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!

Such a gorgeous little girl… and oh so sweet!

Brooklyn was a joy to photograph, loved this session!

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!)

Please follow the link or click the photo (above) to view the sample gallery of SeHee and John’s wedding photography at Washington Park and The Korean Christian Church in Denver.

I love emotional weddings. Underneath my somewhat intimidating 6’4″ bearded viking exterior: I’m a big softy. Very often I’m tearing up right along with the people I’m photographing.

… and that’s the problem.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to focus a camera if you’re crying?!?… or much less even see what’s going on?

SeHee and John’s wedding represented the deepest union to them. John (who is normally a very cool customer) was immediately overwhelmed with gratitude and love from the moment SeHee stepped into view down the aisle. By the way, for those of you who think that seeing each other before the ceremony “ruins” something in the ceremony: SeHee and John had been around each other for about 2 hours before the ceremony even started and it obviously had no effect on the emotional potency of their ceremony.

It was the same with Charlotte and I: We got ready at the hotel together, walked across the street to the church together and separated at the chapel doors. I walked forward and took my position at the altar, and even though it had only been moments since I’d last seen her, the second she appeared at the top of the aisle it was as if I was seeing her for the first time. She was bathed in the light of love, God and hope. When you see your soon-to-be-wife walking down that aisle, there is no preparing for the flood of memories of your past and dreams of your future (together) that will wash over you.

It’s an honor to have to job that we have. It’s not gloating, but an acknowledgment of how awesome it is to have the responsibility of capturing these moments for our clients.

On a brisk but sunny December morning, I met Mallory and Emek for a lovely little Fort Collins adventure.

It was cold enough that as I waked them into a secluded little alley in the shadows, I thought quietly to myself, “Will their lips stick to each other if they kiss…?”

I’m sure they were cold, but their warmth and flirtatious love radiates out from the photos.

At one point we were by the ice rink, and I begged and begged that they go ice skating together (that would be a “photography first” for me), but alas their view of ice skating is the same as mine: no way.

The first and only time I was ever on ice skates I wore cargo shorts (the ice: it looks so smooth), and I found out the really hard way that it’ll turn you to hamburger if you fall on it going a high rate of speed in shorts…

But I digress.

To me Mallory and Emek’s photos have this peculiar quality to them: it doesn’t look like we’re in a quiant little square in Fort Collins, CO, it looks kind of like we’re in a big city, almost like New York. It’s probably just the effect of such a beautiful couple…

I can’t for your wedding, you guys!

But it’s Christmas, and my little brother is flying in from Singapore (financial analyst and future Master of the Universe) today, so I’m officially done working for a bit.

A little Egg Nog, a little lamb, and a lot of love will refresh me for the New Year just fine.

I hope all of you who have made 2008 so great, for Charlotte and I, feel truly appreciated and thanked this year. We love our clients, and we love the memories we shared with all of you this year and we hope we were able to capture them in a timeless fashion to be enjoyed for generations to come!

By the way, did you know Charlotte, apparently, thinks Santa isn’t real?!? She laughs when I get really excited whenever I see him, and looks at me like I’m missing out on part of the joke. Well, I think there’s a reason her stocking is empty every year and mine is full. She keeps saying strange things like, “Who do you think filled it for you? Seriously, what are you? Six!?! We’re at your mother’s house!?!”

I know. Of course we’re at my mother’s house. It’s where I’ve been for Christmas since I was a kid! Where else would Santa find me?

Silly Charlotte.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view Audra and Jason’s gallery of their Woodmen Valley Stone Chapel and Tre Luna wedding.

This wedding was a wedding of firsts for 2008.

It was the first wedding with truly Fall/Winter weather with dreary cold rain. Did I mention it was cold?

Also, it was the first wedding we photographed with our new assistant, Julia. Our former assistant, Kim Harms, is now our associate photographer (stay tuned loyal blog readers, you’re gonna find out all about Kim’s new role here in the coming weeks!), so we needed to find a new assistant for our weddings, to groom and train accordingly.

Well, here’s where it gets complicated: Julia was originally a bride, who booked with us about 4 months ago. At our booking meeting, she revealed that while she may be an office professional by day, she really… really,  liked photography, and she’d always had this little fantasy about doing it professionally. Her enthusiasm and passion was palpable, and apparent.

However, as many of the local photography and arts students, who have applied for an assistant job here, know very well, we don’t take in just anyone. In fact, we’ve hired none of the photographers who have contacted us. While many of them have had great portfolios, there was usually something missing. A certain, unnameable compatibility that was simply lost from our interactions, and simply wasn’t apparent in their portfolios.

Well, we weren’t about to to it any differently with Julia. We told her she needed to put together a portfolio, and contact us again when she was ready. Well hardly two weeks had gone by and Julia was back. She was obviously nervous, and began making apologies about her portfolio before I’d even seen it. And what she handed me was probably the most haphazard and basic presentation I’ve seen yet. A loose collection of various snapshots, some from film, some from point n’ shoots, and no real connective theme to speak of…

Yet, I hadn’t looked at more than two shots before I realized I was seeing something really interesting, and vaguely familiar. I knew looking through her work that I was seeing a thought process, and “eye” if you will, very similar to Char’s early work.

Frankly, I was stunned. Right there in my nearly shaking hands was that certain “something”, that missing ingredient that had kept me from calling back any of the photographer hopefuls we’d met with over the years. A mild mannered accountant by day, Julia was completely unaware (as far as I could tell) of what a rare and natural gift she’d been born with. Her work clearly showed a keen sense of composition and style, but more importantly, she was adventurous. She wasn’t afraid to play with her photographs, which is the bedrock of what makes Trystan Photography unique!

A sense of adventure is what intitially drew Charlotte and I to Kim Harms’ work. She was realtively new in the industry, but everyday she would update her blog with a new style, a new technique, a different way of looking at the same old shot…

Well, Julia would need all of that, and more, for Audra and Jason’s wedding! Woodmen Valley Stone Chapel is notoriously dark, and Tre Luna is a schizophrenic montage of neo-European/art-deco sensibilities where every surface is a different material, ranging from brick to stucco, to brass to mirrors, and even steel. It’s a really challenging combination of venues and lighting scenarios. Put that together with the fact that we had to work with a really dreary cold day, I think most newbie photographers would have thrown their camera down and run away screaming! But Julia didn’t, and in fact, she had a lovely, positive attitude that worked amazingly well with my goofy effervescence and Char’s nervous excitement.

As for a 1st subject, I think Julia was flat-out spoiled by getting to photograph Audra and Jason. What a gorgeous bride! And they showed such an authentic, relaxed love all day, that made photographing them almost easy. Almost. Except for the wind, and drizzle, and the fact we had to keep taking breaks so the bare-shouldered, bare armed bride could warm up!

What a trooper! Some brides would have succumbed to the weather, but Audra stated without a doubt, “I want outdoor shots!”

Don’t worry about her, though. She had her cuddly new husband to keep her warm, and looking back through the photos as I processed them, I still am amazed at how easy Audra and Jason were to photograph.

Audra. Jason. May your love continue to be so beutiful and inspiring for the rest of your marriage. Thank you for sharing your special day with us, and Julia, the newest addition to Trystan Photography!

Last night I found my bit of solace in a cup of strawberry tea and pink cookies, which I ate and drank off of Barbie(tm) brand tea cups and saucers.

You see, I’ve been working too hard.

Char and I were about as far from being workaholics as possible when we first met. We were more gypsy dreamers, and our dirt-poor lives were filled with thoughts of youthful revolution and hippie sensibilities. We had only our dreams and goals to power us through the days.

Fast forward 5 years, and our lives couldn’t be any more different. For one, we’re not poor 20-somethings anymore, and the lofty, liberal ideals of the day have given way to a much more realistic, almost conservative ethic. The reality of that paradigm shift is just as disturbing to me as it must be to those who’ve known us!

But, trust me. When you have two kids depending on you and a business with employees as your sole source of income, a more lax work ethics and ideals will evaporate for you, too.

My once bitter early 20′s self, who would complain at having to work a double shift at my day job as a waiter (8 hours max!), now regularly puts in 14-16 hours days, sleeps very little, worries very much, and smokes even more.

I neglect everything that matters at one time or another. If I focus on my family life, the business suffers. if I focus on the business, my marriage and kids suffer. It sucks, and I’m constantly battling an unnerving fear that no matter how hard I try I will eventually end up failing at all of it, because I can’t seem to exceed my expectations for any of it!

But last night, my angel of a daughter, Ella, appeared at my office door, at the end of a particularly grueling 3 day marathon of photo processing, complete in fairy princess gown, and asked,”Daddy? Will you have a tea party with me?”

“No, sweetheart. Daddy is really busy, and I have to work a little bit more before dinner…” I suddenly saw a memory of me begging my own father to do play with me, and his distracted, stressed brush-off-answer.

So, I reconsidered.

Good call, Trig

“Well, of course!”, I corrected, and I bounded from my desk chair (which has a permanent, nearly exact impression of my buttocks pressed into the cushions), ran upstairs and put on a nice shirt, a tie, and my caddy cap (ironically, Ella’s tea parties are the only time I ever wear a tie…)

I arrived in short order to one of Lady Ella’s legendary tea parties. Even her younger brother, Trystan (yes, named after the business…), joined us. While Ella and I daintily dined on pink lady finger cookies, and sipped demurely from our plastic pastel tea cups, Trystan pressed as many cookies as he could into his mouth, slopped his strawberry tea all over himself and the floor, and then proceeded to grind that tea crumbs mixture into the carpet until it was more of a carpet-fiber, pink mush, slop mixture.

It was great!

I love my kids. They center me in ways I’ll never fully understand. And for that brief 20 minutes of childhood pretending, the pressures of the world melted away with each sweet, warming strawberry sip, and loving smiles from my two angels.

A special thanks to Mommy for pausing to capture this moment before she ran off to run errands.

It’s funny how they claimed in the beggining of the session that they weren’t really good at PDA (Public Dispays of Affection)… if they’re “not good” at PDA then Charlotte and I are in trouble, because these two blow us out of the water!

This was one of the last gasps of true Fall colors in Colorado, and I’m so happy we did this session when we did. I love the Fall!

To me, this article seems as if WPPI and Rangefinder are saying, “NO NEWCOMERS!”. It’s such a lame attempt at fear mongering. They’re attempting to scapegoat the new photographers in the industry for the results of a weakening economy and perhaps, the results of bad business practices by “the old guard”. The glaring oversight of this article is: we were all AWACs at some point!

What exactly is Rangefinder implying by this article: that a professional can only be those with the right education, the right equipment, and the right products? I think a “professional” is anyone who gets consumers to buy their photography.

Personally, I think AWACs are a terrific boon to our industry (especially because I used to be one…)

Wikipedia has this to say about an “amateur”:

Translated from its French origin to the English “lover of”, the term “amateur” reflects a voluntary motivation to work as a result of personal passion for a particular activity.

The translation from the French “lover of” is the key to my point of view, and if we “professional” photographers were simply honest with ourselves (and not just fear driven and greedy), we would all acknowledge that it was the love of photography that got us into this industry in the first place. In the beginnings of our journeys, most of us were AWACs, and if there are any of us who got into this field for the money or simply to have a job, their work is probably soulless and unimaginative (and most of those probably go of business).

In fact, that’s what troubled me most about the article in October 2008′s Rangefinder Magazine. It seems to me that anyone who is threatened by the influx of the AWACs’ and their new “untrained” and unbiased ideas,  techniques and styles (and their appeal to the consumer), that they, and not the AWACs, are the real threat to our industry. They are the embodiment of the professional whose apathy to innovation have made them a dead-weight that is slowing down progress in our industry.

True progress in photography (and any art form) occurs when we are inspired by the new creative work of others, not threatened by it. If you’re scared of the competition, you’d probably better figure out why! Cooperation and networking are the keys to growth as a business.

And it may very well be that the reason these ensconced “professionals” feel so threatened is that any creative drive they may have had has shriveled up and died long ago, and they now run their studios on auto-pilot, depending completely on skills already learned, and totally unable to adapt or change to the new, younger and more vibrant creative force pressuring them from “below”, and they simply sit and complain as the face of photography changes around them!

In fact, I believe the wonderful result of a boom in the “untrained” and “uneducated”, in any art form, is the inevitable influx of new ideas and styles.