I spent a lovely afternoon with Erica and Matt while taking their engagement photos and had such a good time!  We started out at the Chautauqua dining hall for a beer (and for Matt, a beer and a shot of tequila) and then went on a little jaunt through the park.  I’m pretty sure that what Erica and Matt thought would be an uncomfortable, awkward hour of public display of affection, turned out to be a pretty darn good time!  They really seemed to enjoy themselves and I hope it shows in the images.  I know I had a riot!

Mark Twain once wrote:  “Grief can take care of itself,  but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”  I can’t think of a better couple to portray this…

Ali and Adam are a couple full of joy—pure joy and they are about the cutest couple ever.  They are both in law school (taking all the same classes, mind you),  both have legs up to their chins, and even have their own little “peanuts” celebration dance.  It is so clear to me that they love to be together, and the way they “play” warms my heart.  I wouldn’t be surprised if in 60 years, they wear matching sweaters and walk hand in hand through the park daily.  They are that cute!  I love watching and working with them and am looking very forward to their wedding next May…

Do these next three images not scream, fun?!  Ali and Adam have sooo much fun together!

This is an image of Ali and Adam doing their celebration “Peanuts” dance– you know, the one all the kids do in Charles Schultz’s, Peanuts!

Meet my sister in law, Janna, her fiance, Josh and my precious, fireball niece, Madeline (or as I like to call her, boom-boom).  Janna and Josh are finally tying the knot on the 7th of August!  I’m so happy for them, and of course for Maddie who absolutely adores Josh and now has a “daddy”.  Janna and Josh are happy in love and have one of those stories that could make a movie….  I’ll save this for their wedding post!

Janna and Josh—You’ve heard the Irish blessing, “May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past”….  This is my prayer for you.    I believe that you are going to fall deeper in deeper in love with each day—with each other, and as a family.  I love you guys!

Ellie, the elephant that Maddie’s constantly clutching, is the gift  that Jesse and I gave her at the hospital the day she was born, 5 years ago.  I’m so honored that it’s her favorite toy.

Hannah and Erik are engaged and are getting married in October.  They are one of the couples whose wedding I have been looking forward to for over a year, because they have such a wonderful story– I know their wedding day will be full of emotions and celebration.  Erik and Hannah are in the service and Erik has been serving in Iraq for the last 2 years.  I had the pleasure of actually getting to meet him during his short visit, to do these engagement photos, and I feel so honored that they actually fit me into what I’m sure is a very busy schedule of making rounds and spending time with the people they love.   I can’t imagine not being able to be with the person I love everyday.  I take that for granted.  Hannah and Erik’s time together is precious, and I hope that this shows in these images… There seems to be a “peace” when they are in each other’s arms.

I am so lucky and blessed to get to work with  amazing people, like Hannah and Erik and am so grateful to them for the great sacrifices that they make for our country. I am really looking forward to working with them again this fall and getting to know them even better…

Another couple who are high school sweethearts—meet Kirsten and Nick!  And I was just saying in my last post, how rare this is…. guess not that rare.  But true love is hard to find, and Kirsten and Nick have certainly found it in each other.

I actually met Kirsten three years ago when I shot her senior pictures.  She was a little edgy then, and had a great fashion sense, but WOW!  She has matured and is a total rock star—she had a very clear idea of edgy, “high fashion” engagement photos, and dressed to the nines for the shoot!  I loved working with her creative spirit.  And Nick….  he is sooooo sweet!  I just wanted to put him in my back pocket and save him for a rainy day…

Kirsten and Nick are getting married in Florida, so I won’t be photographing their wedding, but I have a feeling there may be some babies in the future.  I hope to work with these two again sometime soon…

Wow—I feel like it’s been months since I have blogged…  Can you tell it’s wedding season?  I haven’t been on my bloggin’ game lately.  But all that is going to change–I’m hereby committing to atleast 3 posts a week—seriously!  And I can’t think of a better couple to reignite my blogging passion, than Mandy and Dan.  They are so much fun and have become one of the couples that I have aquired a friendship with over the last year.

Mandy and Dan pretty much did the entire shoot at Chautauqua park in the rain–that’s how cool these cats are, and they even laid in the wet grass for me!  And of course,  I can’t end this post without mentioning Mandy’s rad fashion sense— I totally dig the belt!

I think this shot is so sexy with the rain…

Hello, poppies!  We almost fell into a spell…

I love the emotion in this shot—It’s so apparent that Mandy is totally at ease and at “home”, with Dan…

Truly. Francine and John were so urban and edgy, that this session was like a dream shoot for me… we looked for shots in the hidden alleys, empty parking garages, and the seediest bars.

We broke the law for this shot and crossed over to the train tracks by the millenium bridge. I really liked the juxtaposition between these gorgeous yellow wildflowers with the dirty train tracks…. but I guess in the end, what I really liked, were these gorgeous yellow wildflowers!

Steamy shot!

We went in to this bar to wait for it to get darker so we could do some night shooting. I fell in love with the place !!! We ended up staying for a budweiser or two… I also snuck in a few personal shots for my own collection.

….this is one of them. This guy had such a great face and, of course I love the cigarette!

Bobbi and Brian are engaged!  And I had the great pleasure of capturing this time in their lives and will have the even greater pleasure of photographing their wedding this coming summer!  These kiddos are two of the sweetest people I have ever worked with.  While they look like they could be runway models when I ask them to pull out the “edge”, they can only hold that poker face for a moment before they burst into laughter.  And while I love “edgy” photos and  can think of no better faces for them, it’s  the images of laughter here that I love—these are more “them”!   Bobbi and Brian bubble over with joy and laughter when they are around each other—and they know how to play. And this to me, is one of the most beautiful aspects of love and friendship.

One would never know it was a dreary, rainy Sunday afternoon, by the sunshine radiating from these two cuties!  Tiffany and Ike are so happy in love, that I forgot all about the clouds….  They made the shoot really fun, because they have so much fun together—they are a perfect pair!  I’m looking forward to their upcoming wedding in July—I love being witness to two people “twitterpated”…

Love the purple shoes!!!

This is Tiffany and Ike’s interpretation of “surprised”….hee hee

This image is mostly about the yellow swirl that is in the foreground of the picture.  We were walking back to our cars, when Ike spotted the swirl and asked if we could take a photo with it.  Apparently, Tiffany and Ike’s entire wedding theme is based around the swirl, which in New Zealand  represents that of a fern unfurling —symbolizing new birth, growth and new beginnings.  I love it!  And I love the way Tiffany and Ike seem to be meditating on these things as I’m taking the photo….

Man, oh man, did I have fun with David and Eleni!  There is something so classic about these two—something timeless… I can’t put my finger on it, but their love is like that of an old romantic love story.  And they both have so much to work with—by this, I mean great expressions.  They can be both totally edgy, and totally warm and fuzzy.  I really had fun exploring different situations with them.  And I also have to say that they might be one of my favorite couples ever because they actually laughed at my jokes (which, I know aren’t that funny)!

I had to sneak this picture in, because it cracks me up.  I asked Eleni and David to make a really mean face at the camera—a “crusty”, if you will.  This is what they threw my way—flared nostrils and a stare.  I almost died laughing, because they  couldn’t be “crusty” if they tried.  Clearly!

This is more like them….

This is a shot of Georgetown from the top of an overlook—will you look at all that color?

I spent double the time that I normally do in engagement sessions with this couple yesterday—-I just couldn’t let them go! They are such a hot couple! I dragged them all over the place… first to commons park, and then because I decided that I’ve seen way to much of that park lately, I ended up taking them over to five points. Good times! It was pretty cold out, but Katie and Chris were troopers and despite the weather, I hope they had a good time. I know I did— I loved working with their faces!

We really lucked out with this amazing ominous sky! I love this image because it looks as though they are running from a storm.

Five points is great for shooting with all the distressed wood and old warehouses….

… and then we stumbled upon this old pickup truck and decided to snap a few shots with it. I can’t believe it was open! We probably broke the law for these next two shots, but oh well—the lengths we go to for art!

This might be my favorite shot of the day. I don’t know why, but  I couldn’t stop coming back to it.  It’s just so edgy and non-narcissistic….

These images are supposed to be reminiscent of the cover of Bob Dylan’s album, Freewheelin’.  Monti is a huge fan, and wanted the same nostalgia that came through on that album cover, to come through in his engagement pictures.  I put my best forth forward in 18 degree weather in Boulder, to portray Shannon and Monti’s love in this timeless way.  What I loved  about them throughout the shoot is that they really do share a love that is almost dreamy and from another lifetime.  Watching them together is like watching an old 1940′s romance.  One’s hope in true love seems restored.

How could I not have fun with this engagement shoot?! When Crystal walked up in those heels, I was like “cha-ching!” I obviously had to play them up. Plus Crystal and Fred, if you can’t tell by the images, are a riot! They are load of fun and clearly enjoy each other’s company—Crystal laughed the entire shoot, which is always a good thing for me. I never want to leave a session wondering if I was pulling teeth to get a smile…

I must confess that this engagement shoot was my very favorite of the summer—not only because I got to shoot at one of my favorites locations, Chautauqua Park but mostly because Jamie is one of my very close friends whom I only get the pleasure of seeing every year or two. Jamie and John live in Boston  while I’m super excited to fly out to shoot her wedding next Labor day,  it was such a treat to have the two of them on my turf and on Jamie’s old stomping grounds (to bad Jose Muldoon’s is closed)….

And really— are they not the cutest things ever???

I love you guys!!

Paulina and Issac are so much fun!  I can’t believe I get to work with people like this for a living!  It reminds me of the song by Mark Knopfler “Money for Nothing”…  We started out at the Meadow Lark Lounge where we listened to live music and had beers, (Pauline and Issak danced) and then we crossed the street to my friend Josh’s studio (which is for rent by the way, if you’re interested), and spent some time shooting up on the rooftop overlooking Denver and 5 points.  I left Paulina and Issac grateful for my wonderful clientele  and my life….  really.

What is so wonderful about Britt and Neil (aside from the fact that they are fabulous people), is that they are completely comfortable with being themselves in front of the camera. I don’t think I ever saw one cheesy smile come from either of them…. if they smiled, it was authentic. If they just kind of looked right through the camera, that was ok too. Point is, they really seemed enjoy the shoot and had a fun time with each other and their two dogs.  This session was about playing and allowing me to capture the authenticity of their love.

Stay tuned for Britt and Neil’s upcoming wedding! They are flying me and my assistant Rachael out to Iowa—I’ve never been there and I’m super excited about it! It’s supposed to be beautiful that time of year (or so I hear)….

This is baby #2 for the Sperry’s, and if the new baby is anything like little Elora, they will have their hands full! Elora is a bundle of energy and fun, and although she kinda understands what’s going on in the belly of her mom, she seems to care more about her monkey, bear, and being a star for the camera. It was a great shoot. Everybody was relaxed and just did their “family thing”, allowing me to authentically document their lives.

Can’t wait to meet the new addition…

I knew I loved Julie when she contacted me back in January and commented that her favorite word was also plethora, and that she gushed over the movie, Braveheart as much as I do.  Then…. when Ryan, the other day said that they would “nuzzle” in the engagement photos, I thought to myself, “I have found my soul-mate couple”.  Nuzzle is one of my favorite verbs.  We all have so much in common, and I have had so much fun with the two of them so far.

Julie and Ryan are so in love, that they were almost oblivious to me photographing them.  They kissed and “nuzzled” the entire hour.  I’m so looking forward to their wedding in August at Ten mile station in Breck.  I can only imagine that it will be an amazingly emotional event…

Julie and Ryan met at CU, so while they were out visiting from Orange County, they wanted to do an engagement shoot at CU. They spent a lot of time “nuzzling and canoodling” around varsity pound and the anthropology building when they first met—thus the vast architecture shot.

We finished up our shoot at Chautauqua where we found the most serendipitous field of wild poppies….

Truly. Francine and John were so urban and edgy, that this session was like a dream shoot for me… we looked for shots in the hidden alleys, empty parking garages, and the seediest bars.

We broke the law for this shot and crossed over to the train tracks by the millenium bridge. I really liked the juxtaposition between these gorgeous yellow wildflowers with the dirty train tracks…. but I guess in the end, what I really liked, were these gorgeous yellow wildflowers! 🙂

Steamy shot!

We went in to this bar to wait for it to get darker so we could do some night shooting. I fell in love with the place !!! We ended up staying for a budweiser or two… I also snuck in a few personal shots for my own collection.

….this is one of them. This guy had such a great face and, of course I love the cigarette!

All I can say, is that I can’t wait to photograph Ashley and Nate’s wedding next October…. They are a riot! And it sounds like all their friends are too…. My question is, will Emmett be in the wedding party? I might as well have named this post “Emmett (and Ashley and Nate of course)”. They are totally in love with their dog, who I might add, is very lovable. It was adorable to see them play with each other –all three of them! They are a fun-loving bunch and they really showed me a good time on Sunday! Thanks you guys–you’re two cool cats (and a dog). Ashley and Nate have this game they play with Emmett called an “Emmett sandwich”. They love it… but I’m not so sure about Emmett! …Here he is–the apple of their eyes. Speaking of eyes, doesn’t Emmett look as though he has human eyes? Unbelievably cool!

Kelly and Aaron are sweethearts! They really took one for the team with these engagement pics! First, we had to reschedule our original shoot as it was pouring rain on memorial day, and when we did reschedule, Kelly sat on a cactus, and I made them hike all over the place! I thought it was worth it (but I’m not the one with prickers in my butt or sore feet)!

Hope you guys had as much fun taking these pictures, as you look like you did in the images…! Thanks for being so cool!

As much as we would have loved a sunny evening, these green ominous clouds were even better! I love the moodiness of this image.

Kelly and Aaron both have the most amazing eyes! I really got up close on this one with my 50mm to capture them… Hmmmmm I wonder when they have kids if they will have Kelly’s chocolate brown eyes or those clear blue water eyes of Aaron’s….