Destination Wedding – Colorado – Ethan and Sarah

While we’re sitting in the hotel room, waiting out the snowstorm, I thought I would post some of Ethan and Sarah’s pics from this weekend.
We came out to Colorado to photograph their wedding in Morrison, Colorado. We flew in last Thursday and then went out with them for a photo shoot on Friday. We went to the ranch that Ethan is staying at, along with the town of Golden, Colorado which is where we stayed. Then we went up to Red Rocks State Park which was a really cool place to go!! The weather was cold, but Sarah was a champ doing the pics goosebumps and all!!
Friday they had a cowboy themed wedding at Willow Ridge Manor and the weather turned out to be absolutely beautiful for them!
Thanks for a great weekend Ethan and Sarah!!
Here are a few photos from their shoot on Friday:

The ranch in Golden Colorado

Red Rocks State Park

Deep Blue Sky

Sarah and Ethan at Red Rocks amphitheatre

Walking around downtown Golden

Colorado Snowstorm

Cheridy and I are out in Colorado right now. We shot a fantastic wedding (I’ll post images once we get home!). We planned on staying in Colorado for a few days to enjoy the beautiful mountains. Those of you that know me know that I’m very anal retentive about planning. This was one of the first trips that I didn’t plan very much and it’s been interesting.
Our first day we were going to head out to Dawn and Jay’s house who are Cheridy’s aunt and uncle but we found out that their daughter Devanie was in the hospital in Denver (I won’t go into details) so we ended up heading out to visit with them at the hospital which was really nice to have had that opportunity (we’ll be praying for ya Dev). After the hospital we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was mostly snowy and gloomy and due to my lack of planning, I was an idiot and didn’t realize that the road crossing the park was still closed for the season, so we drove out there, stayed in the hotel and planned on heading back towards Denver and then on to Vail the next day. I had some time in the hotel to do some planning so I found our new destinations, hotels, etc.

Today we headed to Vail and it was very snowy and miserable outside. We decided to stop for lunch in a town called Frisco which is near Vail. We stopped for lunch and then got back on the road and we saw a sign that said the main highway was closed due to an accident. They had put a road block down and we were the first car after the road was closed. We figured that it might take an hour to clear so we found an alternate route. We started driving that way but the weather was crazy and after looking at the new route in more detail, it was going to take us over two 11,000 ft. mountain passes and we were right in the middle of a severe weather warning. So, we decided to wait it out by the main expressway and hope that the road was cleared soon. We saw lots of ambulances and firetrucks go by and with each one we figured…only a few more minutes and they’ll open the gate. Two hours later, a guy came by informing us that there was a 70 car pileup at Vail pass and that the road would be closed for another 10-12 hours. So, we went back to Frisco and checked into a hotel.
We realized that if our lunch had only been 5 minutes shorter, we might have been right in the middle of that pileup. Thank God for that!
After we checked into the hotel, we got online and found that ALL the highways in the area were closed due to other accidents. All the hotels in Frisco are sold out and the red cross is considering opening up a shelter for all the people that can’t get a room. This is crazy!!!

Outside the snow is blowing so hard you can’t see anything…so much for the beautiful mountains!!! Now we just want to get out of here and get home, but after waiting on hold with United Airlines for 1 hour, I finally gave up.

Here’s what the roads looked like today:
colorado snowstorm - I-70 closed after 50 car pile up

This is what we looked at for 2 hours:

colorado snowstorm - I-70 closed after 50 car pile up

Advanced Photography Class starts April 24th

I will be teaching an advanced photography class to a small group (max 8 people) starting April 24th. If you’re interested in more details, you can find them here:

http://www.arisingimages.com/miscellaneous/email/sent/20080327_advanced_photo_class.htm

 

Thanks : )

Off-camera lighting tutorial

I just finished creating a brief lighting tutorial from the practice session that we did with Abbey a few days ago. For anyone that is interested in seeing the rooms that these images were shot in along with a brief description of the setup and work done, you can download the tutorial at:
http://www.arisingimages.com/learn/advanced_class/off_camera_lighting/

Here’s just a quick sample showing the image along with the room it was taken in. There is much more detail on the link above.

Mitche Graf Bootcamp – seminar review

I just got back from a seminar tonight taught by Mitche Graf. Mitche is a photographer who teaches business and marketing practices to other photographers. His seminar was fantastic! I learned a ton of great stuff and some new ideas and fun promotions, some of which we will try to implement in the next few months. Thanks Mitche!
It’s amazing how valuable education can be. I spent four years getting educated in Mechanical Engineering and didn’t use a lick of that in the real world even after becoming an engineer. When I left that world behind a few years ago, I’m going to all sorts of seminars related to photography and get to come home and implement this new knowledge immediately. It’s very satisfying and rewarding, and I’m just grateful that so many photographers and business people are willing to share what they’ve learned.

To learn more about Mitche, check out his website at:
www.powermarketing101.com

Click here to check out our brand new business and commercial website!