Senior Photos - Hayden (part 1)

It was our year to spend Thanksgiving with the Ellsworth side, and they were the best for making the trek up to Utah to spend it with us. It was a lot of fun having everyone in one place for few days! My parents were also in town so I got to see a little bit of them as well. I just wish everyone would move to Utah..but that is definitely wishful thinking! Anyway, on Friday we went up to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square and we forced Anthony's little brother to wear a sweater for some senior photos. Let me start by saying that this kid LIVES in flannel, jeans, and boots. Not sweaters from Gap...which is what we made him wear - and they turned out so good. Can I even say that about my own photos? Oh well, just see for yourself:

(Also, they are all in B&W because I love B&W portraits)

I will be taking more of him in his element around Christmas time (aka the woods/wilderness/anywhere he can shoot a gun) so there will be a senior photo session part 2. 

Oh, and I suppose I can make sure to include some color photos too..

Whittier Family

Before I share any pictures, I have to say, I have NEVER laughed so much while shooting. Ever. This family was SO fun and easy to shoot, they made my job super easy. Also, these two little guys were seriously adorable and hilarious (and not camera shy at all!) so there were never any dull moments, which makes for the perfect photos!

Here are a few of my favorites from yesterday with the Whittier's:

Honestly, I loved them all and it was so hard choosing just a few for my blog!! But I can't share all their photos, so I had to use a little self control and only share a few ;)

Enjoy!





****** I am still looking for a few more families/individuals who would like to do a photo session with me (for free!) so if you or someone who know in Utah is interested, don't hesitate to send me an email (paigealisephotography@gmail.com) or message! Also, don't forget to follow me on instagram, @paigealisephoto!*****

Seeing Double

A couple of weeks ago my younger sisters graduated from BYU (it's still crazy they are old enough to be college grads!!) so we took it as an opportunity to celebrate all weekend! Naturally I had my camera with me most of the time, so after their graduation ceremony I forced everyone to wait so I could take photos of the graduates...and I am pretty happy everyone waited around because, if I may say so myself, they turned out pretty great :)



Also, in case you couldn't tell...yes, they are identical twins. It's actually funny how many people ask if they are twins, like you can't tell from looking at them!!

We made it to Silver Lake!

I am finally getting these photos up from when we camped and did the whole Silver Lake hike last month. I know, took me long enough!


The last time we went to do the Silver Lake hike, we didn't plan very well and ended up not going very far (we thought we went halfway...wrong) before heading back to the car. So we planned this little camping trip with our same friends in order to do the whole hike. Friday we hurried home from work to pack and get up American Fork canyon before the sun set so we could get all settled in for the night. Once we found a good spot, the boys set up camp while the girls got the fire and dinner started. We didn't go to a "traditional" campground since most of them are booked in advance. Instead, in certain areas, they have designated camping areas with fire pits spread out along a mountain and it's more of a first come first serve deal. But you aren't all right next to each other which is nice. It was so peaceful and relaxing, until about 10 pm when a bunch of college kids (I know I sound like an old lady) came up the road and decided to camp right next to us with their music blasting.... (insert eye-roll emoji)


Besides our loud neighbors, it was a pretty good spot to camp. Next time we will be bringing better pads, maybe even cots though. It's been so long since I camped, I forgot how hard the ground is when you are trying to sleep!! Anthony had his hammock...which he set up and got all ready, but ended up not even sleeping in. Lets just say, our camping spot didn't have very good trees to hang a hammock on. He chose one solid tree and one....not so solid tree. Within twenty minutes of getting in his hammock, his back was on the ground. Now, I normally would have laughed at this, but at the time it was not funny because he came in the tent and woke me up after I had just fallen asleep (he ended up trying the hammock for a second time later in the night, only to end up in the tent again). It's hilarious now, but that's because it's been awhile...


We woke up pretty early the next day and packed everything up before heading out on our hike. It turned out to be a warm day but it wasn't terrible since we were up on a mountain. The hike was definitely harder than I thought it was going to be, but in the moment I was too distracted by how beautiful it was to think about anything else. It's only 4 something miles round trip, but it is pretty steep the whole way there. I am not sure there is anything better than working up a good sweat while enjoying the great outdoors though! As for the lake, I can't even explain how beautiful it was, so I will let my pictures speak for themselves!!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram for more pictures!! (@paige.alise)

Tastes from Hawaii

While we lived in Hawaii, I came to love curry.

Ok, well not all curry, really just one curry in particular....Thai pineapple curry.

I am not kidding when I say that I was/am obsessed with it. I could only find it at one restaurant on the North Shore, so that's where I chose to go for date night at least once a month while we were on that island! When we moved, I never really thought about how difficult it would be to find something (anything!) similar.

Well, I soon discovered it was pretty much impossible, so I gave up trying. I told myself a million times that I would just find recipes online and try them until I found one somewhat close. So, here we are, almost 3 years after moving off Oahu, and I finally found a recipe!!!!


Confession: it's actually the only recipe I've tried but since it was so good, I don't have to find and try 15 more to get it right! Woohooo!!


This is the recipe I based mine off of, but I took some things out, added others and this is what I got:

2 chicken breasts
1 cup of fresh pineapple (I used canned pineapple chunks)
1/2 cup of bamboo shoots
2 Tbs red curry paste (store bought)
1 Tbs of grated ginger (I got tired of grating it so I was a little short of 1 Tbs)
2 garlic cloves
1.5 Tbs of fish sauce
1/2 cup of chicken broth
1 cup of coconut milk
1 Tbs of coconut oil
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
Fresh basil or cilantro to garnish (I hate cilantro, but I think basil is a better choice anyway!)
Optional: 1 Tbs of corn flour for thicker curry

****If you use fresh pineapple instead of canned, add 1 tsp of sugar


1. Cut chicken in to bite size pieces and in a large pan (I don't own a wok, but if you do, use it!) cook chicken with coconut oil.
2. Add ginger and garlic to the pan and cook for a few minutes. Then add curry paste and stir to combine with the chicken.
*****At this point, I dumped the chicken, garlic, ginger, and curry paste mixture into a pre-heated pot because my pan was not big enough to hold all the liquids I would be adding.
3. Add chicken broth, sugar (if using fresh pineapple), turmeric, bamboo shoots, and fish sauce. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add coconut milk and stir, then add pineapple. Cook for another 5-8 minutes.
5. To thicken your curry, you can mix 1 Tbs of corn flour with 3 Tbs of cold water and add the mixture at the end. Let it simmer for a few minutes until it thickens. It will be most noticeable when the curry cools down a little.
6. Enjoy!!


I love my curry over rice, Anthony loves his with rice noodles. I haven't quite mastered the rice noodle curry thing yet, so when I do I'll let you know.

Oh, also, we both didn't love the bamboo shoots, so I think I will ditch those next time.


If you try this recipe, or the original, let me know what you think!

Silver Lake

If you haven't been up any of the canyons in Utah, then you are missing out. They are incredibly beautiful in the summer time (winter too, but hiking in snow is not really my thing...pretty much anything in snow isn't my thing). After this hike we did, I completely understand why people love summer and hiking here.


Yesterday we hiked the Silver Lake trail, up American Fork Canyon, with some of our favorite people. We didn't hike the whole thing since it was 4.5 miles one way and we unfortunately weren't prepared with enough water. So we went a little over half way and it was beautiful! Our original plan was to hike the Tibble Fork Reservoir loop (which was supposed to be fairly moderate in skill level) but we got to the canyon only to find out it has been closed since June 1st for construction. I am really glad we found another hike to do though, instead of turning around to leave.


Getting to the trail was pretty easy, but the last few miles were up the side of a mountain on an unpaved, bumpy, dirt road. Luckily it wasn't too bad for us since our truck has 4WD. Also, I am definitely scared of heights. We were on the side of the mountain and when I looked down my palms immediately started to sweat. They are actually sweating right now as I write this/think about it. I guess I have never known how scared I really am of heights. Now we know.


Once we got to the reservoir where the trail started, we parked and started going up a road that Anthony swore would turn into the trail...you can guess where this is going. Long story short, it didn't turn into the trail and after asking someone where we went wrong we turned around. Once we got to the actual trailhead, it was great!! It was seriously so beautiful. I cannot say that enough. I am sad it took us half the summer to actually get out and do something like this!! Now we know to get our butts out the door and go sooner! But for now, I cannot wait to get out to camp and hike away the rest of summer!


Here's the highlight real from the 171 pictures I actually took.... Also, a BIG thank you to Autumn and Brad (Fitz too!!) for being such good looking models and letting me take photos of them.

I think they love the truck more than we do!

She secretly loves dogs ;)

Fist pump for standing like a big kid!

My people

Ok Utah, I guess you are pretty beautiful...

Looking real focused...