Melissa and Luxury might be the most intrepid and persevering couple I’ve ever photographed. We first tried to capture their engagement portraits way back in October of last year. Colorado decided to smack us with a huge winter storm, and a session that was supposed to take place at Piney Lake near Vail, CO ended up taking place 140 miles away at Eleven Mile Reservior in Park County. We literally were driving as fast as we could across Colorado to try and outrun this massive storm because it was the last weekend with any Autumn colors on the trees.

We tried to capture something in gale-force winds at Eleven Mile as the storm bore down on us, but the day ended up being a bust.

Part II, fast forward to June 2018, we try one more time for Piney Lake near Vail and once again, Colorado decides to start these massive thunderstorms that have typified Summer 2018. We again tried to outrun the storms and found ourselves at Blue Lakes near Blue River, CO. Mind you, I grew up in that area, and I’d never even heard of this amazing spot!

Sadly, the torrential rains hit and even though we’d found our new spot, we still weren’t able to capture anything.

Part III, the week of July 4th, we finally manage to get a break with severe weather and I get to take photographs for the first time at one of my new favorite spots in Colorado, Blue Lakes. It’s everything I love: high alpine lake, views for miles, wildflowers, and jutting rocks that allow the couple to be out in the water a bit, which is much better than shooting on the shore the whole time. We managed to also luck out with a terrific sunset, so all in all, Melissa and Luxury managed to pull of one of the most dramatic engagement shoots of the whole year. It just took 3 tries to get it right!