It was nearing the end of summer with the oldest child of the Inslee family headed off to college in Arizona and the youngest starting 1st grade it was the perfect time to create a family portrait. These are the pivotal times in a family’s history that should be documented. We had a great time photographing them and getting to know the whole family better.
I was honored when Erin Browning from The Oxford Hotel, one of the best and most notable wedding planners in Denver called to create a portrait of she and her husband and their cherished family dogs Jesse and King. Jesse is a border Collie with strong will over King who is a sweet Boxer that is totally Blind. Yes, King has no eyes at all. He still runs around and plays just like any other dog and on a quick inspection you wouldn’t have a clue that he is completely blind. He will occasionally run head on into things but he seems to shake it off and keep on going. Dogs can be one of the hardest subjects to photograph. Getting them to look in a certain direction is something they really don’t like to do much. With King I thought to myself, how do you get a blind dog to look at you? My normal tricks of throwing things and jumping around like a deranged lunatic were unnoticed by King. Finally I thought does it really matter if he is looking. Many of my best portraits of people have them looking in another direction. Then I tried to capture King and Jesse as they normally are. Once Erin and Jake saw the images, they gravitated toward the images that were more natural and free. This is true with the exception of one image. They wanted me to create a fun image of their family that was inspired by a Snoop Dogg album cover image from “No Limit Top Dogg” but with their own twist. This was to look like a studio image with distinctive lighting and much emphasis on the family and each dog wearing a tee shirt and gangsta chain collar featuring a pad lock clasp. To make this even more interesting we were going to create this image in the tundra around a high alpine lake at nearly 13,000 ft in the Colorado mountains. Yes, this seemed ambitious and to top it off we had gusty wind and cold temps in the high 30’s. I love a challenge, and fortunately so do Erin and Jake, so we charged ahead and I am so glad we did. This image will be a 20×40 inch print in a black frame that will hang over their fireplace as a conversation piece.
I had the pleasure to Photograph the Gawey family on a wonderful spring afternoon during our recent tour of Oklahoma. Coming from Cold almost warm Colorado to the full spring of Oklahoma was like having a time machine. Kathy and I really enjoyed getting to know the Gawey’s.
For the past four years, I have returned to my hometown of Oklahoma City to photograph the people and places from my youth. Three years ago, on a trip to photograph the historic homes of downtown Oklahoma City, I photographed Ian in the Myriad Gardens, a beautiful botanical sanctuary in downtown Oklahoma City. This year, I thought Bricktown would be a fun location to photograph Ian. Bricktown is a beautifully restored downtown area in Oklahoma City that was nearly abandoned and has now been brought back to life as one of the city’s hot spots for shopping and dining. It features red brick warehouses and sports a man made river that flows through the entire area like a road complete with water taxies. With lots of color, texture and dynamic light from the setting sun we couldn’t have gone wrong. The new NBA team, OKC Thunder, was playing the LA lakers having beaten them twice for the playoffs. The streets were full of fans going to eat before the big game and there was live music playing in several of the nearby restaurants. This just added to the excitement of the shoot! I was surprised how much Ian had grown in the past three years and we had a great time capturing the action that evening in Bricktown.
Kathy and I have just returned from a busy week of shooting in Oklahoma. I grew up in Oklahoma City and it is fun to get the opportunity to come home and create images in my home state.
This is the wonderful Matlock Family. Mrs. Matlock was my 4th grade music teacher, and it was so neat to get to photograph her family around their charming country home just outside Oklahoma City. We photographed in the areas around their home climbing trees, trundeling rocks (on accident) from their waterfall and relaxing around the Koi pond off their back porch. I think the images reflect all of the fun we had exploring the beauty surrounding the Matlock home.
Peter Holcombe is a Denver - Boulder, Colorado wedding, portrait and commercial photographer. Specializing in portrait photography in dramatic locations. Available globally!
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