Catching Up... Part 2

If you saw yesterday's blog post, you saw some of my color film photos from Thanksgiving.  After all the turkey and pie had been eaten, Tess, Mike and I headed out into the park for a quick photo shoot.  I traded the color film for black and white and we caught the last of the golden autumn light.  As you can see, we were having a lot of fun together and mostly goofing around, but I still love these photos!

Before we get to the photos, though, I have to give a huge thank you to Tess and Mike.  They didn't come to spend Thanksgiving with us planning on a photo shoot.  I suggested it and they accepted it.  We've become very close friends over the past year and I'm so thankful for how much our relationship has grown and blossomed.  I really can't think of a better day to spend with close friends and family than Thanksgiving and I can't think of better memories to have than of us in a park with a camera on a beautiful November day.

Catching Up... Part 1

I've just returned from a 4 week hiatus and couldn't be more ready to get back to photography!  What have I been doing for the past 4 weeks?  Well, there was a little holiday fun and a few nights out with friends, but for the most part Belinda and I have been working on fixing up our house so we can put it on the market.  The hard part about taking off so much time to work on the house (besides the hard work we put into the house) is not getting to take care of things as they happen!  Which is why I'm just now sharing photos from Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving?  That was a lot longer than 4 weeks ago!  I know it was, but these images were shot on film, which requires shipping, developing and scanning time.  Honestly, I didn't receive them back from my lab until the day we were leaving town for Christmas.  Since today is my first day back at work, it's really the first chance I've had to share them with you!

We spent Thanksgiving with Belinda's parents in Pueblo.  Some friends of ours, Tess and Mike, joined us for the day, which made it even more special.  I'd really been wanting to try out my new camera and fortunately everyone indulged me.

Although I definitely consider these to be test photos, I'm still happy with the results, out-of-focus photos and all!  I'm very happy with Indie Film Lab's scans and would recommend them to anyone who has some film that needs developed.

So, without further ado, here are some of the long-overdue photos!

Be sure to check out Part 2 of this post tomorrow where Tess, Mike and I head out for a photo shoot in the park.

Stella, Max, Shane and Amber - Denver Family Photographer

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you might remember when I photographed Stella last year.  She had just turned 6 months old and her parents drove up to Denver from Pueblo for her portrait session.  She was also supposedly the cutest baby ever (at least according to her mom).  Well, Stella's back and she's cuter than ever!  Her family also makes an appearance here, so be sure to read on for some great family photos.

First, let's talk about Stella's older brother, Max.  Max is 3 and is completely obsessed with Woody from Toy Story.  He even wore his boots to the photo shoot!  Last time he was a little shy, but this time he was ready to get his picture taken.  Not only that, but he was also more than happy to get his little sister to smile when she started to get fussy.

Stella was in a pretty good mood today.  She was full of toothy smiles, even though they took a little coaxing once in a while.  This is where it's so important to have mom, dad and even big brother along.  Stella probably wouldn't have smiled for me, but she surely would smile for her family!  After getting photos in a few different outfits, Stella was done.  Thankfully, we got the photos we wanted.  We were even able to squeeze in a few family photos!

At the end of the day, we all had a great time and got some great photos.  After the shoot we went over to Borders to grab a cup of coffee and Stella decided to totally turn on the charm.  She was laughing, sitting in a chair and posing and just generally having a better time than she had in the studio.  I think she was teasing me, giving me a taste of what I can expect next time.  I can't wait.

Stella

There are times when the forces of the universe work together to create golden opportunities. Maybe a butterfly was really flapping it's wings in some rainforest on the other side of the globe or maybe it was just a good photo session. Either way, I'm so happy that I got to spend some time with Stella and her family!

I've known Stella's parents, Shane and Amber, for quite a while... Amber since high school and Shane even longer. Shane and I grew up together. We used to get into all sorts of trouble together. Somehow one of us (usually me) always ended up getting hurt, but we never held a grudge or placed blame. It was just the way things worked. The fact that they made the trip up to Denver from Pueblo (a 2-hour drive each way) to get Stella's 6 month photos taken shows what good friends they are.

Amber warned me that Stella was the cutest baby I'd ever see. Stella is definitely a super-cute baby, but here's where the stars aligned or that butterfly flapped around or I just got lucky. I had a new technique that I wanted to try, Amber brought a bunch of cute hats for Stella, Stella had just gotten her first tooth and she was in a good mood! When all of these got put together, we got some amazing photos of Stella.

I think one of my favorite moments of the day came when Stella was just about done. Shane suggested we give her a random object to hold for a few photos. He went out for a minute and came back with a curling iron (cool, of course). When Amber asked why Shane wanted a photo of Stella with a curling iron, he just replied, "Because it's funny." It was pretty funny (and cute) and Stella definitely thought it was interesting.

I can't wait to meet up with Stella again for some more photos. Maybe I can talk Shane and Amber into something before the end of the year. If I do, you'll hear all about it!

Here's a short slideshow I put together with photos from Stella's session:



You can see more photos from the shoot here.

Family Week - Kevin and Cara

In early January, Kevin, my brother, and Cara, my new sister-in-law, came out to Colorado. They got married earlier this year and this was their first trip out here as newlyweds. I just had to spend some time with them taking photos, so we set up a shoot in Pueblo while they were visiting our parents.

Let me say... this couple has so much collective personality! Kevin was always in the spotlight for some reason, whether it was because of his huge mohawk and torn up clothes or because he was on the stage singing in a musical. Oh, the stories I have that could show how much personality he has... but that's for another time. Cara is no slacker in the personality department, either. She's got a PhD in Communication and Culture, she's quite outspoken on cultural and political issues, has an awesome sense of humor and can be as much of a ham as my brother. Essentially, they're perfect for each other!

We headed out early on a Sunday morning, while the temperature was around 25°F, and drove to the historic Union District in Pueblo. This area is known for it's picturesque buildings, lovely river walk and the gorgeous interior of Union Depot. So where did we go first? Straight down an alley. Why? Remember all that personality I mentioned? It just didn't seem right to have them stand in front of a beautiful building and pose and make faces that just weren't them. I think the best example of the alley being the right choice came when we were walking along and Kevin saw a heart spray painted on a dumpster, which we instantly had to go get some photos with.

As the weather warmed up and they got used to the camera, they really fell into their own rhythm. They became the couple that I'd assume they usually are. They were goofing around but also being affectionate. I was giving them some direction but they were still doing their own thing. By the time we were done on Union, we had a bunch of really great photos.

That wasn't the end of the day, though. Later, we went down to the river for some photos around sunset. These were very warm and dreamy photos with lots of backlight and lens flare... quite romantic for a newlywed couple!

Thank you, Kevin and Cara, for letting me take some photos while you were in town. Hopefully when we come visit you in Boston you'll show us around and let me take a few more!

You can see more photos from the shoot here.

Family Week - The In-Laws and My Mom

Way back in 2009, I got together with my wife, her parents and my mom for a Thanksgiving photo shoot. For whatever reason, the photos never made it onto my Flickr account, so I never blogged about the shoot. Without further ado, here are some family photos!

Pueblo, Colorado has some great locations for photos. One of them, Rosemount Museum, is just a block away from my in-law's house. I looked at the weather, picked the warmest day and set up a time to shoot, choosing the latest part of the afternoon when it would be the warmest and we'd have great, low sunlight falling on us.

Since we all get along, it wasn't hard to relax and get some natural photos of everyone. My wife and her parents were having a great time and some of my favorites of the day are of them goofing around. For the photos of me and my mom, Belinda took the camera and shot us. She's pretty good, eh? Finally, when it was time for some photos of Belinda and me, my mom took the camera. It was fun to be on the other side of the camera for a while. Of course, Belinda took full advantage of the fact that she could boss me around and gave me quite clear directions on what she wanted! :)

At the end of the day, we had some good photos and some great memories. Everyone had fun, the weather was beautiful and, most importantly, our moms were happy! Does it get any better than that?

You can see more photos here.