Our little shooting break came to a fantastic halt yesterday when we photographed Leona and Lucas’s engagement portraits. We met them in Manitou Springs and then popped over to Garden of the Gods. (Prepare for photo overload, I went a little out of control with this sneak peek.)

Leona and Lucas brought their adorable dog, Pickle, who was so much fun to photograph! I’ll start with all of his pictures, because he’ll steal the show anyway. (And he deserves to–he stepped in a cactus and walked all over the prickly fields with us!)

Pickle was totally making a run for the treat Nic had.

Have you ever seen a happier dog?

Leona and Lucas are so cute! We usually have to coach our couples on the fine art of acting like you like each other on camera (lots of kissing, whispering, snuggling, etc) but right out of the starting gates they were ready to go!

Here Leona is laughing at me because I was in and out of the ivy quickly when I took that last shot…not wanting to, you know, run into a spider or something. So there I was, in the ivy for half a second before jumping out, and there they were, and I expected them to keep standing in it!

Isn’t Leona GORGEOUS?! I think she looks like Jennifer Garner in a lot of these shots, but Nic says she looks like Courtney Cox (he’s clearly wrong this time).

(Edited to add this next shot–can’t believe I forgot to include it the first time around!)

Lucas did his best to hide behind Leona in the beginning, but we don’t think he’s too bad looking.

We explored a new alley in Manitou and found lots of great textures.

We even spotted a deer! (I love that I caught them spotting it! Although it’s a sad little deer I think–check out [or don't if you're eating or ever want to eat again] that growth on its head!)

After the deer spotting, it was over to the fields of Garden of the Gods.

Keep this next shot in mind for later.

Leona and Lucas were great–totally up for anything. Including laying down in what we’ll call Colorado Prairie Grass, because that sounds nicer than “lots of prickly plants, grass, and some cacti”

You ready for another Nic’s shot/Traci’s shot comparison? (This time I think it’s a draw.) My shot:

Nic’s version:

And another one. Nic’s shot (remember this one for later):

My version:

And something new: we’re going to start including behind the scenes pictures in our posts. I’ve been taking them occassionaly, but then just letting them sit in our computer files all lonely and forgotten. But I love seeing Bobbi and Mike’s so much I thought it might be fun to share ours, too!

Remember the second picture in the fields I told you to remember? Here’s me taking it:

And from the second Traci’s version/Nic’s version shots:

Leona and Lucas are so great in front of the camera! We can’t wait to shoot their wedding next month!