Category Archives: Engagement Portrait Photographer

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Engagement portraits

engagement portrait photographer | kendra and chris | manitou springs

I spent today trying not to obsessively stalk cnn.com.  In trying not to hit “refresh” every 3 seconds I busied myself with editing!

Which brings me to today’s sneak peek for Kendra and Chris, whom we met in Manitou Springs this weekend for their engagement shoot.  They are a very fun and trusting couple…when I told them to lay down in the leaves not 30 seconds after they got out of the car, they didn’t blink an eye!  This fall I keep thinking “okay–THIS is the last shoot that we get to enjoy the fall colors” but then I keep getting surprised!  Here it is November, and we still had great leaves!

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(Above version was my view.  Here’s Nic’s…)

engagement portrait photographer

engagement portrait photographer

You wouldn’t know it, but Kendra was totally nervous during this shot!  She said her cheek was shaking!

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Kendra is so pretty!

engagement portrait photographer

We really lucked out with the leaves!

engagement portrait photographer

engagement portrait photographers

Time for a coffee break!

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I never get tired of this cafe.  There are so many ways to use it!

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Then it was over to Garden of the Gods for a few more shots.

engagement portrait photographer

engagement portrait photographer

This next one was inspired by one of Will’s favorite books of the moment: The Day the Babies Crawled Away. (Did you spot the moon?)

Kendra and Chris were amazingly patient and put up with our hope that we could wait about 20 minutes for the sunset.  Sunsets are tricky because you can never quite predict how colorful they will be!  (For the photographers out there: this one was shot using two flashes–the fill mounted on Nic’s camera, and the key held by me off to the left–to create some dramatic light.)

engagement portrait photographer

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Behind the scenes…this was (most likely) my last blast with my trusty Canon 5d camera body.  My new Nikon camera arrives tomorrow, and Nic will inherit my 5d while we decide whether or not to totally jump off the Canon ship.

To commemorate the good times, here I am with my camera and my thinking face.  (I need to work on my thinking face.  It looks a lot like my “someone just ate the last cookie and it wasn’t me” scowl.)

How cute is this guy?!

And a sweet action shot of Nic rolling around in the leaves…

colorado springs engagement photographer | kari and michael | palmer park

We met Kari and Michael at Palmer Park this weekend for their engagement shoot.  We had such a great time with them.  They know just how to interact in front of a camera and we laughed a ton!

These two were so great at having cozy moments!

This was five minutes into the shoot.  TOTAL NATURALS!

I frequently ask couples to make each other laugh.  Kari went right for tickling…

We had a gorgeous afternoon with lots of sunshine and the last of the autumn leaves!

They brought their Chicago Bears jerseys along, so we came up with a few cute shots.

Mine:

Nic’s:

So cute!

We finished the shoot with some doggie shots.

Thanks for a wonderful afternoon, Kari and Michael!  We can’t wait for your wedding–we know it will be a spectacular weekend!

***

And one behind the scenes shot to round us out…

colorado springs engagement portrait photographers | garden of the gods | lisa and dave

Lisa and Dave had originally planned to have their engagement shoot at Rampart Reservoir, but rain forced us to change our plans and we met at Garden of the Gods, instead.  We are so grateful that they were flexible and ran around with us as we tried to beat the rain!

We caught some fall colors, which is always fairly tricky to time or predict!

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If you go to Garden of the Gods for pictures, it’s criminal not to visit this spot.

garden of the gods engagement pictures

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We also visited High Point at the park, and it was cute, because it was where Dave had intended to propose to Lisa!  (It was Easter, though, and if you remember it was snowing and freezing cold, and Lisa didn’t want to get out of the car.  [I remember that day because after visiting family, we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  Texas Roadhouse is my favorite place in the world, so any time I eat dinner there, the date and weather and what I was wearing are burned into my brain forever.])

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The top of Pikes Peak had a cloud around it, but it got a dusting of snow from the weather system that kept us out of Rampart Reservoir!

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I love this series of pictures!

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(This next shot is a great example of how changing your angle can totally change the background.  I was standing in the same spot for both the previous photos and this next one…but in this one, I stood up from my crouch.)

colorado springs engagement photographer

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My photographer friends are always reminding me that I am SO LUCKY to live and photograph where we do.  (Something I try to remember when I want to cry about the lack of beach photo opportunities!)  A behind the scenes shot like this illustrates it nicely…

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When we visited High Point, we were treated to this guy and his digiridoo.  (It was pretty surreal.)

colorado springs engagement portrait photographer | mindy and brett

Mindy is cursed when it comes to Colorado Springs weather.  She told me that whenever she comes to visit, it always rains or snows.  I didn’t really believe her…Colorado Springs gets barely any rain!

Except that it rained on her first Saturday engagement shoot appointment.  So we rescheduled to Sunday…and it rained.

So we rescheduled for this weekend, and everything looked good.  10% chance of rain.  That’s nothin!  We set off from our house to gorgeous blue skies…but then as we approached Manitou, the skies opened up.  (I’m bringin’ cute umbrellas to Mindy’s wedding!!)

We stuck it out, shooting under trees and then ducked into a cafe to dry off…

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We made our own sunlight light with a video light and our trusty reflector:

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Aren’t they cute?!!

colorado springs engagement portraits

engagement portraits colorado springs

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And then we were rewarded.  It took a good hour, but the sun finally popped out, and with it, we had a rainbow:

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And backlit rain:

engagement portrait photos

And if you are willing to wait out a storm, you are usually rewarded with some gorgeous light!

engagement portrait photographer

We drove to Garden of the Gods, where the light just got prettier…

engagement portrait photography

This was Brett’s one request–a picture of them both in their CSU sweatshirts.  We were happy oblige!

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Told ya we were rewarded!

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And a little something different for us with this one…I’m excited to show off one of our polaroid transfer print options!

colorado springs engagement photographer

Mindy and Brett were amazing troopers!  Waiting out the rain (and trying new rainy poses/techniques) took some time, but they were fantastic and didn’t complain a bit!  Mindy’s sister, Andrea, came down from Denver with them to have her senior portraits done at the same time (her sneak peek will be up in the next couple of days).  Here’s the whole crew!

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colorado springs engagement portraits | jenny and johnny

Meet Jenny and Johnny. They are adorable:

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They drove down from northwest Colorado for their engagement shoot this weekend. It was great to finally meet them!

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They braved the damp grass for the laying down shots I was loving this weekend:

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Some mandatory cuddling:

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engagement portrait photographers

We took them to a playground.

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And since Jenny was also rocking the purple, a trip to the orange wall I’d just found was a must!

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I have a thing for photographing on stairs.

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I’m always inspired when our couples share food. It’s generally not a good idea to have me share food with Nic. I’m always tempted to kick him in the balls and run away with the food.

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We dashed over to Garden of the Gods for a few shots in fields. Stairs and fields. I love them.

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Nic thinks Jenny is a dead ringer for my baby sister. It wasn’t until I got home and started proofing that I realized she totally is! Right down to the glasses!

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Jenny and Johnny, we had a blast getting to know you–thanks for being up for anything! We look forward to seeing you again in April!

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Behind the scenes: I swear that Nic and I do have other clothes–Jenny and Johnny and Laura and Jack’s shoots were on the same day, so our outfits lack originality…

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And me with my precious stairs, intruding on yet another cozy couple moment:

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And risking my life and camera for the most awesome playground shot ever. (I swear it felt scarier up there with my camera than it looks.)

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