Zipline Family | Park City Photographer

So, yeah.  These people are wonderful.  Really, truly, wonderful.

This is my third year photographing them (check out older shoots here and here), and I’ve gotta admit that it feels amazing every single time we pack up the gear & drive out to their property on the outskirts of Park City.  It’s gorgeous out there, for sure.  And they are beautiful people (Eric recently had a meeting with Robert Redford, and even Bob noted that Eric looks like his old pal Paul Newman).  But the joy for me is the welcome we receive when we arrive.  Huge hugs & huge smiles.  Catch ups about not only their lives but also their families’ lives (we met their siblings, parents, grandparents, and aunts last year, some of whom had flown in from Europe).  We chat about being small business owners (they founded a zipline company years ago, and now their work can be seen all over the globe, including the longest zipline in the world in Mexico).  This year, we sat down to breakfast with them after the shoot — a most delightful meal that included cheese fresh from a recent visit to Norway, where Sarah’s mother and grandmother live — and I kept thinking to myself, ‘man, I’m lucky on so many levels.’

Perhaps best of all?  I love that their kids know me & V and that we’ve been able to watch these boys grow over the past few years.  These types of shoots are the manifestation of what I love most about my job: returning to families over the years and being a part of their story-telling as time passes.  Memories fade, but I know that these photos — these tangible, preserved moments — are here to stay.  Sarah makes albums from the photos each year, and I actually felt my eyes well up when she said this year, ‘these photo books are who we are.  If something ever happened to me & Eric, I want our boys to have these memories, and know how much we loved them & each other.’  I mean, wow… and I get to be a small part of that.  I get to contribute in the tiniest of ways to how these gracious, special people remember their lives.  That makes me feel like what I do is the most important work in the world, and, trust me, I never take it for granted.