Hoooray!

I just found I had an image place in the first ever Brides Magazine photo contest. Here’s a link to the contest.

This pic here scored 8th place in the dancing category. Big honor! National contest in a national magazine, judged by at least 3 Pulitzer Prize-winning photogs. Sweeeet!

Wow, this is just beyond cool. I got an email recently from Lara, whose wedding I shot over Labor Day in California. In it was a message from her mom. It’s about a zillion pages long, but here are some excerpts… This thing made my day! Here’s a slideshow from their wedding.

Hi Lara,

Another series I really enjoyed was the wedding party entering the barn through the large doors. Erica’s personality finally shows up. He did a great job capturing the personalities of the members of the wedding party. I really love the photo of our family that includes Leslie and Angela too.

Here’s another option for folks trying to figure out what to do about their album and parent albums. It can be difficult with so many choices, so I wanted to show what Elitia and Joe decided on: they made the Zookbinders Zookbook for their main album and the PhotoBook for the parent album. You can learn more about Zookbinders online at www.zookbinders.com.

When couples choose Zookbinders’ albums, I offer two options for parent albums. One is a duplicate of the main ZookBook, but in a smaller size, and the other is a new product called the PhotoBook. The PhotoBooks feature hard linen covers with wrap-around dust jackets that are custom designed from a photo. Since the cover isn’t a premium leather, the books are less expensive — and you can get a really unique cover to boot. Here’s the front of their parent book:

So the right hand side of the image will be what you see on the front of the book. The spine will be in the middle of the image, and the back of the cover will be the left side of the image.

Here’s a random spread from the inside of the album that utilizes a similar shot.

These two were fun. They called me in mid-September to inquire about shooting their intimate wedding in Aspen that was 2 or 3 weeks away. Their guest count was a total of four — four of their closest friends. Elitia was going to fly out from Denver but her flight was canceled due to a storm, so she had to drive all the way to Aspen in a hurry. She made it in time and they had a cool ceremony in the Hotel Jerome. We all cruised around downtown Aspen afterward, and Elitia, psyched for anything, just braved the snow in her dress. She didn’t even want Joe’s jacket because she didn’t want it in her pictures. Brrrr! I was sporting a down parka!

What a great way to end the season: at Steph and Scott’s wedding at Convict Lake, on the east side of the Sierras just outside of Mammoth. Totally awesome wedding, despite it being rainy all day. Not that it mattered much — I think everyone had a rockin’ good time. I decided to set up a photo booth in their ceremony tent (first time ever) and it was a hit. Guests were in there all night taking pictures of themselves, but sometimes there were just one or two people alone in there clicking away… Mayhem! I found some surprises when I looked at the images the next day! I think I might set up a photo booth whenever possible, though, since the shots are just too funny. Anyway, congrats Steph and Scott — you’ve always got a place to crash when you’re climbing in Colorado!

Just finished editing Lara and Mica’s totally awesome wedding outside of San Luis Obispo, CA at this amazing blue barn at the Swallow Creek Ranch. Lara and Mica totally rock. Their irreverent, hillarious senses of humor make them a great match. Congratulation you two! The Ranch was perhaps the most spectacular venue I’ve ever been to, a perfect blend of rustic, classy elegance. It’s up a small canyon with a nearby lookout onto the blue Pacific. Man was I missing California, if only for a bit. Oh yeah, if you’re looking for inspiration on how to decorate your wedding, look no further. The inside of the barn was ablaze in lanterns and lights — way cool. You can check out the slideshow here.

Check it:

Just got the results from the second quarter WPJA contest, and hooray! Honored with a couple of winners! I’m psyched, especially after I looked at the competition.

One pic placed 5th in the action category, from Alex and Jasen’s wedding in Palo Alto earlier this summer. I didn’t realize it was that cool of an image at first, but after staring at it for a while it started to grow on me.

And then there was a 16th place in the kids category from Julia and Patrick’s Estes Park wedding in July. The flower girls didn’t quite know what to make of all the people in the chapel staring at them!

if you get a chance, check out the WPJA.com site and look at all the great images. There are some fantastic photos in there, lots of inspiration and great ideas.

I’m editing Sloan and Brian’s wedding right now and figured I’d post what has got to be the weirdest picture I’ve taken all summer. It’s a getting ready shot involving mirrors. The more I look at it, the less sense it makes! More from their big day later.

Gina and Brad had a smaller wedding that I absolutely loved. I was talking to Alicia the other day about what really makes a wedding click for me, and I think it’s when the celebration is a great reflection of the couple’s personality — and Gina and Brad did just that. They are food buffs, so their wedding was a ceremony, a small cocktail hour, and then the best meal EVER. And that was it! So simple, so elegant, so awesome.

As Gina was getting ready, we started talking about what her and Brad do on vacations, and somehow the conversation turned into what they take pictures of on vacations: lots of signs. Pretty cool. So I decided that we needed to make some signs and take some goofy portraits with them. So her dad chopped up a beer box and made some classy Bride and Groom signs, which we whipped out during a short couples portrait session on the Arrowhead Golf Course in Beaver Creek. It was hilarious! We even managed to pull off a great American Gothic replica.

I love this champagne glass shot, but I have to admit I totally stole it from one of the best wedding photographers around, Ben Chrisman. His version is a lot better. And a lot more original. But what a great idea!

That crazy shot under the veil was Gina’s mom sewing it all together. I haven’t seen the world from behind a veil before. Crazy!

Just finished up with Amy and TJ’s awesome wedding, which took place all over Estes Park — from Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park all the way to Lilly Lake to the Taharaa Lodge. Amy was super psyched to get cool mountain scenery in the background, so I had a lot of fun going to some of the most picturesque areas in my hometown. Fun stuff!

I noticed during their wedding that they had an album on their welcoming table that was filled with images of them all over the world. Well, not images of them really, but images they’d taken of their feet. In sand dunes, on beaches, in jungles, etc. etc. Hawaii, Asia, throughout the Rockies, etc. So I figured, hey, I have to get a picture of them taking pictures of their feet at their wedding. Right? I mean, why not? So I took some shots of them taking pictures of their feet, and then I also took pictures of their feet (see below).

Congrats, Amy and TJ! It was an honor to be a part of your wedding day!

I wanted to post a few pics of Paul and Kelly’s wedding, which I shot recently in Rocky Mountain National Park outside my hometown of Estes Park. They had a pretty mellow ceremony and they picked a sweet location in the Alluvial Fan area near Endo Valley. The waterfall behind them was loud, so they rented a small battery-powered PA and put it behind a tiny pine tree. It worked really well. All the guests found seats on the rocks in a small natural amphitheater and listened to one of the most genuine ceremonies I’ve ever heard. It was way cool. Their ring bearer was their beloved dog Spanky, who came up with the rings attached to a carabiner on its collar. Spanky also signed a paw print on the marriage license witness line, which is legal in Colorado. How cool is that?