Please click the photo above or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Erika and Taylor’s wedding at Hillside Gardens and The Warehouse Restaurant.

Talk about some photo All-Stars!

We knew very early on, pretty much right after I met with Erika and Taylor, that they were going to be pretty darn fun to photograph.

…and then Char did their engagement session. Holy cow.

…and then Erika did her boudoir session with Char (which a surprising number of brides are adding to their packages for their loving and deserving future husbands!). ¡Ay Dios mio!

Finally, after all the great photos they’d given us, we came to their wedding day. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and really unseasonably cold. However, like all of our clients this year who have faced “less than ideal” weather on their big day, Erika and Taylor were shining examples of how to put on a good attitude and rock the photos!

When we photograph couples, we try and get them to just be themselves. Laugh, flirt, make-out, have fun: if I have to ask them to stop “or else I’m getting a hose” then we’re having a great day.

Thank you Erika and Taylor for being so enthusiastic about everything you did with Trystan Photography. We had so much fun with you two. We hope you did, too!

Oh this little man was a dream, he did SO incredibly well for me! I love me some sleepy babies!

Please click the photo above or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Kevin and Taylor’s perfect wedding at Copper Mountain.

From Alaska with love.

So, Taylor and Kevin live in Alaska. But they were married in Colorado. Taylor’s sister lives in Colorado, but she got married in Alaska. Make sense?

Therefore, Taylor needed a little help coordinating all of this from the North, so her sister helped find us down here in Colorado. Great team effort, ladies (if I do say so myself)!

Taylor and Kevin are warm and laid back, and they planned a not-too-small and still intimate wedding at gorgeous Copper Mountain. One of the neatest things to experience in Colorado is the ghost-town-quality of a high country ski resort mid-summer. It is surreal to be some of the only people at the whole mountain. And while that emptiness might be a little disconcerting, an empty Copper means we’re not fighting to get people-less shots in all of those stunning backgrounds.

Taylor and Kevin had an easy love. They were comfortable with each other, which translated in to an ease in front of the camera. The weather was perfect. The wedding was perfect.

Thank you, you two, for letting Char and I capture your amazing day!

Click the photo or follow the link to view Crystal and Lucas’ perfect wedding at The USAFA Cadet Chapel and Officer’s Club.

What a stunning place to photograph a wedding! The Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy is simply amazing. With it’s kaleidoscope of colors shimmering in from the modern architecture, it’s awe inspiring grand scale, and it’s quiet and claming atmosphere, it is one of the most unique cermony venues in all of Colorado (if not the US)! And that’s the sad part about it: not everyone can use it. Chapel weddings are reserved for the hard-working men and women of our military, and if you haven’t made that commitment, that sacrafice to serve… tough nuts. You can’t use it.

Which is fine, becuase the military deserves little perks like that. So it’s not that often we find ourselves at the Chapel, but what a treat it is when we do!

Crytal and Lucas’ wedding was stellar. Crystal and Lucas were stunning together. They are the proto-typical All-American couple. Perfectly cute together, and really into each other. Crystal and Lucas’ smiles seemed to add even more light and color to the Chapel. In fact, I’ve never seen it so bright and colorful.

Their day went off perfectly with just the right amount of joy, love, tears and laughter. Except for their limo. It didn’t show for their “grand exit” at the end. I have no idea if it ever came. But they just pulled up dad’s car, turned up the wattage on their smiles, and everyone gave them a really great send-off, limo or not.

Thank you, Crystal and Lucas for choosing Trystan Photography to document your special day.  It was a real pleasure and an honor!

Thank you Shawn, Stacy and Jacob for letting me capture your beautiful family, in a beautiful area that has so many memories to me!

So, I’m still playing “blogging-catch-up”. Actually, we just shot Lisa and Casey’s wedding last weekend (the really hot one I was whining about on Facebook Saturday night): just an idea of how hard it is for me to keep up on this blogging this year!

I loved taking their engagement photos, and I loved their wedding even more. So let me just say, if you like their engagement session, oh baby, just wait until you see their wedding photos! (Hot or cold, that day would have always been awesome!)

Click the photo above, or follow the link to view our favorite photographs from Mackenzie and Derek’s amazing wedding at Arrowhead Golf Course.

Yet another Spring wedding where Colorado decided to be a little difficult. In fact, the entire start of the 2010 wedding season was terrible, in terms of cold weather. Fortunately, Mackenzie and Derek’s wedding got sunshine, at least. You can’t tell from the photos (one of the many wonderful advantages of still photography), but the entire day was on the verge of being really cold.

In fact, the couple photos after the ceremony were downright freezing. But other than a little rosy color on the cheeks and nose that had to be retouched, it looks like a beautiful summer evening.

And did Mackenzie complain? Nope. I would venture to say, she and Derek were “quite warm”. They are one of those couples (like we should all try to be) who are really, really, REALLY, into each other and have no problem with PDA. I don’t want to get into too much detail here, but I knew from their engagement session that this was going to be HOT.

But their PDA isn’t that uncomfortable “get-a-room” kind, but rather that joyous “I’m-so-happy-I’ve-found-you-and-I’m-scared-if-I-let-you-go-I-might-wake-up-from-this-amazing-dream” kind of PDA. It’s inspiring and it made my heartache for Charlotte (my wife, who I work with, luckily), so I hugged her a lot that night.

Might I also point out, that Mackenzie  happens to have the official title of “Bride Most on Top of Her Game… Ever”. She booked us 2 years ago. Talk about planning ahead! And in the course of how we’ve grown over the last two years, our prices have increased rather tremendously, so she also saved herself quite a chunk of change booking that far ahead (hint, hint, wink, wink potential 2012 and 2013 brides…)

Thank you, Mack and Derek. Your wedding has been a long time coming, and it was pure joy to capture this day for you two. Thank you for giving us that honor and responsibility!

Click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Jocelyn and Chase’s stunning Palazzo Verdi wedding.

*The following video is an update from the amazing videographers at CueMotion Wedding Cinematography, who we worked with for Jocelyn and Chase’s wedding. They are amazing, a while they might be based in Lincoln, NE we’ve managed to work with them on a number of weddings in Colorado! We love working with them and highly recommend them. They are totally worth the travel fee! http://www.cuemotion.com

So here we are in April. Maybe, just maybe, Colorado will start playing nice in terms of weather? Nope. The day before this wedding, which was a HUGE wedding (all day unlimited photography, 300+ guests, at Palazzo Verdi…) I-25 was SHUT DOWN. I-25 is rarely shut down. The snow was coming in “sideways-like”. So, needless to say, we were quite nervous about this one!

The day of we left around 7 am, and things weren’t looking so hot. Monument and Castle Rock heading north were a nightmare. Snow was still coming in sideways. It was bitter cold, with gusts of wind that chilled your very soul. Once we got to Palazzo Verdi, things were better in the sense that Denver had no snow, but it had simply become a frozen, stinging rain with wind. Not good.

The second we got inside for the rehearsal, everything looked a lot brighter, regardless of what the weather was doing because Jocelyn and Chase were on cloud nine!

I don’t mean to beat a dead horse on this topic, but it really it paramount: the attitudes of our clients on the day of their weddings have been nothing short of inspiring. Nothing was gonna keep this wedding from being an absolute joy for Jocelyn and Chase.

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Kim Harms is a rock. She might just be the most patient and resilient person in the world. She has demonstrated her ability to wait and soothe newborn babies to sweet slumber to she can get those amazing sleeping baby portraits of hers.

Now she has shown she has more willpower in her little finger than most of us have in our whole body by releasing her showcase of birth documentary photos. Kim’s birth photojournalism might just be the most amazing, moving, and priceless photography in the world. Why? a) It’s a once in a lifetime event. b) It’s wrought with emotion and drama, c) her work is extraordinary. Her entire life in on hold in the weeks around the due date (because all parents know that them babies don’t always cooperate on schedule!), and once she gets that call, she is there at the hospital until that baby is out!

But, for once, I’m not gonna talk anymore about it, because her slide-shows are stunning. I will let them speak for themselves. You can view her showcase here.

Please share this with everyone you know who is pregnant, even if it’s just to share the emotion of it!

It’s a revolutionary way to think about fine art photography. They are two portrait programs optimized for the two most pressing demands we’ve seen from our wonderful clientele over the last 6 years:

a) “The Trystan Way” is a guided, hands-on approach to the creation of custom artwork for your home and office.

b)”The Petite” is a fast, affordable, and easy way to get portraits to share online and access to the most popular sizes of standard prints for friends and family.

“The Trystan Way” is a premium service, entirely based around custom quotes for the commissioning of completely unique display art  in the home or office. “The Trysan Way” is the pinnacle of fine art photography. We’ll help you from start to finish, from planning to installing the final piece on the wall.

In this age of digital photography, many aspects of the art and power of photography are becoming lost to more imminent needs such as ease of sharing and access to the digital files. While we will not deny that it is a wonderful thing to share these amazing moments and photos with family and friends all over the world, we feel it is imperative that our clientele still have an option to take advantage of one of the most rewarding and satisfying experiences of fine art photography: the creation of custom art that surpasses mere portraiture and becomes a priceless heirloom for generations to come!

While this service does mean you’ll need to make a more meaningful investment than “The Petite”, it provides each client with expert guided care along every step of the process of creating stunning artwork for the home.

No concept is too aggressive. Dream big and beautiful and become part of “The Trystan Way”. Please visit our pricing page or call us at 719.359.5520 for more details on the “Trystan Way”.

“The Petite” is the best of both worlds: the finest photography, but in a more compact and timely form.” The Petite” is perfect for those who know they won’t want wall portraits, and are interested in standard sizes (from wallets to 8×10′s) or digital files. It includes a Mini-session, online proofing and ordering for two weeks. It’s fast, easy, and (other than the session), done completely from the comfort of your own home!

 

 

Amber and Pete are a blast. We are so blessed to have only clients that like to laugh, have fun, and truly love each other. It makes photography so much fun and easy. It may have been a little chilly that day, but they made it HOT and fun.

You’ll see Amber and Pete’s wedding photos later this year after we shoot their wedding at The Cheyenne Lodge at the Broadmoor.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from Sarah and Jon’s wedding at The Red Rocks Visitors Center.

Wind. Colorado is widely known for it’s picturesque vistas, perfect wilderness and mountain areas, blue-bird skies, and awe inspiring rock formations. A lesser known trait of Colorado, and one which has been on full display this year is: Colorado can be a very windy place. Most years there are a few notable wind storms, but Spring 2010 was the season of gale force winds. I hate them. They ruin hairstyles and blow hair into eyes. They blow dresses around in the most unflattering manner. They ruin equipment.

I’m not kidding about the equipment thing. This wedding will be forever remembered The Great Photography Equipment Destruction Day. The primary victims were our wireless lighting flashes that we use for our more dramatic shots. Even with sandbags, and wedding guests helping to hold the light stands, the hurricane force wind gusts STILL knocked the stands down. One almost nailed a flower girl (but missed, thank God) and I caught another with my head. Another collateral loss was our Manfrotto tri-pod. In the middle of all of this hustle and bustle we left it behind while shooting in the amphitheater, and 10 minutes later, it was gone (it’s a $400 tri-pod and head, so I’m sure it was a great prize for that piece of #$&* who stole it).

But here’s the amazing part of all of this: Sarah, the Unsinkable Bride. Gale-force freezing winds, blowing flowers, whipping dresses, uncomfortable guests, and hundreds of milling visitors constantly in the shot should have been enough to bum her out a little. I mean, she had every right to feel bad: over a year of planning, and your dream day is just this side of pure chaos because of the weather.

You know what? Not Sarah. She had the best attitude. When the wind howled, she’d laugh. When equipment crashed to the ground, she’d sigh and smile again. When we’d stop and have to ask people to “move along” she just smile and shrug. If you were to gauge what kind of day it was based on her photos, it was clearly the perfect day for a wedding. And that, my friends, is the indomitable power of positive attitude. Sarah and Jon turned what should have been chaotic, frustrating day into a joyous, loving, and perfect day, all with their amazing vibes and attitude.

Oh, and another thing: Sarah and Jon’s ceremony had the coolest little symbolic ceremony in it that I’ve ever seen. Instead of communion, or a unity candle, or a wine ceremony, they each drank and tasted different items as the officiant read about the stages of marriage and it’s symbolism: in the beginning everything is sweet like sugar, then it gets hot like pepper, then things can get a little sour like lemon, then things can get absolutely spoiled like vinegar, but then after you work through it all and learn to really love, share, and compromise, then it’s truly good and wholesome, like honey. And they ate and drank these things, experiencing together a little hint of what was to come. I love it when I see new couples treating marriage like it really is: the best, hardest, most up and down, loving, sad, inspiring and meaningful thing they will ever do in their lives. Couples that seem like they think everything is going to be singing birds and sunshine scare the crap out of me. If that’s what they really think marriage is, not only are they doomed, but they are missing the WHOLE POINT! Couples  like Sarah and Jon keep it real, and I know they will make it because they see marriage for the challenge and reward that is really is! And if they can handle the gale-force winds of their wedding day with such composure and joy, then they are going to be great with the trials of life…

Thank you so much, Sarah and Jon for sharing your incredible day with us. You two are inspiring and we had a blast photographing it!

Can you imagine? All this planning and preparation, and instead of exchanging vows your exchanging fluids via IV.

We’ve heard it was her gall bladder bursting, but we still haven’t heard anything as of this morning, so it might be more serious than initially thought.

Please keep Schary and Greg in your prayers. We hope she’s okay!

January 2010. You’d think a winter wedding in Colorado would be pretty darn cold…

Nope. Sunny, upper 50′s, and quite lovely actually. Katrina and Peter had the perfect day for a small intimate wedding at the Chief Hosa Lodge and Red Rocks.

We have joked with some of our Spring-time weddings (which have been bitter-cold and windy at times) that if they wanted nice weather for a wedding, they should have booked mid-winter.

What a crazy state Colorado is. Never the same and unpredictable, but always stunning to shoot photographs in.

I have no good excuses other than this year has been “busy-nuts”: I am a terrible blogger.

Case in point: here’s an awesome engagement session from… this winter. Jeez. That’s sad. Nothin’ like blogging about a session 4 months later!

Anyway, Lisa and Chris are getting married at The Pinery in September, and they were awesome to photograph. After a little nerves, they instantly got “hot” and were loving and fun from then on.

You two were perfect, and your photos capture two people, completely in love with each other. Thank you for making it easy to shoot, and for waiting this long to get your spotlight on the blog!

Nearly a month ago, our main business phone number of 6 years was “slammed”. That’s when somebody fraudulently poses as you, and steals your number. To what end I don’t know. Initially, our number just went dead, but then it started ringing to a family here in Colorado Springs!! They started receiving our business calls!!! And the best part, Vonage says it has no idea where the number is, but then it turns out the family getting the calls are new Vonage (SUCKS) customers! And for a month, that’s the story. A Vonage customer is receiving calls from our number, and yet Vonage says it has no idea where the number is. It’s been a nightmare.

I can’t believe how hard this was to fight the number slamming. Whoever faked our identity and put in the fraudulent transfer really put the screws to us last month. The phone line going dead really worried some of our wedding clients, obviously. How many potential business calls did we miss for portraits? My cell phone was ringing off the hook last month, but how many people didn’t find that number and just stopped trying?!?

I have to tip my hat to Verizon, though. Even though they were the company to which the number was slammed, they worked their butts off to track this down and find the fraudulent order and get the number back to Vonage (SUCKS). The rep from Verizon actually got into an argument with the rep from Vonage (SUCKS) because the Vonage (SUCKS) rep kept insisting that because the transfer was “authorized” Vonage (SUCKS) could do no more. The Verizon rep kept insisting that because the original owner was on the phone saying that the transfer was fraudulent, that Vonage (SUCKS) should file a fraud claim and take the number back! “Nothing we can do: it was a “legitimate” transfer…”

“I am telling you it is fraud. It’s me!! I’m telling you this, THE OWNER OF THE NUMBER!!”

“Yeah, but the transfer was legitimate” Dear God, I might have reached through the phone and done horrible things at that point…

1 month Vonage (SUCKS)!!!! 1 month you’ve left me, my business, and my family hanging. The entire “single contact” department at Verizon was working on this at one point with conference calls and constant contact with me. My “Executive Response Team” member at Vonage (SUCKS) won’t even return my phone calls for the last two days.

Did I mention they charged me a $90 cancellation fee and a $50 activation fee because I “transferred” the number out and then brought it “back in”? What a bunch of incompetent fools.

Miss Leah was a joy to photograph! And incredibly sweet… I love watching first time parents with their new baby. The love and amazement in their eyes is indescribable and these lucky parents were no exception.  So in love with their new baby girl… and who can blame them, she’s beautiful!

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I met Mr. W and his wonderful parents at the wedding of his Aunt Heather and new Uncle Arion, last year! You may remember this spotlight on  Heather and Arion’s fabulous wedding.

Mr.W is on his 3rd session from his first year of photos, which includes 3,6,9 and 12 month photos shoots.  The session I’m posting today is from the most recent session with Mr. W (9 months), and so far my most favorite.  I’ve said this several times, and I’ll say it again, I love 9 month olds!!!   This age is truly such a fun age. With all the funny faces, and smiles, and innocent expressions all in one!

I started noticing about 1/3 of the way into our session that Mr. W kept making this little hand gesture, like he was holding up the number 1.  His parents told me, this was a new and very common thing for him to do. It was hilarious,you have to watch the slideshow below! I think in about every other shot, he made this gesture.  These are the little things that I love to capture at these precious ages. I can’t wait to see what this little man has in store for me at his one year session.  He is already walking with his little push car (as you can see in some photos on the slideshow) at nine months!!!! So, I have a feeling I will be getting my exercise at our next session, no doubt about that!

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