Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Erinn and Kostas’ wedding at The Assumption of the Theotokos Greek Cathedral and Folsom Field Stadium Club.

Loyal blog readers might recognize Erinn and Kostas from their engagement photos a year ago. I declared in that blog post that this wedding was going to be legendary, and I am delighted to announce: it was.

This wedding was so much fun and truly epic (13 hours of photography), that I have struggled to even narrow it down to a reasonable size for our sample galleries. The result is: I feel like I skipped some of the funnest stuff in order to tell the story on the gallery. The solution? I will feature the ones that didn’t make it here.

In my mind, nothing captures the personality of these two than their engagement announcement (left). Out of all the photos I shot, they choose the one with Kostas acting crazy and Erinn quietly enjoying his insanity. But that is not to say that Erinn is boring; she is plenty fun. She just has more of a subtlety to her than, say… Kostas. (BTW, they were really miffed that some papers wouldn’t take their announcement because it “wasn’t an appropriate engagement shot”. Whatever. I think that’s a prime example of why nobody reads newspapers anymore!)

The day began, early in the morning in Boulder as the girls met up with Char and Kim at On Broadway, and I met up with the boys at The Village Coffee Shop. Like most groomsmen, our stud-muffins were showing a little sign of wear and tear from the night before, but they assured me that The Coffee Shop’s food had a magical, regenerative effect. They also demanded I had to order this monster breakfast: the chicken fried steak, or the Number 6. It was massive, and delicious, and an absolute gut bomb. So while everyone else came out of the restaurant with new spring in their step and lots of energy, I was reduced to a slightly green, over-stuffed and near-comatose zombie. I should have known something was up when nobody else ordered the #6. Now, don’t get me wrong: it’s an amazing breakfast. It’s the perfect breakfast if you’re hungover and have nothing to do for the entire day except lie on the couch and watch football. And that’s the problem: no hangover, no couch in sight. Just a whole day and night’s worth of being on my feet ahead…

Thank you, boys. I really appreciated your help that morning.

Thankfully, as I digested that densely calorie packed meal, it began to convert itself into super-fatboy energy, and within an hour I was not only healed, but better off. They weren’t lying: there is something magical about the food at The Village Coffee Shop. But, for about an hour, there is a heavy price to pay.

By the time the limo arrived, we were having so much fun that when we stopped to get liquor (hey, it’s got to be noon somewhere, right?), I was suddenly feeling very magnanimous, and went in with them to buy them a big bottle of Jameson. I tell you what: it’s the best thing you can ever do if your groomsmen like to get rowdy. Gifting that whiskey to them was akin to presenting fire to cavemen. They literally started grunting and slapping backs, giving high-fives, and any of them who were even in the slightest bit uneasy about this strange photographer infiltrating their man-group were instantly ingratiated to me. I’m seriously considering presenting a big bottle of alcohol to every grooms’ party I have from now on. It’s like catnip for grown men!

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1. The Day Begins...
2. The Best Ceremony Venue... Ever!
3. Debauchery at Folsom Field

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Jessica and Lee’s stunning wedding samples at Shove Chapel and Cheyenne Mountain Resort.

It’s dark. It’s very Gothic in it’s architecture. It’s one of the most feared places to shoot in Colorado Springs. Why? I have no idea.

All I know, is whenever I have a meeting about a wedding at Shove Chapel, the number one thing I hear is, “Other photographers say it’s really hard to shoot in there… and they’re photos look really dark. Why do yours look so bright?” Well, the short answer is we know how to push our cameras and capture the shot. The longer answer is: 1) we always make sure the altar lights are at full (they normally keep them at 1/2 power), 2) we have very steady hands so we’re not afraid to push the shutter way past the normal “lower threshold” (why hand-held? Because that place is HUGE and we are running all over to get the shot), and 3) we always shoot with our array of wireless remote Nikon speed-lights.

The most important factor of all  is the remote speed-lights. We’ve been shooting with remote lighting for 6 years now, and I would say they are the most important equipment I use. Having flexible, fast remote lighting allows us to shoot in otherwise impossible scenarios. Obviously, when it’s dark it allows us to create shots where there are none, but even when it’s light enough, they allow us to form the light, and add a sense of drama to an already attractive scene. I use remote lighting on 80% of my shots, and I personally think that I’ve gotten to the point where the extra lighting is very subtle on most of them. The lighting either mimics what’s already there, or at most seems like a complimentary element of the scene.

We love Shove Chapel, I can’t think of a cooler place to capture a ceremony. It has a sense of drama, and gives every wedding an epic scale, which I think lend themselves perfectly for the purposes of wedding photography. We use a 3 flash system, 2 on each side, either above in the side-balconies when we have assistants, or on the ground floor on 15′ light stands when I have to adjust them myself, and one master flash on the camera. I like to shoot across the aisle from the right side (facing the altar) during the processional. As soon as the bride walks up the altar stairs I flip the lights around towards the altar and use very subtle lighting to add detail to the subjects which are lit mostly from the stage lights. Those little Nikon Speed-lights are incredibly powerful for their size, and the fact I can whip them around ultra-fast and tuck them back into little hiding places to add stunning splashes of light is the winning aspect over more powerful strobes.

And then there was Lee and Jessica’s wedding. Not only are they a stunning couple, but Jess (and Lee) did an amazing job planning every detail of this wedding. Her dress was stunning, her flowers were elegant, the reception decor was impeccable, and the food? They didn’t choose. They simply had Cheyenne Mountain set up multiple stations with an amazing array of everything. Want pasta cooked with custom ingredients as you wait? Check. Oh, but you also need some prime rib? Why not? And a seafood & salad station? Sure. And they best part? They let us eat! THEY LET US EAT ANY OF IT! And boy, did I…

I know, you’re confused. But it’s a little known, and very dark fact that not every couple let’s us eat or offers us food. But it’s okay, we’ve only been running around on our feet for 8 hours… we’re fine. Don’t worry about us. My face is always this ashen and drawn…

But I digress (as usual). In closing, if you’re thinking about a wedding at Shove, but you’re worried about the different horror stories you’re hearing around town about how dark it is, book it with confidence. It is an amazing place for a wedding, and it really is worth the extra hard work to pull of the photography. But I’ll shut up about it now: the photos speak for themselves.

Click the photo or follow the link to view Anne and Tim’s Irish/Scottish Wedding at the Lower Lake Ranch near Conifer, CO.

I’ve been around enough people from Iowa that I’m convinced there isn’t much to do in Iowa except pick corn, go to Phish and Widespread Panic concerts… and PARTY. Iowans are officially the rowdiest people, given to lots of dancing, and can consume cocktails and beer like it’s the top of the nutritional food pyramid. And I don’t say this lightly and without evidence: my wife, in-laws, most of my family, and even myself (5 years as a kid) are from Iowa.

All of this consequently means that Iowans are the best people to know if you like to have fun. Anne and Tim’s wedding was a case study in this fact.

To start with, men in kilts and bow ties may seem to indicate a sense of formality, but if you really stop to think about it, it’s the exact opposite. I have never met a man capable of wearing that venerable warrior’s man-skirt who didn’t do so with a twinkle in his eye and frequent (and gratuitous) displays of what is (or isn’t), in fact, covered underneath. I’m not Scottish or Irish, but I have worn a kilt, and I do have to admit that I too felt the overpowering urge to flash and moon everyone I met that day. *shrug* It’s a guy thing.

Secondly, Anne and Tim held a very moving and very traditional Gaelic/Scottish ceremony, in which there was a classic moment where the couple shared a shot of whiskey with the first person they met, who for the ceremony’s purposes was their officiant (and Tim’s best friend). He quaffed that shot like a champion, which was probably for the best becuase he’d announced to the guests earlier that he was very nervous. Ahhh, whiskey! Liquid courage.

Third of all (thirdly?), Anne is a fountain of laughter and joyous energy. She literally bounds at times, and her energy infected the day with constant laughter and fun. She didn’t stop dancing all night long, and becuase of that, neither did her guests. They had an eclectic mix of danceable party music, from hip-hop to jam band and a lot of hard Scottish and Irish traditional/rock. It was a treat to photograph, and the best part was I can shoot some video now on the Nikon D300s and I was playing around with it, shooting a little video in between photos.

This is what I got, put to “Shipping Up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys, edited by me on my home computer. It’s pretty obvious that I should stick to my day-job (photography), and leave the videography to the professionals… but I still think it’s pretty cool!

http://www.vimeo.com/8980619

Don’t miss out on our annual wedding special!

If you book your wedding with us before 1/31/2010 and include a Graphistudio wedding album, and get two 6″ parent’s album copies FREE!

It’s a great savings and a wonderful gift for your parents. Schedule your consultation today!

In Denver call 303.872.4678, and in the Springs call 719.359.5520 or e-mail us at info@trystanphotography.com.

Check out our sample Graphistudio album layouts

This time of year, every year, we comb through our weddings and collect all of our favorite shots from over the years in to our “Wedding Collections”. We’re exceptionally proud of these photographs, and we’d love it if you would take the time to review our favorite wedding photography to date!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Mark and Amy’s wedding at Fox Run Park and Summit Ministries.

Poor Amy. Poor resilient, amazingly tough to kill Amy (more on that later).

Amy and Mark had a rough go at this one. All the forces were lined up against them. I think lesser human beings would have thrown in the towel, but Mark and Amy persevered and their love truly did conquer all.

I don’t know if I can even recount this story, some of it is so heartbreaking…

First off, earlier this year Amy lost her mom. I don’t know the how, when or why’s of it all (and I don’t know if I could handle it), but it was a emotional thread to every conversation we had with them about the wedding. Amy was clearly heartbroken, but she put on a brave face and pushed forward with her wedding plans. Mark was her stalwart companion, his quiet strength resonating through it all.

Soon, wedding plans came to fruition, and we found ourselves in the week before the wedding. Mark and Amy broke up some of their photography, opting for some pre-wedding couple photos a few days earlier at Glen Eyrie Castle. This is where the near-disaster scenarios begin: just as Amy and Mark were finishing getting ready and were leaving to meet me there, this weather front whipped in. And I mean whipped in! Driving rain, wind, freezing cold: it was a doozy. And to make matters worse, when I arrived at the castle gatehouse  and asked the guard, “Have a bride and groom come through yet?”
“No , sir,” he answered confidently.

So I pulled over by the gate and waited, and waited, and waited… all the while the storm is in a frenzy outside. Finally, the storm passed and I was still waiting. So I waited more. And more. And more…

Finally, the guard leaned out of the guardhouse and asked, “Say, that bride and groom… what were they wearing?”

“I dunno,” I answered, “some kind of formal attire. A tux and gown maybe?”

He looked concerned, “Uhhh, well, you know? I think now I might have actually seen them come through earlier.”

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?! For real?! What part of “bride and groom” wasn’t clear enough for him?

So I raced of through Glen Eyrie (“raced off” is relative when the speed limit is 10 MPH…), and lo and behold, who is standing there, waiting? Mark and Amy! Yayyyy! Thank you Mr. Guard! You made me 45 minutes late.

Fortunately, Mark and Amy were very chill about the whole being late thing, and more importantly while we were waiting, the horrendous storm passed and the sun began to set and we suddenly beheld amazing sunlit clouds and the beginnings of a sunset that was simply to-die-for. I took full advantage of it all and Amy and Mark gave me some really sexy, romantic stuff. So a storm, a slightly dim guard, and being late did nothing to hinder all of us from getting terrific photography. >>>more…

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1. The Day Begins...
2. The Best Ceremony Venue... Ever!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Tonya and Ryan’s wedding at the Rockledge Inn.

ar·tis·tic (är-’tis-tik) adj. Sensitive to or appreciative of art or beauty: an artistic temperament.

dis·cern·ing (di-ˈsər-niŋ) adj. Having or showing good taste or judgment; discriminating

pres·sure (pre-shər) n the burden of physical or mental distress

I am a very artistic person. I am quirky, a little funky, a lot of passion, and a little diva. But I have a dark little secret: ironically, the same qualities that I value in myself make me nervous if displayed in others. I think it’s the little diva hidden in me that fears being judged or told what to do…

Tonya and Ryan are very artistic and funky people. They are both involved in stage production, design and management and they both have a keen eye and wonderful aesthetic sensibilities. They know what they like, and they clearly had vision (her handmade pumpkin centerpieces were delightful and added a tremendous atmosphere to this Fall wedding). Did I mention that Tonya specializes in theatrical lighting? Lighting. My forte?!? Can you say: A little pressure? My “inner diva” can…

However, this wedding was yet another example as to why my “inner diva” needs to shut up. Yes, Tonya and Ryan are clearly artistic, and yes they clearly knew what they liked, but apparently I’m the only one whose artistic sensibilities come with a side of diva (or they’re really good at hiding it). Tonya and Ryan were perhaps the chillest and yet emotional couples we’ve seen in a while. There was laughing and crying, hugging and playing, kissing and teasing and all the while they were putty in our hands.

Having such a talented couple put such absolute trust in us and our abilities was a true honor and compliment.

Tonya and Ryan, thank you so much for the opportunity to capture your amazing day! Your trust for us and honest open love for each other made this day easy, special, and very very rewarding.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photographs from Brianne and Nick’s wedding at the Sacred Heart Cathedral  and The Union Depot in Pueblo, CO.

I like Brianne and Nick. They have wonderful qualities. Most notably, patience. Lots of patience. Why? Well, let’s just say that their illustrious photographer might have had a massive brain-fart at their engagement session and even though Nick clearly introduced himself as “Nick”, and their wedding contract says “Nick”,  my brain heard “Joe”.

And I used “Joe”. A lot.  And apparently Nick is chill like Bambi’s Flower (“He can call me a flower if he wants to”) because he and Brianne didn’t say a word to correct me for nearly 10 minutes of me calling him “Joe”. Finally, Brianne said softly, “Ummm… why are you calling him ‘Joe’?”

And it ruined me. By that point, he was Joe. And no matter what I did, or how much I thought about it, I could not stop calling him “Joe”. I was mortified. I have never had something so “locked-in” in my entire life. To me from that day on, he is “Joe”. It’s as if that thought was literally soldered into my brain.

Thankfully, although the inadvertent “Joe’s” would continue, Nick decided to view it as a little inside joke, which it became. This was especially fortuiotous because on their wedding day, even though I had been practicing “his name is NICK” in my head for months like a mantra, IT STILL CAME OUT ONCE (that I noticed)!!! Shoot me in the head. End me. I am losing my mind. Nick just laughed.

Their other amazing quality is love and sacrifice. They were amazing together, and Brianne just beamed around Nick. Their love was nearly palpable, and very obvious. And then there is sacrafice: you see, Nick is in the military, and I got this frantic e-mail about 2 weeks before their wedding photos were scheduled to be finished. It was heartbreaking: they found out Nick was being deployed earlier than they thought. If I couldn’t get their photos done early, then Nick would be gone and Brianne would have to see them for the first time without her new husband. But it all worked out, and thanks to the gracious understanding of the couples ahead of their wedding, I was able to get it done in time for Nick and Brianne to see their photos together.

Thank you Brianne and Nick for choosing us for your wedding photographers. Your love for each other and sacrifice for your country is inspiring.

… and thank you for not killing me, Joe. (Awww, crap…)

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photographs from Heather and Arion’s wedding at Temple Emanuel and the Ritz-Carlton.

Cold. Dark. Cloudy. Rainy.

It was perfect.

That’s what Heather and Arion were facing on their wedding day: cold, dark, and rainy. Do you know what made it perfect? Heather and Arion. I don’t think they even noticed the weather that day, so happy and excited they were with each other and their families and friends.

Heather and Arion are two of my favorite people in the world. Heather is one of the most open and free spirits I’ve come across, and yet she’s very classy and metropolitan, too. Her smile can light up a room like a million-watt bulb. Arion is in finance in New York, and might very well be a Master of the Universe someday, but unlike the other future Master of the Universe I know (my own brother) Arion doesn’t take himself too seriously and I don’t think he stopped smiling and laughing and joking for more than a few seconds (including the ceremony) that day.

And may I take a moment to single out the rabbi, Dr. Steven E. Foster? He was so funny and charming (with some really subtle but classic shtick) during the ketubah and badeken ceremonies. Everyone was laughing and in tears at the same time. It was very emotional and fantastic. But then, there was the ceremony: this very charming, fun Rabbi became very serious (which is great for a wedding), but then he said the two most dreaded words in our profession, “NO PHOTOGRAPHY.”

Ugh. I hate that. We really try hard to be respectful of the officiants at weddings and their shooting rules, but they usually request things like limiting where to stand and don’t use flash, etc. It is so rare to hear a rabbi or minister deny us of any photography what-so-ever. And so, with that utterance, the secret wedding photo war began. We simply can’t do “no photos”. Heather specifically warned us that regardless of the “rules” she was going to have documentation of her ceremony!

We devised a deviously sneaky shooting plan which was nearly flawless: we would rely on long lenses and stay in the shadows of the sides and the back out of his line of sight while he was distracted with the ceremony. It seemed simple enough, but we overlooked two developments we could not have foreseen: 1) Apparently Rabbi Foster has been performing the marriage rites for so long he holds his book for show. His eyes never looked down, and anytime I even moved he would stare straight at me like the Terminator while he was still speaking and without breaking his train of thought his head would shake back and forth very deliberately. At me.  He didn’t look away until I moved back to where I was first standing in the first place! This happened more than once. I was amazed, a little frightened, inspired, and really really frustrated. 2) He had security. Char was sitting a in an aisle seat near center. We figured she would be much less conspicuous sitting down, and I could serve as a sort of distraction. She would raise her camera like she was resting it on the seat and using the live-view mode take shots without raising it to her eye. She got a few shots off, when out of nowhere this lean, pretty, yet “I-mean-business” woman strides up to her in the aisle, taps her on the shoulder and violently whispers, “NO PHOTOGRAPHY!”. That shocked us: the rabbi was so serious about “no photography” he even had anti-photography security, “photo-police” if you will, watching our every move. No fair!

But little did they know, we had a secret weapon of our own: Kim Harms, photography ninja. Unassuming, small, and quiet as a mouse, she sat on the wing in the 3rd row unnoticed by the rabbi or his photo-police. She sat shooting unmolested for the entire ceremony!

Now let me clarify, it is our policy and reputation to be respectful and unobtrusive during wedding ceremonies. We have been complimented on many an occasion how professional we are by venue and church/synagogue staff. But in the end, we have a job to do, and that’s capture the images the bride and groom hire us for, and in this case there were explicit instructions to capture the ceremony, no… matter… what. So Rabbi, if we offended or insulted you and your photo-police helper in any way, we hope you can forgive us because it made Heather and Arion really happy and we really, really, really like you and your temple and we want to come back in the future.

So anyway, it was raining and cold. These are the ingredients of possible wedding disaster, but Heather was unsinkable. She braved a little wet and a lot of cold and we found some great spots to do photography out of the rain at the temple. And there was so much laughter and love inside the temple from the families that I don’t think anyone even noticed the clouds or the rain.

One of my proudest moments came after the ceremony when we needed to get some shots at the park at sunset before we went to the Ritz-Carlton. However, there was no sunset and because the clouds were so thick it was black as night out. Oh, and it was raining. What do you do? I noticed the couple had a large white/gray umbrella to keep dry and I immediately thought of a bounce shot with our remote flashes. So I jerry-rigged an SB-800 up into the spines of the umbrella so the light would bounce off the underside of the umbrella and onto the couple below. The result was this amazing look to the scene, almost like a rainy night in Paris. I loved the effect of having the light source in the umbrella.

Then there was the reception: simply iconic. With their wonderfully rehearsed 1st dance, the huge multi-concentric-circle horah dance, and a chair dance that gave Kim Harms one of the best reception shots I’ve seen (above) , Heather and Arion’s reception was absolutely exemplary. It should be studied in bride-school as part of the required curriculum.

Heather and Arion, thank you so much for choosing us to capture your day. It was an honor, and a blast. We can only hope you had even half as much fun as we did. You have amazing families and friends, and we are really, really looking forward to the prospect of you two moving to Colorado!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photo from Jamie and Joe’s wedding at the Rockledge Inn.

One of the delights of weddings for me personally is hangin’ with the boys. The vibe is completely different for the guys than it is for the girls before the ceremony. Girls tend to be a little more, ummm, serious when they’re nervous ; ). When guys get nervous (in general), we get rowdy and impish. I prefer rowdy and impish.

But it has been a while since I have seen a group of groomsmen quite as rowdy as these. From butt slaps to jumping on each other’s backs, we were off the the testosterone races right from the beginning. Joe’s Best Man was an absolute riot. He proposed to Joe right in the middle of the boy’s formals. And the best part was Joe played along. And yet, this was but a hint of what was in store.

Things reached a peak when Joe got a very “dedicated-to-his-role” lap-dance from his Best Man during the reception. You have to understand that Joe is really fun and all, but he’s also a real Man’s Man (big truck, had to really give him some grief and joke around to get him to smile during their engagement photos…). Frankly, he’s the last guy I would have thought I’d see getting a lap-dance from another dude. But you know what? They are both Army, and they’ve seen and done stuff that probably makes their bond closer than I can ever imagine. So if he wants to give Joe a friggin’ lap-dance, he can! (Not to mention it was pee-your-pants funny.) Lord knows I’ve given a few lap-dances to my buddies… whether they wanted them or not.

Oh yes, there was also a lovely wedding this day, too! Jamie chose a simple yet elegant dress and she and Joe had just as much open love and affection as they did for their engagement photos, which were pretty legendary, I think. I think Jamie knew what she was in for this day: the boy’s kind of took over and gave the day an incredible energy of celebration and fun. Everyone had a blast, and I don’t think she would have had it any other way.