Photo Session Blog
One of the best things about being a photographer in Colorado is the abundance of awesome scenery to choose from as a backdrop. Sometimes my clients pick the location (which I love!) and other times I help them choose the spot (which is fine too). I suggest holding photo sessions in meaningful locations such as your own home or yard, a park that the kids particularly enjoy, or a hiking trail that you frequent.
Meanwhile, I wanted to share this beautiful wedding with you. I helped out the lovely Caroline Colvin Photography for this September wedding at the Lyons Farmette in Lyons, Colorado. It was a wonderful farm to table affair complete with gourmet food (obviously), lights twinkling into the night, wildflowers still in bloom, and a bonfire. Three Chicks Bartending fancied up the cocktails and a food truck full of dessert even made an appearance. Obviously, Natalee and Orion know how to throw a party! Plus, Natalee’s dog walked her down the aisle. If you know anything about me, you know I love dogs, and I love it when they get to attend weddings!
I can’t believe this Colorado Shrine of Saint Anne church in Arvada | Pines at Genesee in Golden wedding was over 3 months ago already! Now that 2012 is coming to an end, I am playing catch up and trying to share all the weddings and family photo sessions that I haven’t yet posted with you. As always, I enjoyed working with Brooke Trexler Photography and photographing at the Pines at Genesee.
I love hiking Colorado’s amazing peaks over 14,000 feet. In a sort of love-hate way that is. I actually feel fairly terrible the entire time: out of breath and slightly delirious due to a lack of oxygen on the way up, cold from crisp mountain winds on top, and then knee pain and leg instability while hiking down miles and miles of steep terrain that is slick due to small rocks on top of loose dirt. But the views! The air! The thoughts you think! Being on an adventure with friends! That cold beer when you reach your car and the meal you eat later that day!
This was one of my favorite weddings of last summer. Kathleen was such a fun bride, super organized and totally in love with John. And John was just about the nicest groom ever. Their wedding was featured on Couture Colorado’s wedding blog a couple weeks ago, and I figured I may as well share these images on the blog as well. Kathleen did an amazing job coming up with a theme (French country meets Colorado–LOVE IT!) and decorating the Highlands Ranch Golf Club reception pavilion.
In September, my husband and a couple of my parents and I headed to Vail for a weekend. It was so nice to see the fall color, go mountain biking down the ski hill**, and stay right in the heart of town. I loved go swimming in September at the end of Colorado thanks to that warm high altitude sunshine (certainly not because of the crisp air temperature or the cool water), eating at a German restaurant, and having cable (and a t.v. in our bedroom!). Thanks Dad and Mary for an awesome weekend!
This weekend is currently my last wedding of 2012; right now my schedule is filling up for next year. I still have several weddings to share. This one took place at the rustic, fun Colorado Mountain Ranch near Gold Hill back in July. Grace and Michael were hoping for an outdoor mountain ceremony, but the weather didn’t cooperate. The ceremony was pushed indoors, and was just as beautiful (and more lucky!) as an outdoor event. Grace did an amazing job decorating her reception.
I love to travel, and this past summer I did plenty of it. I especially love going to new places, so clearly my visit to Oregon was one of my favorite events of the summer. I went there to photograph a wedding at a bed and breakfast in Eugene, Oregon (images featured soon), but managed to drive about 1500 miles while I was there, from Portland into Vancouver, WA (do I get to count Washington as a state I’ve been to if I didn’t get out of the car?!) then onto the Oregon Coast (my favorite was Cannon Beach and buying cheese in Tillamook), then down more roads to Eugene.
This was one of the most fun weddings that I photographed this past summer. Between the dancing (and I mean most of the guests dancing the entire time), live music, traditions, this wedding was a blast. The ceremony took place at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Lafayette, Colorado and the reception took place just a couple miles from there at the Lionsgate Event Center in the beautiful Gatehouse. Congratulations to the couple and thanks to Tara Low Photography for letting me shoot.
In July I worked for Megan Alvarez to capture this “sweet” Fort Collins, Colorado wedding which took place on the campus of Colorado State University. Before the ceremony, the weather couldn’t decide what it wanted to do–pour, thunder and lightning, drizzle, or just be overcast. Happily for the lovely couple Kristyn and Eric, it decided to just be a bit overcast, allowing for the ceremony to take place outdoors and for beautiful soft lighting in the images. The reception took place in the Lory Student Center, and the decorations were amazing. Awesome vignettes with old family photographs, home-made honey in mason jars for gifts, weathered hard-back books, candles, heart-shaped cookies.
Back in July several girlfriends and I headed to Lyons, Colorado to the Ciatano Winery to celebrate our friend Jaime’s classy bachelorette with wine, a picnic, croquet, and hats. We had our own private picnic area and brought delicious appetizers and decadent treats to enjoy. We tasted several wines before buying a few bottles to share with our food. Once we had our fill of food, we set up a croquet game on the lawn that would have put the annual St. John’s Versus Navy match to shame. (Okay, admittedly, this is the only croquet match that I know of other than various Heathers references.) (And, by the way, my partner and I won, in case you wondering.) (Thanks Mom, I did it for you.) It was a great, unique, fun way to celebrate Jaime’s Colorado bachelorette event.
Back in June I had the honor of photographing a wedding in the mountains of western Maryland, near Deep Creek Lake. The wedding couple rented out the 4-H Camp site and played up on the rustic theme by decorating with mason jars of wildflowers, oilcloth tablecloths, and bowls of cherries. Everything about the day was absolutely perfect–the weather, the food, the speeches, the emotion on everyone’s faces. One of my favorite moments was watching the wedding guests sing and dance to Old Crow Medicine’s “Wagon Wheel”, the perfect song to wrap up this wonderful wedding. Once again, congratulations Eric and Megan, and thank you for the honor of being your wedding photographer.
I’ve been so busy on weekends when my husband and friends are free that I’ve spent under 24 hours in the “back country” camping, and that was way back in early June. I’ve only done a couple of hikes, certainly not any 14ers (and certainly not glissading down any 14ers like I did last summer for my bachelorette party). Luckily I have a few weeks to set things right and hopefully tackle Mt. Elbert, La Plata, or some other 14,000+ peek. I have a few more weeks to head into the mountains before I am faced with snow, and if I don’t get to enjoy the Colorado Rockies…
My family had been raving about Harpers Ferry for a couple years, and I finally had the time to check it out on a recent East Coast visit. Everything was perfect. The drive through the rolling hills of Maryland was beautiful. The information center with the nerdy Civil War buffs made me giggle. The Shenandoah River made me want to sing songs. I was in awe of the Appalachian Trail thru-hiker that wandered up the main street. I learned about American history. I found a cute hot pink and orange scarf. My mom and I went on our own little AT hike complete with designer handbags. West Virginia is no longer the sinister state that it once was. I had the perfect day and I can’t wait to visit again.
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