1,2, down, UP!

It was time once again for one of my favorite recurring photo shoots - the Manitou Springs High School Cheerleaders! They are so FUN and enjoyable to photograph. The bright sun made it tricky for some of the top of the rock shoots, but we made it work somehow. Building & doing stunts at Garden of the Gods is always a crowd pleaser, too, with plenty of people stopping to watch (which the girls don't mind. ha). At any rate, I love photographing this group every year cause they are not scared to ham it up and be awesome. Go Mustangs :)

Linds & Matt!

Two cheers for photo shoots with best friends! And three cheers for shooting at the county fair! I would do this again in a heartbeat, although I wish I'd brought some external lights of some sort. This was my first session with the new d300S, and it was a blast... but I'm pretty sure my subjects had a lot to do with that. Lindsay and I have been friends since the summer before 9th grade, when we bonded at cheerleading camp over a love for the rap tune "Big Poppa" :) We've been tight ever since, but this was our first photo shoot together!

Lindsay and Matt went the non-traditional route and decided to elope our senior year of college (well, my senior year, since I had 2 of them). It was crazy and secret and such a big deal (at the time), but because of that they never had any fun couple pictures taken. Which is where I come in... And I will let the pictures speak for themselves. It was a b.l.a.s.t.

Amara

“A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.”

:: Coco Chanel ::

And that is how I would describe this wonderful TCA Senior, Amara.
I was initially excited just to photograph her bright red, wondrous hair, but was even more excited to find out she was a cowgirl and wanted some cowgirl country shots. I love it! We had a great time photographing in their friend's garden/backyard where Amara used to play growing up. With the country, though, come the country animals. I expected we'd have interference from a horse or rooster, but we actually had the darndest time with the cat! I had to crop cat tails out of a chunk of the pictures since the cat seemed pretty smitten with her. At any rate, a good time was had by all (cat included), and here are some of the favorites.

Latigo!

I love shooting for COPPeR! This organization does SO much for our community, specifically for the arts community, and I'm proud to work as their official photographer. They run a website called Peak Radar that is chock full of exciting (and sometimes f-r-e-e) cultural events happening in Colorado Springs.

Having said that, now I am glad to tell you about this concert COPPeR had me photograph for them the other day. Latigo. According to Wikipedia, latigo has 4 definitions:

Latigo has four meanings: Latigo Is a type of leather used on saddles to help them stay in place. It is part of the girth. For a definition on girth please refer to the folllowing lnk:

• Part of a girth (tack)

Latigo is also an automobile

• Fisker Latigo CS, an automobile

Latigo can also refer to a newpaper comic strip by Stan Lynde.

• Latigo (comic strip)

Latigo can also refer to a Mexican-American Surname and/or Last Name. It also came from Spain and expanded to Mexico Throughout The U.S. Ex. Pancho A. Latigo.

Those sound pretty nice and all (especially the name Pancho Latigo), but they failed to mention the up and coming country band from here in Colorado! Now, I really don't like country music, which I feel shameful about sometimes seeing as that I'm from Nashville. But, I just can't get into it. This band was really fun, though, and I was surprised at the number of people up north who came out to 1st & Main off Powers & Carefree to sit in the grassy field in front of a movie theater and rock out for a few hours. It was so fun! There were cute kids playing, teenage boys dancing, older people flapping fans, and the lead singer ... well, he was either flirting with me or the camera. But the camera sure did love him, so I guess that's better than nothing :)

Windee + Kyle

True confession: I got a bit misty-eyed and moved to tears at this ceremony, which is funny because I had barely talked to Kyle or Windee before we started talking about shooting their wedding. But, there are just some people that you instantly care about and know are going to be a powerful team for the Kingdom, and those people are worth getting emotional over :)

Kyle and Windee are those people. They are so kind, so caring (they must have thanked me at least 10 times for being at their wedding), and were so loved by everyone at that wedding. One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was post-kiss, when the officiant does the whole "I now present to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. ...." thing. The audience went nuts. I mean, it's normal to have some clapping and a little bit of whoop-whoop, but this audience clapped and clapped and clapped. I actually wondered how long Kyle and Windee were going to have to stand there being celebrated before they got to do their celebratory exit. These are the weddings that make me glad to do what I'm doing. Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Fabatz. (and the crowd goes wiiiiiiild)

QUAD CAM!

I love new toys.
And no one knows this better than my best pal, Shea, who was like my Santa Claus this year! In addition to lots of other fun presents, she got me a quad cam! It takes 4 pictures at once (about a 2-second time span), so it can capture some motions in a single frame. Plus, it's just plain fun! I do love shooting with film. I love that mystery– the anticipation, the waiting, the curiousity of what will develop! Here are some fun shots I got on rolls #1 & 2:

Publicity is Weird. (but I kinda like it)

It's been a year of firsts so far - first shot on the cover of a newspaper, of a magazine, for a film festival guide and poster... it's exciting! I've been so honored to be a part of these projects. Various Magazine has the potential to unite our community and bring attention to some deserving folks and the Indie Spirit Film Festival is in a class all its own, bringing quality indie films from around the world to our small conservative world in Colorado Springs. It's such a treat to work alongside these people who are doing great things for our great city. Anyways, here's a sampling of my most "high(er) profile" work as of late: