An elopement above the treeline, where the guest list was one small person in a borrowed suit and the ceremony took about as long as it took the sun to clear the ridge.Days like this are why the documentary approach matters. Nothing here was staged for the camera. I stayed back, stayed quiet, and let the morning happen.

Vows read from a folded page at the edge of a frozen alpine lake, with a small boy standing in as the whole guest list.

Rocky Mountain

A Denver gallery wedding that spilled outside for twenty minutes of evening light. The veil came up, the sun dropped behind the trees, and this was the frame.I look for the moments couples forget are happening. They are almost always better than anything I could ask for.

A first kiss under the veil, backlit until the whole frame turns to warm light.

Space Gallery

We hiked up for sunset and then mostly stopped talking. Engagement sessions work best when there is a bit of a walk involved and time to forget about the camera.This is also the best practice a couple can get before a wedding day. By the end of an hour, being photographed stops feeling like a performance.

Sitting into the last of the light on a granite outcrop, the foothills dropping away toward the plains.

Lost Gulch

Graduation photos in Boulder with the Flatirons doing what they always do. She threw the cap about nine times. This was the throw where she stopped thinking about it.College graduation sessions run about an hour and usually cover two spots on campus or nearby.

A cap thrown straight at the lens, the Flatirons holding the background steady behind her.

Flatirons

It rained. We went outside anyway, borrowed two clear umbrellas, and used the wet brick to bounce the light back up at them.Weather is not a problem to be managed out of the photos. Most of my favourite frames come from the part of the day that did not go to plan.

Rain on a downtown street, two clear umbrellas, and a marquee spelling out the whole point of the day.

Golden

We drove up as far as the road went and walked the rest. Scouting is part of the job on an elopement, and it is the part that decides whether the light lands where you need it.Elopement coverage can be split across the ceremony and a second day of portraits somewhere harder to reach.

A full skirt let loose on an exposed ridge, with half the range visible behind her.

Ridgeline

A family session by the water at the end of the day. Nobody looked at me for most of it, which is generally a sign it is going well.Family and lifestyle sessions cover newborns, milestones, holiday cards and everything in between.

Three people on a rock at the water''s edge, entirely occupied with each other.

Lakeside

A destination wedding on the coast near Cancún. Travel is included in the largest collection for anywhere in North America, and I have never once regretted getting on the plane.Hard tropical light is its own problem to solve. The palms did most of the work here.

A kiss held in the shade of the palms, with the Caribbean flat and bright behind them.

Riviera Maya

Late light on the rocks above town. I gave them something to do, walked away, and let the conversation carry the session.Sessions run from thirty minutes up to a couple of hours, depending on how many places you want to get to.

Forehead to forehead on warm granite, a hundred miles of ridgeline going soft behind them.

Overlook

Ten minutes after the ceremony, before anybody came looking for them. The tree was already doing the work; we just had to stand in the right place.Colorado autumn is short and it is worth planning a date around.

A dip under a cottonwood in full autumn colour, the whole tree lit from behind.

Cottonwood

Senior sessions are the one shoot where the whole point is that the person looks like themselves. No stiff poses, no props they will be embarrassed by in five years.We usually cover two locations and at least one outfit change.

A senior portrait made in the last workable light, everything behind her allowed to fall away.

Senior Year

Shot straight into the last twenty minutes of sun. He had one hand on her jaw and neither of them noticed me at all, which is the whole job.I travel across Colorado most weekends, and the Springs is a regular stop.

A kiss caught straight into the sun, the red rock stacked up behind and everything glowing through.

Colorado Springs

Proposals are photographed from a distance and then, once the shock wears off, up close. This is the up-close part, about half a minute after she said yes.Tell me where and when and I will work out where to hide.

Thirty seconds after she said yes, with the ring up and both of them talking at once.

The Yes

A walk back to the reception through the aspens in late September. I hung back and let them get ahead, which is usually when a couple finally relaxes.The frames couples end up printing are almost never the posed ones.

Walking away down a dirt road through the aspens, bouquet still up, nobody in a hurry.

Aspen Road

Not every maternity photo needs a face in it. This is the one she wanted printed.Book a maternity or announcement session and the newborn session that follows comes with fifty dollars off.

Two hands and a bump, in black and white, and nothing else in the frame.

Expecting

The recessional is about four seconds long and there is no second take, which is exactly why a second shooter is built into the larger wedding collections.One of us is always on the couple. The other is on the faces in the rows.

Back up the aisle through the petals, both of them laughing at somebody off to the left.

Recessional

The end of a destination wedding, on the sand, when the formal pictures were long finished and they had decided to enjoy themselves.My bags are packed. Tell me where the wedding is.

Arms up on the sand at the end of the night, entirely done with being photographed properly.

Shoreline

A short walk out into the field between the ceremony and dinner. He kept looking back at her the entire way.Black and white gets used when the colour is not the point.

Led by the hand across a cut field, mountains stacked up behind and the veil still going.