“Learn three facts at the Utah Capitol and then you can get it.”

My daughter was asking for a stuffed blue bird toy at the visitor’s center.

We had a photo shoot planned, but in my attempt to be a good homeschooler, I wanted to try to make the experience educational too.

We’ve been on a capitol tour kick ever since our trip to Washington D.C. We visited our nation’s capitol, then our Texas state capitol. Now we were adding Utah to our list.

When we walked in we saw the place was basically deserted. There was a beautiful rotunda. My daughter admired that and then the staircase.

“What’s different about this rotunda?” I asked her.

“There’s no star.” She said.

“Anything else?”

“There’s a chandelier!”

“Right!”

We found a restroom and I helped her transform into a little princess.

I never really saw myself in Cinderella growing up. I thought she was a beautiful princess but I didn’t relate to her.–Yet my daughter manages to find the beauty and fun in each Disney princess and share it when we do these photo shoots. We started with Cinderella a couple of years ago, but when we visited Utah I knew we had to have a re-do in their beautiful capitol hall.

This was my first time doing a full shoot with my new EOS 5D Mark IV and it’s everything I’d hoped it would be. Full-frame, Wifi, video auto-focus with a touch screen. It’s a beauty. It has everything I love about my EOS 80D and then some in a full-frame sensor.

This was one of those shoots where I wanted to use a variety of lenses. My EF 100mm f2.8/L Macro lens for dreamy portraits and up-close macro shots of her shoes.

I loved using my EF 24-70mm f2.8/L lens for a majority of the shots. The variety of being able to go from wide to close in a second or two is why I love zoom lenses so much.

Then at the end of the shoot I had to put on my wide angle lens: EF 17-40mm f4/L lens to capture as much of the beautiful architecture as I could.

Prime EF 100mm f2.8/L Macro lens

Zoom EF 24-70mm f2.8/L lens

Zoom EF 17-40mm f4/L lens

After our photoshoot we walked around the capitol and learned a lot about it coming to be. Here are some of the things she learned to earn her blue bird:

1. “Lots of things can be made out of Utah rocks. Some are used to help make toothpaste, or light bulbs, and even parts of cell phones.”
2. “There’s this beehive thing and that’s in the symbol seal on their flag. Because bees are hard workers.”
3. “The House of Representatives and the Senate helps make laws there.”

I also loved reading how the capital came to be, the Mormon pioneers that met with the Ute tribe (among others). Another fun fact was the way the Utah capitol was built to allow for a lot of natural light and less use of electricity. It makes for a beautiful photo spot!

I tested out the video on my new EOS 5D Mark IV  and made this little “behind the scenes” video of some of what our princess shoots entail.

Her new favorite princess (and mine) is Moana. So beautiful and strong. Hopefully that’ll be our next exciting shoot if we get away someplace fun and tropical. Just when I think she may be outgrowing the princess phase she comes out of her room in another dress and I know we’re back on. A least for a little while.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we enjoyed taking them!

 

I love watching my family grow through our photos and videos, which is why I partnered with Canon on this post.

Tags: Canon, Cinderella, photography