Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

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!

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!

I was just watching TV with the kids last night and fiddling with my new camera, the Nikon d300s, when I suddenly wanted to make something good.

So, what began as a collection of random shots turned into my ode to my family. I don’t feel like I deserve all of this sometimes, and I know I don’t do enough to tell them what they mean to me. This film is a small effort to try and do more of that.

My favorite part is the very end when Charlotte gets home late from a day of shooting and the kids run to her for hugs. Love it!

Nikon D300s = $1800 bucks. Memories like these = $priceless$!

The amazing song is “Just Breathe” by Pearl Jam off of their new album, Backspacer.

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!

I met Derek and Mackenzie in a parking lot at DU and as we walked, I chatted with them about their story. (This isn’t simply to fill time, but because I wholeheartedly believe that to create a sense of intimacy with my clients helps to build trust which then helps to promote wonderfully honest and fun portraits.) I learned how they met (high school sweethearts). I learned about their first dates. I learned Derek took a long time to finish undergrad…

So I cracked a line from Tommy Boy, “‘A lot of people take that long to finish college’,'Yeah, they’re called doctors.” Derek smiled and said, “Nah. I built a house.”

He built a house. Sure, I thought. He left school for a year to work on some construction crew and built a house. Interesting choice… “So, you left for a year to work on a crew?”

“Nope. Just myself.”

Huh? Yep. You read that right. He left school for a year to build a house by himself, with help from his dad and his buddy. No crew. Just himself.

Turns out he’s an engineer or architect or something really technical like that, and building a house apparently was his version of a sabbatical.

Not many people have even worked on a crew, much less built a house by themselves. So needless to say I was impressed!

It’s also needless to say how much fun these two were. As you can see from the photos, they were really high energy and very affectionate. Whatever we’re doing to attract the kind of clients we’re getting, I glad it’s working because it’s so much easier to take fun, attractive portraits of extroverts who are authentically in love!

My favorite shot came at the end of the session, when I asked Mack and Derek if there were any more shots they could think of and Mackenzie asked if we could recreate their first kiss from back in high school. Back then, apparently Mackenzie was a little aggressive, and a little nervous but when she leaned forward to kiss Derek (eyes closed) she ended up making out with his nose. Obviously, this made quite an impression on them as we were re-creating it years later. Not only is the shot hilarious, and the back story even better, but I love the look on Derek’s face. To me it says: “Hmmmmmmmm. Am I grossed out or a little bit into this?”

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!

How often can you say you really “cavort”? Do you even know what “cavorting” is? Well, Matt and Sharyn obviously do.

When I go into engagement sessions, the absolute holy grail of photo subjects is a couple that not only really, really loves each other, but are almost giddy with energy and enthusiasm. I don’t always get that from my couples, but Matt and Sharyn were the definition of fun and energy. They cavorted all over the place. And Red Rocks is a heck of a place to do that at!

Matt and Sharyn’s wedding is this Saturday, so I will have some wedding photos to share soon!

This is a convoluted story line so try and stay with me here:

Once upon a time there was a bride named Julia. She was in love with a guy named Matt. Matt proposed and Julia filled her days and nights scouring the internet and wedding magazines for the perfect wedding photographer. Eventually she settled on us (we won!!!), and they went on their merry way…

Not quite. Julia also happened to mention after she booked that she was really into photography, I mean like, really into photography and she was hoping she could start assisting us on weddings.

Well if I had a dollar for everyone that has called to ask us if they could start assisting us at weddings, well… I’d have $30 bucks. (That wasn’t nearly as impressive sounding as I’d have hoped…)

Just because Julia was a client did not mean she didn’t have to prove herself just like everybody else. So we asked for her to put together a little portfolio presentation for us. Now I’m a pretty picky guy, and Charlotte is even worse when it comes to critiquing work ( you should hear her “critique” this blog post). But when we saw Julia’s portfolio, we were struck by something unique in her photography. We’d seen a lot of other portfolios from much more trained photographers who had asked if they could assist, but none of them had that certain “something”. It’s that nameless aspect of a photo that captures your imagination and/ or your heart. It can’t be taught, sometimes it can’t even be replicated, but it’s there nonetheless. And a lot of her work had “that”.

So we emphatically said “yes” and she was assisting us within weeks. She took our oldest camera ( a D70 from 2004) which was the actual camera we used to start Trystan Photography. You see, she hadn’t actually worked on a digital SLR, just an old film camera. But within a few weddings it was obvious she was a natural. Her images were great, and the more she shoots, the more stunning her images are. She is truly passionate about photography, and you can’t teach or buy that in an employee.

So that was last October, and in the meantime it’s become really obvious that we’re getting way too busy and we need some help with everything. S, again we turned to Julia. It turns out that not only is she passionate about photography, but she’s rather anal and detail oriented to boot! So now all of those little details (like putting orders in right, getting paid on time, filing taxes… blah, blah, blah…) are actually going to get done.

So, if you get a phone call from Julia and suddenly you find yourself wondering what the heck happened to Charlotte and Trig, don’t worry: we’re still here! We’re just focusing on photography. Because we’re photographers. It’s great!

So obviously, we took Julia and Matt’s engagement photos a while ago, and I’m only getting around to sharing them now. But what a great way for all of you to meet her!

Matt is probably the chillest man on earth. I mean, he’s marrying Julia: he has to be! (ha, ha, ha Julia! … I have the power of the blog, and you don’t!)