Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Meet Valerie and her son, Joe…

Valerie lives next door and her son, Joe, and my daughter, Allie, have become best buds. Such good buds, Allie is determined her and Joe will be getting married in the future, she’s just “waiting for a ring”. It’s cute… but scary how fast they grow up!
Valerie’s hubby, Dave, is currently deployed and won’t be back till June… she wanted to have some pictures taken of her and Joe to send to him. So we headed out east of Colorado Springs to where she boards her horse and had a blast playing around on the farm. It was a gorgeous March day, the sun was shining and we couldn’t have asked for better weather.
Joe looks incredibly handsome in his cowboy hat and Valerie always looks gorgeous! I look forward to doing a session with them once Dave returns this summer, so keep your eyes open for this cute family later this year!

Sweet Miss Adalyn did not want to be away from her mommy! So we made due and got some great shots with mom only inches away! 6 months is such a fun age to photograph… sitting up but not yet mobile ( a photographers dream! ) and for the most part, they are always cheery and smiley!

I had some of the most precious newborns in the month of January! What a wonderful way to start off the new year. A couple of them were amazing sleepers, let me mold and pose them anyway I wanted… then a couple were a little more tough. Always sleeping with one eye open, watching me and refusing to sleep… luckily, with patience, a warm house and a full tummy they all finally succomed to their need for sleep and passed out! That’s when the real fun begins.

A lot of parents think they want their newborn to be awake for pictures… when in reality newborns photograph best when they are in that deep deep sleep where they can be moved without waking for a single second. Typically, if the baby is awake when I get there I’ll start the session and try to get a few shots of their bright eyes, but after a few of those I always recommend nursing/feeding the baby to top them off and get them to go to sleep. Sleepy newborns are much easier to work with than wide awake ones!

So I’ve finally finished my last senior session for 2009 (I suppose there could be some last minuters) and have been going through the sessions to pick out my favs.  I’m going to blog a bigger post with more images here in a day or so, but thought I’d show you all, just how awesome my 2009 seniors were.  At some random point during their sessions this year, I would have them do a crazy jump for me.  Sometimes it really helps everyone to just loosen up and have some fun!  I was so honored this year to get some of the coolest high school seniors ever.  Stay tuned for more pics from these sessions, some of my favorite shots of all time. Enjoy this fun little slide show in the meantime!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite photos from MJ and Fred’s adorable wedding at The Secret Garden in Colorado Springs.

There are almost no words to describe how loving and precious Mary Jean and Fred are together. One of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken is the photo (to the left) after they’ve just had their “reveal” moment (where they see each other for the first time). Fred is holding her so dearly and so lovingly, you can almost see his heart bursting with joy and love. And Fred was a hoot: he is one of those old-school men who was clearly hesitant to show any tears in front of the camera, so we had to be really sneaky to get the shot, and how it was worth it!

MJ and Fred were just really interesting people. Not only is this Fred’s 1st marriage (his family joked that he was simply really, really picky), but both he and MJ are phenomenal dancers. And I don’t mean like “we take a few lessons” dancers, I mean like “we’re pros” dancers.

The best part? A ton of their friends are professional dancers so the dancing shots at the reception are gorgeous! Sexy, spinning, flair, motion, great form, and steamy gazes… it was great! (Some dancers have the best gazes. It’s a salsa/Latin thing where they look like they either want to eat you or… you know… it’s an expression of their natural heat.)

The Secret Garden was spectacular that day/night. Not too cool, not too hot, and the gardens themselves were lush and wonderful. It was the perfect setting for such a picturesque wedding. If you haven’t seen The Secret Garden in Old Colorado City, you must check it out. It literally is hidden. It’s right next to HWY 24, and unless you have exact directions, you’ll never find it because, well, it’s hidden!

Thank you MJ and Fred for sharing your spectacular, fun-to-photograph wedding with us. It was an honor and a pleasure. And a special thanks to Fred for letting us capture such emotional shots!

One of my best friends, Gaby, just delivered her third daughter, McKenna. She picked a great day to be born… my birthday! So McKenna’s daddy came up with the nickname of KimKenna…. since we will forever share the same birthday. I thought it was cleaver and pretty cute! Especially since I was there photographing her grand entrance into the world!

You’ll be seeing her on the blog as she grows through the first year, and I am so excited… she is just the cutest and most precious little girl. And look at all that hair! You’ve also seen her two older sisters on the blog before… so keep your eye out for their first session together!

Gaby made a great decision to have me photograph McKenna before she was even a week old. Newborns are the easiest to photograph in the first week of life… they hardly, if ever!, wake up… and let me mold them and move them whatever way I want. Its a dream really! They still have the scrunchy look and are just so easy to handle. I typically say before they are 2 weeks old is best, but the first week is ideal!!

It’s not often I sit a baby down to photograph them and they are smiley and happy from the start! But I sure do love when that happens! I can always depend on Elena smiling for me, she’s got to be one of the happiest (and cutest!) babies I’ve photographed. Sure makes my life a lot easier!

You may remember Kendahl from her newborn session. She sure has grown since then!

She’s gained so much chub its beyond adorable… love baby rolls! And when else are rolls cute on a girl in life?!

Amanda, Lenee and Britney were so much fun, and you can totally tell from their session! Amanda wanted funky, graffiti wall type pictures and I think we did a good job making that happen! Britney didn’t want to let go of her Dora book, but that’s okay …  it captures the moment! Lenee is a beautiful young lady and was a great help with her little sister!

Thanks Amanda, for allowing me to photograph you and your beautiful girls!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view our favorite sample photographs from Julia and Matt’s wedding at Hillside Gardens.

Loyal blog readers will recognize this wedding as the culmination of the long and twisted tale of Julia Weiland, our illustrious studio manager and apprentice photographer. Originally a bride, she unabashedly asked if she could start apprenticing under us with weddings, which led to a great friendship, which became pure nepotism and we hired her as our studio manager (many of you who are wedding clients have probably received a phone call from her at some point about you next payment being due… ).

Well, this ended up being a big, important, do-or-die day for us. Not only is Julia now an expert on our style (she helps me with the initial wedding deleting and she assists on about 1/2 our weddings) but she’s memorized every single photo we’ve ever taken in our portfolio. And on top of that, she and Matt also asked ME to be their officiant for the wedding! Whaaaaaaaaaat?

Let’s break this day down: we not only had to capture amazing photos, but I also had to marry them?!?

Well, let’s just say, the day itself did not make it easy on us!

When Julia, Matt and I first met in 2008 and they told me that their wedding would be at Hillside Gardens, the first thing I told them was, “It’s an amazing place… I love shooting there, but… what’s the backup plan if it rains?”

Julia’s whole demeanor changed when I asked that question, and she stared at with an intensity that could have wilted flowers, “We don’t need a backup plan. It… will… not… rain.”

And she meant it. More than anything. In fact, she made that statement with such conviction, I truly believed she had somehow affected the outcome of that days weather: Mother Nature would have to answer to Julia if it dared to rain that day.

Julia meant it. And I believed it.

Well, it rained. All day. Poured in fact. Ah, well. Such is life. Such is a wedding.

Julia tried really hard to be positive and strong and upbeat, but as the day wore on a photos were getting delayed because of the downpour, her resolve began to slip. Soon, there were little bouts of tears, and then hand holding with her best friends, which finally collapsed into nearly broken-down praying/rocking… and this is where it gets really creepy. As soon as Julia went into her kind of trance-like prayer/crying/rocking state and was begging the rain to stop in time for the ceremony… it stopped. We all gave her a little wider berth that day because, if she could stop the rains themselves, then if she got mad, she could probably make my head explode like that movie “Scanners” with the power of her thoughts.

Well, the skies cleared, I changed clothes, and emerged in my never-worn black suit, walked down the aisle, and conducted the first wedding ceremony of my entire life. It was thrilling. I was nervous. I was irreverent. I was sincere. I was awesome…

I’m not kidding. My ceremony was a hit. Women were coming up to me all through the reception telling me how unusual it was, and how they wished I could have married them at their weddings!

And I must say to all of those wedding officiants who make a stink about photographers: I never even noticed Kim and Char. I never noticed, saw, or heard them. I was too busy performing a marriage ceremony! So, to all of those officiants who put all those limits on photographers: focus on your job! Stop worrying about the photographers!

It’s awesome seeing the saga of Julia and Matt, engaged couple, come to a close. It even cooler seeing them start a new life as a married couple.

And you know what the best part of this whole convoluted relationship has been? Watching Julia work on the deleting of her own wedding photos. It was pure, delightful, agony for her.

No, I’m kidding. The best part has been making incredible, loyal friends from two people who initially were complete strangers who wanted to hire us.

Thank you, Julia and Matt, for being great friends, and Julia: thanks for being a hard working employee and for putting up with my insufferable crap everyday. You’re the best.