Kamee June Photography

when i was young my neighbors got a new play house complete with swing set and attached slide. everyone on the block was ultra excited about it. it was almost as if we had never seen anything like it before in our lives. or the fact that something so spectacular could exist in a backyard was beyond belief. we played there after school every day, for weeks. months. probably a full year. one day my friend and i had the whole play structure to ourselves. i couldn’t believe it. the whole structure. TO OURSELVES!!! i ran outside as fast as i could and jumped for a swing. the next part is hazy, but i do remember landing flat on my back and feeling like i couldn’t breath. to date, it is one of my scariest recollections. i didn’t know what was happening, but i felt like i was going to die. at least i’d die by the beloved play house and swing set. if i was lucky they would bury me under it. then i would for sure be the last kid to play there! ;) after some significant spinning, and a surreal haze settling in i finally took a breath. then another, and another until finally i could breath again, steadily. the power of the play place could not be minimized. it was a force greater than any i had ever known. it literally knocked the wind right out of me.

louise and antonio are the adult equivalent to the childhood swing set/ play place. the second we met, while we were shooting, and then revisiting their images post process i metaphorically had the wind knocked out of me! i guess that’s what being in love with something or someone will do to you!

may your wind be knocked right out of you too!!

potentially my favorite:

louise and antonio, i hope i can breath at your wedding!! it is going to be nothing short of spectacular, just like the swing set/ play place of long ago!! ;) thank you so much for the opportunity to be there!! much, much love to you both!!! so excited to see you again!! cheers, kj

i was raised on old films and old music.

we will be in an elevator, and i will start singing along with the instrumental music playing; jaren will look at me funny and shake his head in disbelief that i know the words to a very old song, being played now, in an elevator. i love the oldies: billie holiday, ella fitzgerald, louis armstrong, those really oldies but really goodies! about a year after we got married jaren and i bought this album! we LOVED it, still do!! we listened to it again and again. every time i listen to it now, in fact, i am transported to a specific time in our life. it fills me with such nostalgia. it also reminds me of the six months we spent apart. we weren’t separated by a sad choice, but by our circumstances. i had a semester left of my student teaching and couldn’t leave the classroom or i wouldn’t get my credential and he had gotten a job and had to leave to start work. so we moved him to california and i stayed in utah to finish the year. it was agonizing!! i pined for him. ached to just feel close to him. i had felt homesickness before, but when i was away from him i understood the base root of being sick for what you know to be true “home”.

allie and hunter are away from each other right now. she has gone home (VIVA ECUADOR!!!) for a little bit and he has gone back to school for a short while (VIVA BYU!!!). there wedding is in july, but it feels, for them, like it’s still years away because of their proximity. i know. i remember. i can still feel the ache of it even though my man is just in the room, next door, sleeping audibly!! ;)

one of the songs on that album that i listened to over and over again is resonating right now as i work on these images and think about hunter and allie. i want to dedicated it to them while they are away from each other. may the lyrics bring you closer; may these images make you feel nearer to one another!! much love to you both! kj

“it’s not the pale moon that excites me
that thrills and delights me, oh no
it’s just the nearness of you

it isn’t your sweet conversation
that brings this sensation, oh no
it’s just the nearness of you

when you’re in my arms and I feel you so close to me
all my wildest dreams came true

i need no soft lights to enchant me
if you’ll only grant me the right
to hold you ever so tight
and to feel in the night the nearness of you.”