Wes & Chelsea's Breckenridge Engagement Session in Colorado
Chelsea & Wes' Engagement Photography in Breckenridge | Colorado Engagement Photography | Mountain Wedding Photographer | Apollo Fields Weddings
What could be dreamier than a wintery snowy engagement session in the beautiful Rockies!? Breckenridge is best known for being a popular ski town in Colorado and gets a lot of tourism in the winter months. Chelsea and Wes were visiting from their hometown in Texas to celebrate and I was so excited to be able to shoot their engagements for them in this iconic ski town.
The town of Breckenridge is really settled around the slopes but makes it very easy to get around. There are cute little coffee shops, bars, and shopping stores to pop in and out of. We did our session down by the little river that runs through the town from all of the snow runoff. We were lucky to have a snowy day but nothing too severe.
I actually blew my tire out on the way to this session when a rockslide on i-70 came barreling down onto the highway. I was busy dodging the smaller rocks when I hit the mac-daddy of boulders and immediately popped the tire. I was stressing out because I knew I had to get up to this session and luckily, Terrence was able to throw the donut on the car and we drove to a little mechanic shop in Georgetown and the guy was able to hammer it out and refill the tire (he originally thought it wouldn’t be salvageable so you can imagine my excitement when we got back on the road for only $20)!
I was still able to get up to Breck on time (the benefit of leaving ridiculously early for shoots) and meet up with this fun loving couple. These two had such a great and easy chemistry with one another that made this wintery session a blast to photograph. It was chilly but they never once complained, and one of my favorite things about the dry cold in the mountains is that the snow doesn’t get heavy and soaked through your pants so it is easy to stay happy without needing a wardrobe change!
I can’t recommend this location more to anyone visiting Colorado and love to shoot in this cozy mountain town so please reach out to set up your own engagement and/or wedding in this great ski town!
Colorado Engagement Photographer: Erny Photo CO | Apollo Photojournalism
Lindsey & Jeff's Colorado Winter Engagement Photography at Lake Dillon
Lindsey & Jeff's Winter Engagement Session | Lake Dillon, Colorado | Mountain Engagement Photography | Adventure Couple | Dog Lovers | Apollo Photojournalism
Lindsey and Jeff are everything that I love about my Colorado couples: they are fun and easygoing, outdoor enthusiasts, dog lovers, and down to earth. Lindsey is bubbly and outgoing, and when I first met her she was planning a wedding while wrapping up her nursing degree. Jeff is composed and polite, and when they first met, it was only fitting that they hit a park together to take their dogs on a walk together.
They quickly connected over their love of dogs and nature, so we knew right away that we wanted the pups to be part of their engagement photos! They wanted those epic Colorado mountain landscapes and Lake Dillon was the perfect backdrop. It was a chilly Denver day, but the sun was out which made it surprisingly bearable. However, by the time we made it up the mountain and out to Lake Dillon, the wind had picked up and the elevation was doing us no favors. It was a balmy seven degrees Fahrenheit (are you picking up on the sarcasm yet)??? Oh my lord, it was FREEZING! With the wind chill coming off the lake, the "feels like" weather report was well into the negatives.
As soon as we stepped out of the car, I thought Lindsey and Jeff were going to want to reschedule. No way they were going to want to shoot in this weather, I thought to myself. But they just smiled and said, "Let's go!" I loved their can-do attitude, embracing the harsh Colorado sun that was bouncing off the pristine snow, and absolute chill that was running over the lake. We did take a few breaks to warm back up in the car and I kept having to warm my camera up in my jacket because it was struggling to keep up, but we got these awesome shots which made it SO WORTH IT!
Lindsey was so sweet because as we were headed back to Denver, she thought the pictures were going to be horrible. She said thought her face was all frozen and her eyes would be too squinty, but I sent her a sneak-peak that night and she was over the moon! This is one of my favorite parts about my job, when the conditions are less-than-ideal and we can turn around and make epic photos anyway. Any photographer can shoot beautiful pictures in optimal weather with diffused golden light, but I pride myself on being able to 'wow' my clients when it's freezing and we're only able to shoot in blaring direct sun, too!!
Colorado Engagement Photography: Erny Photo CO | Apollo Photo
Location: Lake Dillon, Colorado
Mitch & Bobby's Engagement Session at Golden Gate Canyon State Park in Golden, CO
Mitch & Bobby | Colorado Engagement Photographer | Golden Gate Canyon State Park | Golden, Colorado | Apollo Fields Wedding Photography
Golden Gate Canyon State Park is a real gem for photos because you get such a wide range of landscapes to use as your backdrops. The mountains are lush on one side and arid on the other which gives a lot of variety for photos. There’s also some great areas with open space and good hiking trails to roam around and keep moving around.
This was great for us because Mitch and Bobby wanted to bring their rescue dogs to their shoot. They were recently engaged and so excited, and naturally, their fur-family would be included. We’re the same way! We couldn’t have imagined not having our dogs a part of our engagement session or our wedding. We’re total dog lovers (no surprise there) and love when couples want to bring their four legged friends along!
Mitch worked at a dog grooming and boarding facility and her and Bobby are enthusiastic about rescuing over buying dogs. It was obvious right away that their dogs have a great quality of life now because you could just tell right away how loyal they were. When I wanted to snag a few shots without the pups, Terrence held their leashes and they both couldn’t wait to get back to their owners! Being able to have the trails and paths to keep everyone walking was great for the pups, too.
One pro tip for this location is to meet at the visitor center because the cell reception in this state park is pretty much nonexistent. That is probably the one and only drawback of the spot, if you are meeting up with your photographer in the park instead of driving in together, it can make it hard to actually find each other. The visitor center is pretty easy to find (also, there is an entrance fee so do your due diligence) but it is really convenient for actually hooking up with one another so you’re not driving around the (beautiful) roads unable to find one another!
