Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

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I know I say it over and over: a huge aspect of how Charlotte and I capture awesome photographs is directly dependent on how responsive, comfortable, and intimate our couples are. We can’t take happy, cool and funny photos of people who aren’t happy,cool and funny. One of the smartest things we ever did as a studio was we started to “pre-screen” our couples by essentially telling them how we like to work in a very informal, lighthearted way, and if they don’t like a fast paced, goofy, irreverent, joking atmosphere then we frankly aren’t the right photographers for them; and it’s worked wonders.

The caliber of clientèle we’ve booked over the last year or so has been a phenomenal crop of subjects. So cool, fun and relaxed that it’s a sheer pleasure to take their photographs.

Brittany and Rhead were no exception.

I met them in the lobby of the Brown Palace in Denver and we eased into shooting by doing a few test lighting shots around the hotel, talked about the reception set-up, walked around and shared ideas about the day of the wedding. Then we headed outside with the eventual goal of getting down to Coors Field. We stopped wherever we saw something cool or interesting to the eye and they were totally chill and fun about eveything. Brittany said, “… it feels more like we’re just hanging out and you happen to be taking photos…”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

We didn’t make it to Coors Field, but we did find this amazing little sculpted office park garden where we got some really neat long shots with remote lighting, too. It was funny though, the security team for the office building came out and informed us we could take no photographs of the building itself. It seemed like a strange rule, it must have been a secret Dept. of Homeland Security building of something. It didn’t have a markings or signs… very interesting.

Thanks so much Brittany and Rhead. I can’t wait for your October wedding!

Ahhhhh… the small weddings. This completes my series of small weddings from the Spring months of ‘08. I can’t tell you how much fun small weddings are. My absolute favorite photos to capture are couples together, in love. When it comes to the small weddings, it’s pretty much all we do. Most bigger weddings we’re lucky to get 45 minutes with the couple, (if that!), and at the small weddings we usually get 2-3 hours. Talk about time to make a shot work! No rushing, no stress, just fun, fun, fun photography with the couple (and sometimes with the wedding party).

Beth and Kenny had an intimate April ceremony at the Garden of the Gods. It was cold enough there was pretty much no one around, so it was really fun to have the park to ourselves. However, whatever mojo Beth worked to get nice weather for the ceremony came to an abrupt end the very moment they signed their marriage liscence afterwards. The wind suddenly roared in, and howled throughout the ceremony site, and we hustled off to get as many photos as we could before what ever monstrous storm front was blowing so hard moved in!

It got so bad, so cold and snowy, and so windy that we eventually retreated to the Broadmoor Hotel where Beth and Kenny were staying that night and tried to scrape together as many indoor looks as possible. Apparently that’s no bueno at the Broadmoor, even if you’re a guest there, because right as we were wrapping up, Broadmoor security came and politely asked us to stop photography. Overall, they were pretty cool about it; they understood that we’d basically just been blown indoors by the storm, otherwise we’d still be at the Garden of the Gods. But it was close. If we’d not been allowed to finish our photography, I don’t know where we’d have gone!

But through it all Beth and Kenny were so happy, so energetic, so happy / fun and cool, that the photos were pretty much effortless! Thanks you two!

Also, Beth wants to shoot a Trash the Dress (TTD) session, soon (bless her rebellious heart)! I’ll post those pics as soon as I get ‘em done in August sometime…

Dave and Sherry had a lovely, intimate wedding in March. Unfortunately, because it was March, we were hit with a sloppy wet snow storm and we had to scrap our plans to shoot some photos at The Garden of the Gods.

However, Dave and Sherry did reschedule that section of the shoot for a much clearer day (except it was still really cold, but you can’t tell becasue they’re such troopers!), and it was well worth it, as you can see.

We love small intimate weddings. Even though the couple with the smaller wedding often gets us for less time than the big weddings do, we often get more quality time with the couple and can photograph more creatively without the rushing around that can come with gigantic weddings.

Dave’s an avid elk hunter, and I’m one too, except I haven’t managed to successfully hunt an elk… yet. Dave passed on to me some great hunting tips, and shared some premium cuts of elk meat from his past exploits. The meat was delicious, and actually put a lot more pressure on me as a hunter because my whole family loved it when I cooked it up, and my mom said, “So when are you gonna get some of your own?”

Dave may be a storied trophy hunter, but I could tell from the look in his eyes, as Sherry walked down the aisle, that his greatest catch was right in front of him…

Congrats you two!

You can view all of Michele and Lucas’ Graphistudio album.

Michele and Lucas were married at Raccoon Creek Golf Course in Littleton, CO. Colorado really cooperated on their wedding day with stunning skies, picturesque clouds, and a sunset straight out of a movie.

Our ability to tell the story of the wedding day across the album’s pages is unparalled with Graphistudio albums. Premium covers, professional Kodak photo-papers, lay-flat pages, and custom layouts are why we only carry Graphistudio albums for our entire album line.

You can view Tristyn and David’s sample gallery.

Why do I like Tristyn? (Other than her name…)

I like Tristyn because she was one of our only clients through the course of last year to notice, and mention, that between the time they intitally met with me, to the day I shot their engagement photos, that I had lost a lot of weight (30 lbs in 4 or 5 months).

Why do I like her even more after her wedding?

Because when I told her I’d gained all the weight back she claimed she didn’t believe me! God Bless you, Tristyn! That was, The Perfect Answer.

But seriously, I really enjoyed photographing Tristyn and David because of the true affection and love that shined out between them. They were authentically excited, almost giddy to get married. And it shows: the natural affection, the warmth, and most importantly, the level of comfort and confidence it takes to be naturally close and affectionate with your fiance.

We have a pretty unique system for our Graphistudio albums here at Trystan Photography, in that we (the photographers) allow our clients as much control as humanly possible over the layout of their wedding albums.

They choose all of the photographs in the album. (Not all photographers do that…)

I do the design. I send them the layout to approve. (Not all photographers do that, either…)

Our clients can make as many edits to the layout at they would like! (Almost nobody does that…)

This process may equal many more hours of work on my end, but it guarantees that the client is getting the exact album they wanted and dreamed of. I definitely think it’s worth it.

However, lately our clients have been having a heck of a time narrowing down the photographs to a “reasonable” amount for our 40 page albums (80-100 pics max.) In this event, I offer to delete some photos for them (nobody has ever taken me up on this), or I just go for it and we see how many pages we’ll need to upgrade when i finish the layout…

Jil and David were the first couple to get their chosen pics back to me from the 2008 season (and they were one of our last ‘08 weddings… hmmmm, anybody reading this from May or June of ‘08?). Jil and David’s album is the biggest wedding album (66pages, 130 photographs) I’ve ever designed! But it’s soooooo cool.

I’ll try and post photos of the finished album when it gets back from Italy, but in the meantime you can check out the final approved layout…

I loved Allison and Joe’s wedding! What a fun loving, affectionate couple, with great friends and family. They were the kind of couple that you could see the love they felt in the way they looked at each other that day, and capturing that is an honor (plus it makes for great photographs).

Additionally, we got to go play! The limo made a pit-stop at a playground and we just went nuts for a couple of minutes (it was pretty quick because it was getting really cold out). It is such a blessing as a photographer to get a couple willing to celebrate and have fun for their photographs. Allison and Joe had such an earnest sense of celebration and play that it wasn’t work at all to photograph their wedding.

Thank you so much you two! Best of luck, and I can’t wait to get your album pics from you! (I’ll show the album when I’m finished, too… stay tuned.)

I guess I dropped the ball on our “official” opening announcement since we’ve already shot portrait sittings there this last weekend. So, better late than never…

Trystan Photography is pleased to announce the “official post-grand opening” of our new Denver portrait studio!

Wow. That was really good. (By the way, I set off a confetti popper in the office here as I wrote that, just so you know we aren’t sparing any expense for this announcement.)

I guess one of the reasons the fact that we’re now “officially” open is a little less than momentous for me is we’ve already been getting a terrific response from the Denver client

Amy and Daniel are getting married this summer and it will surely be a fabulous affair. I love engagement sessions because it’s the perfect time to really get to know your couple before you photograph them on thier big day. Amy and Daniel were really funny with each other. Daniel seems to be such a kid at heart and Amy is so patient with him. Well, for as long as she can stand it!

I love it when my couples goof around with each other. These guys seem like they have such a great time together and it truely reflects in the photographs. I’m so excited to photograph them on their wedding day!

Charlotte and I were putting on the final touch-ups at our Denver studio yesterday (the grand opening announcement will be coming very soon…) and I really didn’t think we needed to ensure proper ventilation while we painted what seemed like very minor finishing touches, and… holy cow!

By the time we were done I noticed Char and I could barely finish sentences. It was like the scene from “Fear and Loathing” when they do the ether-binge in Vegas. And it wasn’t pleasant at all. I would not recommend it to anyone.

So, please heed my warning people: follow the ventilation warnings on your paint cans! As a result of my reckless handy-man arrogance, I think I’m slightly dumber this morning (and I didn’t have much to work with in the first place), so if I seem slower if any of you call me, it’s because basically Charlotte and I were unintentionally huffing paint yesterday.

And in the words of the wise Mr. Mackey, “Huffing paint is bad, m’kay?”