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I was just watching TV with the kids last night and fiddling with my new camera, the Nikon d300s, when I suddenly wanted to make something good.

So, what began as a collection of random shots turned into my ode to my family. I don’t feel like I deserve all of this sometimes, and I know I don’t do enough to tell them what they mean to me. This film is a small effort to try and do more of that.

My favorite part is the very end when Charlotte gets home late from a day of shooting and the kids run to her for hugs. Love it!

Nikon D300s = $1800 bucks. Memories like these = $priceless$!

The amazing song is “Just Breathe” by Pearl Jam off of their new album, Backspacer.

At Trystan Photography, we’ve never seen brides like these women, and I hope we never do!

But this morning I found the perfect antidote for my “too-much-wedding-show” indigestion: Current TV’s Sarah Haskins. Her dry but razor edged wit has put all of these poor bridezillas in their place, and I am better for it. Thank you Sarah Haskins, thank you!

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.

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.

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!”)

The Independent hasn’t had a category for “Best Photographer” for the entire history of its “Best of…” awards, until last year. And sadly, we didn’t even know they’d added it!

But we know now! And we’d like to win it, please!

So here’s our official “Trystan Photography Really Wants to Win This Award” Call to Action:

Attention all loyal clients, curious prospects, and ego-boosting-yet-still-a-bit-creepy-blogstalkers!

We’d love for you to vote for us in this year’s “Best of 2008″ from the Colorado Springs Independent.

Please visit the website of the 2007 Gold Photographer, Black Forest Photography (Goliath), and decide for yourself: is Trystan Photography (David) better?

Then please visit CS Indy’s “Best of 2008″ Voting Page to submit your own opinions!

Please act fast, the voting closes 9/2/08!

There you have it! I have just issued our 1st official “Call to Action”!

Wow! That felt good… almost powerful…I feel like I’m in control, like I’m in charge! I feel like I am a GO… (oh, wait, uh… hold on… Yes, dear?… oh, OK… ummm, sorry about that folks… I have to go… my wife needs me to go clean the bathrooms…)

Thanks for voting!

I was e-mailed this video, and it’s priceless because of the experience Char and I just had pulling the Denver studio together. Char worked her butt off and poured over catalogs and searched through the internet for colors, furniture, and hardware and she felt my participation was a little… lacking?

I love it.

A few days ago we realized something was different about our boy, Trystan. A strange, guttural gurgling would growl from his mouth and he would get this really devilish look on his face…

Is he Damian, Chucky, or the Taz the Tasmanian Devil? You decide, and please comment.

Is business slow? No, business is great.

Are the kids getting cabin fever? Nope kids are great.

This is the worst time of year because it seems like every other photographer on the planet is at one special, magical wonderland: Las Vegas. It’s WPPI Vegas time, and I (the avid blog reader I am) cannot help but to feel a deep seeded jealousy of all of my fellow shooters who, ( it may be due to the fact they are actually slow right now, or that they are not trying to do all this business stuff and raise two kids at the same time ( that’s right, I wear my daddyhood like a merit badge)), manage to be having the time of their lives in Las Vegas.

Regardless why my colleagues are there and I am here, the sad fact is that Char and I have never been to this Mecca of photography events. And we’re the kind of people who would use any excuse to go to Vegas (destination wedding, anyone?).

I am making a promise to myself today: next year this time, Charlotte and I will be at WPPI Vegas 2009! You mark my words, we will be there. The kids will be old enough that we can be apart for a while (that’s mostly for our sakes, I think), and we are purposefull making attempts to scale back our bookings for both weddings and portraits so that we actually have some time off next winter. (Yeah, right.)

So to all of you carefree photogs soaking up all that wonderful oxygen-rich casino air and who might end up reading this: somebody bet “The Hammer” at roulette, and somebody think of us when you’re seeing that great new wedding product as it’s being unveiled to the public for the first time.

And look for me there next year: no, not at some seminar, but at the Paris buffet. Mmmmmmmmm…. all-you-can-eat king crab legs. Ahhhhhhhh.