Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Well, it’s done. We shot our last wedding of 2008 at the Cliff House yesterday. I’ve worked way too long the past few weeks trying to pump out weddings for understandably anxious brides (everybody wants to show off the wedding pics for the holidays), and designing albums before the holiday deadline, and revamping the website for the new pricing launch 1/1/2009.

But it’s Christmas, and my little brother is flying in from Singapore (financial analyst and future Master of the Universe) today, so I’m officially done working for a bit.

A little Egg Nog, a little lamb, and a lot of love will refresh me for the New Year just fine.

I hope all of you who have made 2008 so great, for Charlotte and I, feel truly appreciated and thanked this year. We love our clients, and we love the memories we shared with all of you this year and we hope we were able to capture them in a timeless fashion to be enjoyed for generations to come!

By the way, did you know Charlotte, apparently, thinks Santa isn’t real?!? She laughs when I get really excited whenever I see him, and looks at me like I’m missing out on part of the joke. Well, I think there’s a reason her stocking is empty every year and mine is full. She keeps saying strange things like, “Who do you think filled it for you? Seriously, what are you? Six!?! We’re at your mother’s house!?!”

I know. Of course we’re at my mother’s house. It’s where I’ve been for Christmas since I was a kid! Where else would Santa find me?

Silly Charlotte.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Audra and Jason’s gallery of their Woodmen Valley Stone Chapel and Tre Luna wedding.

This wedding was a wedding of firsts for 2008.

It was the first wedding with truly Fall/Winter weather with dreary cold rain. Did I mention it was cold?

Also, it was the first wedding we photographed with our new assistant, Julia. Our former assistant, Kim Harms, is now our associate photographer (stay tuned loyal blog readers, you’re gonna find out all about Kim’s new role here in the coming weeks!), so we needed to find a new assistant for our weddings, to groom and train accordingly.

Well, here’s where it gets complicated: Julia was originally a bride, who booked with us about 4 months ago. At our booking meeting, she revealed that while she may be an office professional by day, she really… really,  liked photography, and she’d always had this little fantasy about doing it professionally. Her enthusiasm and passion was palpable, and apparent.

However, as many of the local photography and arts students, who have applied for an assistant job here, know very well, we don’t take in just anyone. In fact, we’ve hired none of the photographers who have contacted us. While many of them have had great portfolios, there was usually something missing. A certain, unnameable compatibility that was simply lost from our interactions, and simply wasn’t apparent in their portfolios.

Well, we weren’t about to to it any differently with Julia. We told her she needed to put together a portfolio, and contact us again when she was ready. Well hardly two weeks had gone by and Julia was back. She was obviously nervous, and began making apologies about her portfolio before I’d even seen it. And what she handed me was probably the most haphazard and basic presentation I’ve seen yet. A loose collection of various snapshots, some from film, some from point n’ shoots, and no real connective theme to speak of…

Yet, I hadn’t looked at more than two shots before I realized I was seeing something really interesting, and vaguely familiar. I knew looking through her work that I was seeing a thought process, and “eye” if you will, very similar to Char’s early work.

Frankly, I was stunned. Right there in my nearly shaking hands was that certain “something”, that missing ingredient that had kept me from calling back any of the photographer hopefuls we’d met with over the years. A mild mannered accountant by day, Julia was completely unaware (as far as I could tell) of what a rare and natural gift she’d been born with. Her work clearly showed a keen sense of composition and style, but more importantly, she was adventurous. She wasn’t afraid to play with her photographs, which is the bedrock of what makes Trystan Photography unique!

A sense of adventure is what intitially drew Charlotte and I to Kim Harms’ work. She was realtively new in the industry, but everyday she would update her blog with a new style, a new technique, a different way of looking at the same old shot…

Well, Julia would need all of that, and more, for Audra and Jason’s wedding! Woodmen Valley Stone Chapel is notoriously dark, and Tre Luna is a schizophrenic montage of neo-European/art-deco sensibilities where every surface is a different material, ranging from brick to stucco, to brass to mirrors, and even steel. It’s a really challenging combination of venues and lighting scenarios. Put that together with the fact that we had to work with a really dreary cold day, I think most newbie photographers would have thrown their camera down and run away screaming! But Julia didn’t, and in fact, she had a lovely, positive attitude that worked amazingly well with my goofy effervescence and Char’s nervous excitement.

As for a 1st subject, I think Julia was flat-out spoiled by getting to photograph Audra and Jason. What a gorgeous bride! And they showed such an authentic, relaxed love all day, that made photographing them almost easy. Almost. Except for the wind, and drizzle, and the fact we had to keep taking breaks so the bare-shouldered, bare armed bride could warm up!

What a trooper! Some brides would have succumbed to the weather, but Audra stated without a doubt, “I want outdoor shots!”

Don’t worry about her, though. She had her cuddly new husband to keep her warm, and looking back through the photos as I processed them, I still am amazed at how easy Audra and Jason were to photograph.

Audra. Jason. May your love continue to be so beutiful and inspiring for the rest of your marriage. Thank you for sharing your special day with us, and Julia, the newest addition to Trystan Photography!

It’s a very rare thing that I get really excited about another wedding vendor. It’s a risky thing to completely, fully, and enthusiastically endorse another vendor which you have no say or stake in. They could fall through, and then your reputation is sullied through your association. So needless to say, I’ve been pretty stingy with my support of local vendors.

But then I worked with Christian, a wedding planner who owns Bella Dia Events, LLC. I have never encountered a more fun, professional, organized, and quick witted event planner in my entire career. She was very impressive.

Then I realized that I wanted us to work as much as we could with Christian, so I didn’t hesitate one second to throw my support behind Bella Dia Events.

I recently approached Christian and asked if she would like to give some insight to my brides and blog readers into the particular specialty that is wedding planning, an absolutely indispensable aspect of any wedding. She agreed to write a few entries, which I’ll be featuring over the next month.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Everyone Needs a Wedding Planner

By: Christian Wilkins, Bella Dia Events, LLC 719.331.2499

1.    Multi-tasking:
You cannot be in 10 different places at once! Having a wedding coordinator is one of the best stress relieving things your can do for yourself and for your family.

2.    ENJOY THE DAY:
Your mother, friends, bridesmaids, cousins and most of all YOU should ENJOY your wedding day! “Someone has to work on your wedding day and it shouldn’t be you!”

3.    Vendor recommendations:
You will have access to your coordinators’ professional vendor recommendations. He or she will also help you interview and make the right choices for you, your family and your budget.

4.    Contracts:
Your wedding planner will assist you with contract negotiations and ensure that all contracts are binding and legal.

5.    Budget, Budget, Budget!
The dreaded word- but one of the most important of the wedding. A coordinator will help you develop a budget and stick to it!

6.    Itinerary:
Where is everyone supposed to be and when?? A wedding coordinator develops a detailed itinerary for you and for your guests so everyone is clear on his or her responsibilities.

7.    Creativity:
How to bring all the details together? A planner will lend invaluable creative and organizational expertise. Example: You have a vision of your décor but how do you mesh the various aspects together in seamless harmony? Your coordinator will be your guide.

8.    Etiquette:
Should I invite my third cousin on my father’s side who I haven’t seen since I was three years old? How do we formulate a seating chart for divorced parents who do not get along and also have new spouses? All of your etiquette questions can be answered by your planner. “You can do anything you want at your wedding; it’s all about how you frame it!”

9.    Event Management:
Someone needs to coordinate all aspects of the day- set up, take down and any little “emergencies” that may arise. Oh, there will be at least one! Your coordinators’ job is make everything about the day appear seamless and planned whether it was or not!

10.    The details:
Who is going to lay out the favors and place cards? Who takes everything down, makes sure your gifts are taken to your room, ensures that all of your memorabilia (cake cutting utensils, cake top, champagne toasting flutes etc etc) are returned to you in pristine condition? These and a thousand other details not handled by your other vendors will be the responsibility of your coordinator.

It’s more difficult than it seems but that shouldn’t stop you from having the time of your life and the day of your dreams!

I couldn’t agree more with her points, or add anything! I especially think wedding planners are a HUGE help when it comes to the event management and the details.

If you’re considering a wedding planner, you’d to well by yourself to check out Bella Dia Events.

If you’re not considering a wedding planner, you’d be much happier with this whole process if you had one…

You can check out the first wedding we did with Christian, here.

If anyone can think of any more reasons to use a wedding planner, please comment below.

Most hardworking men, the end of a tough day, week, or month, find their bit of solace in a beer, the boob tube, their buddies, or an outdoors adventure. Me? I’m not like most guys.

Last night I found my bit of solace in a cup of strawberry tea and pink cookies, which I ate and drank off of Barbie(tm) brand tea cups and saucers.

You see, I’ve been working too hard.

Char and I were about as far from being workaholics as possible when we first met. We were more gypsy dreamers, and our dirt-poor lives were filled with thoughts of youthful revolution and hippie sensibilities. We had only our dreams and goals to power us through the days.

Fast forward 5 years, and our lives couldn’t be any more different. For one, we’re not poor 20-somethings anymore, and the lofty, liberal ideals of the day have given way to a much more realistic, almost conservative ethic. The reality of that paradigm shift is just as disturbing to me as it must be to those who’ve known us!

But, trust me. When you have two kids depending on you and a business with employees as your sole source of income, a more lax work ethics and ideals will evaporate for you, too.

My once bitter early 20′s self, who would complain at having to work a double shift at my day job as a waiter (8 hours max!), now regularly puts in 14-16 hours days, sleeps very little, worries very much, and smokes even more.

I neglect everything that matters at one time or another. If I focus on my family life, the business suffers. if I focus on the business, my marriage and kids suffer. It sucks, and I’m constantly battling an unnerving fear that no matter how hard I try I will eventually end up failing at all of it, because I can’t seem to exceed my expectations for any of it!

But last night, my angel of a daughter, Ella, appeared at my office door, at the end of a particularly grueling 3 day marathon of photo processing, complete in fairy princess gown, and asked,”Daddy? Will you have a tea party with me?”

“No, sweetheart. Daddy is really busy, and I have to work a little bit more before dinner…” I suddenly saw a memory of me begging my own father to do play with me, and his distracted, stressed brush-off-answer.

So, I reconsidered.

Good call, Trig

“Well, of course!”, I corrected, and I bounded from my desk chair (which has a permanent, nearly exact impression of my buttocks pressed into the cushions), ran upstairs and put on a nice shirt, a tie, and my caddy cap (ironically, Ella’s tea parties are the only time I ever wear a tie…)

I arrived in short order to one of Lady Ella’s legendary tea parties. Even her younger brother, Trystan (yes, named after the business…), joined us. While Ella and I daintily dined on pink lady finger cookies, and sipped demurely from our plastic pastel tea cups, Trystan pressed as many cookies as he could into his mouth, slopped his strawberry tea all over himself and the floor, and then proceeded to grind that tea crumbs mixture into the carpet until it was more of a carpet-fiber, pink mush, slop mixture.

It was great!

I love my kids. They center me in ways I’ll never fully understand. And for that brief 20 minutes of childhood pretending, the pressures of the world melted away with each sweet, warming strawberry sip, and loving smiles from my two angels.

A special thanks to Mommy for pausing to capture this moment before she ran off to run errands.

I’m a very conservative equipment buyer. I usually don’t move on the next best thing, and I wait until the price is midrange and the technology is proven until I pounce. But…

The D300 (which we currently use 4 bodies for our studio) is phenomenal and has been the best camera we’ve ever had, but I’m sure the low light/low noise capabilities of the D700 (which I have not used) blow the D300 away. in fact, I’m chomping at the bit for the new FX sensor of the D3 and D700.

However, Nikon just released the press about the D3x and it’s so off base: ISO only to 1600, slower frame rate… probably higher noise, too. And did I mention the price: $7999?!?!  The only thing better about the body is the huge 24 megapixel sensor, which Canon has been paying around with for years, and for much less (Canon 5d mkII = $2699)!

Like I said above, I’m a very careful buyer of equipment. It’s usually the next proven model into a technology that I buy (D100 = skip, D200 = proven, D300 = Buy!). I can’t help but fear that Nikon will somehow have a brain-fart about my new dream camera, the unreleased D400 FX, and ignore the top priorities of most wedding professionals for the stupid “wow” factor of a big megapixel sensor… so, I’ve decided to issue my open letter to Nikon with a list of features, to help them out a bit:

Dear Nikon,

Please don’t screw up the D400 like you screwed up the D3x. I love the low noise/high ISO capabilites of the D3 and D700. Is it too much to ask that you keep the same sensor, if not the next generation?

Also could you include HD video at 1080i? I know that you know Canon’s already done this, so could you at least try to play catch up. It’s really hard to be a die hard Nikon fan when you’re constantly surging ahead of Canon (kudos on the D3 and D700 FX sensors), then shooting yourself in the foot (D3x). I mean, you basically ignored everything the world loved about the D3 and D700 and then issued a big fat $8000 turkey (What’s that? It has a big sensor?… who cares?!?).

Finally, could you make it $2500?

If you could do this, I would love it, and I would buy 4 right now. Even better, send me 2 and I’ll sing your praises forever… or until the D500 comes out.

Sincerely,

Trig Bundgaard

Nikon Devotee since 1998

There you are, Nikon. Now that you have your marching orders, go run with it and make my dream camera.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Hannah’s almost heartbreaking wedding at Glen Eyrie Castle.

Okay, loyal blog readers. Even I’ll admit, I’m getting tired of blogging about it raining at our weddings. I mean, this is Colorado, right? I read photo blogs from all over the world, and not even Seattle photographers say it rained as much as I have this year!

Sadly, this time the rain claimed a victim. It’s the first time in my entire career as a photographer that a well planned, gorgeous outdoor ceremony was completely rained out. We’ve had ceremonies in the rain, but it was a drizzle, or sporadic drops, but Hannah and Matt’s wedding was hit by a real, true downpour that lasted all afternoon. We knew it was coming and we got all of our couple shots done before the rain hit, but we were literally snapping our last frames as everyone ran inside to escape the huge, fat droplets that were falling and spotting her gown.

Hannah tried to be a trooper and put her best face forward, but as the downpour continued on, it became more and more apparent that the outdoor ceremony of her dreams would never happen. Glen Eyrie is a beutiful place, but it’s indoor area, the Great Hall, is more “butch” than “fairytale”", complete with dark rich wood, dark cavernous atmosphere, and mounted hunting tophies filling the walls. Hannah dreaded the idea of being rained out, and seeing her worst fear become reality was too much, and her joyous, giddy exterior began to give way to the sorrow of her dissappointment. She went away to her room to be alone and wait out her last glimmer of hope. Maybe, just maybe, the rain would stop.

But an hour passed, and the staff at Glen Eyrie began to press for a call to be made (chairs had to be set up, sound equiptment moved, lighting arranged), and neither Char and I, nor her family wanted to be the one’s to make the final call and seal the deal.

Finally, once the official call was made, the family sprang into action, and swarmed all over the castle, re-setting every last detail from the outdoor site into the Great Hall. They wanted everything to be just as Hannah would’ve had it, just inside now. Charlotte and I sprang into action as well, metering, testing, and devising a lighting plan than would force as much light, warmth and openness into that dark cavern of a hall as possible.

I always brag that Charlotte and I have enough experience and expertise that we can photograph anything, anywhere, and this was our chance to prove it. I felt everything was riding on these photos. Hannah would be crushed if her sunny outdoor dream wedding metamorphosed into something more dark and Gothic. But if Charlotte and I could capitalize on the available lighting and access it just right with our strobes, then we could present it more as a true fairytale castle wedding and emphasize the grandeur of the hall, and not it’s coldness.

Well, long story short, it really didn’t matter where the wedding was held because has soon as Hannah appeared, every last bit the glowing and happy bride, Matthew was crying, and then Hannah was crying, and then everybody was crying. I had only taken a few frames when I began to realize that it looked so amazing and warm at the altar, almost as if Hannah had brought a little bit of sun into the hall with her!

The ceremony was so moving it verged on the ridiculous. First of all, Hannah comes from a family of ministers, and her brother officiated the ceremony as her father gave her away, and then he would be the officiant. But before that, her brother sang a little song about his sister (quite well)… and I was done. Cried like a baby. As I wiped tears from my eyes I realized that we weren’t even 10 minutes in, and I was already emotionally drained.

Once Hannah’s dad took over, it was your classic wedding ceremony. That is, until Hannah suddenly was handed a microphone and she was off and running with a song about Matthew… and she sang like an angel. So then I was begging to realize that not only this was her whole family attractive and nice folk, but they all could sing like the dickens, too!

Have any of you ever felt that little twinge of jealousy when you see a seemingly perfect and wholesome family, and then find out they are really good at something like music, or sports, or dancing, or…

Wait a minute.

The Osmonds! They were Colorado’s version of The Osmonds! I don’t know why I’m only realizing this now, but that’s what they were. Good looking, talented. In fact, they were too good looking and too talented.

But I digress…

In the end, as I look back at the photos, I am so thankful that we were able to capture that amazing wedding like we did. We captured the magic, romance and grandeur it deserved. Would it have been best if we’d been able to shoot outside as planned? Sure. But I’m sure that after it’s all been said and done, with the whole wedding behind them, Hannah and Matthew probably think their wedding was perfect, and wouldn’t change a thing.

… and neither would I.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view the gallery of kelly and Jacob’s wedding at St. Mary’s Chapel and Thunder Mountain Lodge in Breckenridge.

I grew up near Breckenridge in Fairplay, CO (known as the real South Park, to some…), and I spent all of my weekends (4 day school week = skiiing!) and summers (job) over in Breck. It’s like my hometown, except I didn’t go to school there.

However, because of my familiarity with the area, and my “local boy knowledge” of the back country roads and trails, I think Kelly and Jacob really got a unique opportunity to capture some really special and one of a kind wedding photos in Breck!

The key thing that we did was, instead of hanging around in town after the ceremony, we all jumped in our cars (well the wedding party and the couple jumped in a limo, driven by a terrified guy from Denver), and headed up Hoosier Pass to some places I used to mountain bike as a teen. It’s a good 15 minutes out of town, but the views at the top of this box canyon looking back out onto Red Mountain are to DIE for.

We also had some fun shots with the wedding party near Blue River, in a meadow with a great view looking at up at Mt. Quandary.

But enough puffing myself up.

Kelly did amazingly well with a very stressful wedding nightmare scenario that occurred while all of the girls were getting ready: the zipper busted off of one of the bridesmaid dresses. But instead of stressing out, or giving up, Kelly and her family calmly found a seamstress down the street, and whisked away with the bridesmaid and her dress. Kelly kept getting ready, and Charlotte started her photography while they waited on the bridesmaid and the missing family members.

Meanwhile, down the street at the seamstress’ shop, the poor lady was apparently so busy that she was literally answering the phone and helping other customers with one hand, and mending the zipper with the bridesmaid in the dress, at the same time!

By the time Char was finished with Kelly’s photos, the dress was on and perfect, and there was absolutely no set-back to the shooting schedule. And no set-back to Kelly’s state of mind. Amazing.

It was a perfect mountain wedding for a homesick mountain boy (and his “honorary mountain girl” wife) to photograph.

Thank you Kelly and Jacob! I hope you adore the photos!