Holiday Round Up 2019 - Keim Family in Vail Village

I've lived in Vail for 17 years now.  Sometimes when you live somewhere long enough, you don't notice the little things so much.  But every time we have visitors from out of town, they always comment on the Christmas decorations that are up around town, because they stay up for the entire winter.  We're literally living in a Christmas card.  

The roundabouts have the most intricate lighting designs placed on the aspens and pines.  Every year we look forward to seeing who will have the best roundabouts.  It's Vail vs West Vail vs Beaver Creek (I think Vail wins this round).

Not surprisingly, all of these decorations along with our snow make for an amazing backdrop for family photos.  When I went out to shoot with the Keim Family, we hit up all of the best spots around the village, and even managed to squeeze in some playtime at Pirate Ship Park.

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Holiday Round Up 2019 - East Vail

The Schmidt's were another family that I was able to shoot over Thanksgiving for their holiday photos.  We decided to do their shoot in East Vail, which is an interesting spot over the winter.  The sun dips behind the peak as early as 2pm, which means it's sunny everywhere else in the valley, but it's great flat light in the shadows there.

The girls had the cutest outfits and they made the smart choice of black and grey for their neutral colors and red for their accent.  If you have a shoot booked over Christmas, don't forget that you really can't go wrong with red in the snow.  Here's the proof!

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Summer Recap - Vail and Beaver Creek Photos

The mornings and evenings are starting to cool off here in Vail and this week I even had to pull out my slippers from the back of my closet.  Such is life in the mountains.  The leaves are slowly starting to turn, so it's time to have a look back on the summer.  Over the last 10 weeks, I've worked with 55 different families, shooting portraits, proposals and events.  It's been the busiest summer on record, but also the most rewarding.  I've worked with families from every corner of the country in both Eagle and Summit County and I've been able to meet some of the funniest and cutest kids along the way.  

Everyone's officially back in school now, so it's time to start working towards leaf season and (eek!) the holidays.  Oh boy!

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Vail Family Photos - Bring Your Pets! - Fisher

The Vail winter season has officially come to an end.  What a season it was, with an insane amount of snowfall and a record number of photo sessions.

Most of my shoots over the winter were family sessions.  Lots of my lovely family clients like to bring their dogs along to shoots and I highly encourage it!  When the Fisher's told me they were bringing their pooches along, it was clear that they were going to steal the show.  Being white dogs, it was easier for them to be held because they were quite hard to see in the snow (much like my sweet and crazy girl, Beansy). 

If you have an upcoming session or you're thinking of booking one, PLEASE feel free to bring your four legged friends along :)

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Beaver Creek Family Photos - Beaver Creek Chapel - Lind Family

The key to doing a successful family photo shoot in the snow is to keep everyone moving.  You can do this by asking the kids to play in the snow, moving to different locations, setting up different combinations and by taking lots of jacket breaks to keep everyone warm.  

This is the strategy I used the morning of the Lind's family photo shoot in Beaver Creek.  We started off the shoot beside the Beaver Creek Chapel to capture some photos beside the creek.  With a fresh snowfall on the ground and freezing temps, I was able to get a few shots of the kids playing before we moved down to the bridge area.  

It quickly became apparent that the poor kids were about to turn into popsicles, so we retired to a nearby fire pit to get some blood circulating.   After they could feel their fingers and toes again, we were able to head out again to grab a few more shots.  Here are a few of my favorites from their shoot.  I love the red accents against the snow.

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Vail Family Photos - East Vail

There's a spot on the Vail Golf Course that has the most amazing views of The Gore Range.  It's one of the most popular spots to shoot in the valley and it's not uncommon for several photographers to be shooting there at the same time.  The biggest problem though, is that the spot only works well for photos early in the morning.  If you're shooting after 11am, you're guaranteed to get photos with squinting clients.

Thankfully, Jenna and Jeret were happy to meet me before the sun had come up over the mountains.  With a brand new frost on the ground, we headed out to the golf course to grab some photos.  Unfortunately, it was also freezing cold which obviously can be hard for little people.  We rushed through the mountain shots as quickly as possible and before we knew it, the sun was up and everyone was happy by the time we finished up.

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Vail Family Photos - East Vail - Kruger Family

The Kruger's were coming in from out of town to have their photos taken and they arrived a couple of hours earlier than we had scheduled.  They called to see if I could come a little earlier, but I had my oldest son Maxwell with me.  They weren't perturbed at all and told me to bring him along.   While Maxwell was a very handy assistant, he did manage to walk into a few of the shots during the Kruger's session.  I've photoshopped him out of one of the photos below.  See if you can spot it!

One member of the Kruger Family ripped their jeans all the way from zipper to knee during their shoot too!  It was probably one of the funniest things that's ever happened on a shoot.  This one might be a harder one to spot, but see if you can figure it out. 

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