Wedding and Portrait Photography Blog in Colorado Springs

The photo/yoga studio is finally done! Corinne and I are having our grand opening this Saturday 11th from 2-6pm. They’ll be drink and snacks to nibble on while you look at an exhibition of some of my photography from world travels and closer to home. The theme of the exhibit is “Alternative Energy”, alternatives to negativity.

The studio is on the West side and the address is 313 N 24th St, Colorado Springs, 80904. From I-25 take the Uintah exit (146) to 24th and we’re on the left. Studio 313 is round the back, we’ll have a cold one or a glass of something waiting for you!

Come and support local art, and find out about Corinne’s yoga classes. They are filling fast!

So who can caption this picture?

Photography Studio in Colorado Springs

High School Senior Picture at Rainbow Falls

How many high school seniors have had their photographs taken at the Rainbow Falls tucked under highway 24 just west of Manitou Springs? It’s been a popular location for years with photographers, appearing as the backdrop for high school senior photographs, rock band CD artwork and model portfolios, but that might soon be coming to an end.

I love to photograph there but it is soon to lose a lot of its photographic appeal in an effort to restore the area to an impossible bygone era. Recently the local paper announced there are plans to clean the graffiti off the bridge and rocks.

Although you may have driven over it hundreds of times, comparatively few people visit the falls, you have to choose to go in there and see it. There is no other similar resource for photographers in this area but there are many waterfalls that are graffiti free. Manitou is an artistic community and, while not everyone can see the art in random scrawling on the rocks, collectively they provide a backdrop that has been used by almost every professional photographer in Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs for years.

I could understand if they were still an area of outstanding natural beauty but they are a shadow of their former selves. I’ve seen the photos from before the bridge was built and they once were beautiful, I know people who remember the viewing platforms that have since rusted away, but the falls have evolved. They are now a place of artistic expression for photographers and kids looking to contribute to the whole scene. Every person I’ve taken there is awestruck by the amount of collaborative effort it has taken to transform red rock and gray concrete into a cacophony of colors that blend into an urban trademark, laid over a natural canvas. If this was graffiti at St Mary’s Falls, or Helen Hunt Falls surrounded by trees I could understand the desire to clean it up, but this fall is in under concrete, hidden from view by engineers.

What is the plan to stop the graffiti from reappearing? Are we to expect more rules and regs banning us or fences keeping us out. The Sheriff is thinking security cameras are the answer, invading the privacy of everyone who goes there. The graffiti will likely return despite the authorities best efforts and with it the photographers. I’m sure in due course the cleaning trucks will return too. The area was cleaned in 2006 by a team of volunteers but you couldn’t tell today. Public funds are simply providing a blank canvas, any efforts to keep it that way can only be more damaging to the area. As purse strings are being tightened all across the state, how is this even a financial priority?

The tranquil beauty of the falls was not destroyed by the graffiti, but by city planners when the highway was built right over it. It was forgotten until rediscovered and reinvented but societies drop outs, looking for a place to call their own. It was a place the hippies came decades ago and now is a place for today’s miss-fit kids who just want a place to hang out. Let them decorate their place, their way and let those of us who appreciate it continue to visit it and share it with others. If the graffiti offends you, this is Colorado, you have endless other places to visit.

I wonder how much trash is generated by the Manitou Carnival and the Coffin Races? How much effort goes into cleaning up after those events. Does the trash at Rainbow Falls through a whole year come even close? Sure there are some cans on the grounds and probably enough trash to fill a couple of trash bags but it’s not a stinking refuse dump by any means. I propose we leave the graffiti, but those of us, especially photographers, who see this place as a resource, contribute to cleaning the area up and keeping it that way.

L’Aura Montgomery Rutt of the Manitou Environmental Citizen Action, commented in the Gazette on the plans to clean the area, “Now we will be able to take action to restore Rainbow Falls to its former splendor,” Careful L’Aura, I think removing the bridge might upset a few people.

Real photojournalism, the kind that ends up in the newspaper! OK so it’s only our local (and awesome) paper Fresh Ink, but a picture made the cover and the pictures in the center spread are all mine too! The Editor for Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs, Travis Duncan, is a very nice guy and wanted to run more photographs from the Eco Fair in Manitou last week. Never mind the previous cover was also a picture of Eco Elvis. Travis is the kind of wild and crazy editor that will run the same pictures 2 weeks running, if that’s what he wants, that is how he rolls… and edits. And true to his word, very kindly added my name and website to every picture. Way to go Travis, you are awesome!

The yoga teacher is my beautiful wife Corinne. She held a demo class for all who wanted to participate. Those brave enough to participate got to benefit from her soothing style of relaxing Hatha yoga. I highly recommend you check out her classes and can get more info from her website, yogafied.com. She even has me doing it from time to time and there’s no way I’d be caught doing yoga, unless it really left me feeling good. Love you baby!

We know a thing or two about wedding stress. Our wedding venue was evacuated in the 2002 Haymen fire. Two weeks before our wedding date we lost our accommodation, our wedding ceremony site, and our reception location. Yea, stress city. We did pull off a wonderful day thanks to the help of our friends, family and countless others but we really could have used some way to chill out in the days leading up to it!

To help with your wedding stress, we’re offering a discount for brides-to-be, for my wife’s yoga classes. I’ll put another post up once Corinne has worked out the details but just to give you some info, if you decide to book us Admire Photography your wedding photographer, I’ll pick up half the cost, so you can come to class and not stress about anything. The first class is only $5 so you get to chill out and take a quiet moment for only $2.50. Hummmm that sounds way too low… but I’ll only have to cover $2.50 as well, sweet! Don’t expect a hard sell for future classes, just soothing movement and a relaxed body and mind. If you have an interest in continuing the classes then great, the discount will continue until your wedding day. If you want to tell your friends how amazing you feel after her classes that would be kind of you too. You’re more than welcome to bring a friend. If you actually succeed in bringing your groom-to-be along too, he get’s in for free! I’m guessing that’s a safe bet for me!

Photojournalism front cover

Photojournalism center spread

Google decided it loved me. That’s my excuse for not posting anything in ages. It all happened so fast, I made a blog, wrote a few posts and rocketed up the rankings. It was a pretty whirlwind romance for me and I was just too afraid to say or do the wrong thing. It just seemed so perfect, Google, loving me!

Google recently decided, it’s just not so into me anymore, It’s sharing its first page with any photographer who will give it a fresh article or recent wedding photostory. I still dream, I’m hoping we can make it up, sniff, or at least be friends, sniff, sniff. I realize now, a relationship has to be maintained. Google’s head has been turned and now it’s up to me to turn it back. Google, you know we were meant to rule this land together.

On the plus side, the hiatus means I do have a load of photos and news to share. Maybe I’ll pull a few favorite shots from past wedding and portrait sessions and post them. Maybe I’ll post more than once a week, or will that just make me look desperate?

I wanted to post up photos from my mid week head shot session with Sean on Wednesday but before I do I’ve been trying to get my Wordpress and Facebook to play nice together. Maybe, just maybe I beat them both into submission. If you’re reading this on Facebook then it has been a success!

You’d think it would be dead simple adding a RSS feed to a Facebook page. Actually it did turn out to be quite easy but I took the long difficult road to success, for no reason other than I was a little lost.

After trying a few RSS reader apps that didn’t work or threw errors, one that, after getting it to work, didn’t do what I wanted and one that might actually have worked after all; I discovered Facebook notes. However even that wasn’t a simple task. If you’re a Facebook regular, then you’ll laugh at my feeble attempts but as a Facebook irregular I found it a little confusing moving from my profile page to my admire and trying not to post the blog to the profile. Fortunately I came upon some simple instructions on insidefacebook.com, buried deep in the comments for the article how to import your blog into facebook. David Patrick, you’re a star!

However You might have noticed I said one of my earlier attempts might have worked. I came back to my profile after adding the note’s feed and there were 2 posts.

Hope the technical issues are not annoying you too much and thank you for becoming a fan of the admire photography page.

I promise some photographs will be added very soon. No really…

End of test post! (fingers crossed)

Facebook one day and a Wordpress blog the next. I’ve almost moved myself into the 21st century! With so many things to do I’ve really been dragging my heals with this stuff so, although it’s not new year, I’m making a resolution to make the admire Photography Wedding and Portrait Photo Blog relevant, informative and I’ll even strive to make it entertaining!

The website has had an update too. The investment page is now easier to find the portrait and wedding package pricing information you need. There’s a Google calendar under the availability link that I’m just playing with for now. I’ve been so impressed with Gmail over the years that I’m sure it’ll stay but it’s a test feature for now. You should be able to see my availability and bookings but the calendar is not the final word! I may not have updated or clients may have rescheduled so still always email or call even if the date is booked! And of course there’s this blog. My hat goes off to the Wordpress guys. Really nice job fellas! Easy to install, configure and use.

Although I started shooting weddings 5 years ago, I still learn something new about photography almost every week. I thought it might me fun to share a tip or two on the blog every once in a while, and mix it up with showing you a few shots from the most recent photo sessions.

I won’t post photos from every session or every wedding but I will try to provide content on a weekly basis. Let’s see how long that lasts! I hope to maintain a high quality to the posts and not simply fill the pages with useless content…. kind of like this entry! So with that realization I’ll sign off my first official admire Photography blog entry.

Blog to you soon!