Engagement Spotlight: Lyndsie and Wes at Chautauqua Park in Boulder.

So, there are cacti at Chautauqua. Who knew? I didn’t. Not until I laid down in the field to get a lovely shot of Lyndsie and Wes. Suddenly a stabbing pain went through my side. 

Wow, that was awkward! It wasn’t a bad enough pain to want to quit or anything, but it was the kind of pain that when my shirt or camera strap brushed against my ribs on the left side and touched the little red quills slowly burrowing into my skin, that I wanted to yelp in pain. but yelping in pain would have let on to them that I was more hurt than I claimed to be, so I bit my tongue.

But other than having fire filled quills stuck in my ribs, it was a dream shoot! Chautauqua is very photogenic with the flatirons thrusting out of the gently sloping meadows, and very easy to move around in to get different shots. However, they do have signs that you can’t venture off the trails, and I figured it was some kind of “tread lightly” law and I proceeded to ignore them. In hindsight, the signs might also have been warning of the presence of the very camouflaged and sneaky cacti growing just under the ground cover… a well, I’m a a little bit wiser now I suppose. You’ve got to suffer for one’s art, right?

Once again, Lyndsie and Wes proved that Char and I are doing something right lately. For about a year now, we’ve been adamant that there is no such thing as a “one size fits all photographer” and we’ve been basically screening our clients according to very simple criteria: our wedding couples must be open, affectionate, fun-loving people who don’t mind goofing around and being silly. This actually turns a number of interested prospects off, and we don’t book those weddings. But the couples who do find that shooting atmosphere appealing love it, and we’ve been having just dream weddings and engagement shoots with all of them!

The best part about that day was I still had one more engagement to shoot in Denver (photos to follow in another blog post…), so I jumped in my car and drove to the studio downtown, grimacing in pain the whole way.

So what did we learn? When signs say, “Do not leave trail”, it would probably be best to follow them…