I had the distinct pleasure of photographing the new items on The Cliff House at Pikes Peak‘s new Summer Dining Menu a few weeks ago. Not only do the plates look great, but I got to taste them too, and they are amazing.

Few people know that I do a lot of commercial photography and design work for The Cliff House (pretty much every photo on the website is from me, and I also designed everything you see on the website and in print there, too!). I love commercial work: it is such a break from the pace of portraits and weddings. While there are a lot more people looking over my shoulder, and my work is usually being judged right out of the camera by owners and art directors, commercial shoots seem to have a slower pace to them, giving me more time to play and get the shot perfect.

If you haven’t dined at The Cliff House, you should. It’s a four diamond award-winning dining room but with a great value in its prices. It costs me and Char about the same to eat this amazing food as it does for us to go eat at Macaroni Grill! The quality of the food is unmatched, and the flavors will blow you mind!

Meet Audrey Grace Harms

This sweet and adorable little baby girl is my third (yes, third) daughter! She was born April 25th and has been beyond the perfect addition to our (complete!) family!
When she was a week old, I took her downtown Colorado Springs to our fabulous studio to get some newborn shots of her and she did not disappoint. She slept great and let me take many pictures. The impatient one was my 4 year old who was my “helper” that day. All in all, I love what I captured and cannot wait to order some of these for my walls! And I’m thinking BIG… the only way to display heart melting portraits!

It’s amazing to me how fast these little ones grow… Audrey will be three weeks old on Wednesday and I feel as if she’s already grown so much. She is sleeping less and makes it much harder to get posed sleepy shots of her. Another good example of getting newborn pictures done within the first 10 days!

Keep your eyes peeled for little Audrey on the blog… I’ve been waiting for a baby to torture, er photograph, for a couple years now! Oh what fun this is going to be!

]]> http://www.trystanphotography.net/2012/05/introducing-audrey/feed/ 0 http://www.trystanphotography.net/2012/05/save-your-image-files-spring-cleaning-fire-sale-on-digital-portrait-files/ http://www.trystanphotography.net/2012/05/save-your-image-files-spring-cleaning-fire-sale-on-digital-portrait-files/#comments Sat, 12 May 2012 20:05:04 +0000 Trig http://www.trystanphotography.net/?p=3029 It’s the worst thing ever… trust us!

It’s officially time for some digital “Spring Cleaning” at Trystan Photography!

Every few years we whittle our massive portrait image storage down to just our own studio samples and then we… *gasp*… purge the rest of the images!

We know it’s hard to imagine, but we have to do it! We’d run out of room if we didn’t (and we have a TON of storage and backup)!

So, if you didn’t get your digital files from your past session, but you’ve always been wanting to: NOW IS YOUR CHANCE!

• We are offering a HUGE discount on the purchase of your entire session’s worth of image files: $400 for the entire session!!

Don’t miss out, because in 1 week (5/19/2012), we may no longer have all the images from your portrait session (especially if your session was before 1/1/11).

To take advantage of this fire sale pricing, please call us at 719.359.5520 and save your images today!

Boy, did we luck out this day.  It was supposed to be nasty (according to the weather earlier that week), and I was nervous the day before when it was, in fact, quite nasty out. But when it came time to photograph Dustin and Emily, the skies were perfect and the sun was beaming.

I cannot put into words how much I love shooting in slightly filtered afternoon sun. The way it back-lights the leaves and rims the hair and faces: it makes everything look like a dream. It’s one of the things I love most about outdoor portraiture in Colorado! (Then there’s Colorado’s wind, which is a completely different sentiment, altogether…)

For those of you who have no idea what Helen Hunt Falls is, or where is it is, it’s right past Seven Falls above the Broadmoor/Cheyenne Mountain area in Colorado Springs. And while Seven Falls costs $$ and is way too full of sight-seers for photography to be that much fun, Helen Hunt Falls is free and is usually quite sparsely populated (yes, there are people there, but not droves of people like Seven Falls), and parking is not a problem (whereas at Seven Falls you can end up having to walk a little to get there…). However, Helen Hunt Falls are not the big, giant falls like Seven Falls, but it is a very pretty area, and the sun always seems to be “just right” in that little canyon…

Thank you, Emily and Dustin, for giving me so much fun and love to work with at your engagement session. We are so excited for the wedding.

P.S. You both did a fantastic job choosing the photos for your photo-guestbook. They are perfect!

I love to go back through older sessions when things are slow and blog sessions that seem to have gotten lost in the craziness of busy photo season!

Emma’s session is one… she was SO cute in the field with her flowers. That smile just melted my heart! I remember taking her six month pictures and cannot believe how much she has grown. Later this year she will become a big sister and I cannot wait to capture those moments at their newborn session!

]]> http://www.trystanphotography.net/2012/05/emma/feed/ 0 http://www.trystanphotography.net/2012/05/wedding-album-special-1-week-only/ http://www.trystanphotography.net/2012/05/wedding-album-special-1-week-only/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 20:19:32 +0000 Trig http://www.trystanphotography.net/?p=2487 It’s NEVER “too late”!

… to complete your perfect wedding with a stunning album!

Limited time discounts on our top-selling album line!

Check out our album pricing here.

1 WEEK ONLY!

Purchase any size album this week and take 20% off the full price!

Purchase any premium 10″ album (or larger) with Endura/Linen or Kodak Metallic paper at 20% off and we’ll throw in two 6″ Parent’s Copies for FREE.

*Offer valid from 5/11/2012-5/18/2012.

Quality that lasts.

Any size album (8″-12″) includes your choice of any premium cover from Graphistudio’s huge selection of cover materials.

*Already ordered an album? Buy another as a gift got a loved one!

Ready to Order?

Simply call us at 719.359.5520 to place your order. We accept all major credit cards. You can also pay by check.

Our Portrait Showcase Galleries with 2011 Updates!

(click the link to view the latest updated gallery)

• Kids/Childrens Portraits
• High School Senior Portraits
• Family Portraits
• Couple/Engagement Portraits

We love the Cliff House. We love the superb and fun staff, the weddings facilities, and the whole area! The town of Manitou Springs is a photographer’s dream come true. So much character, so much history and breathtaking beauty is just steps away from The Cliff House’s front door.

If you’re planning a wedding for 2013 or beyond, you must check out The Cliff House. Give their sales coordinator, Kristin Eurich, a call at 719.785.2422 to schedule a walk-through of the amazing wedding facilities. You can also email her at: keurich@thecliffhouse.com.

Weddings at The Cliff House at Pikes Peak

Logan and David’s wedding at The Cliff House at Pikes Peak.

Michalle amd Ben’s wedding at The Cliff House at Pikes Peak.

Sarah and David’s wedding at The Cliff House at Pikes Peak.

You see, the chapel is simply a stunning venue for photos, and those lucky enough to have access to it (Air Force Academy graduates and cadets) are pretty much guaranteed to have jaw-dropping photographs.

So, in hopes of gathering together a few more USAFA Chapel weddings for next year, here’s our current galleries of the latest weddings we’ve photographed at the Air Force Academy chapel:

Air Force Academy Chapel weddings

Jackie and Sam’s wedding at the Air Force Academy Chapel.

Jamie and Ryan’s wedding at the Air Force Academy Chapel.

Crystal and Lucas’ wedding at the Air Force Academy chapel.

This is one of our country’s veteran soldiers, and it was an honor to photograph he and his family before he deploys (yet again) in the coming weeks. I’m not going to use his name because he’s one of those “elite” kind of soldiers who don’t necessarily want “other” people to be able to see on the internet when they are coming and going to “areas of interest”.

I don’t know how these military families do it: worrying about loved ones abroad, keeping relationships going over long months away, kiddos missing their parents… I just have no idea.

We owe so much to our service men and women.

But if my photos play any part in making the struggles and hardships of a soldier’s deployment any easier to bear, then I’ve done my tiny part to support him, and people like him…

…I hope.

Thank you for such an opportunity and honor! Come back home safe!