You Deserve Memories Like This!

American Cancer Society Relay for Life

2009-06-27T14:16:00.000-06:00

Friday, June 19, the local chapter of the American Cancer Society conducted the annual Relay for Life fundraiser.

I teamed up with my friends from the Christian Photographers Guild to take LOTS of pictures of the event and then provide them free to the participants, volunteers and families. We have a couple members who've dealt with cancer quite close in their lives and it's touched members of my family as well, including my parents so this had some personal meaning for us as well.

The band 'Language Room' from Austin, TX came out and played for us. They were even kind enough to donate a track from their album for the slide show below.

I've also posted a few of my favorite pictures -- I couldn't arrive until after dark so I had fun with some long exposures and extreme wide angles...things I don't always get to do with weddings and portraits.

Anyone interested in seeing the rest of the pictures can see and download them for free at the Image Factory web site: www.imagefactoryphoto.com
click on 'clients click here to see your photographs'
create an account
click on 'access a new gallery'
use the access code 'relay'
enjoy!

Aspen-Snowmass wedding

2009-06-24T11:16:00.000-06:00

While we were dodging raindrops in Colorado Springs on June 13, our second shooter Todd was soaking up the sun with Sharon & Munish at Snowmass Village.

Here's the gorgeous bride on the patio of their suite overlooking the ski slopes:

What a great view and a perfect day!

This wedding was quite unique because after the traditional American ceremony, everyone changed clothes and came back for a traditional Indian ceremony...check out the great colors:

Since everyone was staying at the hotel, this party was primed to strong!

I don't think you'll see this cake at any other weddings this year...how unique!

family portraits in the park

2009-06-23T23:45:00.001-06:00

This was a great photo session -- we photographed Chandra & Ryan's wedding in 2002 and since that time they've made a beautiful family and become missionaries in Nepal!

When we heard they were returning to the U.S. for a short visit, we had to get them in for some great portraits. We chose one of our favorite locations where kids can run around and have a great time being themselves -- Fox Run Park.

It seems crazy these guys were just having their kiss at the altar and first dance....now look at them with their family of five!

The kids were trying to wink back at me ;)

Image Factory family portrait sessions are more like playtime!

Aren't these guys cute?

We finished by blowing dandelions all over the park!

June 13 wedding at First Presbyterian & Garden of the Gods Club

2009-06-21T23:28:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday we photographed Allison and Brad's classy wedding at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Colorado Springs.

We arrived early to capture some of the gorgeous details:

Allison's mom made sure every detail was in order for a perfect day.

The flower girl was enchanted by Allison in her gorgeous dress!

I liked the view from the florist's camera as she posed the bride...what a funny reversal of roles!

Speaking of florist, Skyway Creations did an amazing job, don't you think?

Our flower girl modeling for us again:

After a beautiful ceremony we headed to the gorgeous Garden of the Gods Club for the reception.

While the rain came over the mountains, it seemed to be timed perfectly to allow a dry arrival and some gorgeous portraits on the grounds.

How about this view for a first dance! Allison and Brad danced the night away to Chris from Blue Moon DJ spinning the tunes.

June 12 wedding at the Stone Chapel

2009-06-17T22:07:00.001-06:00

In between all our thunderstorms and tornado warnings the weather cleared up for a perfect afternoon at the Stone Chapel at Woodmen Valley on Friday for Teresa & Chris's wedding. Here are a few of our favorite images:

The spotlights on the orange wall outside the bridal parlor were just begging for some pictures:

Teresa making her way outside for some portraits. I love backlit veils!

Many couples want to be traditional and see each other for the first time on their wedding day as the bride comes down the aisle. While romantic, this can really wreck havoc on time schedules and leave guests hanging during family photo sessions. Our solution is to let the couple see each other for the first time in private while we photograph it. This is actually much more intimate and allows the groom to really express himself. Of course with Chris it was no problem either way -- look how ecstatic he is about his beautiful bride!

Being able to make portraits prior to the wedding usually gives us a little more time and allows portraits when everyone is freshest. I think they're more relaxed and it gives us more time to be creative...what do you think?

Of course it's not all about the fun, relaxed portraits we make, somebody's gotta be around to capture the emotion and real moments of the day. Check out this proud dad:

Even though we made portraits before the wedding we really wanted to take Teresa & Chris for a litle walk downtown near their reception at Tre Luna.

We happened upon Starbucks and it turns out Starbucks had a special meaning for these guys since it was a destination on many a date....so of course we talked the barista into some cups ;)

Finally, my favorite image of the night -- the ringbearer ditched the tux and decided to cut loose:

Air Force Graduationi - Thunderbirds performance

2009-05-28T00:44:00.001-06:00

Every year I make a point of going to watch the Air Force Thunderbirds perform at the Air Force Academy graduation. The show is put on for the crowd in the stadium but can easily be seen for miles in every direction so it's easy to find a spot to break out the big glass and shoot away.

I've seen the show every year I've lived in Colorado and even a few times elsewhere yet I never tire of watching it and I just can't help myself from firing off hundreds of frames, trying to catch something new. Here are a few of this year's images I like best.

For the photographer geeks out there -- I like to shoot manual exposures for this event -- I take a reading off the ground in front of me since I know the jets will be in the same light. That way bright sky, clouds, snow on Pike's Peak, etc. won't throw off my exposures. I shoot with an ISO high enough to get a really fast shutter speed. I think I was ISO 640, 1/3200 @ f/5.6 today. I used my 70-200 and 70-300 lenses, but the shots from the 70-200 are noticeably sharper, especially at full magnification. Anyone have a 600 f/4 they want to lend me for next year? ;)

We had perfect weather and all the spring rain gave us beautiful green in the foreground. Here are the jets crossing in front of Pike's Peak. I have a few that are closer but I love the scene here.

Lens flare!

I think we might have a new brochure cover image for the new Renaissance Hotel! For those not from Colorado Springs, the mountain in the background is Cheyenne Mountain, which contains the underground bunker for NORAD (remember the movie Wargames?)

Catching up:

One of my favorite images of these guys ever -- this is hardly cropped at all...got them full frame and tack sharp focus.

Postcard day:

One of the loops. There are a few loops they do that I wish I'd had a wide angle lens ready for. Maybe next year I'll remember!

In formation:

Goodbye!

Kingdom Dogs

2009-05-17T22:25:00.001-06:00

We had a busy weekend with lots of photo shoots but one that was particularly interesting to me was getting to photograph Hank Hough and his Labrador Retrievers. Hank conducts a ministry with his dogs called Kingdom Dogs -- he uses the training and obedience of the dogs as metaphors for Biblical commands and obedience to God. These dogs are so well trained that he can call them away from fetching throw toys in mid stride. They'll sit for extended periods of time and even refrain from eating treats right in front of their noses!

After watching his presentation, we had an opportunity to take the dogs to the park and do a short session. I really wish I could have taken an extended portrait session time with them, things were going so well, but alas, our schedule would not allow it.

Below are some of my favorite images.

-Tim

Bandero, Monk and Prophet:

Fetch!

The portrait of obedience:

For more information about Hank and his ministry, go to www.kingdomdog.com. Their awesome promo video is by our friends at Avery Grayson Video!

(wet) urban engagement

2009-05-06T21:44:00.002-06:00

Sunday afternoon brought perfect weather for our photography plans -- our early family portrait session had sunshine and dry ground but our bride Kristin was hoping for some fun engagement portraits in the rain and sure enough she got it! Dave, our associate photographer led the shoot since he'll be photographing the wedding later this year. We can't wait...these guys are lots of fun and really laid back, it's going to be a great day!

Here are some of our favorite images from downtown, shot by Dave and Tim:

not quite but soon enough... we couldn't resist the prop that was left out for us by the ice cream shop!

And of course, the slide show:

on tour with Jeff Dunham

2009-04-30T21:15:00.001-06:00

My brother is part of the crew touring with comedian Jeff Dunham and today the show rolled into Colorado Springs. We had some other appointments today so we couldn't hang out for the show but I got a chance to watch the stage being set up for a little while...it's amazing how much gear gets unloaded and set up to put on the show, but even more amazing that this all gets packed up in about 2 hours after the show! Check it out:

snowy engagement

2009-04-23T12:08:00.001-06:00

Crazy Rocky Mountain spring notwithstanding, I'm thinking this may be the last of our snowy engagement sessions until winter. Ellie and Ryan brought their dog, snow boots and a great attitude for this fun session at Fox Run Park. Enjoy the images and slide show below!

We chose Fox Run Park because it's where Ryan proposed...not a bad view!

Their dog, Aurora, had a great time bounding through the snow too!

My favorite image from the shoot:

And some great real moments 'dancing' by the lake...thanks for a fun shoot guys!

Garden of the Gods Club

2009-04-22T21:52:00.001-06:00

DeAnna and I went to the Garden of the Gods Club for lunch today and met with all our friends at the HSMAI luncheon. We were treated to fantastic food & service with an incredible view. We've shot here a few times in the past couple years and will be back in just over a month for a wedding so it was nice to reacquaint ourselves with the staff and get an official tour this time!

We couldn't have asked for better weather...just picture perfect today!

A little spinach salad to start off but my eye was on the dessert in the background... ;)

Yummy chicken & green beans for our 'green' theme.

And the good stuff...

A couple of speakers telling us how to be green...ok.

And then we got a tour from the director of sales & catering...the rooms are now available to anyone, not just club members and you can enjoy the dining room and facilities when you spend the night.

Colorado Springs Tax Day Tea Party

2009-04-15T17:40:00.001-06:00

DeAnna and I went to Acacia Park today to do some street shooting at the Tea Party. I had fun getting photographs of the signs and the characters and it was a great opportunity for De to get behind the camera, as she doesn't get to do that very often! We ran into local politicians Jerry Heimlicher and Jeff Crank and the nice folks at Congressman Lamborn's office asked us to make some photographs for them too.

Here are a few of our favorite images.

We had a band stoking up the crowd at the beginning but the sound was so bad I couldn't hear their name. Thankfully they got it fixed.

ummm...sure.

Of course, we had some 'dangerous' types too....haha.

We put up a web gallery with all of the pictures for free download, the access code is 'tea'.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T13:14:00.001-06:00

Funny how we haven't had a lot of white Christmases lately but plenty of white Easters! I remember shooting a wedding on Easter a couple years ago and the bride running outside in her strapless dress for some portraits in the snow! This year it's nice to relax with family and let the kids hunt for their eggs.

So what's the reason for the egg as part of Easter? I did a little research and saw this interesting description:

"Easter eggs historically also held a particular appeal to Christians who observed Lent. For many years, eggs were prohibited by the Catholic Church, along with meat, during the period of the Lenten fast. Consequently, Easter eggs were an eagerly anticipated part of breakfast on Resurrection Sunday, or Easter morning. It is customary in some Slavic countries to bring brightly dyed Easter eggs to church on Holy Saturday to be blessed before consumption at breakfast the next day.
Through the ages, Easter eggs have been dyed with natural dyes made from plant materials and other foodstuffs. Today, while some people still prefer the subtle tones produced by natural dyes, commercial dyes are available in tablet, powder, and liquid form. Different cultures have different customs attached to how they make Easter eggs a part of their Easter celebration. Hunting for hidden eggs and egg-rolling contests remain popular."

While we don't prohibit eggs during Lent, the tradition is still nice (and the egg casserole at church this morning sure was good!!). Eggs are also a metaphor for new life and this is perfect on Easter since they symbolize our new life in Christ, made possible by His death for us on the cross and His resurrection 3 days later on Easter morning. This means we get to spend eternity in heaven with Him! Hallelujah indeed! Happy Easter everyone!

oh PS -- here's my favorite shot from that Easter wedding a couple years ago:

Good Friday

2009-04-10T22:17:00.001-06:00

Happy Good Friday. We attended church tonight to recognize the death of Christ our Lord. Our church music director is also artist in residence at Colorado College and brought in an orchestra tonight to perform Faure's Requiem. Here are some images I made for the music program web site from the performance:

I didn't know anything about this work until tonight when I did some reading about it and ran across this comment on the piece by the composer himself: "It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience." - Appropriate words considering Good Friday leads to Easter and the resurrection of Jesus -- our salvation!

Happy Easter everyone! We're off to photograph a couple hundred kids with the Easter bunny as a gift to our neighborhood association tomorrow. Drop on by!

some fun studio portraits

2009-03-31T23:25:00.001-06:00

We did a really great family portrait session with Doug & Becky this weekend while grandma was in town...then we had everything ready for them to view tonight before grandma had to leave! Whew! Here are a few of my favorites from the session:

The little man wasn't too sure about me at first...but we ended up as buds, as usual ;)

I really like the art of this one...it's going to look great on the wall!

Even mom & dad got into the action...can't resist some fun romantic pictures!

Thanks for being great subjects!

CPG field trip images

2009-03-27T11:06:00.001-06:00

Here are some of the images from my last post calling for models. The day was a litle dark and gloomy with what seemed to be the start of a cold rain (this is why I turned down the offers of baby and small children models). We were going to head to a small park downtown but with the cold, grey day we decided to take advantage of the weather to create the perfect mood for this harsh, industrial, railyard setting. Check out some of my favorites:

Sisters goofing off on the side here while their other sister was being photographed. I guess I can't resist fun, happy images!

I wonder if we can find the maker of this coat...I think with our great model we have a catalog cover image here!

And of course, one of our signature relaxed portraits:

Free pictures!

2009-03-23T00:30:00.001-06:00

Hey, want some free pictures? My photography club - the Christian Photographers' Guild and I need a model or family of models Monday, March 23 at 5:30pm in downtown Colorado Springs.

If you're free at that time, willing to brave whatever weather we're having at the moment and several cameras all stuck in your face, you'll come away with some great pictures for free! This is a great chance to get a family portrait update or some last minute senior portraits!

If you're up to the challenge, e-mail me: tim (at) imagefactoryphoto.com ASAP and we'll connect. First come first served!

St. Baldrick's

2009-03-22T10:08:00.001-06:00

Friday I joined up with Ted from A Better Image Photogrpahy to photograph people getting their heads shaved to raise money for St. Baldrick's Foundation for childrens' cancer research.

This is the first I'd heard of this organization and I was pretty amazed at all the festivities going on at the event which took place on Colorado College campus downtown.

In addition to the head shaving, there was face painting and activities for the kids:

...and of course the kids loved watching 'daddy' lose his hair!

Each volunteer got to tell the audience how much they had collected in pledges to get their head shaved...some were well in excess of $1000!

The barbers & stylists even got into the fun...here's a 2 for 1 deal:

And here's Ted, working as dad and photographer all at the same time...superman!

To see, download and purchase pictures from the event, go to Ted's web site: www.abetterimagephotography.com.

The latest upgrades to our online galleries are cool!

2009-03-18T21:30:00.001-06:00

In our continuing quest to be the best (I wanted to say relentless pursuit of perfection but the Lexus lawyers said I couldn't), we've installed a major update to our online gallery & ordering system today.

There will be some terrific features coming over the next few weeks -- all intended to make viewing pictures faster and easier, and to make it easier to share pictures and make online ordering less complicated.

The first big upgrade we want to spotlight is in the gallery view -- you'll now see a few icons below each picture like this:

These icons let you enlarge pictures, mark them for side by side comparison, add to your favorites gallery or add to your shopping cart -- all right from the thumbnails page. I think the most useful of these is the magnifying glass, which will pop up a bigger view of the picture just by rolling your mouse over it! Really useful for checking expressions & details as you scan through lots of pictures. Here it is in action:

We really think this is going to be a great upgrade for our wedding clients especially, who end up with SO many pictures to look through! If you have an online gallery, go check it out today. Let us know if you need a reminder of your access code.

-Tim & DeAnna

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T18:16:00.001-06:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

We had a great luncheon today at Castle Glen Eyrie. The weather was just perfect --- it practically felt like summertime, driving through the trees and back to the carriage house.

Our friends at the castle put on a great luncheon with - of course - corned beef and cabbage.

In the background is the yummy chocolate cake they made for the occasion...here's a closer look:

One of our albums will be on display there soon and we can't wait to get back and shoot another wedding there. Anyone out there getting married there this year? Let's hook up! Be sure to ask for Danae at Glen Eyrie -- she's the friendly wedding coordinator.

Aaaooooo!

2009-03-14T21:00:00.001-06:00

We had a beautiful orange full moon the other night that we watched rise over the plains in the east but by the time I got home to set up my camera on the back deck where we had a great view, the orange had faded. Still, a pretty cool sight. This is the equivalent of a 450mm lens on my Nikon D300...times like this I wish I had a much longer lens, it would be cool to make my own full moon screen saver picture. I guess a telescope would be best for that.

modeling portrait session

2009-03-05T20:18:00.001-07:00

Today we got to hang out with Morgan, a student and aspiring model and we got to make her very first modeling portraits!

The weather was warm but with heavy winds outside we decided to start off in the shelter of our studio and warm up with some head shots:

After we started playing around a bit more, we got some fun looks and this is one of my favorites:

With the sun setting in the west and catching her beautiful brown eyes, we used the wind to our advantage to blow Morgan's hair a bit, making for some playful images like this:

Dawn of a new day

2009-02-23T08:25:00.001-07:00

As I drove in early this morning, this is the view I was treated to. I'm kicking myself for not having the 'big' camera with me. Oh well, perhaps tomorrow.

Bridal show at Al's Formal Wear

2009-02-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

Come visit DeAnna at the Al's Formal Wear bridal show on south Academy between 12-4 today.

PS there is a caterer here with food!

Freezing brides!

2009-02-15T08:23:00.003-07:00

We've had a bit of unfortunate timing lately with our engagement sessions. After a few weeks of gorgeous 60 degree weather, our last couple of sessions have been below 35 degrees! True to form however, our fun-loving, easy-going couples were up for a great session and went for it anyway.

In the end, I think things turned out pretty well...it gave an excuse for them to cuddle just that much closer and to hold those kisses just a little longer ;)

Here's Teresa & Chris from Red Rock Canyon -- the first time I've shot here, but it won't be the last...it turned out to be a great location. Thanks for the suggestion guys!

Be sure to scroll down to see the slide show too!