Vail Family Photos - They Hyslops on Vail Mountain

It doesn't seem that long ago that we were able to run around outside with all of the fall leaves. If you look closely at the photos from my session with the Hyslops, you'll see that the Gore Range was showing some signs that winter was on it's way. Now we're in the thick of it, but it doesn't matter which season we're in. The mountains will always make for a stunning background for any photo session!

Click here to see more Vail Family Photos

Vail Family Photographer - The Losa Family

I ran my first set of mini sessions recently and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Families were able to select a 30 minute time slot over the course of a weekend and I gave myself a 15 minute break between each session.  Each of the families had filled out a questionnaire before their arrival and the small breaks gave me a chance to get the room ready for their specific requests.  

Heather had told me that she wanted plain and simple backdrops, so we stuck with a white background and a black backdrop.  They brought in 2 changes of clothes and were done within 20 minutes.  

As you can guess, I have a soft spot for families with 2 boys, so it was great to see them all interacting and it gave me a glimpse into what's in store for me in a few years.  Luckily, the boys smiled sweetly and let me get some great pics for their Mom! 

Click here to see more Vail Family Photos.

Vail Senior Photos - Matty in Eagle Vail.

I've mentioned it before in other posts, and I'll say it again.  I really enjoy doing high school senior photos.  The clients can take direction and you don't have the pressure that comes with other styles, such as corporate or wedding photography.  It's usually a pretty relaxed and casual atmosphere.

Matty's recent session was no exception.  We had a tight deadline to work with and there was a huge storm rolling in.  It's hard to tell from the photos, but we had a huge plunge in the temperature during the session and it was snowing by the end.  I've done plenty of shoots in the snow, but this was a particularly cold day.  Matty was a total pro though and you can't tell from the photos how cold it really felt.  This was my last shoot before the snow came, so you can see the last of some great fall colors in the background.

Click here to see more Vail High School Senior Photos.

Vail Maternity and Newborn Photos - The Cartin Family

At the start of 2014, I ran a promotion for a maternity and newborn package.  Luckily there seems to have been a bit of a baby boom in our valley lately, and the promotion was a great success.  The Cartin's are one of the lovely families that I was lucky enough to work with.  They both love the outdoors, so we headed to a great spot in East Vail to take some family photos for their maternity session.  As you can see from the foliage, we still had some of the great fall colors in the aspens.  It was a beautiful day and a great way to capture their family dynamic before a special wee man arrived.  Scroll down to see the photos from their newborn session with Stanley.

A few weeks after these photos were taken, Master Stanley arrived and graced us with a wonderful photo session.  This young man didn't make a peep for the entire time I was there.  He slept and let me contort him into lots of different poses.  I joked that I should have taken a video of him, so that I could show it to all of the newborns as a 'how to' video.  He was an absolute delight!

Click here to see more Vail Family Photos.

Vail Newborn Photographer - Baby Lola

I'm trying to start 2015 with a clean slate, so it's going to be a December blitz of blog posts for the next couple of weeks, as I try to finish posting photos from some of my favorite sessions this year.  We'll start with Little Miss Lola.  I had just bought a handful of new backdrops from Bubblegum Backdrops and Lola was kind enough to help me test them out.  Being that I live in a houseful of boys, I always love a good girly fix when I can get one.  Didn't she do a great job?!

Click here to see more Vail Newborn Photos.

Beaver Creek Chapel Wedding - Jennifer and Scott

I was so excited to shoot Jennifer and Scott's wedding at Beaver Creek this fall. It was nice to get out and do a wedding after a busy fall season of family photos. The architecture of the Beaver Creek Chapel is beautiful, with an intricate wood ceiling that adds interesting lines to low angle photos, and amazing stone work on the exterior.

Jennifer and Scott had a morning ceremony followed by a reception later that evening at The Pines Lodge.  We had bright blue skies that morning, so we spent a lot of time shooting in the shade.  The afternoon was a completely different story and we were lucky to grab some photos of the happy couple before the rain really set in.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from their special day.

Click here to see more Beaver Creek Wedding Photos.

Vail Fall Family Photos

The snow that's starting to settle in marks the end of another great fall/leaf season in the valley.  I got to work with so many wonderful families in lots of great locations, including Vail Mountain, Homestake Creek, Brush Creek, Beaver Creek and East Vail, during the most vibrant time of year in our valley.  The shoots included engagement, maternity and family photos and naturally the kids were more than happy to run and play in the leaves.  My family even managed to get out do our very first  photo shoot too (I know, I know...).  I'll post some of them shortly.  Now it's time to start moving on to Christmas Card photos season.  Here's a mash up of some of my favorites from leaf season.

Click here to see more Vail Family Photos

Minturn Family Photos - Greysen's 1st Birthday

After shooting Kimber and Phil's wedding, then the newborn photos for their baby Greysen, I was very excited to shoot Greysen's 1 year photos in Minturn recently.  Minturn is one of my favorite places in the valley.  It's a special place for our family and we take our dog Beans to run and swim there regularly.  It's a quirky, hidden gem in the valley and also one of the most beautiful backdrops for photos with it's magnificent mountainsides.

Lionshead Rock is a large rock formation, in the shape of a lion's head, that protrudes from the mountainside looking out over Minturn.  A large chunk of the rock fell and tumbled down towards the town below earlier this year.  Luckily nobody was hurt, but it did some serious damage to the train tracks that run through the town.  We started our shoot at the far end of town, and then made our way towards the damaged tracks for the last photos of the session.  If you look closely, you can see where the path that the rocks took as they tumbled down the hillside.

3 generations of very tall boys!  We weren't sure if we could get this shot because of the power lines  and their height, but it worked out.

One of the rocks that fell.  There is a much larger rock on the other side of the tracks that was too big to get in the shot.

Lionshead Rock is above and you can see the path the rocks took as they fell towards the town.

Click here to see more Vail Family Photos.