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.

]]> http://stevezweddings.com/blog/2008/09/03/jillian-and-mike-flirt-with-death-at-their-pearl-street-engagement-session/feed/ http://stevezweddings.com/blog/2008/08/28/nikki-and-daves-scrumptious-outdoor-wedding-at-the-pastures-of-plenty/ http://stevezweddings.com/blog/2008/08/28/nikki-and-daves-scrumptious-outdoor-wedding-at-the-pastures-of-plenty/#comments Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:09:20 +0000 stevez http://stevezweddings.com/blog/?p=20

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!

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.

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.

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.

Heather and Jim are the raddest wedding clients you can get. Heather and I have spent many late nights sending late night emails around. It’s cool when your clients become your friends as well. We shot our engagement shoot way back in October when the maples were in full color at the Mapleton school. You can view those photos HERE.

I had tons and tons of time to shoot the ‘Getting Ready’ portion of this wedding. What a luxury to not have to run around like a crazy person and squeeze these shots in as an after thought. Extra time pays dividends: check out these sweet detail shots of the rings and the dress. Shots like this take more time than you might expect, mostly because I’m a crazy stubborn perfectionist when it comes to these things. The MOB was overheard at the reception saying, ” . . . and he treated those rings like people.”

There was also plenty of time for a girl party in the bridal suite. Champagne, dancing on the beds, singing into makeup dispensers . . . good times!

I really dug the interior of the historic Hotel Boulderado. You just can’t duplicate the style, heritage, and quality of the furnishings from previous times in history. The red velvet led me to style the entire wedding slideshow with this desaturated reddish look. No, it’s not done yet, look for that coming soon.

The ceremony was held in the landing that overlooks the lobby. It was quite a unique shooting experience, I’ll say that much!

For our portrait session we headed out to two locations. The first was one of the historic old churches in downtown Boulder. I like columns.

Jim, being the real estate mogul that he is, got a hold of a 1930something Chrysler Airflow limousine from Tebo . This was my second restored classic car of the season, and the color even matched the maroon in the Bridal Suite! I talked the driver into taking this beast to the top of a parking garage which was the best place I could think of to get some scenic shots. The car almost didn’t start, almost didn’t make the corners, and almost didn’t have the brakes to get down, but we made it back safe and sound. Yes, I’m always pushing the limits of what I can get away with!

The reception rocked out with a bluegrass band. My favorite was the Journey cover. I think it was Heather’s favorite too! Normally I don’t bust out my falsetto at paid gigs . . . but I’m a kid from the 80s.

One of my favorite parts of the reception is getting down low and shooting pictures of all the little rockers on the dance floor. How cute are these guys? Seriously.

Alright well that wraps up another blog entry from Steve Z’s world. Keep on the lookout here for the slideshow and sometime in the future . . . Trash The Dress Session featuring Heather’s Dress From Hell!

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 . . .

I photographed my first church wedding of the year at the Mountain View United Methodist Church down in south Boulder. The building is pretty impressive, I enjoyed the tall ceiling a lot and the air conditioning even more!

Victoria and Rick held a beautiful small ceremony in the company of their close family and friends. Afterwards we headed out for a couples’ wedding portrait session with some good ol’ Boulder scenery. I tried out a new location near the South Boulder Rec Center.

There was some nice variety of outdoor scenic terrain not too far from the church. Mountains, trees, clouds, a lake and bridge; and of course piles of goose poop which made for tricky wedding dress navigation.

Thanks guys, enjoy the memories!

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.