Category Archives: Photographer Tips

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Photography tips from beginner to advanced.

Colorado Wedding Photography | Sonya and Faisal: Mehndi Ceremony

I spent three days last week at Sonya and Faisal’s Indian / Pakistani wedding. It was a giant treat for me to get to experience their traditions and spend three consecutive nights with their family and friends. We got to know them so much better because of all the extra time we spent together! And of course I am totally enamored with their cultures. I hope we will have the opportunity to shoot many more Indian and Pakistani weddings!

For all of their sneak peek posts, I am going to do my best to name and describe things, but forgive me if I make a few mistakes! For my pre-wedding research, I spent a lot of time at this blog about Indian wedding photography.

In terms of the back end work, it’s a lot like proofing three separate weddings that just happened to be back-to-back, so my proofing isn’t going as quickly as I’d anticipated. So instead of one giant sneak-peek, I’m going to do a couple. Here are a few pictures from the first night.

Sonya’s family and friends completely transformed the hall. There were so many amazing textures and colors.

mendhi ceremony

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If you’re thinking that I must have thought I was in color and fabric heaven, you’re totally right!

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Sonya was carried in by her family:

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Faisal’s arrival was marked by cheers and shouts as he entered the hall with his family:

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They were fed sweets and fruit by family and friends:

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And then the entertainment was turned over to their family and friends. There were choreographed dances that blew me away and the coolest video skit EVER.

colorado wedding photographers

colorado wedding photographer

Next installment coming soon!

colorado wedding photography | andrea and jason

We had the pleasure of shooting Andrea and Jason’s wedding last weekend. It was at the gorgeous Sylvan Dale Ranch and we lucked out on the weather–no rain, and it wasn’t too hot!

This was actually our second purple and green wedding in a row! I keep telling Nic that purple has made a huge come-back this year, but he doesn’t seem to find that as interesting as I do:

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The girls got ready at one of the cabins:

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Andrea’s aunt brought pictures of her from when she was little:

colorado wedding photographer

The bridesmaids all had their hair done and it looked awesome!

colorado wedding photographers

colorado wedding photographers

I like that one in color, too:

colorado wedding photographer

The groom had a gift sent over to his bride:

colorado wedding photographers

And then it was show-time:

colorado wedding photographers

colorado wedding photographers

There were a bunch of cute little ones at the wedding. I love the warning look Andrea’s mother is giving the ring bearer in this one!

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Just married!

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Stealing a kiss at the end of the aisle:

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A few quick portraits of the bride and groom:

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My favorite from the day thanks to some dramatic evening light:

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colorado wedding photography

colorado wedding photographer

The father-daughter dances always get me:

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Jason’s dad kept us laughing with his fantastic dance moves at the reception:

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Jason and Andrea had a beautiful wedding with lots of great touches. Jason even sang Andrea a song during the reception and totally blew me away. No back-up instrumentals or anything–he can SING. We wish them tons of happiness!

***

Behind the scenes: Nic and I spend a lot of time crouching at weddings so as to be slightly less obnoxious. Here’s a shot of a typical maneuver: walking a few steps up the aisle, crouching and grabbing the shot, and then moving back. It’s a good thing we both have military experience. It really comes in handy for these types of stealth operations. ;)

colorado wedding photography

And instead of one of me, I bring you this cute bunny. I told Nic I’d give him 10 points if he got an awesome wildlife shot while he was waiting for the men to arrive, and he totally gets them:

colorado bunny

denver wedding photography | courtney and chris

We had a wonderful time photographing Courtney and Chris’s wedding on Saturday. It was a beautiful day (though just a tad on the hot side) and I will always remember the wedding for the beautiful things Chris said to Courtney during the toast (hands down the most touching groom’s toast I’ve heard at a wedding).

The makeup:

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The gorgeous bride:

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The handsome groom:

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The ceremony was held at the Regis High School chapel, where Chris had gone to school.

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The deacon stood in front of the bride and groom so they’d be faced toward their family and friends, which meant we had to do things a little differently with our camera angles!

wedding photographers ceremony photo

My favorite portrait of the bride and groom:

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The kid cuteness at the reception was totally off the hook. In fact, Chris had to announce in the middle of the reception his only two rules for the reception: everyone must dance, and no one else was allowed to ask them when they were going to start popping out babies. As if this sort of cuteness could be resisted for long!

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wedding photographers

wedding photographers in Colorado

The grown-ups were also pretty cute dancers:

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wedding photographers

Not to be left out of the toasts, this little dude (coincidentally a two year old named Will) got way into clinking glasses and taking a sip of juice out of his champagne flute:

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We loved working with Courtney and Chris–it was a total pleasure to get to know them, and we wish them a lifetime of happiness together!

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Colorado Springs Wedding: Marc and Julie

I shot our first wedding of 2008 on Sunday! Jump-starting our wedding photography season were Marc and Julie (whose engagement portraits sneak peek is here)!

colorado springs wedding photography

They held their wedding at The Margarita at Pine Creek here in Colorado Springs:

colorado springs wedding venue

colorado springs wedding photography

It was a cloudy day and rained for a few minutes during the ceremony, but word on the street is that a little rain during the nuptials is good luck. Plus, all the cool kids get married in the rain (Nic and I had an Eeyore-like cloud of rain pass through during our wedding ceremony). :)

colorado springs wedding

colorado springs wedding photography

The Margarita did a wonderful job with the food (yum, yum) and the cake was as pretty as it was delicious:

colorado springs wedding photography

Here’s one of my favorite candid moments of the day. “Cake smashing” was a big topic of conversation (everyone warning Marc not to do it) and here is their pinkie promise to one another to be very nice at the cutting of the cake:

colorado springs wedding photography

Since the wedding was small (around 30 people), and the guests all very important to Marc and Julie, I made it a goal to try and catch a great candid portrait of everyone there. Some people were trickier to catch than others (they would look at me every time I got my lens pointed anywhere near their direction), but one of my favorites is this shot of Julie’s dad:

colorado springs wedding photography

Julie and Marc wanted to spend a bare minimum of time on portraits with a real emphasis on candid photojournalistic style coverage, so we knocked out all of the formals very quickly. Here are the bride and groom:

colorado springs wedding photography

colorado springs wedding photography

The sun finally poked out at the very end of the wedding, and I love this shot of Julie’s brother and sister-in-law dancing:

colorado springs wedding photography

Congratulations to Marc and Julie! It was an honor to be their wedding photographer and I wish them the best!

colorado springs wedding photographer

Photography Tip Tuesday - Week #9: Golden Light

colorado springs engagement portrait

This week’s tip is simple and easy because I have a date with a movie rental tonight.

Evening and morning light creates beautiful images.  The soft light and long shadows are dramatic and flattering.

Of course, if you live here in Colorado Springs, you’re at a disadvantage because we don’t have much of a sunset–the sun drops behind the mountains before it really sets.  But if you are determined, you can catch our amazing morning light (thanks to those endless plains stretching toward Kansas).

So if you’re going to pull the family outside for a quick family portrait, don’t do it at noon.  Wait until after dinner for some nice evening light.