Andrea Grover Photography

Olavesons

2012-01-03T18:26:00.002-07:00

This family got creative with a couple of black blankets taped to the kitchen wall for our shoot. I think they make some pretty dynamic black and white images.

Breanna

2011-12-31T16:20:00.002-07:00

This photo shoot included a first for me: taking pictures of someone standing on a frozen pond. That's what happens when you shoot portraits in December!

Kent

2011-11-18T16:57:00.003-07:00

My brother-in-law asked me to shoot some pictures of him and his beloved instruments for an upcoming website and applications for music-related activities. And to accommodate me and my kids' schedules, he came to our house so we could do the shoot in our yard. Sadly, we don't still have brilliant colors on the trees that we did at the time; instead, we've got a yard full of brown leaves. Anyone wanna come over for a raking party?

Pettets

2011-10-19T13:37:00.002-06:00

The other day, my husband's brother's wife's mom (follow that?) asked if I could take pictures of their family. Done and done!

Egberts

2011-10-19T13:34:00.003-06:00

Lately, it's been all about the family group shot. The Egberts had their kids in town from out-of-state, so we did a quick shoot so they could have a current picture with their newest grandkids.

Braithwaites (times two)

2011-10-13T13:47:00.004-06:00

This couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this year, and I got to help them remember it by shooting lots (and lots!) of pictures of them and their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids at Freeman Park.

They also asked me to create a 24x36 collage of them and all their kids' family pictures. That's the largest picture I've ever held in my hands!

Immediately following the shoot, I took pictures of one of their sons and his family.

Caywoods

2011-09-12T14:15:00.002-06:00

A client brought this original image to me and asked if I could help it out some.

Here's the result.

Chelsy

2011-09-12T14:07:00.003-06:00

I had the pleasure of shooting senior portraits for the hubby's cousin. Here are some of her (and my) favorites.

I had the pleasure of shooting senior portraits for the hubby's cousin.

Father's Day

2011-06-23T13:38:00.002-06:00

As a gift to the best dad in the world, we took these pictures and had them framed so he could display his beautiful girls at the office.

A cold, crisp day

2011-01-19T10:58:00.004-07:00

So remember that wedding I mentioned? The work is finally finished, and the discs are burning. I'm glad we all survived the arctic temperatures that day. Here are a few favorites from the temple and the reception that night:

I know, I know ...

2011-01-13T13:29:00.004-07:00

... I should be working on wedding photos. But I had to take a quick time-out to shoot some gorgeous pictures of my gorgeous baby girl.

I have ulterior motives. Every time we have a baby, I try to enter the most beautiful picture of her into the Post Register's baby parade issue so we can win prizes. I don't understand how we haven't won yet, but I'm willing to try again.

So this morning I dressed Miri up in a onesie I learned how to dye at this site and shot a few pics. Here's my favorite.

I know what you're thinking. ... This won will win for sure! Right? Right?

I know what I'm thinking. ... She looks so adorable with a headband! So why does the little stinker yank them out every time I put one in?

Handsome man

2011-01-13T11:14:00.002-07:00

I'll have wedding pictures to post soon, but I finished these last night and wanted to get them up.

While at the reception I was shooting last weekend, my childhood best friend (whose sister happened to be the bride) asked if I would take some pictures of her cute 1-year-old.

Handsome little man, isn't he?

Christmas card design

2010-12-14T12:28:00.003-07:00

A friend called this morning and asked that I do a little editing to some pictures they had taken this summer (by another photographer) so they could get a family Christmas card printed. I showed her the Christmas card I designed for our family last year and asked if she just wanted me to add the text and graphics. Here's the final result:

Us

2010-11-24T16:59:00.003-07:00

It took a while to find a time to take a couple self-portrait. The hubby usually gets home after dark, and I wanted to use the same window light I had for the girls' pictures. With Seth taking the day off, I finally had my chance.

I tried to have us do closed-mouth smiles (again, to match the girls' pictures), but I just can't do it! Every time I attempted it, my teeth showed anyway. Oh, well.

The frame story

2010-11-12T11:55:00.003-07:00

Once upon a time, I had a picture frame on our entry way wall. It had three B&W 4x6s of the family: one of Seth and Andrea together, one of Rebekah and one of Analee. But then one day, I had to borrow the mat from that frame for one of my entries to the state fair.

After the fair, I tried putting the frame back in its home on the wall, only to have it fall on the ground and break into itsy bitsy pieces. I tried to buy a replacement frame, but I couldn't find the exact one. Instead, I found and purchased a slightly bigger frame that has a mat that holds four 4x6s.

The frame has been hanging on the wall sans photos, glass and back for a few days now. My camera has been sitting out for a couple of days now, so I decided to pick it up and takes pictures of my girls by the window. Here are my favorites:

Now all I've got to do is get Seth around here while there's still some daylight and take a picture with him; then I'll have all four spots in our mat ready to be occupied.

Ashley

2010-10-07T14:27:00.002-06:00

The involved persons haven't even had a chance to look through these yet, but I HAVE to post one of the images I shot last night. Ashley is such an adorable girl!

Gorgeous girls

2010-10-03T16:42:00.005-06:00

I bought frames for our bedroom and painted them to match the furniture. So I HAD to have new pictures of my beautiful girls to go in them. I love how you can see their little personalities in the images.

Kent & Melissa, Part III

2010-09-09T16:42:00.004-06:00

I'm a little slow to get these edited/posted. I'll blame it on the fair, hunting season, the beginning of school and being a stay-at-home mom in general. Better late than never!

EISF results

2010-09-09T16:25:00.003-06:00

I have good news and bad news. The good news is I won one more ribbon than last year. The bad news is none of my ribbons were of the blue hue.

I received a red ribbon for Kent and Melissa's wedding portrait:

I received a pink ribbon for Kent and Melissa's engagement picture ("body parts"):

I received a pink ribbon for Kent and Melissa's engagement picture ("water scene"):

All I can say is, thank goodness for Kent and Melissa!

Eastern Idaho State Fair 2010

2010-08-27T10:05:00.004-06:00

Here are this year's entries to the fair. It's a good thing Kent and Melissa asked me to shoot so many of their pictures, because several of my entries come from their engagement, pre-wedding and wedding shoots. I'll know if any of my entries are ribbon-winners in a week or so.

Action

Water scene

Portrait, wedding

Body parts

Portrait, child

Series

Nature

Religious

Candid wedding

Still life

Kent & Melissa, Part II

2010-08-23T09:18:00.004-06:00

Before their big day, Kent and Melissa asked if I would take pictures of them in their wedding attire. Melissa chose the spots: windmills, cliffs, fences and fields east of town.

Kent and Melissa dated in high school, and they attended several school dances. At those dances, Melissa always wore silver Converse sneakers. Since purple was her primary color at the reception, Kent bought her purple Converses to wear with her wedding dress.

This is where Kent proposed to Melissa. We recreated the moment.

Patty's family

2010-08-02T17:04:00.003-06:00

Patty had all her kids in town (which is saying something because they're spread out pretty far, geographically speaking) and wanted family pictures. I was happy to oblige.

The only editing I had to do was to switch Aaron's head (left top) with another picture because he was looking away in this shot, and to slightly alter the color of Kate's cardigan (middle bottom) because it was a little to salmon-y.

Miri's blessing dress

2010-07-22T16:36:00.004-06:00

I'm not biased, but I think my baby is gorgeous. Even though she wore this dress almost two months ago when she was blessed, I didn't get around to doing a legitimate shoot with her until recently. (To see all my favorites, click here.)

A big family continues to get bigger

2010-07-22T15:33:00.003-06:00

This is actually a composite of five or six photographs. (Don't you just love Photoshop?) We knew that shooting a complete Grover picture would require a little bit of post-production because nobody would be standing behind the camera. (Don't you just love remote-control shutter release?) But between the dozens of takes and a little computer magic, I think we got a pretty nice group photo. Too bad this will be out-of-date as soon as Kent gets married.

Kent & Melissa

2010-06-16T10:58:00.003-06:00

When I married the oldest child of the Grover clan, I inherited three younger siblings. Each has been gracious enough to allow me to shoot pictures of their special events. So when Kent called and asked if I would shoot engagement pictures of him and his new fiancée, Melissa, I was ecstatic. Not only would I get to do something I love, I would get to do it in a new location. I had never been to Monkey Rock before, but it proved to be an awesome place for photo ops.

Baby Miriam

2010-06-03T16:31:00.003-06:00

I can't help but shoot pictures of my kids. They're adorable AND they're willing subjects. Five-day-old Miriam couldn't object to her mommy/paparazzo. This is the shot we included in her baby announcement.

Pretty princesses

2010-01-06T13:09:00.002-07:00

Looking through our Picasa albums, I realized that I hadn't posted the shoot we did with our two girls on this site. My mom made these beautiful princess dresses for our girls' birthdays in the summer, and we had to go do an all-out princess shoot with them.

Baby Cooper #2

2009-11-05T15:26:00.003-07:00

Finished the photos! Cute, cute, cute. Although, I must say ... the last series of photos when Cooper was stripped down to his diaper and perched on a pillow was definitely my favorite!

Baby Cooper

2009-11-04T14:57:00.005-07:00

My girls were super-excited to see their newest cousin again as I shot baby and family pictures this morning. I'm not finished going through my files, but here are some high-contrast B&Ws that I love.

IF Tigers luggage tags

2009-10-29T13:42:00.004-06:00

I didn't shoot any pictures shown in this post. But I figure that photography and graphic design are closely related (and maybe I just like to show off), so I'm going to blog about this anyway.

My dad helps coach the Idaho Falls High volleyball team. Right now they're in northern Idaho playing in the state tournament, and as an extra nice gesture, Dad wanted to design luggage tags for the girls and give them to the team. Then, seeing that he didn't have enough time to do the design work, get them all printed up, and then put them together (let alone get lesson plans ready and pack), he commissioned me to do the work.

He came up with everything: the graphics, the words and the team photo. I just slapped them together. And here is the end result:

The front of the tag. Might I say, I LOVE www.dafont.com. Half my fonts are from there.

The back of the tag. Of course, every one was individualized, so my dad wasn't claiming all the girls' luggage. What would the man do with 12 pairs of black spandex shorts, anyway?

Berretts

2009-09-15T12:45:00.002-06:00

The Berretts are the best neighbors we could ask for. Ted has helped me fix a flat tire on the van when Seth had already left for work. He also drove his van over our lawn and into the driveway so we could jump our van after I had left the lights on all night. And both Ted and Lu have been more than generous with the incredible vegetables they grow in their garden. So when Lu asked if I would shoot their family (all 34 of them who could come!), I was happy and willing.

When you have that many people (and a lot of little ones), it's hard to get one perfect shot. So we did a fair amount of head-swapping. Can you guess which seven heads I switched? (Hope not, or I've done a crummy job.) We also added in one granddaughter who couldn't be there that day.

Catching up: Weddings

2009-09-08T13:49:00.002-06:00

Now that I have this blog up and running, I plan to continually update it with photos I have recently shot. However, because this is replacing my previous online portfolio, I thought I'd repost the pictures from that site here. Hence the following "catching up" posts.

Catching up: Receptions

2009-09-08T13:39:00.003-06:00

Catching up: Portraits

2009-09-08T13:28:00.003-06:00

Including senior portraits, missionary portraits and children's portraits.

Catching up: Engagements

2009-09-08T13:21:00.003-06:00

Catching up: Freelance

2009-09-08T13:15:00.002-06:00

Random pictures I've shot through the years.

Catching up: Collages

2009-09-08T13:12:00.002-06:00

I didn't shoot these photos, but I was commissioned to arrange them.

Catching up: Bridals

2009-09-08T13:06:00.003-06:00

Fair results

2009-09-08T08:17:00.003-06:00

I must say I'm a tad bit disappointed in the number of ribbons I won (or didn't win) this year. Two ribbons for 10 pictures. Oh, well. At least the two ribbons I won were good 'uns.

The "Still Life" picture of the reception centerpiece placed second. My "Old Building" picture of the Red Baron hangar scored a blue. I'm a little surprised that neither of my "Candid Wedding" shots earned a ribbon; in fact, no "Candid Wedding" picture in my skill level received a blue or red ribbon. Times must be hard on the fair if they're scrimping on the awards.

New look

2009-09-04T08:07:00.001-06:00

I have the most awesome husband who has the most awesome HTML skills. Rather than the blah black template I started out with, I now have this beauty of a blog. Thanks, Seth!

Eastern Idaho State Fair 2009

2009-09-01T20:16:00.002-06:00

I get excited for the fair every year. As I select my entries for the photo contest and mat the prints, I get psyched. Then when I go to Blackfoot to drop of my entries, I get bummed. I start looking around at all the other photographs and wonder if any of mine are as good as the others.

Guess we'll find out!

I'll be going to the fair with the family on Labor Day. Upon our return, you can bet I'll update the blog with the ribbon count.

Each picture includes the category in which I entered it in quotes.

"Clouds and Rainbows" Shot from the Lower Falls Brink in Yellowstone National Park.

"Portrait, Woman" A self-portrait, actually (which I think deserves its own category). I shot this last year.

"Candid Wedding" I got to shoot a reception for a friend from the college newspaper staff days. Because the groom's family is way into aviation, they held their reception in an old airplane hangar. The bride set down her bouquet so she could dance, and I happened to find it.

"Candid Wedding" Usually I don't enter two pictures in the same category. I guess I feel like it's bad luck to compete against yourself. But this year, I couldn't help but enter both this picture and the previous one. This is, again, the college friend, this time dancing with her new husband.

"Portrait, Children" A (if I say so myself) beautiful shot of my beautiful daughters/princesses.

"Still Life" I considered entering this into the "Flowers" category, but decided against it since the candle is the focus. From the same reception as mentioned before. I really like a lot of the photos I shot at this one.

"Wood" Shot of a dead tree lying in a bacteria mat at the Fountain Paint Pots in Yellowstone National Park.

"Story Telling" Another shot of my beautiful girls. This time, outside the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in Utah.

"Old Building" Same reception as before ... again. Like I said, I shot a lot here that I really liked. The setting really lent itself to lots and lots of pictures. This is the sign outside the hangar. It was built (the hangar, not the sign) in the 1930s.

"Multiple Exposure/Special Effects" A composite self-portrait I shot last year.

Hayes touch-ups

2009-08-28T09:16:00.000-06:00

My dad shot these family groups, but he asked me to do a little bit of head-swapping and adjusting. Here are some of the results:

Dad had this senior tip his glasses up so there wouldn't be a glare, but the mother of the senior didn't like that his glasses stem was so high. A little bit of copying, pasting and transforming took care of that.

Bet you can't tell which heads I swapped. At least, I hope you can't.

More head-swapping to make a stellar family picture.

Wrightsons

2009-08-21T09:10:00.000-06:00

Angela and Kenny were married in the San Diego temple about a month ago, but they didn't schedule their Idaho Falls reception until last night. The Shelton Chapel on the Ririe Highway is an incredible venue for photos, and the couple were happy to oblige with being walked all around inside and outside for portraits.

Egberts

2009-08-19T09:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I got to shoot the Egberts. Susan teaches at the same elementary school as my mom and I shot bridal pictures of their older daughter a few years ago, so I knew at least part of the family before our jaunt at Sportsmen Park.

Here are a few of my favorites: