Our annual Fall Mini Portrait Sessions will be taking place again this year with limited morning sessions on two days only! We are offering 20 minute sessions booked on the half hour on Saturday, September 16th and Saturday October 21st only. Sessions will begin at 7am with the last one starting at 11am. The session price is $175.00 and it includes 8 high resolution digital images from the photoshoot. Addtional digital images, prints and holiday cards will also be available to purchase in addition to the included digitals. You may also purchase all of the photos from the session after you view them for $250.00. This year both sessions will be taking place at Majestic View Nature Center – 7030 Garrison St, Arvada, CO 80004. We will be meeting in the parking lot right next to the center (not at the park entrance off 72nd Ave.) The center has restrooms available and some great photo opportunities near by! This is our one and only time a year that we offer short sessions at a discounted rate. The dates, timing and location are all set by our company for this special!
If you have never participated in a mini session before I want to share a little bit about the concept. Mini sessions were developed to give clients with stricter budgets a quick photo-shoot with their family in order to accommodate a large amount of groups in one day! This session is perfect for families with children with short attention spans looking to just capture the growth of their family for holiday cards and the like. These sessions are not intended for groups that may need a bit more time and care with their photos such as large extended family shoots, families with pets or families looking to pick and choose their location and willing to spend more time getting lots of different poses, looks and or clothing changes. A grandparent or two can also tag along with one immediate family, but grandparents with multiple children that have families of their own may need to look at purchasing at least two back to back session spots. We also will not allow pets to be included in these sessions because while we love pets, the sessions are just too short for us to have the time devoted to both getting the the attention of the animals and their family members. These sessions are also more suited for people that can be on time or early. We run a tight ship on mini session day and since sessions are booked back to back photos will start immediately at your contracted start time and end 20 minutes later. Late comers will only get the time-frame we have allowed for them, so once their time is up we’ll be done and moving on to the next group. All sessions are paid for in full to reserve your time-slot with no refunds unless we have a really bad weather day and have to reschedule. In cases like a bad weather day we will reach out to each family to see if there’s a day we can reschedule the session for and if there isn’t a mutually agreeable day within the next 2 months we will refund your money.
Check out some sample photos from last year’s session at Crown Hill Park –
Each session will include a couple different full family poses, separate groupings such as individual parents with children, children alone, parents alone and individual shots with a few different background options. Majestic View offers a lot of options in a close proximity while we won’t be moving around the entire park in a 20 minute session some walking will be needed. If anyone has any disabilities or needs special accommodations please let us know.
One thing we can not guarantee is how much the trees will have changed or the weather! I try to set these sessions around the peak of the fall foliage season with weekend dates that we still have open, but it always varies from year to year. This year we only have a couple Saturday mornings open because we are fully booked with event coverage on the weekends until November. I cross my fingers for a beautiful day with abundant color and leaves still on the trees! Be aware that nature is going to do what nature does and we’re just at it’s mercy! If the forecast calls for cloudy and overcast, but not torrential downpours we will still be doing photos! So please dress accordingly.
Our mini sessions can also be used for a special occasion, not just for a family portrait. We’ve had people utilize our mini sessions for quick engagement pics, maternity announcements, a 50th wedding anniversary, headshots and more! We’ve even accommodated a quick senior portrait session for a student that hated having his photo taken and was doing just the bare minimum photo in one outfit for a yearbook photo and some pictures for his parents. We will be happy to let you utilize your 20 minutes for any quick small portrait session you may need. If you are needing something other than traditional family photos please let us know when you reach out for booking so we can make sure to focus on what’s important in your photoshoot.
If you are interested in booking a time for one of these sessions please email us – info@crystalinephoto.com
Please include your family’s name, contact numbers for any adult participating, names and ages of everyone and date and preferred time slot. Please include two times in case we book your first choice. All bookings are first come first serve are not guaranteed until a contract and full payment has been received. If you have a larger family and are not sure if you will need extra time or not please give us some details and we’ll let you know if we think you will need two time slots.
Fall is by far the busiest time of year for both wedding coverage and family portrait sessions in Colorado and its easy to see why. Beautiful fall foliage colors last for just a brief moment and people love capturing the season in their memories. Because of this we’ve been offering quick mini sessions for one day only in the Fall so that we can accommodate a bunch of families looking to get a quick updated family photo for their holiday cards at a reduced price. If we are able to host a mini session day then we wait until September to see what dates are still open on our calendar after all the weddings and other events have been scheduled and pick a day as close to the peak of the Fall foliage colors as possible to schedule these special sessions. Mini sessions are for immediate family only and last 20 minutes. Due to the short period of time given for these sessions we are also not allowing pets for them. I love taking photos with your family pet, but they need more time to be worked with than the short time-frame we have for the mini sessions. If you are interested in booking a session with your pet please reach out to us directly to check availability for a full one hour session. For our mini sessions, families are encouraged to arrive a few minutes before their session start time to ensure an on-time arrival so we can get started right away. This way we can spend the entire twenty minutes allotted taking multiple poses of your family. We book sessions back to back to accommodate as many families as possible on this date. Late arrivals will get shortened sessions if we have time to still photograph them. Check out some photos from our 2021 Fall Session below. If you have a highly organized family that is punctual and would like to get on our monthly newsletter email so you can be informed when we are running these specials sign up on our newsletter form here – http://eepurl.com/cuTnlH
The year has just flown by once again. I’m finishing up on the last of my December events and realized it’s been a while again since I’ve done a blog post and decided to share this fun family session that I photographed at Brookside Gardens in Berthoud, Colorado. I met this family while I was photographing a wedding last year as the mother was the sister of the bride. We started planning her family photos shortly after that wedding and since they were located in Greeley and I was located in Arvada I wanted to find a location in between us that worked. And not just any location would do… Reyna had some specific requests. She wanted a waterfall and flowers and then I said I knew the perfect spot! Brookside Gardens is a wedding and event facility so we had to work around their busy event calendar, but it was all worth it in the end. I had a great time photographing this family and they now have some amazing images capturing this time-frame in their young children’s lives. Check out some of our favorite images below.
Our Fall mini sessions were such a hit this year! We chose two single days to book back to back sessions at a couple parks in the Denver Metro area. Families pre-paid for a 30 minute session where we pulled out all the tricks and poses for the best photos we could create in a quick session. This was perfect for those parents just wanting a photo for their holiday card and ones with young children with short attention spans. This session took place in North Denver at Croke Reservoir in Northglenn, Colorado. It was so successful that we’re thinking of doing it every year! It will of course all depend on how hectic our calendar is from year to year. Fall is the busiest time of year for photographers all over the state and it’s getting harder to find a whole day that we can take to schedule these. If you want to find out when we’ll be hosting our next session sign up on our email newsletter list to get the all the latest updates and deals!
Back to photographing one of my favorite family’s newest addition, their fourth son, Shane. Who knew that a decade ago I’d still be photographing the Hickman children for their one year milestones! I run a special package that captures the first year of baby’s life starting with newborn photos in the first month after baby’s arrival. We then meet up again every three months finishing with the one year birthday celebration and cake smash for baby. Darcy and Ryan have been through these sessions with each of their children! And now with us being on our fourth child not only are the other kids old pros at having their photograph taken, but we’re now struggling just a little bit to come up with locations for outdoor photo-shoots! I still find love capturing this family and can’t believe we’ve been taking photos for as long as we have! Enjoy some baby squishes! It goes by in a blink of an eye!
Nothing is more precious than newborn babies! And I especially love getting to photography past wedding clients when they venture into parenthood. Jerod & Erin were married just last year so they wasted no time in starting their family. This adorable little peanut was a little over the newborn stage at about two months when we photographed her making it a little more difficult to get those adorable sleeping baby photos, but we tried our best! She’s a cutie pie even when she’s wide awake and I love, love, love the matching mommy and me outfits!
In case you didn’t know we have moved into a full on studio space in Arvada this Summer. After 20 years of hauling my backdrops, lights, props and more to people’s homes it was time to finally settle down at a location that would make it easier for me to photograph my clients. This allows me to set-up before the subjects arrive, have access to all of my backdrops and props at a moments notice and just make the whole experience easier for everyone. We are sharing a space with another vendor: Amazing Weddings & Ceremonies, who provide wedding ceremony and officiating services as well as their own ministry. So far it has been a great working partnership! I will still be doing a lot of location photo-shoots, but this also gives me the opportunity to have an indoor back-up plan, offer more affordable studio sessions for things like headshots, newborns and more!
Thanks again to Erin, Jerod and Miss Willow for being my first clients in the studio and looking forward to many more years to come photographing your growing family!
Here’s an in home newborn session I did before Thanksgiving…. this sweet little guy took a while to fall asleep for us… Sometimes come with the territory…. We tried just about everything, extra feedings, white noise, swaddling and even a car ride! Yes, dad took him for a ride around the block! Which was a first for me, typically all of my little tricks work to make baby sleepy, but this time around he was making us work for it. But I think it was worth it in the end what an adorable little guy! Congrats again to the Radcliffe family on your new addition!
With all of the relatives in town for the holidays you may be thinking that you’d like to take a group photo of everyone in the family! So if you can’t hire a professional either due to cost or availability the next best thing is doing it yourself! Here are some quick tips to help make your photo the best that it can be! And with a bunch of you getting the new iphone for Christmas you might want to even try this with your phones!
1.) Prepare! – Scout out the best location to do the photo ahead of time. Make sure your batteries are charged and your lenses are cleaned (including your phone lens)! It would be a real bummer if you couldn’t take the photo due to an empty battery or worse yet a big piece of dirt shows up in the middle of grandma’s face! Make sure everyone you want to be in the photo knows where and when you are taking it (I always ask them to be there 15-20 minutes earlier than needed to make room for late comers).
2.) Location – Make sure you choose the right spot for your photo. If you have to take the photo in the middle of the day scout out spots with open shade so that there are no harsh shadows and so people don’t have to squint in the photos. Make sure there are no distractions in the background such as signs, cars, etc. Or a window behind the group indoors where a flash can bounce back into the camera. If you are indoors I would avoid using a flash on your cell phone camera for the photo if at all possible. The low light capabilities are getting better on phones, but the flash settings are not.
3.) Take Multiple Shots! – One way to try and avoid getting eyes closed or people not looking at the camera is to take a lot of photos. The more you take the more chances you have for a good one. And trust me if you are also going to set the timer so that you can be in it you will more than likely have to take a few to get a good one! A wireless handheld remote for also really helps for this! Do not use the digital zoom feature on a cell phone because the photo will be too grainy, rather than using the zoom position yourself in a way that puts the entire group in the frame.
4.) Use a tripod – Set your camera up on your tripod so that’s ready to take the shot in terms of framing, settings and focus and then it will be ready at an instant when you get the group looking just right to capture the moment. It’s important to get the attention of your subjects early so that you can get them posed and take the photo quickly especially if you are working with short attention spans, especially those of children. Tripods also help prevent camera shake and keep the focus sharp!
5.) Posing – You want to make sure that you can see everyone. Taller people should be in the back and shorter in the middle or front. I like to put people in between the “V” of the people in front of them and ask everyone to make sure that they can see me because if they can’t see me I can’t see them. Try to compose in a triangle composition with the tallest members in the middle. When photographing a large family try to keep immediate families near each other, spouses and kids, etc. People also look better slightly angled (not straight on) so I typically have the people turn slightly into the person next to them and have them either put their hands in their pocket or on their hip for women. Before releasing the shutter take one last look over through the camera to make sure you can see everyone. And if the group is really large you might want to consider taking the photo from a higher perspective either from a balcony or ladder.
Best wishes and happy portrait taking!
I photographed this lovely dusk maternity session with Becky and her family at the end of Summer. She was looking for a location that showed off the entire mountain range along with a lake in the background close to her home. Standley Lake checked all of the boxes for what she wanted. It had been a few years since I’ve taken a portrait session here. It was great getting back to this amazing spot. There had been so much rain over June and July and because of that the lake was so high that there wasn’t a beach that we could do photos on. Even though I was disappointed about a lack of a beach the location itself was still wonderful! It has a beautiful unobstructed view of the full mountain range and says “Colorado” in every sense of the word. We got some amazingly adorable photos with the kids and I was very happy with the results! Stay tuned for when I post some images from the newborn session!
I’ve been working on so many weddings the last couple months that I’m a little behind with posting other photography sessions. Since this couple from the engagement/family portrait session I photographed at the end of July are getting married this weekend at Willow Ridge Manor; I thought I better post it! I had such a blast creating these images for this family, so much so that I’m really looking forward to covering their wedding! A lot of couples today enter into marriage already having children, so it just makes sense to include them in some of the engagement photos! Adalynn is such a cutie! Who wouldn’t want her in the photos! Lots of love to you both and we’ll see you this weekend!
