Nikki and Dave’s Scrumptious Outdoor Wedding at the Pastures of Plenty
August 28, 2008 | Filed Under Wedding Photos | Leave a Comment
I love the Pastures of Pleasure. Oh, wait, I mean Pastures of Plenty! The Pastures are out in North Boulder County, and serve as a great laid-back outdoor venue. I love the pastoral feel and the unique photo opportunities that exist. I could spend days just shooting ring shots, with all the contrast of shiny smooth diamonds on the rough textural farm elements. I usually try to pick one good ring photo to show. Screw it, here are three of 20.
While Nikki likes my detail shots a lot, I told her that I’m obligated to show pictures her as well, since she looks so absolutely stunning.
There was a ceremony too. Some people were touched, some were joyous, and some took advantage of the shuttle to and from town, pre-partied, and brought their own bottle of Knob Creek Whiskey. I have pictures of the guilty, but I’m nicer than that.
Nikki and Dave didn’t mind, their eyes were too googley too see.
Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE cake? Just know if you hire me that I will have to stop shooting for at least 3 minutes to eat a piece of cake. And then another three minutes a half an hour later if there is any left. Cake with real fruit is the bomb.
This may come as a shock, but at the Pastures of Pleasure, we shoot a lot of pictures out in the field. Oh right, you saw it coming didn’t you.
I almost had a moment of crisis at this wedding. The cake cutting was about to happen at the same time as an amazing sunset. Cake. Sunset. Cake. Sunset. Mmmmmm, OK, cake. Luckily there was some sunset left after cake.
Well nothing wraps up a good party like more dancing, partying, and more dancing. I mostly took pictures and lived vicariously through the Knob Creek Drinkers. C U next time!
Innovative Imagemaker’s Roadtrip to the Pearl Street Mall
August 27, 2008 | Filed Under Wedding Photos | 1 Comment
Innovative Imagemakers, or I2, is a group that seeks to train and educate photographers. They hold several ‘Road Trips’ a year to various locations to conduct photo workshops. Well their wedding workshop met at 13th and Walnut, so after a long deliberation, I planned for the epic trek to walk one block from my office to hang out. Really I was there so I had an excuse drink nitro Margs at the Rio on a Monday night, but I got some pretty good shots in the meantime.
Harmony, Stephen, Ravi, and the Flatirons get married
August 23, 2008 | Filed Under Wedding Photos | Leave a Comment
You know how when you live somewhere for a while you tend to take the things you see every day for granted? If you live in Boulder then you know what I mean. Those Flatirons are totally overused in local businesses and advertising, so it’s easy to not be impressed any more. Well at Harmony and Stephen’s intimate little Chautauqua wedding ceremony I was reminded that those are some pretty special hunks of Fountain Formation sandstone.
Team Speliotes just moved to Boulder County from Seattle this summer, so they are still looking at these mountains with that wide-eyes innocence. And when a select flew family and friends flew into town, they were all saying one thing, “Look at that view!” So this photo set has a bit of a one-track focus, but, when in Boulder . . .
We were super fortunate on this day. The forecast was calling for 100+ degrees, but the clouds rolled in and kept things reasonably cool, and the main result was an entire Chautauqua park lawn that was empty on a summer afternoon. Super Fortunate!
With another love story in the books, I say goodbye, til next time.
My First Jewish Wedding at the Pinnacle Club Grand Hyatt Downtown Denver
July 31, 2008 | Filed Under Wedding Photos | Leave a Comment
I was very excited when I booked my first full-on Jewish wedding. Dancing, drinking, breaking stuff. . . oh yeah, I knew that this was going to be my kind of party!
Things started off a little slowly at first with some getting ready and dress shots. Ali was a little, um, nervous . . . who planned for a cute young little bride to get married on the 38th floor surrounded by windows? Oh nevermind. The Pinnacle Club is the highest public place in Denver and a fantabulous place to have a wedding. As long as you like heights and scenic views of course.
We got everything straightened out in time to do some window portraits . . . yup, it doesn’t get any more classicly beautiful than this. This whole wedding was a bit of a departure from my usual outdoorsy style of wedding. So I decided to change up my editing style to honor the tradition and heritage of the culture.
Most of my day was spent shooting in a photojournalist style. Sometimes it’s nice to be there just to observe and capture what is going on. Sometimes it’s a tough call, whether to manipulate and arrange things for a better shot or to sit back and just capture what is going on. On this day it was easy, because there was A LOT going on!
I had all of about 15 minutes to try and get some creative shots of Ali and Noam. I also had the choice of 1) in the lobby or 2) on the street in front of the hotel. I hate choosing so I did both.
The Pinnacle Club encompasses both the 37th and 38th floors. These next two photos were taken on the 37 1/2th floor.
And now finally we get to the early awaited crazy dancing! There was moderate singing and dancing throughout the day in the halls, but that was just a warmup for the entire wedding congregation to get on the floor. Noam’s dad William is having a great time right about now!
And here Ali is having a great time, um, of sorts . . . who’s afraid of heights?!?
Then came the part where the bride and groom were seated in chairs, and everyone takes turn dancing before them. I take ‘everyone’ quite literally. Everyone was PSYCHED! William gave me a hug!
We’re going to wind this party down slowly with a little slow dancing by the couple, with Denver far below in the background. Mmmm, that feels good. Until next time . . . Steve Z out.
Roaring Good Wedding Photography at Boulder Canyon’s Red Lion Inn
July 28, 2008 | Filed Under Wedding Photos | Leave a Comment
With the bad joke meter already pegged at 10, we blast off into another episode of the Steve Z Wedding Blog . . .
Christine and Matt got married on July 4th. Matt says that it’s a good day for an anniversary because he won’t be able to forget it. That must have been what my Mom was thinking when she married my step-dad on his birthday!
You’ve seen Matt before on this blog. He was a groomsman in Leah and Matthew’s wedding. You didn’t recognize him because he was wearing a Speedo. He looks even happier now with his girl coming down the aisle.
Well other than that post, both Matt and Tina were posted on this blog after their engagement shoot. I guess I forgot about that one, mostly because the image of the Speedo boys has been burned into my retinas. Ok, I need a new image . . . Christine is yet another hot Boulder triathlon girl. I’m getting a lot of triathlon brides, it seems these guys are snatching them up like they are going out of style. But that’s silly, how can beauty like this ever go out of style?
Maybe in LA they will figure out a way. But here in Boulder, we like it fit and natural. And the Red Lion in has a scenic, outdoor ceremony and reception location. I love a venue where I can take a wide angle ceremony shot.
The Red Lion is right on Boulder Creek, just a little ways out of town. It was smokin’ hot, but we had some nice shade to shoot underneath.
And even shadier than that was the tunnel underneath the roaring highway, next to the roaring river. It wasn’t nearly as shady as my humor, however. See, look in their eyes, they are clearly laughing at me, I can tell.
And even funnier than that, is playing with big gobs of whipped cream. There were lots of people having a great time in the reception tent. I was one of them!
But it wasn’t all goofing around . . . Matt and Tina revealed some serious top secret dance move training for their first dance. I love this image, Matt is like, “Yeah baby, I’m the man, and I can twirl you all night long!”
We’ll wrap things up with a little long exposure night shot looking back up at the Inn from Boulder Creek. Silky.
Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the pics, and double thanks if you even bothered to read all this jibber jabber! Finally we have a slideshow with a lot more photos. Check it out! Until next time . . . Steve Z over and out.
View Christine and Matt’s Wedding Slideshow on its own page by clicking here.