Colorado Mountain Boulder Engagement SessionEngagement Session Details:

Any Colorado native knows weather can be very different between the city and the mountains.  For Ben and Lauren we were targeting to go to a mountain lake up over 10k in elevation.  As there was a cold front coming in we had reached out to see if they wanted to reschedule.  Our take was that the day was still useable but not ideal due to the expected clouds and high winds.  On the way up out of Boulder there was this odd moisture hitting the windshield.  Lets back up and advise that it was 80 and sunny in Denver.  Nederland had sun and 60s.

It didn’t take long to realize that the clouds in the distance were actually not clouds per say but snow falling.  When we got up to the meeting location it was 30 degrees out with a light 20 mph breeze and snow.  We came expecting colder air, wind, and some sprinkles but were not thinking snow.  We don’t think they were expecting it either.  I guess this is why we are photographers and not meteorologists.  In general we have a good idea of how a day will turn out but when it comes to the mountain topography things can turn out different than you would expect.

Part 2 is us scraping the plan to go back down to the Boulder area and shoot at NCAR.  We would have probably had a change of plans earlier on the drive out if there were cell coverage but there really is only one pocket of reception so we had to go with it.  In considering the plan B options we suggested NCAR as it has the flatiron mountains right there and any overlook of the distant mountains wouldn’t show up since they were turning into a winter wonderland.

On the way back because it was a last minute change of plans and there wasn’t cell reception there as a routing error from an old address in GPS.  When we all got to the right place we were about 15 minutes past the scheduled end time of the shoot.  Technically, we are not required to shoot past the scheduled time and don’t reschedule shoots once we left for them particularly when we tried to reschedule.  We say this to say that we really do want to do what is best for our couples and view things from being in their cowboy boots and high heels.

While we try to run the business like a business but at the same time the unexpected happens.  Since there was still some ambient light we sought to shoot rather different than normal.  With no direct sunlight it was like a cloudy day yet we had blue skies and high wind.  For that reason we left the flash in the car and brought the warmer constant light.  We normally use this for wedding first dances and night photography but thought it might add that slight pop to the images.  If you have looked through our blog much I guess you will notice this certainly looks different without the backlight of the sun.

Nonetheless, while this isn’t our core style we still really like what we got.  It might be that there was just so much playfulness or just this natural feeling they had from lots of practice cuddling.  One thing to leave you with would be how if your worried about your hair being crazy on a windy Colorado day you can always consider getting it done professionally for the photoshoot.  As you can note in the images below things certainly were not perfect but they were overall really contained for the conditions.

If you like what you see here and are considering using this location here are some of the other shoots we have done at NCAR.