Gilbert – Jared Platt

December 11, 2014

Little Angels: a A Child Life Portrait

I photographed two absolute angels this month. It was a perfect Saturday morning in the most beautiful little grove of trees in Gilbert, Arizona. The trees had lost a few leaves which had turned a wonderful orange-yellow. The weather was perfect and the girls were as cute as they could be. The slide show presents the photos in full color, but I thought I would show my favorite images from this portrait shoot in a muted film style. I was inspired to present them in this style by the first image in the series. It just begged to be shown this way, so who am I to argue with an image’s wishes.

Princess dresses, magic wands and pink cowboy boots. You can’t ask for a better morning than this…

The girls had a lot of fun playing in the leaves and running back and forth in their little princess dresses. There is a lot of joy in those little girls.

This is the moment we live for.

One of my absolute favorites in the entire set. I think it is absolutely beautiful and so peaceful.

But while her sister was falling to sleep, big sister was full of life and energy. I think princess outfits are like sugar to a little girl. Put them on and they become full of life and energy.

Family Portrait Location: Gilbert Arizona

Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Slideshow music by Mindy Gledhill, courtesy of Triple Scoop Music

September 19, 2014

Breanna and Rimo’s Wedding in Gilbert, Arizona

Congratulations to Breanna and Rimo. It was such an honor to be a part of their wedding. Breanna and Rimo were married in the Gilbert, Arizona LDS Temple with a reception at Noah’s in Chandler. Enjoy the slideshow.

July 12, 2012

The Newest Day: An Infant Portrait in Gilbert, Arizona

Many years ago (not that many) I photographed a beautiful wedding in Sedona for a great couple, the Day’s. I have been photographing their family ever since. This time I get to show a little progression. On kind of a last minute shoot, we went out and photographed Amaris’ maternity portraits, but since it she already has a little girl, it was more of a family portrait session. Later, once the baby was born, I went back to photograph her.

Here are my favorite images from the two sessions.

Lola is the same age (within a week I think) of my daughter, who, although they have only played together once, claims Lola as her “best friend.” Anyway, Lola is a fun little girl and full of expression. She wasn’t angry in this shot, I think she was trying to strike a pose. It makes me laugh.

Amaris is ready for the baby to arrive, and I think Lola is too.

Nathan’s truck is a tough lookin’ beast, and much to his wife’s amusement, we both agreed that the truck needed to be in a shot or two. If I had a truck like that, it might be a part of my family as well.

I love this shot. Just for the pure documentary nature of it. I picture my daughter trying to get my attention to have some serious discussion with me. There’s nothing better than a serious little child putting her tiny hand on your shoulder and having an adult conversation with words you can barely understand.

Yep. Perfect little moment.

She’s so proud to be there with her daddy. Not planned. We were getting ready to photograph the baby and as I was putting my equipment together, Lola saw the camera and figured it was time for some snap shots and went to posing for them. It made us all laugh.

Such a little ham. She’s always ready for her closeup.

And there she is, the newest Day.

Isn’t this the constant state of life for a baby sibling. Always clobbered by her sister with affection and love.

This is one of my very favorite images from the shoot. The lighting is so perfect and so are the expressions. This is the one I would have with me at all times.

I thought all the old items were quite beautiful in contrast with the new baby and the new flowers. And of course, the light is wonderful. This is the product of three Canon 600 EX RT Speedlites. I can’t say enough good things about that flash system. It works wonders.

Such a serious face.

She is beautiful. Congratulations Nathan and Amaris on another beautiful daughter. It is an honor to be there to document your family’s growth.

By the way, this is the coolest front porches ever.

Family Portrait by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Slideshow Music by Kristen Andreassen, courtesy of TripleScoopMusic

Location: Gilbert, Arizona

May 18, 2012

Mary’s Senior Portraits in Gilbert and Chandler, Arizona

Mary is one smart and driven girl… and as you can see, quite beautiful as well. I have know Mary and her family since they moved to Arizona from Alaska. The time flew so fast and now she’s graduating (of course graduating in three years makes made the time go by a lot faster). Congratulations Mary.

Here are some of my favorite images from Mary’s senior portrait photography session.

When you take photographs of people, you look for identifying things about them, things that everyone else would notice. One of those things about Mary is her eyes. So lighting was extremely important to make sure her eyes were featured with enough light to show them off.

Mary’s sneior portrait session was photographed with the new Canon Mark 5D Mark III and a set of Canon Speedlight 600ex RT flashes. The RT in the name basically means these flashes have radio transmission capabilities. Which means extremely accurate off camera flash capability right from flash to flash, no additional hardware needed. In this next set of images you will see the beauty of the system.

In this next shot, I have a lot of sun coming down at Mary’s back, which gives her a great glow, but without some kind of forward light, I would have her face in too dark a shadow. So I have two Canon 600 Speedlights on either side the right flash just 2/3 stop higher in power than the other giving her a nice even fill on her face. These flashes are fantastic. Stay tuned for a full review of the flashes.

In this next shot, even though Mary is in the full shade of the house, I am able to give her a nice glow with the use of the Canon 600 Speedlight flashes. I absolutely love this shot.

It took me by surprise, but Mary can be quite the performer. After a little coaxing from her sisters and her mother, Mary opened up and gave us a great show.

Congratulations, Mary. I wish you the best. You’ll do great.

Senior Portrait Photography by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Slideshow Music by Mindy Gledhill, Courtesy of Triple Scoop Music

Location: Gilbert Arizona and Chandler Arizona

April 17, 2012

The Twins’ Senior Portraits in Chandler, Arizona.

Megan and Caitlin are both wonderfully talented musicians, so when we were planning their senior portraits, I wanted to make sure that we included their musical talents in the photo shoot. For Caitlin, this was as simple as bringing her cello along, but Megan just happens to play the piano. I am used to carrying pianos into strange places from my portraits of Kevin Burdick, but it’s never fun. Fortunately I had some help lifting that thing. All pianos are heavy.

Here are a few of my favorite images from Megan and Caitlin’s senior portrait photo shoot.

I love the line of telephone poles down the right side of the frame, and with all the dirt and such, it needed to be altered to feel much older.

Even though they are both smart and talented, Megan and Caitlin’s personalities are as different as their hair. I love the differences in style and stance… even facial expression. But still there is a solidarity that you expect from twins.

This was the absolute golf light of the evening. Moments before the sun went down. I love what is does to the sky, to the tracks and the way is traces the girls.

This is what I envisioned when I thought of bringing the piano to this location. The Groves is a strange little group of trees. I love it most in black and white. I had no idea what Megan was bringing in the clothing department until we got to the location, but the hat was absolutely perfect.

How’s this for sun flair? Megan has a fantastic smile and while it is very genuine, can be delivered perfectly on demand. How many of you can say that about yourselves?

It was such a pleasure to spend the afternoon with Megan and Caitlin and their parents. I love my job.

We stopped on our way from one location to another and did a few shots of Caitlin in her soccer gear. This was my absolute favorite of those images. She just looks proud and powerful.

And then to compare the above soccer pose to this next image which is as soft as can be. There are two sides to every coin.

Senior Portraits by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Slideshow Music by Fisher, Courtesy of Triple Scoop Music

Location: The Groves in Gilbert Arizona

High School: Hamilton High

April 2, 2012

A+T: Engagement Portraits in Gilbert, Arizona

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.

August 31, 2011

Baby Boy Bailey: An Infant Portrait, Gilbert, Arizona

I got a call from my great friend and fantastic photographer, Isaac Bailey, asking me to come over and photograph his new baby boy. Congratulations Heather!

Of course, the thing we photographers deal with is that we can take plenty of pictures of our children, but we never seem to be in them… I completely understood how Isaac was feeling, so I dropped everything and went over. We got some fantastic infant portraits. The first one (above) is my very favorite. I think it describes Isaac very well: a strong man with a very soft heart.

The next image is perfect. Isaac has large hands, which was good because Baby Boy Bailey (that is still his official name on the records) has very long feet, so making them look super tiny requires BIG hands.

Baby Boy Bailey (I love calling him by that name, I think I will always call him BB) was very sleepy. So we had a time getting him to open his eyes, but with some patience, we got a few shots of him with his eyes open. Sleepy, but open.

I love the yawn.

This has to be my second favorite image from the infant portrait session. I love the contrast between Isaac’s beard, his rough carpenter hands and the baby’s soft skin. And of course, the tender kiss seals the importance of the image. Nothing is more precious than a kiss on a baby’s cheek or forehead. That connection can not be over stated.

Isaac wanted to make sure we captured a few images with the hospital band in them. I completely agree. I think I wore my hospital band for weeks after my daughter was born. Anyway, this image does such a great job of showing off that hospital band. It is definitely one of the major characters in this image, but doesn’t over power the other players, like BB Bailey and his dad’s hand.

The size relationship of a father’s thumb and his baby’s hand should be one of the wonders of the world. I am always amazed that those little fingers work just like mine do. BB Bailey also has long fingers. This boy will be a very tall concert pianist.

Feeding time is a precious moment.

Congratulations to Heather and Isaac Bailey on their brand new baby boy. He is precious.

Infant Portrait by Jared Platt, Platt Photography

Location: Gilbert, Arizona

By the way, Isaac Bailey is not only a great photographer… he designed and built this blog!

September 25, 2009

Fun Portraits in Gilbert, Arizona

We shot Sarah and Macey’s portraits in downtown Gilbert, AZ. They are great friends, so we were able to get individual portraits as well as some cool shots of them together. They are not high school seniors yet, but who says you have to be a high school senior to get some cool portraits done?

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the portrait session:

The wind was picking up toward sunset, but rather than fight it, I went with it and it provided some added energy to the shots.

Once night falls, street lights and off camera flash are the only way to go. Here we are using the Canon 580EXII with a Pocket Wizard TT1 and TT5 TTL radio slave which allow us to send the advanced TTL exposure information to the flash via radio signals.