Leah and Matthew’s Boulder Colorado Wedding Photography at the Greenbriar Inn
May 28, 2008 | Filed Under Wedding Photos | 3 Comments
Wedding season kicked in for real the weekend before last. Leah and Matthew got hitched at the Greenbriar Inn, which is out in the countryside halfway between Boulder and Lyons.
One of the million reasons why this is a great venue is its proximity to the mountains and a sweet little park where we took some great portraits. I was lucky enough to get a full hour to shoot, so we got some really nice shots. Leah and Matt a super rad couple, and really had a good time getting into the photography. Are they hot or what? I can hear little hearts breaking all over the internet already. :>)
Boys really like to jump. They think it’s way more fun than trying to fake smile for the camera like when your Grandma used to make you on those trips to Disneyland when you were a kid. I definitely don’t shoot like Grandma. She would never lie in the weeds in black pants thereby getting her butt all covered in stickers for the rest of the wedding. She’d probably know better.
I lichen the way that the ring detail shot came out. Oof. Bad pun intended. Sorry, I’m a dork. Anyway . . . can you get over how adorable these kids are? I can’t. Maybe I’ll put them on the banner for this blog!
Leah’s dad has this super cool vintage Dodge. He bought it new back in the day and has since had it restored. The paint is so perfect that I noticed it reflecting the couple during our portrait shoot. Wicked.
So these guys met through the triathlon crowd at CU. Matt is also a Marine. Which made for an interesting group of friends: guys who shave their legs + guys who are trained to kill. We were trying to figure out who was tougher, the Tri-Geeks wanted to run some laps up the mountain and the Marines wanted to do pushups. In the end everyone just ate a lot of really, really good cake. Matt cut the cake with his sword. Wicked.
I had my off camera strobes set up on the dance floor so that I could capture some dramatic lighting for the dances. Leah and Matt took secret swing dance lessons and busted out their moves to the surprise of all their friends for their first dance. I love unconventionality. I wasn’t sure if that was a word but my spell check says it’s OK.
And as much as I love unconventionality, I love traditional shots as well. And how can you beat a good ol’ Just-Married-Driving-Away-In-The-Cool-Car-With-The-Couple-Looking-Into-Each-Others-Eyes-In-The-Back-Seat shot? Simple. You can’t. Don’t even try. :>)
Want to see more? There are 82 more playful, sweet, tender, funny, classy, arty photos packed into a mere 5 and a half minutes in the slideshow below! Thanks for reading and viewing!
View Leah and Matthew’s Wedding Slideshow on its own page by clicking here.
Candice and Scott’s Snowy Boulder Canyon Engagement Session
May 24, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | Leave a Comment
Candice, Scott, and I started planning this engagement session back in February when they first booked me to shoot their wedding. I love variety and shooting different locations and scenarios. I thought that it would be cool to do and engagement session in the snow and these guys were game.
Well as it turned out we really didn’t get too much spring snow this year. There were a few inches here and there, but not enough to really go sledding in a field where the old brown weeds were covered up. We had pretty much given up on the idea until we got one last spring storm in April. We planned the shoot in the morning, but by noon the snow in Boulder was rapidly being burned off. We didn’t let this stop us, and we headed on up to Nederland where the clouds were still keeping the snow on the ground.
On the way up to Ned we pulled off in Boulder Canyon and took the first series of shots. There was still snow clinging to the trees and rocks. Best of all, this was warm spring snow and we were able to shoot without coats and without freezing red faces! They brought the pooch along for the shoot, which is actually fairly common!
After the Boulder Canyon stop, we headed all the way up to Nederland where the snow was still coming down lightly. We shot these shots literally on the Peak to Peak Highway, where I liked the color of the field of old pussy willow type weeds. These guys did a great job, especially after I started making them dance on the side of the highway, haha! Well that’s all for this shoot, so check back soon, wedding season is here!
Denver Engagement Portrait Photography Shoot with Shauna and Bryan
May 14, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | 1 Comment
With all this winter weather still going on in Colorado it has been tough to get my engagement photo shoots going. Last weekend was sunny and warm and I was able to squeeze in a shoot before the next snowstorm rolled in.
I’ve been getting a little bored of shooting in Boulder so I offered to drive down to Denver to meet up with Shauna and Bryan. I’ve been wanting to do a shoot in the area around the Denver Public Library and Civic Center Park. There is a huge variety of cool architecture and sculptures in the area. I’m sure I could shoot there many times without running out of new ideas. I will not take pictures of anyone riding the giant cow sculptures unless they pay me extra. Sometimes you just have to draw the line.
The buildings near and around the library and art museum are pretty over the top and crazy. Which of course is perfect for me! I’m sure I’m committing some kind of compositional sin by having the pointy art museum building spiking Bryan through the top of the head, but I don’t care. The building was cool because it was shiny, and I used it as a giant reflector for my strobe.
One of the reasons that I get bored shooting in Boulder is that there is a dearth of cool architecture. There is mostly a whole lot of boring brick buildings. Ironically, I traveled all the way to Denver to shoot in front of a brick building! But I will say that I thought this one was particularly cool, as the brick was old and irregular.
So overall it was a pretty fun day. Shauna and Bryan are a super rad couple, and quite an attractive pair. Double bonus! Portfolio couple!
These guys are both pharmacists by day. They brought a whole pile of pills which made the shoot really fun. We took uppers for the dancing shots, downers for the fashion shots, and ecstasy for the romantic shots. Well, OK, not really, but I’m trying to add more humor to this blog!
Well that’s all for now. Hopefully spring will be here to stay and I will be back in the swing of warm springtime shooting. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week!
Florida Beach Engagement Photos with Rebecca and Todd
May 14, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | Leave a Comment
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My second Florida engagement shoot over my holiday break was with Rebecca and Todd. Their wedding is almost an entire year away, which is a bummer because I can hardly wait!
This wedding is going to be a BLAST! This guys are totally real, funny, and easy to hang with . My perfect clients! What is going to be even better is that the wedding is going to be at the famous Breakers Hotel, in Palm Beach, Florida. This place is crazy over the top. The hotel coordinator asked Rebecca’s mom why she wasn’t using their preferred photographer, who is Martha Stewart’s photographer. Susan told him that she found someone better and was flying him in from Colorado. Sweet. You can’t get better advertising then that. I’m going to be rollin’ into the hood of Donald Trump and showing them what’s up!
We experienced some bizarre weather in St. Petersburg on this day. We originally were going to shoot at the Fort Desoto Beach. We were crossing the last bridge down to the island when we encountered a huge wall of marine sea fog! Now if this was California then we wouldn’t have been surprised, but I hadn’t seen anything like it in Florida before.
So we did an about face, and headed back to downtown St. Pete to find a location that wasn’t shrouded in a big cloud. We found a nice park near The Pier in downtown St. Pete that had, sand, grass, and some super nice palm trees. In the end I think we found an even nicer location, that had a lot of diverse options. See? Everything does happen for a reason! I’m looking forward to another little Florida getaway next December, see everyone then!
Engagement Photos at Honeymoon Island State Park with Amber and Caleb
May 14, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | Leave a Comment
This shoot was an unexpected little bonus on my holiday trip to Tampa. I was shooting at the beach and I somewhat randomly was introduced to Amber. I was telling her that I am a wedding photographer, and she says, “I want engagement photos!” I love syncronicity!
