Peter Holcombe Photography Blog

We have had a very mild winter this year in Colorado. I’m still shooting family portraits in many of my favorite locations in which is very unusual for this time of year and really a nice surprise. The Bridges family gathered together in Denver for Christmas for the first time in years. The children have all moved away and this was going to be a special Christmas and a wonderful opportunity for a family portrait. We scheduled the session months in advance and hoped for the best.  A short and busy window with everyone together didn’t allow for  the shoot to be rescheduled if we had inclement weather. I have found that when the pressure is on for a one window of opportunity to shoot the unlikely can become not only possible, but great. This was just the case with the Bridges family.  The day came and it was 19 degrees and the worst snow storm of the season. If we had the opportunity to reschedule I would have done so, but because of schedule constraints, that was simply not an option. Arriving early to set up before they arrived I found just what I’d feared. It was not just snowing, but really pounding snow and the streets were a sheet of ice.

This is a time when I have to remind myself that this is an amazing and unique opportunity to capture something out of the ordinary. After this shift of mind I saw this cold snowy urban world as a new canvas for  me to create something new and interesting. Luckily they were all very willing to play in the snow with me and had great attitudes seeing this as an adventure themselves. As the shoot progressed it just kept getting better and better. My Hensel Porty strobe and it’s batteries held up great in the cold, wet conditions although they were thoroughly soaked in the process. At the end I was wet but warm from all the running around shooting. I am really happy with how these images turned out. I hope to find more adventurous families that are willing to go out in bad weather to create fun unique family portraits.