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

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!

I can feel it, summer isn’t far off!
With the time change, its lighter longer. The weather is starting to shape up and we can actually spend time outside.

We can do photo sessions outdoors without jackets, gloves, hats, crying/cold children!!

I cannot wait for spring and summer to get here, we got a nice little taste of that at this session… pure joy!

Such a gorgeous little girl… and oh so sweet!

Brooklyn was a joy to photograph, loved this session!

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!

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!

Seeing these four together again brings such joy to my heart. Mark just got back from his third tour in Iraq. I am so happy (and relieved!) that he made it home safely… I photographed the Shepherds right before Mark left for Iraq and then again just now when he returned. It was a great pleasure to photograph them again… after that long year apart put behind them, them knowing their family will always be together from here on out!

And thank you to Mark… who has sacrificed so much to serve his country. To keep us safe… you are a true American hero and I feel honored to call you a friend!

Colby and Becca were so much fun to work with… we didn’t have a location in mind, I met them at Colby’s house and we just jumped in the car and drove around… very spontaneous and we found lots of neat little places to take pictures! They are so cute together, so in love… and were willing to do anything I asked them, gotta’ love that in a client!

Colby’s little brother, Jack, wanted to join in on some of the fun too!

Little Benjamin is already three months old! I feel like it was just last week I was taking his newborn portraits! And what a handsome little guy… love his little smirk!

The love of family and friends can equal an amazing energy and spirit of fun. Please click the photo or follow the link to view Emily and Neil’s rowdy and fun wedding in Grand Lake, CO.

16 hours of photography, lots of laughter, and a lifetime of memories later, I give you: The Rowdiest Wedding We’ve ever Captured.

Emily and Neil (whom you might remember from their cute and fun engagement portraits) did their wedding right!

First of all, they chose to have in the most meaningful place to them in their relationship: Grand Lake, CO. It’s where Neil proposed and where they love to escape from their hectic city lives as often as possible. Charlotte and I loved Grand Lake: it has that small town feel like my hometown of Fairplay, but it has so much more stuff to do (boating and skiing in the same town?!?)!

Second of all, they booked Charlotte and I for unlimited photography, which meant instead of being on a time-line, the vast majority of their day could be a lot more relaxed and chill. Without unlimited photography, we would never have captured Neil being thrown in the freezing lake after breakfast, we would not have had time for the couple and their wedding party to stop for cocktails between the formals and couple photography, and we definitely wouldn’t have been able to go to the after-reception-party at the bar at midnight.

But there was a certain apstect to this wedding that can’t be planned or purchased: the indomitable fun-loving spirits of their family and friends. Absolutely, positively, no question about it: Emily and Neil’s friends and family were the most fun loving, high energy group of people we’ve ever seen at a wedding. And it was everyone! No aunt or uncle, grandparent, parent, college pal, or work buddy stayed sitting in their chairs. Everybody danced and sang and drank and laughed and partied hard all night. It was amazing.

And I often brag about the caliber of people we get as clients, and I think this wedding is a testimony to that as great people attract great friends and usually come from great families. The success of a wedding really does  come down to attitude and personality. There were so many things that could have dampened everybody’s jubilant moods: rain sprinkled and threatened all day long, gusty cold winds tore through Grand Lake in the evening, the outdoor reception got so cold (in June) it had to be moved inside, the indoor reception was so cramped and impromptu that it must have been 90 degrees in that room. But did any of that affect anybody? Not in the slightest!

I couldn’t fit all the photos I loved from the day in our little sample gallery, but I’ve included some more of my favorites in the slideshow below:

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Sweet sweet Gabi… what an adorable little girl!

I must say she is one of my all time favorite babys to shoot. I was in an out of her house in 40minutes… and I got the cutest shots. She was super happy, laughing, cooing, smiling, eye contact! It doesn’t get much better than that… and to top it off, she’s a gorgeous little girl!!

Wow. Adam and Sara are in love.

Some couples, (all of our recent clients of late) you can just sense a certain ease about them that seems to go soul-deep.

We shot at Washington Park, where Adam and Sara live nearby, and where Adam executed his surprise proposal one morning on one of their jogs together (yes, they’re runners, as if you couldn’t tell… I felt fat just standing around them).

I don’t know if it was because Wash Park is where they were engaged, or because they were in their neighborhood and felt a familiarity, or if it’s because they felt safe with me, or what… but I feel so lucky to have been able to capture such a pure and easy love in such a fantastic setting.

I can’t wait for your wedding, you two!

Joe is a cool guy. But like most male fiances, he wasn’t the most keen about gallivanting around some park playing kissy face with his girl in front of some other dude (me) whom he barely knows.

However, I am blessed with a unique set of skills that allow me to put most males at ease and can even bring out their fun, softer sides that they might only reserve for private moments with their fiance.

How do I do this? How do I overcome our natural male machismo and get guys to feel comfortable showing their more sensitive sides?

Can’t tell you: it’s a trade secret.

Actually, it’s almost always the guys that claim they don’t like photos that end up being the most natural and loving in front of the camera. It just takes some encouragement!

Benjamin Stryker… what a cool name! Especially Stryker for the middle name!

He was a doll to work with… perfection!

Can I just say, I love my job!

This was one of my favorite sessions… this little guy was so content and let me do whatever I wanted. A true photographers dream!