Jillian and Mike Flirt With Death at their Pearl Street Engagement Session
September 3, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | Leave a Comment
Now there is a headline for you eh? Flirting with death? Huh? What? Where? Looks to me like they are just flirting!
I keep telling people that my photo shoots are not successful unless I’ve put my clients in some kind of danger during the shoot. Yeah, I’m a freakin’ marketing genious. Here are Jillian and Mike, all happy and innocent, unaware of the perils that lie ahead.
But safe shots are just so . . . safe. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Thats me falling asleep after too many ‘normal’ photos. Hey I understand everyone needs the safe and smiley shots to give to Grandmammy and Grandpappy Hucklepuss. But let’s have some fun too alright?
Jill and Mike are super cool. They know what’s up! They like rad photos and were willing to go that extra mile . . . “Hey, so uh . . . what do you think about climbing up that fire escape . . . “
Then Mike pulled a Superman Switcheroo and changed into his Class A’s. “Hey, can you just stand on those rocks on the edge of Boulder Creek? Oh, and can you hold Jill as well. What? Torn MCL? OK, we’ll make it REAL quick then!”
“Hey watch out, it’s slippery when wet!” Crap, now I’ve got Bon Jovi stuck in my head again.
Now it was getting dark, and Mike had one more suggestion. He asked to do a down-on-the-knee shot. Hmmm. Sounds a bit normal . . . “Hey, how about you guys stand in the middle of the street and you’ll be backlit by the oncoming car headlights?!?!”
Haha, so, I hope you appreciate all my joking around about danger. I haven’t lost a client yet ;>) But I do really enjoy pushing the limits, and going the extra mile to get the shots that are creative and unusual, with unique compositions and perspectives. Til next time, Steve out.
An Oh-So-Boulder Engagement Session with Katie and Jason
July 15, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | 5 Comments
How do you know if you have all of the elements of an uber-Boulder Engagement Portrait Session? Let’s see, first off, you HAVE to have a smiling portrait in front of the Flatirons . . . bonus points if it is NOT taken from the worn out rock or the fence at Chautauqua Park.
Next up the couple should be dressed as casually as possible. Flip-flops? Affirmative.
Do you have action sports involved? Are beers being consumed and technical prowesses being displayed?
Do both the gal AND the guy have shaved legs?
Does the girl have legs of steel that are still all pumped up from the day’s triathlon training?
Yessir, these guys are WAY Boulder, and so am I, so we had a good old time riding cruisers and drinking barley sodas on the bike path. Jason owns Pedal Pushers Cyclery down in Denver. He actually found me from my other blog, and the photos that I posted from the State Cyclocross race in Lyons. I shot a picture of Whiskey Dave that Dave linked to on his blog . . . and Jason knows him . . . and you get the idea. Bike brothers keepin’ it real.
OK so I can’t have a photo shoot that is typical or ordinary so I have to interject some of my unique style at this point! Swirly, twirly, blurriness. Yee-ha!
“Hey Katie, now why don’t you blow this Dandilion of Death into Jason’s face?”
Well thanks for tuning in, I’ll leave with a nice romantic lake by the mountain landscape black and white image. Awwww . . .
Textured Engagement Photos
July 10, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | 4 Comments
Here is one more image from that last engagement shoot. I originally didn’t include this one because I found some of the train cars in the background ugly. But, I like the composition of the diverging train tracks. Anna’s brother liked the photo as well, and asked for it to be Artistically Mastered.
I’ve been drawn to textured images for a while now. I haven’t been posting any or working with the technique much, since it is really popular right now. I’m not sure of the longevity of photos like this, and whether the look will stand the test of time. Still, I enjoy the moodiness that it can create. What do you think?
And after Anna’s chiding, I’ve gone and done a second one, just because I’m enjoying the experiment.
Anna and Mike’s Engagment Photography Shoot at the Boulder Vintage Train Yard
July 2, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | 1 Comment
I’ve been eyeing this old train yard for several months, ever since John Heisel dished out the hot tip. I have several shoots that I’d like to do out here, and Anna and Mike were the first ones to step up to the plate of adventure.
Like all of my shoots, I made sure that these guys had their tetanus shots before coming out. Nothing kills romance like a rusty nail through the sneaker.
Well, swarms of ravenous mosquitoes come pretty close. But these cats were troopers, and know that neither rain nor snow nor blood sucking insects should get in the way of art.
Yes, it is my job to ask people to make out in front of me, as a matter of fact.
When I first saw the little train car I thought, ‘no way am I going to do a cheesy shot in there’. Sometimes I’m wrong.
I like to balance my overall silliness with some nice solid portraits. It will make their Moms happy.
Anna and Mike really know how to get in good with their wedding photographers. They bought us beer and chicken wings after the shoot at the local brewpub. Good times!
The Great Flatirons Engagement Photography Shoot Challenge
June 17, 2008 | Filed Under Engagement Photos | 3 Comments
The Flatirons are an iconic geological formation here in Boulder Colorado. They figure prominently in the skyline and are a symbol of natural beauty in Colorado. As a result, there are approximately 6,873 engagement and wedding photos taken in front of them every year. There is a rock at Chautauqua Park where there is no grass at the base because so many photos get taken there. Yawn. So what is the Engagement Shoot Challenge? As a photographer, it is to honor Flatirons photo requests yet make the images unique and different!
The next part of the challenge is getting up early enough to be there at good light. Most of my clients and I are not really all that into getting out there at 5:30 in the morning for first light. Matt, Christine, and I decided 8am was good enough. Well the day started out with blazing sun, no clouds, no shade, and a whole bunch of wind. What has been with the wind this year anyway?! Still, these guys were awesome and we made due with the conditions.
For me the key to keeping things interesting is to not shoot too many pictures at the mountains anyway. I picked a different location on the south end of town. The bonus to that area is that you can shoot off in the other direction and get a completely different view of wide open spaces. The sun was blazing so I shot quite a few sun flare shots. I try to get at least 13 pieces of flare at every shoot (movie reference joke . . .)
Christine and Matt are going to be pretty famous on my blog this summer. They are already in the previous post, since they are friends with Leah and Matt! Their wedding is coming up REALLY soon, so they’ll be back up here again for their wedding at the Red Lion in Boulder. That’s all good with me, since they love photography and have tons of patience. They even let me play around with some zoom blur shots like the one above, which mostly amounts to a lot of trial and error! So until next time, thanks for checking out the photos.
