Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Kristin and Brett’s Shove Chapel and Phantom Canyon Brewery wedding.

I suppose you could say I currently have two long-term relationships. One, is my marriage to my wife, Charlotte, the other is to this retro-rock band called Sixty 8 (I warn you… this is real metal, and don’t follow that link if you don’t like metal). We’ve been together since early 2004, and the boys and I are like family, and we fight like brothers…

Brett is the drummer for this little rock escapade, and he and Kristin have been a part of our lives for a really long time (he’s even been thrown-up on by my son, that makes you practically a blood-relation in my book). When I first knew Kristin and Brett, they were best friends. But over the years they grew closer and closer, and all of us their little social circle began to say, “…are they? Nah.”

But in the end, they realized, as the rest of us did, that they were absolutely made for each other. And when Kristin asked Char and I to photograph their wedding, we felt so honored.

Shove Chapel on the campus of Colorado College is one of the most challenging ceremony venues in the Springs. It’s really dark… like cave dark. But it has this mood, this dark romantic atmosphere, that if you can shoot it just right, can make the photographs absolutely breathtaking. Personally, I love Shove Chapel. I love the challenge of it, and I love the expressive shadows of the sanctuary. It seems fitting that my favorite painting style is chiaroscuro, so accordingly I love it in my photography as well. No additional lighting is required at Shove Chapel: it is lit like a theatre with a dark gallery and super-lit altar. Built-in dramatic lighting!

The reception at Phantom Canyon Brewery was one for the ages. All of our friends were there, and Kristin and Brett hired this amazing band, The Phat Horn Doctors (formerly Phat Daddy). They were the coolest band I’ve seen at a wedding. They had the place jumping all night long, every age, every level of sobriety/drunkenness, all were out there bustin’ a move.

Kristin never stopped dancing. Ever. By the end of the night she had sweat soaking through the back of her dress, but she was aglow in happiness, and my buddy Brett, who is normally “too cool for school” was giggling and grinning from ear to ear all night long.

Thank you both for putting your trust in us. We consider it such an honor to have been given the responsibility to capture your wedding day.

Thank you for being our friends, and thank you for being so good with my kids! (Ella’s been watching over my shoulder at different times while I was processing your photos, and she’d see you two and start yelling, “It’s Brett! That’s Kristin! She’s a pretty bride!”)