Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Renee and Robert wanted a small wedding.

Renee was adamant that she have awesome wedding photos, no matter how small her wedding might be.

So she hired Charlotte and I!

How lucky for us!

I’m serious. A wonderful and beautifully simple ceremony in the cute little Red Rock’s Chapel followed by nearly 2 hours with just the couple in a place as gorgeous as Red Rocks in Denver?!? How lucky are we!?!

I’ve said it in many blog posts before, and still, I can’t say it enough: ample time with the couple in a picturesque spot with time to play (and especially time to get to know them)… it’s a wedding photographer’s dream.

Some photographers ask us why we would take the time to photograph a small wedding?

Well my kind colleagues: these photos are why!

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!

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 fiancé in front of the camera. They gave us all of this, and more.

It was a crisp clear evening at the Stonebrook Manor, in Denver. And the sunset was to die for. It’s so interesting to work right at the time of waning light, when every decision counts and time is evermore fleeting because the sun moves away so quickly at that time. And once it got dark ouside, we still went out to freeze a little and capture one last look at dusk.

Their ceremony was perfect, and their toast were great. But the dances! Why am I such a sucker for the dances?!?

Tristyn and David’s dance was emotional. She shined with happiness, David held her so closely. When she danced with her Dad he was sweet-happy-sad (but mostly sweet), and David’s mom, oohhhhhhh… it was so heartbreaking. The way she clung to her son and cried so softly I think I’m the only one who saw her tears through my long lens. Those are the kind of moments, and the privileges, that make our job such an honor. Thank you, both of you and your entire families. That was a magical night, and I hope we can keep track of you two!

Trystan Photography is excited to announce that May is Family Portrait Month! In honor of Mother’s Day, we’re giving away free family sessions all month long! Simply book an indoor or outdoor family portrait sitting between May 1st - 31st, 2008 and you’ll recieve the sitting for free (our $25 deposit is still required to book, but it will be applied in full to your print order).

Please make sure you visit our family portrait samples from areas around Colorado Springs and Denver, and check out our portrait prices.

I recently took photos of Susan at our Denver Studio and had such a wonderful time photographing her. She needed some fun portraits to capture her personality (she has the best smile!) and I’m just delighted she asked me to do this for her.

Susan is a business philanthropy coach and does some amazing things out there. She’s in the process of writing a book on business philanthropy and is hoping to finish it later this year. I was very eager to know more about what exactly it was that business philanthropy coach does ( I probably sounded a lot like my two year old when she learns something new for the first time) and Susan was very patient in explaining the whole thing to me. I’m very fascinated with the good she does out there for the less fortunate and for the businesses who donate as well. Tryg and I are hoping to become more involved with a few projects of our own over the next couple of months, so I’ll keep you posted.

For now, you should definintely check out Susan’s blog , it’s incredible!

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 clientèle and as I mentioned above, we already booked and shot portrait sessions there this weekend, so it seems Denver didn’t even really need an annoucement. They couldn’t wait for me to get my act together, they called anyway!

One of the most surprising results of having a Denver address is how many clients have called because of the new Denver studio but want portraits down in Colorado Springs, like at the Garden of the Gods, etc. I caught myself thinking, “We’ve always been in the Springs, folks…”, but apparently there was something more appealing to them about the fact we’re now in Denver, too. Interesting…

We’re so excited about Denver. Colorado Springs is where we call home, but I think part of my heart still longs for LA, and Denver fulfills enough of that “big-city jones” I get sometimes. Denver is already performing beyond my expectations, and I just love the fact that Char and I now have somewhere else to go when things get a little stale around here (we work together in the same office, all…day…long, remember?). Char’s already shaken off her winter blahs by doing an amazing job designing the interior layout of the studio and picking colors, paint, funiture, etc. I’m out of my winter duldrums just by seeing how thrilled she is by the new studio.

So, is it scary to expand in the middle of a recession? Sure.

But we had to.

Why?

I think this quote pretty well sums it up:

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” - Anais Nin

It’s finally here: our Denver photography studio is actually here! We are so proud to announce that Trystan Photography will finally be opening a brick and mortar studio in downtown Denver, CO!

We’ll finally be able to stop meeting in Starbucks with our Denver clientèle. And we’ll finally be able to accommodate all those prospective portrait clients who’ve called hoping we had a space in Denver and they didn’t have to come all the way to Colorado Springs.

Our new studio is sooo posh and cool. It’s part of a cooperative of artists’ studios that collectively are called the Raven’s Nest Galleries. The building is an old freight train depot that has been reborn into this gorgeous high-end, fine art space. The atmosphere of this building is to die for. I got a little overwhelmed by it, because just moments after stepping inside it made me want to dress all in black and refer to myself only in the third person!

We’re not ready for business just yet (we still need to go drape shopping!), but we’ll be announcing our grand opening about mid-March, so please stay tuned for the very latest.