Studio Family Portrait Session – Barrett, Tamera, Cole & Caine

Tis the season for holiday portraits! Photo greeting cards a great way to reconnect with friends & family. They offer a great way to send your wishes while showing everyone how the kids have grown. Looking for an updated batch of family photos for their Christmas cards, Barrett and Tamera brought Cole and Caine up for fun-filled studio shoot.

Great looking crew.

Barrett & the boys.

The guys showing off their best “Blue Steel” poses.

Tamera trying her best for the “Blue Steel” look.

Tamera & the boys.

Happy crew.

Caine doing his best to get Tamera & Barrett to laugh.

Happy couple.

Gotta have a little fun with the shoot.

Jump high-fives and belly bumps!

These boys had some hops

Big thanks to the whole crew. I had an awesome time with the session.

We have numerous portrait session openings from now until Dec 17th. Call us or email to book your session today!

p. 208.863.2212 e. info@stevesmithphotography.com

 

All images copyright Ray J. Gadd & Steve Smith Photography.

Idaho State Mock Trial Competition

I spent the better part of my Monday and Tuesday of this week photographing the Idaho State Mock Trial Competition. The Idaho Law Foundation’s Mock Trial Program is an amazing educational opportunity for students across the state of Idaho to learn the legal procedures of a trial. According to the Idaho Law Foundation, “the Mock Trial offers students an opportunity to experience first-hand the drama and excitement of a courtroom proceeding. It also gives them a chance to sharpen their analytical and communication skills while learning about the law and the legal system.” I can tell you right now first hand that this program had some of the most well spoken, theatrical and intelligent high school students that I have ever come across.

Monday’s quarter final competition hosted twelve Idaho teams at the state of the art Ada County Courthouse. With twelve different teams competing all at once I was only able to get a taste of each teams style.

Tuesday was the semi finals held in the Idaho Federal Courthouse located on Fort Street. Of the four remaining teams, there were only two representative schools. St. Ambrose’s and Logos’ junior varsity and varsity teams both made it to this stage. The junior varsity and varsity teams went head to head leaving only one representative team from each school to go on to the finals. In a bit of an upset, the St. Ambrose junior varsity team beat out their varsity team.

Later that afternoon the remaining teams made their way to the Idaho Supreme Courthouse on State Street for the finals. The best of the best went head to head amidst a courtroom overflowing with proud supporting friends and families. Both came to the table with poise and conviction. The witnesses answered questions carefully and presented testimonials with deep emotion while the attorneys spoke with confidence, answered objections with foundational causes and gave a relative desire to side in their favor. I was blown away at everyone’s preparedness. In the end there could only be one winner. Logos came in first, narrowly edging out St. Ambrose with a split decision to take another state title. Logos will go on to Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the National High School Mock Trial Competition against the top schools of their respected states May 6-10. Best of luck to the team. As an Idahoan, I am truly proud to send Logos as representatives of our state!

Special thanks to Carey Shoufler and Ashley McDermott for getting me onboard for this event. I had a great time!

More pictures will be available by clicking here. Please be patient in the upload of these images.

Avalanche Safety Stock Shoot – Mores Summit, Idaho

Back in late November cold dry snow began piling up across much of the western United States. This precipitation created a persistent weak base layer that was to set the stage for the 2008/2009 avalanche season. Large accumulations of heavy, wet snow atop this base layer developed wide spread disasters waiting to happen. “Although this season’s weather created severe avalanche risks, experts say the spike is also a result of more skiers seeking avalanche-prone terrain.”

Each year more and more people are venturing into the backcountry mountains in search of pristine snow and steep pitches.”Fifteen years ago, you might have had 10 people hike through the snow to a certain area. Now you have hundreds,” says Paul Baugher, course director of the Northwest Avalanche Institute in Enumclaw, Wash. Factor this desire to get into inherently risky locations with, a weak persistent base layer,  advances in ski dimensions, snowmobile track length and horse power and you have a formula for calculated increase in potential avalanche fatalities.

As an avid skier with peaking interests in exploring Idaho’s terrain beyond the ski area boundaries, these increasing stories of avalanche fatalities put me on edge. Back in January of 2009, I took a three day level 1 avalanche certification class through Sawtooth Mountain Guides. They taught me the knowledge to make educated decisions and to act as a reliable partner when venturing out into the backcountry with other experienced riders.

By now, you’re probably wondering where this is going.. We at Steve Smith Photography had a couple weeks of down time and began conjuring up stock shooting ideas to fill the void. With the elevated avalanche risk and actual fatalities this year and a newly developed understanding of avalanche safety we felt that an avalanche themed shoot would be a good area to focus on. Living here in Boise, ID, we’re not more than a two hour drive to easily accessible backcountry terrain. We chose Mores Summit off of highway 21 to set the stage for our sunny Friday afternoon shoot. Steve manned the camera while my good friend Alex and I acted out the scenes.

All images copyright Steve Smith Photography

Quotes were used from February 2, 2009 USA Today article.