time we were shooting.  Which is problematic because laughter creates camera shake.  But I kept it under control.

  In today’s world of social networking we have all at one time or another written up a personal profile – a brief description of who we are and of the events that have occurred in our lives to make us that way. I told you that I have known Allie for a long time. Her personal profile is full of strength, hard work, optimism, and survival. I am so pleased with this next shot of Allie. It does what photography does best and provides a visual representation of that description of who we are and the events that have made us that way.

Is it possible that Tyler likes her even better without the antlers?

Yep!

As the sun set, I opened up the aperture on my 50 mm 1.2 lens all the way to 1.2 which gave us this extreme limited depth of field.  I told Allie and Tyler I was going to be making some extremely grainy old looking photographs.  They were excited about the idea.  I think they turned out well.

This is definitely on of my favorite shots of the day.  The grain, the encircling branches, the soft light.  It is all there.

Ever the hunter!

Tyler brought several deadly weapons to this photo shoot . . . and I just brought my camera.

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: The Groves, Gilbert, Arizona

Slideshow Music by Fisher, “It’s a Beautiful Life,” courtesy of Triple Scoop Music.