A recent graduate, a young family and a Grandmother with a keen vision for family portraits.
This shoot was a blend of many things; graduation portraits, family portraits, children’s portraits and a character study of a young woman who loves to read. We collectively decided to photograph in an urban setting to tie it all together with a common thread.
Below is the book design that will become a leather bound storybook.
Photographers are notorious for never having images of themselves. I go through phases where the thought of creating a self portrait of my own family makes me want to have a dental appointment just to get out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I love photographing my daughter and wife. But when I have to leave the safety of being behind the camera I get a whole new perspective on the portrait process. I see a very important need to put myself through this process because it lets me see how my clients feel and allows me to be more understanding of their perspective. It also lets me practice what I preach in that you can’t get the past back and that photography is forever. Capture these moments now or they will be lost forever.
These images are of the family of my good photography friend Brian Zierlein from Lightwriting Photography. We have become good friends since he took one of our Business of Photography Workshops that we taught in Denver a number of years ago. He is one of the special photographers that really sees the light and can create any light that is missing. We share a strong desire for quality lighting on location. Brian has done our family portrait for the last few years giving me the perspective I wrote about above. We have really enjoyed the images he has created for us and given us something I could have never done for myself. This fall it was time to return the favor and I set out to create a fun, natural, fall family portrait with a uniquely Boulder feel. We were on the tail end of the fall color but I had a great location that still had colorful leaves on the branches of the giant cottonwood trees. Shooting with friends is nice as it is a little more laid back, but it is also a lot of pressure to create something great as they are familiar with my work and I have to take it up a notch. I am very happy with the end result for the Zierlein Family. I am also looking forward to our next shoot where I will be in front of Brain’s Camera.
It can’t be a fluke! Every time I have the opportunity to photograph the Holmes Family amazing things happen. I created a family portrait for them last year and it was a great time: we had great weather, an even better time photographing and saw a real live moose. I also created one of my top 5 personal favorite images of 2009 with them.
This year we didn’t see a moose but we did have an amazing time in Redstone, Colorado for our destination Portrait weekend. Redstone is “the Ruby of the Rockies” with red sandstone cliffs jutting up through giant aspen groves that in October are ablaze with fall color. Unlike the aspens on the front range that resemble bushes more than trees, the aspens in and around Redstone are monsters, So big that it is hard to wrap your arms around the giant trunks for even the most flexible of tree huggers. This is one of my all time favorite locations to work in during the fall. After spending a few hours in the aspen groves with the Holmes family, we headed down to the banks of the Crystal River with it’s huge red sandstone boulders that line the banks.
I walked away from this session with a very strong feeling that we had created something special again. It is so rewarding to me when the location the subjects and all the technical aspects of photography come together. I am just half of the process and working with the Holmes family brings it all together year after year.
If you like what you see here, it is not too late to create a fall family portrait. I will be chasing the fall color down the mountains for the next month into the flatlands. We are nearly at maximum capacity for this fall, so only a few more sessions are remaining. Please call right now to schedule your portrait session.
Elizabeth Jane says: These are absolutley beautiful! What a gorgeous family in fabulous Redstone!
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.
Peter Holcombe is a Denver - Boulder, Colorado wedding, portrait and commercial photographer. Specializing in portrait photography in dramatic locations. Available globally!
Wow! I am so impressed. Thank you so much. I had a fun time.
-Myisha
Peter,
You captured all I had hoped for!
I had a great time working with you all! This was a fun project taking the normal family portrait and putting an urban twist and telling a story with all the images in the Storybook.
Thank you for letting me create this for you!