Cedar House Photography Blog

margo & adam (boulder wedding photography)

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:46:09 +0000

Adam and Margo are two of the nicest, mellowest, awesomest people you will ever meet. Stellar taste in music? Check. (Unbeknownst to each other, they were both playing Radiohead, at the same time, as they got ready in different rooms.) Ultimate foodies? Check. (Both the wedding and reception took place at The Kitchen, a lovely, trendy, amazing restaurant in Boulder.) Over the top kindness? Check (A little old lady was walking by as we were taking photos, and Margo & Adam invited her to join in!)

I love these peeps. I love this wedding.

Getting ready: St Julien Hotel, Boulder

Hair: The Spa at St. Julien

Makeup: the amazing Natosha Cooke

Flowers: The Perfect Petal

Venue: The Kitchen, Boulder

Could these flowers be any more gorgeous?!?

So, this happened during the family formals. She blessed them and wished them good luck :)

LOVE the awesome tile floors in The Kitchen:

The ceremony was held as the guests sat down for dinner. It was so amazingly laid-back and cozy! I also have to mention that, throughout the entire night, everyone with The Kitchen was outstanding. Wonderful service, great people, and delicious food!

I loved the crushed glass in the centerpieces, and of course, I’m such a sucker for succulents:

I’ve seen mustaches at weddings, but STICK-ON FURRY mustaches were an awesome first:

Margo & Adam – I just adore you guys. Here’s hoping Hawaii is treating you well!

rainy springtime style shoot (boulder senior portraits)

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 01:21:10 +0000

HOLY CRAP I love my senior models! I get to work with some of the sweetest, most photogenic girls on the planet. You might remember my near-obsession with springtime, and ever since the weather started warming up and I started seeing little tips of green grass, I’ve been wanting to do a spring style shoot. Thankfully, I have a slew of beautiful people ready to model for me :) One of the perks of being a Senior Model is the opportunity to participate in style shoots like this one, at no extra charge. Essentially, you just become my muse :) We’re still accepting Senior Model applications through May, so if you’re interested, apply ASAP!

I met up with Elisha and Kendall on a chilly, dreary afternoon, and they were seriously awesome for hanging in there and rolling around in the drizzle and wet grass. I kept saying, ”You guys must be freezing! We can stop whenever you want,” but they said they were having fun and wanted to keep going. So, thanks to these two lovely ladies, we walked away from a cold, rainy day with an awesome shoot :)

I love this series:

So stunning!!

You girls are awesome! Can’t wait for the next shoot! :)

a southern affair // derby style shoot (boulder fashion photographer)

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:19:19 +0000

Can I just say, I LOVE style shoots?! They’re so relaxed, there’s nowhere to be, nobody waiting for you, you get to work with wedding friends, and of course, everything looks amazing…I love them! I am so incredibly lucky to work with wonderful partners in the industry, including one of my very own former brides, who does the loveliest print design and is getting into event design as well. I fell in love with Paige of Peekay Soirees when I worked with her at Casidy’s wedding, and how fun is it that I get to work with both of them, AND Casidy’s great stylist extraordinaire, all in one shoot!

The Kentucky Derby was a perfect springtime theme (great idea Casidy!) Thanks to so many wonderful vendors, and of course our lovely models, we pulled off this shoot without a hitch. And then got to play with some horses and drink mint juleps, even.

Super duper thanks to everyone involved!

Dresses by Anna Be

Hats & fascinators by Kitty Mae Millinery

Sweet treat by The Wooden Spoon

Lovely florals by Ladybird Poppy

Styling & paper goods by me oh my design

Hair & makeup – Stacy Kelly

Location – private residence

Models – Lainey, Emily & Meggan

I love this series of silhouette photos:

A huge thank-you to everyone involved!

taryn (boulder senior portrait photographer)

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:04:39 +0000

Taryn and I had OHMYGOSHSOMUCHFUN shooting her senior portraits in Colorado Springs! We immediately hit it off and were joking around like crazy within minutes of meeting each other. Love it! This girl is so awesome and silly and ridiculously photogenic that it was tough to stop shooting :)

We shot the next portion of her session at Garden of the Gods. I know that to a lot of people, Garden of the Gods screams “cliche” and “overdone”, but I love shooting there because each time, I try to find new little corners that express the beauty of this place without looking like the exact same images from the exact same angles that everyone else gets. It’s totally possible to have unique photos at the Garden!

Ultimate “Colorado Girl” shots: sunshine + deer in the background + mountains + pine trees. Haha.

A quick outtake: we were setting up to take a few shots and Taryn got scared by a deer that was hiding in the bushes. Best. surprised face. ever.

Taryn, dude. You’re beautiful and fun and I love you to pieces!

2012 client magazines!

admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:23:25 +0000

In the middle of one of my insomniac nights a while back, I had a thought. I’d been giving my clients some fun little booklets with tips about their session / wedding, but I had a lot more information I wanted to include, and I honestly felt like I could do better than a small booklet, creatively. So… in the middle of the night, I started designing magazines! I had SO much fun putting these together. They just recently came in, and I think they’re pretty sweet. So now, when you book your senior session or wedding, we’ll send you one of these babies right away to help you get started with your planning & brainstorming.

All of my upcoming brides and any senior who books a session will get one! If you want one but aren’t an upcoming bride or a senior with a booked session, feel free to contact me to place an order. I’m excited to share these with you guys!

springtime, aka multiple personality disorder

admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:50:39 +0000

About this time every year, I go a little bit crazy :) I have a bad case of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder- self-diagnosed, okay), meaning that winters leave me mopey and lethargic and feeling hopeless about everything, and as soon as I get a little bit of sunshine, I’m a completely different person. When we were living in Buena Vista, that was especially hard – the winters there last forever! Sometimes I wouldn’t see green grass until the end of May. Imagine my delight when I realized that the trees were starting to grow leaves like THREE WEEKS AGO. I couldn’t believe it, and as soon as I realized this amazing weather wasn’t a fluke, my personality kind of did a 180. All my black clothes are now in the back of the closet, and I’m wearing neon everything, and I have SO MUCH ENERGY I don’t really know what to do with myself. Warmth and sunshine make me REALLY HYPER, as you may have noticed from my EXCESSIVE USE OF CAPS.

I love it. I love springtime, I love the sunshine, and I feel SO EXCITED about this upcoming year. This video is a pretty accurate representation of what’s going on inside of my happy little head right now (although the eggs, that’s a little weird):

Anyway, happy spring! Hope you guys are out there doing lots of fun things and playing in the sun :)

katie (boulder senior portrait photographer)

admin — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:56:05 +0000

The lovely Katie is another one of my Senior Models! Gaah, it’s been so wonderful getting to meet & work with all of these girls – they’re all so wonderful! I loved Katie’s color combo of shades of blue. What a great smile!

Thanks, Katie!!

i’m going to africa!!

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 01:18:02 +0000

I’m so excited to let you guys know that this November, three lovely photographer friends and I are headed to Kenya! My friends Nicole, Meredith, Lindsay, and I will be working with Friends Vision, a great organization comprised of volunteers from Kenya and around the world, working to make life brighter for kids at their Children’s Home.

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

We’ll be bringing donated digital cameras & computer equipment with us, and teaching the kids basic photography lessons, hoping to open the door for them to our passion, and give them a potentially marketable skill. I really want to see these kids energized by the beauty of photography – I remember how exciting it was (and still is!) for me to take that first good shot, and to start to see the world in a new way. Wouldn’t it be awesome if some of these kids grew up to be renowned wedding photographers, or award-winning photojournalists?!?

We’ll also be documenting the work that Friends Vision has been doing, through both video and stills, giving them updated images for their website and hopefully a short documentary film as well. We also hope to shoot individual portraits of the kids for use in their child sponsorship program. Obviously, we’ll also be helping out however we can around the Children’s Home, too.

(some of the Friends Vision kiddos)

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

We would be so encouraged by your support! Here are some of the ways you can help:

- Donate your USED (or new!) DIGITAL CAMERAS for us to take with us to give to the kids. We’re looking for digital cameras in working order with all the necessary parts, if possible (batteries, chargers, cards, card readers, etc.). It doesn’t matter if they’re cheap point & shoots or big fancy SLRs – I’m sure the kids will love them! We’re also looking for a few small printers – there are some travel-sized mini-printers that can print straight off of a camera. We’d love to be able to hand out prints as we shoot. If we can get our hands on some USED LAPTOPS IN WORKING ORDER, we’ll bring those with us, too!

- Donate your FREQUENT FLYER MILES. If you have accumulated miles that you’re not going to use, we’d love to have them! It may help us get over there a bit more cheaply. Sign up for an account at points.com, or contact your airline / credit card company… here’s some more info about transferring your miles. If you need my frequent flyer numbers in order to transfer miles, just let me know which airline you’ll be transferring from!

- Donate FINANCIALLY. You can make donations towards my trip at my YouCaring account. We’re each trying to raise $2600 to cover airfare, travel costs, food, and lodging. Any money raised over our goal amounts will go straight to Friends Vision as a donation, or will be used to purchase any accessories necessary for our donated cameras to be useful to the kids.

- Plan to BUY A FRAMED OR MOUNTED PRINT from me when I get back. I’ll be taking LOTS ( and lots and lots and lots) of pictures, both of the kids and of the scenery, etc, and all proceeds from any Africa print sales will go towards this trip.

- Consider SPONSORING A CHILD through Friends Vision! If we know who your sponsored child is, we can bring extra letters, etc with us, and make sure to take plenty of portraits of your sponsored child, with you in mind :)

- Join us at a FUNDRAISER EVENT. We have some fun fundraiser ideas planned … we’ll keep you updated on the details as we figure them out!

Thanks so much for your consideration – we’re all so excited about this trip, and can’t wait to share more details with you soon!

paper or plastic? (boulder senior portraits)

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 23:18:32 +0000

I was recently asked by a client about my editing / retouching policy. I hated that the first thing I had to say was, “You’ll still look like you”. She nodded in relief. It’s so weird to me that there are photographers out there who specialize in making you look like a computerized Barbie version of yourself! I want you to look like yourself, your REAL self, on your best, happiest day. I want your friends to look at an image and say, “Oh my gosh, that’s such a good picture of you!” rather than saying, “Wow… what great Photoshop work! You look great… after all that editing!”

I do edit and retouch images, but I try to be light-handed about it. I want you to look GOOD! We’ll get rid of your breakouts, edit that stain on your shirt, and fix weird lumps in your clothing that are distracting, but I want your skin to look like skin, not plastic. I want your face to look like YOUR face, not some weird anime version of your face. This is why I still call myself a photographer, and not a “digital artist” or something.

For some of you, your truest, most authentic beauty is found in a huge smiley grin. For others of you, it’s that wave in your hair, or a moment of intense eye contact. Sometimes it’s the expression on your face when you think I’m just screwing around, and you laugh at me. Seriously! I love it when people laugh, (at me, or with me!) Every person has their own, individual beauty, and it’s my job to find that and broadcast it. Sometimes it’s a quiet presence and graceful movements. Sometimes it’s sequins and glitter, and spotlights, and neon… awesome!! It doesn’t matter. What makes you the most beautiful is when you look like yourself, loving life.

To edit the absolute crap out of you would be saying that I thought you were maybe okay-looking, but not quite beautiful enough. It would be saying that, “the way you look in reality is fine, I guess, but your face would look so much better made out of plastic”… which is not something I believe AT ALL. The people I’m the most drawn to and find the most beautiful, my best friends, who I love and do life with, are REAL. LIVE. PEOPLE… and I love them for it!

I will make you look like a real person. You look better that way… I promise.

* sidenote – despite the title of this post, I don’t want to make your skin look like paper, either. It was just a catchier title than “Real live skin or plastic?” ;)

rachel (boulder senior pictures)

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:12:24 +0000

OH MY GOSH every single one of my senior models I’ve been able to meet so far is amazingly beautiful and has been so much fun to work with! This is making me SO stoked for the summer – senior portrait season is my favorite time of year! Who am I kidding, it’s pretty much summer right now. Anyway, Rachel is no exception! This lovely lady drove up from Pueblo, and met me halfway in Colorado Springs for her mini-session. We were planning to meet at one of my (formerly) favorite spots in the Springs – the cool woven sculptures on the CC campus – and I got there, and they were gone! I knew they wouldn’t last forever, but I had no idea they’d be gone so soon :( Well, we made a last minute change of plans and found some other amazing spots in downtown Colorado Springs :)

We’ve had a really, really early spring here, which I’m freaking out about, so I had to find some blossoms, because I’m just a little bit obsessed. But first: Rachel, you are SOOO gorgeous!!

Sometimes, I think the greatest measure of beauty is what happens when your subject isn’t aware and posing for you … those small in-between moments of gracefulness, of beauty, are so true and authentic and un-fakeable. For example: one of my favorites-

And another lovely in-between shots shot:

OMG straight out of a movie scene:

So lovely!

What a great mini-session! Can’t wait for the real thing :)