A wedding in the Colorado mountains - Thomas and Jessica

What's better than an outdoor wedding?  An outdoor wedding in the mountains!

I took a quick trip to Colorado recently to photograph Thomas and Jessica Ciaramitaro, who got married at Treasure Mountain Bible Camp near the town of Marble.  They've both worked at the camp for a few years (they met here) and the mountains made a stunning backdrop for their warm, family-filled wedding day.

Thomas has been a friend ever since he was...well...let's just say it was such a long time ago that I used to carry him around and watch him and my younger siblings play in the sand together at Del Valle reservoir.  Our families have shared many of the ups and downs of life and had lots of goofy adventures together (high-altitude pancake-flipping contest, anyone??).

It was tremendously special (and yes, just a teeny bit funny) to photograph this wedding!  We had a grand time doing their engagement portraits and the wedding was even better.

I love seeing Thomas and Jessica together.  She's sweet, relaxed, adventuresome, and a lot of fun to be with, and the two of them complement each other perfectly. They're clearly best friends for life!

(Did I say adventuresome?  Most definitely...you should have seen these two pull off their shoes and wade through the creek for this photo!) (And yes, I was standing knee-deep in the creek right about now...it was worth it!)

 

Jessica really wanted to get married in cute boots.  So Thomas surprised her with these...she was delighted.

 

 

Getting ready for that waterfall photo above.  Oh yeah!

 

We rode up to the waterfall spot in Ruby, the camp truck.  (It was really, really bumpy in the back.  Just saying.)

 

Thomas and his mom

 

Plenty of personality here!  You really have to view this photo close-up to get the full effect...zoom in!

 

Hayride up to the ceremony spot

 

 

Outdoor reception...we are all so grateful for our answered prayers about the weather!  Here at 8600', the weather can change rapidly.  The forecast called for rain, but after a brief shower around 2pm, the weather was sunny with pretty clouds (as you can see) for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Then, not five minutes after Thomas and Jessica left, it began to pour!

Thomas and Jessica, may God bless you with many, many years of loving God and each other!

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty... 

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer

Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook

Some "fun stuff" and "pretty stuff" from our Yosemite Landscape Workshop

This last week has been so full of fantastic photos, I don't know where to start!  But a while ago (before I got sick, ha) I did promise more photos from the Yosemite workshop, so those will get priority.  Not to mention that they're pretty awesome photos of really awesome people in a thoroughly awesome park!!

First, you should meet the cast of characters (and yes, we are characters).  Here we are posing very seriously after dark on a ridge overlooking Yosemite valley.  (Unfortunately, I moved, so I'm kind of blurry.  But blurry is kinda my norm...so there ya go.)

And here's the photo I annoyed you all with last night on Facebook.  Don't you want to see what they were shooting? :)

Here it is!  We found this beautiful cascade as we exited the Park, on our way back to the Bay Area.  Perfect spot to work on blurred-motion, using neutral density filters to slow our shutter speeds.

The day before, we found a lovely mossy-green wall near lower Yosemite Falls and did a few portraits...here's Amanda! :)

She has great expressions.  :D

We found this beautiful late-afternoon rainbow in the clouds of mist below Bridalveil Fall...

Here's something that half bothers me, half makes me laugh.  Have you ever noticed this tree before?  It shows up in a TON of the images taken from the Tunnel View, near Inspiration Point.  You can often spot those goofy flat-topped branches in people's photos, over on the right side near Bridalveil Fall.  Next time you see a photo from this famous spot, check the tree!

Night view from the same spot...with my fisheye.  (Presumably that silly tree is here somewhere...just too dark to spot it!)

The obligatory crazy waterfall-hair self-portrait.  (Not too crazy this time.)

The students picked up on all my bad habits.  They take self-portraits all the time now...

...and they have a similar infatuation with sun stars...

...and they can frequently be seen taking photos of their feet.  Hahahaha.

They even do it when they have snowshoes on.

(We snowshoed partway out the Dewey Point trail -- it was a blast!)

Food makes us happy.

Erin is a true photographer...she'll do whatever it takes to get that awesome photo!  (This can't have been a comfortable position!)

Sometimes we use tripods...

...and sometimes, we use bag-o-pods.  (My faithful Tamrac Velocity 9 has served me well in this capacity for several years.  It's the real reason I carry a camera bag around -- to put my camera ON, not IN. Haha.)

(Sometimes we also use friend-o-pods, but I didn't take any photos of that phenomenon.)

We did lots of blurred-motion water photos:

...and stopped-motion studies.  This is one of my favorites.  I love these colors, and how the image caught the water's motion.

A pretty pathway at Happy Isles

This woodpecker was very busy making holes in the oaks in Sentinel Meadow.

The little guy (and his friends, I guess) have been quite industrious, as you can see...

Perched on a rock above the Merced River, Cathedral Rocks in the background...

I'd been trying to decide which highway to take home, and asking the Lord about it.  Finally decided at the last minute to take highway 140.  In true Father-who-loves-us fashion, God had a surprise waiting for us!  As we headed into the central valley, we came around a bend and there was a huge patch of stunning wildflowers.  (I think I'll post a few more in the Facebook album.)

We went to San Francisco that afternoon, drove down Lombard Street, and made good use of certain famous items for sale at Ghirardelli Square.  We finished the day on the Embarcadero with some "blue hour" shots of the bridge...but I'll save those last couple images for another post.

And the workshop ended.  And we returned home with many CF cards full of photos.  And we downloaded them all and were very happy.  The end.  ;)

- Kelsey

Discovering beauty...

Kelsey Schweickert  |  San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer
Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook