Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Tessa and Doug’s gallery of their Wedding at the Davie Family’s Ranch near Del Norte, CO.

Ever since I first watched The Legends of the Fall, I’ve been infatuated with the idea of someday owning a huge piece of the Rockies upon which to raise my children (I did name my son, Trystan…), and Charlotte and I could be inspired every day by the natural beauty that would surround us. We would spend our days hunting, fishing, and I’m sure, making more children. I haven’t worked out yet how we stay in business doing all of that, seeing as how my dream home is remote and located far away from here. But let me have my little daydream, I’ll work out the details later…

Until that day comes, however, we’ll continue to live in Briargate (a subdivision of Colorado Springs) and have only cookie-cutter houses, weathered wood fences, and a distant view of Pikes Peak to serve as our inspiration.

That’s why I feel so lucky to be able to zoom off across Colorado on the weekends to capture weddings for beautiful couples in very inspiring places. The Davie Family ranch was no exception.

Sprawling along the Rio Grande, Tessa’s parents had the perfect little slice of high country heaven in their ranch, and Charlotte and I were awestruck. And as I thought about what it must have been like for Tessa and her siblings to grow up on the ranch, I became more and more jealous. Not only did they get to have horses and work the tractors and 4-wheelers, and get to have a full basketball court in the hay loft of the barn, but Wolf Creek Ski Resort is only 30 minutes away, max! Plus, on top of all of that, the landscape is stunning.

Not that I’m implying that growing up on a ranch is easy. I’m sure Tessa’s dad put all the children to work like all good farm or ranch families. And if their efforts to put on a wedding for 200 guests by themselves were any indication, the whole family knows how to work hard.

Tessa’s wedding was probably a real test for the Davie family, because for the 2nd wedding in a row, we got rained on! But this time, there was no tent over the ceremony site, the storm didn’t “just miss” us, it was full on raining during the ceremony. But you know what? Everybody loved it, and it showed. And the photos are proof of what I tell every couple who gets rain on the wedding day, “It won’t show in the photos”. Keep in mind, I’m not talking a downpour here, but a light rain or drizzle shouldn’t put all of the couple’s carefully laid plans to waste.

It was beautiful out, with perfectly flat light, and once again like Kim and Jere’s wedding a few weeks before, the skies played their part and gave us an amazing backdrop for our photos.

This wedding also provided Char and I with one of the most emotional reception moments we’ve ever seen when Tessa’s brother (who was deployed to Iraq) made a surprise phone call to the couple during the toasts. Not a dry eye in the house. It was ridiculously emotional. Which then makes it very hard to see what your trying to take photos of…

Thank you Tessa and Doug, for choosing Charlotte and I to capture your wedding. Especially with it being at your home, Tessa, it really felt like we were capturing something very special, and personal.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Kim and Jere’s sample gallery from their wedding at The Clubhouse at Flying Horse.

When most people think of the perfect wedding, they think of chirping birds and soft warm sunlight filtering down through robust old-growth trees into some kind of picture-perfect meadow. The guests are all smiling, and all of the children in the wedding part are spotless and well behaved. In fact the day is the epitome of a well-oiled machine: everything in it’s place and everything right on time, as it should be.

Well, I hate to break it to any of you who think that’s what weddings are like, but I’ve never seen it, at least, not all of it at one time! Weddings are a very complicated event, with lots of people with individual lives and schedules, venues with staff coordination responsibilities, a myriad of wedding vendors that may or may not live up to expectations, and of course, the weather changes of the day.

I tell clients, “You know the bumper sticker ‘S— Happens’? Well, I want one that says ‘Weddings Happen’.”

No matter how well planned and laid out to the most minute detail, something always happens at a wedding. It’s unavoidable. The question isn’t how do we avoid anything from happening, but rather, how are we going to handle it, if it does?

The simple answer is: with positivity and flexibility.

Kim and Jere had a lot of things going for them: 1) Kim was absolutely resplendent in her dress, and Jere cut quite the handsome figure in his tux and they were deeply in love, 2) they’d picked an incredible venue in The Clubhouse at Flying Horse, 3) the family and friends were all beautiful happy people…

But none of that mattered as much as two, really, really, important things: 1) Their attitudes were awesome and unshakable, and…

… 2) Their wedding planner, Christian at Bella Dia Events.

I’ll be honest. I fell in love with Christian (in a completely professional way, of course…). She swept me away with her happy and upbeat attitude, her incredible attention to detail, and her staff of very competent and helpful assistant planners. And all of this is great because…

… there was a tornado/lightning warning when we arrived, and once the appointed time for the outdoor-only ceremony rolled around, it was a pure downpour! A literal torrent of water! Luckily for the bride and groom, Christian had anticipated such a likelihood and had an event-tent conveniently set-up that covered the entire ceremony site perfectly ( photo-tech moment: it gave us a giant white bounce for our flashes, lovely). She even had a basket of umbrellas decorated and waiting for the guests to use as they arrived down the corridor from the valet.

Now, we’ve worked with a lot of wedding planners in our career, and it is really great to have them at weddings we’re photographing, because a lot of times we end up being the wedding day coordinators if there aren’t any. Wedding planners can make our jobs a lot easier. However, not all wedding planners are created equal.

Christian (from Bella Dia Events), is one of the best. She was the most organized, pleasant, decisive, calm, and professional planner I’ve seen. She had some real “doosies” of problems to deal with for Kim and Jere, and she not only made the right decisions, but she did it in a way that the couple was never frazzled or worried in the slightest. She exuded the vibe of “Everything is under Control“.

And Kim and Jere were a dream couple. Beautiful and handsome, deeply in love, with really fun friends and family. A wonderful time was had by all.

Oh, and a funny little side note that I feel perfectly illustrates Kim’s awesome attitude: As the guests were all lining up to throw rice as the couple ran out to the horse-drawn carriage, one of the gigantic horses took a HUGE dump, and I mean small hill-sized! It reeked, and some of the guests began fretting and asking the staff if they could “clean it up before Kim will see (smell) it…”, but there was no time. The couple proceeded down the veranda and when Kim entered the valet drive, she saw the poo, took in a huge breath and said, (and I quote), “Ahhhhhhh, I love that smell. It reminds me of my horses…” Now that’s a great attitude!

I look at the finished product, and it seems to me that this wedding is the perfect testament about managing one’s expectations: Kim and Jere didn’t wish for severe weather and rain, but because they kept the perfect attitude and shifted their expectations, they ended up embracing the weather and we made it work,  wonderfully. We ended up capturing some really unique and awe inspiring wedding photos because the skies, wind, and wet ground became a character in the wedding itself.

Charlotte and I had so much fun at Flying Horse. It was our first time there and we were blown away by it’s rich details, Nouveau-European style, and amazing atmosphere. It was truly a photographer’s dream to shoot there, and we didn’t even get to do half the things we’d thought of! It’s a cornucopia of photo-ops!

Thank you Kim and Jere for the opportunity to capture your day for you. And Christian, thank you for all of your amazing help.

Kristen and David were the 2nd half of my “I-accidentally-laid-down-on-a-cactus-day” (see previous post). By the time I got to the downtown studio from Boulder to meet up with them, the cactus quills had, for the most part, burrowed their way completely into my side, so the good news was they didn’t hurt so bad anymore.

The bad news was I was feeling a little chilled and clammy, almost like I was in shock… but a Red Bull later, I was ready to ROCK, pain free.

Engagement sessions in downtown Denver are a blast, and are really inspiring creatively. From jaywalking to get dips in front of Union Station,and the amazing architecture of the Millennium Bridge, to the pure urban landscape and historic facades of LoDo, there is always something new to find and a dizzying array of possibilities every time I go down there with a couple. I think I could shoot downtown for my whole life and always stumble upon something new every time!

I know it sounds like gloating, but it’s true: a gorgeous location, and a loving couple with a great attitude makes my job not a job, but really, really rewarding and fun!

I suffered my first injury in my entire career as a photographer at this engagement shoot. It was while capturing the shot of Wes and Lyndsie laughing as they were sitting in the grass, that I somehow laid down on a patch of tiny little cacti! I didn’t feel a thing as I was laying on my side with the camera low to the ground to get the shot, but when I got up…

Wow, that was awkward! It wasn’t a bad enough pain to want to quit or anything, but it was the kind of pain that when my shirt or camera strap brushed against my ribs on the left side and touched the little red quills slowly burrowing into my skin, that I wanted to yelp in pain. but yelping in pain would have let on to them that I was more hurt than I claimed to be, so I bit my tongue.

But other than having fire filled quills stuck in my ribs, it was a dream shoot! Chautauqua is very photogenic with the flatirons thrusting out of the gently sloping meadows, and very easy to move around in to get different shots. However, they do have signs that you can’t venture off the trails, and I figured it was some kind of “tread lightly” law and I proceeded to ignore them. In hindsight, the signs might also have been warning of the prescence of the very camouflaged and sneaky cacti growing just under the ground cover… a well, I’m a a little bit wiser now I suppose. You’ve got to suffer for one’s art, right?

Once again, Lyndsie and Wes proved that Char and I are doing something right lately. For about a year now, we’ve been adamant that there is no such thing as a “one size fits all photographer” and we’ve been basically screening our clients according to very simple criteria: our wedding couples must be open, affectionate, fun-loving people who don’t mind goofing around and being silly. This actually turns a number of interested prospects off, and we don’t book those weddings. But the couples who do find that shooting atmosphere appealing love it, and we’ve been having just dream weddings and engagement shoots with all of them!

The best part about that day was I still had one more engagement to shoot in Denver (photos to follow in another blog post…), so I jumped in my car and drove to the studio downtown, grimacing in pain the whole way.

So what did we learn? When signs say, “Do not leave trail”, it would probably be best to follow them…

Colorado’s high country can be a moody lover.

She is so giving: her majestic vistas, soaring tower-esque clouds, and beautiful greenery are a photographers’ dream backdrop, especially for the drama and romance of a wedding.

However, she can turn cold and stormy in a second. Her jagged mountain ranges can hold back even the strongest storm fronts which boil and rage just out of sight and out of mind a peak away, until the built-up energy of the storm front swells and boils over the tops of Colorado’s peaks like a volcanic pyroclastic flow. And just like that, a beautiful day in the High Country can turn from beautiful, to stormy and wet.

Such was the schizophrenic mood of Colorado on the day of Bree and Brian’s wedding at the Siverthorne Pavilion. Spots of sun would yield to cold wet drizzle. Calm would relent to gusting winds. It wasn’t a very fun day to try and capture Colorado for Bree and Brian.

However, through all of the changes in weather, one thing remained constant: Bree and Brian’s unshakable optimism and joy for the fact that this day was finally here and they were getting married. We may not have had sunshine, but their love for each other shined brightly on it’s own.

I love when couples say: “We don’t care what the weather does: we’re getting great photos done!” and we roar around in the drizzle and wind taking simply perfect photos of the two of them. All brides should take Bree’s lead and suffer for the art. Suffer for the art!

If I were to try and sum up Bree and Brian’s wedding in a few words it would be: laughing and crying. I was worn out just watching them vacillate back and forth between cracking up and barely containing sobs.

Growing up, I never understood “happy crying”. I’d always see my mom crying because I bought her a pretty necklace for Christmas or something, and ask why she was crying and she’d always answer, “… because I’m so happy.” Huh? I don’t know if it was because I was young, or male, or both, but I couldn’t get my head around that concept. That is, until I married the woman of my dreams (I cried), and then later when Charlotte, my beautiful wife, gave birth to my children (I really cried). So I think it’s obvious that I now fully understand “happy crying”.

Bree and Brian, I wish you the best in your marriage. I also heard from a little bird that Bree clearly has “baby fever”, and it’s probably going to be only a matter of months (9?) until there’s some new changes in the big picture for you two…

The roaring 20′s were an interesting time in fashion. “Flapper girls” were the norm, and the playfully short hairstyles, with the sculpted curls and waves were reflections of the popular art-deco themes of the age.

It was a wildly popular and scandalous look that eventually became vogue and even the elite older women began emmulating the Flappers. It was certainly a statement of fashion, and very unique as I can’t think of another age in which the fashion was similar.

That’s why I found it so striking that Janice had implemented all the right facets of the Flapper look, and successfully created the most unique bridal look for 2008 that I’ve seen. It wasn’t a throwback, and yet it wasn’t completely modern, but it was all flattering and very fun to photograph.

It was our first wedding at the Rockledge Inn. It’s a winding, curving, maze of terraces, slopes and views. It is rather tight, so it’s probably not appropriate for large weddings, but for smaller mid-size weddings of 80-100 people or so, it’s amazing!

Rockledge itself was built in 1910, but had it’s real heyday during the Roaring 20′s! I don’t know that little fact was on purpose for Janice, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Janice and Erik did a terrific job planning their wedding. All we ask is for lots of personality, a fun and relaxed atmosphere, and a couple in love. Janice and Erik gave us all of that, and more.

Congratulations you two! Thank you so much for the honor of photographing your beautiful day.

Please click on the photo or follow the link to view Kadian and Drago’s 4th of July wedding in Minnesota.

I come from a loud, proud line of “very-happy-to-have-a-good-time” Norwegians. Long ago, all of my Mom’s family lived in Minnesota, but over the decades we’ve scattered about the country, bringing our love of loud speaking, fun drinking, and over-the-top-laughing to the rest of the USA.

Kadian is my cousin, and she met this strong strapping young man from Serbia (with the coolest name in the entire world: Dragomir) in college in Minnesota. When Kadian called and asked if not only would we photograph her wedding, but mentioned it was on the 4th of July I was overwhelmed with happy visions of my entire family on my mom’s side getting together at my uncles’ “estate” in Pine City, MN.

It’s a very rare thing that the whole family can get together, especially my brother, “Lord” Tycen (“lord” is my little nickname for him since he’s a financial analyst in Singapore and lives a different kind of life from the rest of us “little” folk… our loving photo is to the left). I only see Ty on holidays now, speak mostly through Facebook, and suffer through the rare international phone call where the connection is dropped every 3 minutes (I think my phone company stinks).

So, needless to say, we were psyched for our reunion/wedding trip back.

What we didn’t expect were the Serbians.

Now, don’t get me wrong, my family can hold it’s own just fine, but Drago’s family and friends were absolutely, positively, the happiest, most effusively joyful, ready to party, rowdy group of people I have ever met. It was amazing to celebrate with them, and the traditions they brought to the wedding were wonderful.

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