Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

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!)

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!

“Comfortable.”

That word is the single most significant trait I see amongst truly happy couples. They are really “comfortable” with and around each other. At times, it almost seems as if they are not complete without the presence of their partner. Their personalities don’t shine as bright, they’re more tense, etc.

Cory and Tarynn are the exemplification of what it means to be “comfortable” in an engagement session. We met outside Union Station in downtown Denver, in a mind-melting heat, but this being Colorado, within minutes it was overcast and cool. The laughs came naturally and easily, the affection was obvious and free-flowing, and their photographs were a joy to capture and reflect that.

You can tell I, too, was “comfortable” with them!

Miss Ava was a joy to photograph… she did everything I asked her to do and with such sass and a cute little smile! I love taking her pictures and look forward to having her in front of  my camera for many years to come! And not just her… but her little brother, Benjamin, too!

When I finished Emily and Neil’s engagement portraits, she wrote back with: “I can’t get used to seeing us in photos like these… more intimate photos.”

It’s a common reaction from our clients. Most people are used to very bland, straight on, looking at the camera portraits. When they see themselves in a portrait where: 1) the composition and lighting are flattering, 2) they look comfortable, 3) they have real emotion in the shot… well, it can freak you out a little (in a good way).

Those things are the essence of fine editorial photography/portraiture. I aim to capture who my clients are, in the most flattering and visually engrossing way possible.

My favorite moment from the session was from the beginning when we met at Union Station, I was going to do the signature “dip” in the middle of 17th St. (see Kristin and David’s engagement pics for a sample), when suddenly I noticed another photographer with another couple. She was standing right where I stand and was doing the exact same shot I wanted to do!

Two things happened: 1) I didn’t feel very creative, 2) I was filled with an overwhelming urge to challenge her to a duel. You see, for those of you who don’t know, the Revised Unified Code for Photographers section 16.28 sub-paragraph 6 mandates that any 2 photographers who meet out on location with the intent to capture the same shot must fight each other to the death (just like Highlander) using our longest lenses as bludgeons. Whoever is victorious absorbs the creative essence of the other photographer. I know, I know: it’s a very barbaric practice, but it’s been in use for thousands of years, before there were even cameras or photographers. Our ancestors strictly adhered to the photographer’s code.

Needless to say, I won. Emily and Neil were a bit shaken, but as you can see from their photos, the initial shock wore off and they recovered quickly.

(For legal purposes I must now explain that I did not, in fact, bludgeon another photographer to death with my tele-zoom lens in a barbaric Highlander-esque battle for creative rights to capturing a particular shot. It was simply my attempt a gallows/nerd humor and was clearly hyperbole. In fact, if  you thought I was serious, you are clearly humorless and are no longer allowed to read our blog.)

So, anyway… it was an awesome shoot and we were all over downtown Denver. From Union Station to 14th and Curtis (riding the 16th Street Mall buses is really easy). Emily and Neil were awesome and very adventurous. It was cold, dark and nearly raining, but we made the best of it.

In fact, the photo of them walking in front of the big yellow wall, holding hands, and she’s skipping forward and looking back at him is my favorite engagement portrait I’ve ever taken. Seriously. I love it. Thank you for being so great, you two!

Char and I are very excited to announce our new location for our Denver portrait studio at the stunning TAXI building in Denver’s RiNo (River North) District. It’s much larger for one, much trendier and cooler (not that we needed that! I’m plenty trendy… as I type this at home in my PJ’s at 11 am…), with a projection viewing room and lots of natural light. TAXI even has a wonderful little cafe called FUEL with delicious sandwiches and cocktails (restrain yourself, Charlotte) right in the complex.

It’s still within minutes of downtown and right off a major freeway (I-70 this time).

We’re really excited about the potential for Charlotte’s portrait clientele in the new space, and I’m definitely looking forward to my next wedding meeting there, too!

Once again, I had a really awesome, really hardcore “I-don’t-care-how-cold-it-is-I-want-my-engagement-photos-done” couple.

Jennifer and Landon met me downtown Colorado Springs, really early one January morning, when downtown was literally a ghost town. I found that it’s actually the best time to shoot downtown because the streets and sidewalks are completely empty.

The quality of the sun was fantastic and warm, and if it wasn’t for the slightly rosey cheeks and winter coats, I think it looks like we were shooting on a warm Fall afternoon.

But regardless of the cold, Jennifer and Landon were fantastic. We really are hitting the jackpot this year with couples that look great together, and have a kick-ass, fun attitude to boot!

We roamed all over downtown, and even stopped into Starbucks for some hot Chai teas (my first Starbucks photo shoot).

My favorite shot of the session is the walking in the alley photo. I am absolutely enamored of this coat Jennifer was wearing. It swayed an flowed around her as she sauntered down the alley with Landon in a way I’ve rarely seen a coat move. It was almost like a sassy extension of Jennifer’s personality. I loved it.

Jennifer and Landon are getting married at The Pinery in Black Forest, CO. I can’t wait for the wedding!

I just got done sorting through my Senior photo sessions from 2008 and thought I’d post some of my favorites!

Please click the photo or follow the link to view the sample gallery from Brittany and Rhead’s Hudson Gardens and Brown Palace wedding.

This was a really fun one!

Brittany and Rhead had a tiny, yet stunning, ceremony at Hudson Gardens (if you don’t know about Hudson Gardens, then you need to. It’s one of the best planned and maintained garden complexes in CO… it’s so cool and easy to shoot at, they charge a membership fee if you’re a photographer and you want to be able to do portraits there!).

After we goofed around in the gardens, Brittany and Rhead took off in their limo for the rest of the day (to be naughty, probably). The next day, we met them at the Brown Palace Hotel for their reception and ran around like sprites in the fading light to try and get as many cool, urban shots as we could. I love the dichotomy of this wedding with the luscious fall gardens, juxtaposed with the urban landscape. It was a very fun and rewarding wedding shoot!

Did you know if you photograph around many of the high rises and skyscrapers, that security teams there get really PO’d? I knew this from Brittany and Rhead’s engagement shoot when we got shooed away from a Dept. of Homeland Security Building downtown. This day, we were setting up for that stunning kiss with the buildings behind (above), and the security guards came running out, and I had to stop shooting and assure them that I was capturing no photographs of the building we were actually next to (not pictured, obviously…).

The perfect example of my favorite philosophy, “Don’t ask permission, beg for forgiveness…”

I’m very respectful of rules and regulations, but if I can just bend them a little to get that shot nobody else does, then I will try every time. Some photographers say this makes me careless and arrogant, I say it makes me a good photographer. My only litmus test is whether or not it will make the clients happy.

Another interesting thing about this wedding is it was the result of the work we did at Kim and Andy’s wedding last year! Brittany and Rhead were guests at that wedding, and Kim and Andy gushed so much about us that Brittany and Rhead chose us for their wedding. How awesome is that?!

But then, a friend of Brittany called who lives in CA, and she booked us without even meeting with us… because Brittany and Rhead were gushing so profusely.

We’ve been working our tails of to create unique, emotionally impactful photographs, and to see and hear that our work is so appreciated is the very reason why we do this.

Thank you so much Brittany and Rhead! Your desire to play and be in love for Charlotte and I really paid off. Thank you for helping us capture your very special and stunning wedding.

… and thanks to Kim and Andy for the referral. And thanks, again, to you both for your referral…

Let’s keep up the word of mouth! Maybe we can cut all of our advertising?

…nah.