Chris and Katie Humphreys

Denver Family Photos: The Fair Family

I knew Miriam back when I was in middle school and high school.  In our awkward phase of life, trying to figure out who we were, acting cooler than we actually were, and trying to navigate the path of being teenagers.  When I went away to college, Miriam and I kind of lost touch, but through the wonders of Facebook, we've gotten back in touch over the last year or so.  Obviously, so much has happened to us both in the last 9 years (!!) but Miriam now has two beautiful daughters and an absolutely wonderful husband, Steve who she met a few years ago.  I had never met the rest of Miriam's family and Chris and I were so thrilled when we found out we'd be able to do a Life Session with Miriam's family!

Steve and Miriam's girls, Kate and Kaia are absolutely beautiful and they are so full of joy and happiness - it's amazing to see!
Meet Kaia!

And Kate!

To see more pictures from their Life Session, you can visit their slideshow here!

Steve, Miriam, Kate and Kaia, thanks so much for meeting up with us!  It was so special to be able to capture your family together - this will be such a special time to remember when your girls are so young!!  We hope to see you soon!! Big hugs from us both :)

Beaver Creek Wedding: Tracy and Steve

We are definitely a little behind on our blogging.  If you hadn't seen our posts on twitter, we've had some big news at the Humphreys house - we just bought our first home!  We'll be blogging about this in another post to come, but hopefully it explains a little bit of our delay in posting Tracy and Steve's wonderful Beaver Creek wedding!

We absolutely love these two - they are so easygoing and just like I said after we shot their engagement session, we feel like we're hanging out with old friends when we're with them.  We had been looking forward to their wedding for many months and it was actually our first time shooting at the Westin in Beaver Creek - what a beautiful spot!  Everyone was a little nervous the leaves would be gone by mid-October, but we lucked out and had an absolutely incredible Fall backdrop for their wedding!

The day started off at their room at the Westin where we caught some fun shots of everyone getting ready!

Aren't her shoes just fabulous?!?! :)

Like I said, the Fall leaves were amazing!

One of the neat things about Tracy and Steve's day was the way that they combined special traditions from both of their families.  Among these things was the Chinese Tea Ceremony that Tracy and Steve did to honor this tradition in Steve's family.  It was so wonderful seeing both of their families come together!

And Tracy's family had some special Italian wedding cookies specially flown in for the day! :)

To see more highlights from Tracy and Steve's day, you can see their slideshow here!

Tracy and Steve, we are SO glad to have met you two and feel grateful that you live so close by!  We can't wait to see you again soon - it was an honor to be part of your day!! Lots of hugs!

Denver Engagement Photos: Elizabeth and Cooper

These two arrived for their engagement session looking like they walked out of a Fall cataogue- they are seriously cuter than cute.  We had been looking forward to their engagement session for a couple months and knew that they would be so fun to shoot with!  Sure enough, we had a wonderful time at their shoot and became fast friends - after their shoot, we ended up talking over pizza and wine for about two hours!  We just adore the two of them and feel as though we've found two new friends!

Elizabeth and Cooper are getting married in Steamboat next June, so we decided to do their engagement photos in the city for something a little different- we started out at Wash Park and ended up downtown Denver.  Elizabeth had the idea to bring a bouquet of flowers to the shoot to have as a prop, and we just loved how it looked!  We were able to catch the Fall leaves in Denver and the colors were just beautiful!

To see more images from their engagement session, you can see their slideshow here!

Elizabeth and Cooper, you two were so wonderful and we are already so excited for your wedding!  Thanks for meeting up with us for such a great afternoon!  PS. We're excited to see you for dinner soon! :)

San Francisco Wedding: Jesse and Christina

They are two of the sweetest people we know.

There, I've said it. And I'll try to refrain from repeating it too much in this post, but really, it's just the best way to describe Jesse and Christina! :) When we first starting talking to Jesse and Christina about their wedding (over a year ago!), we connected with them instantly.  Not only are they Apple geeks (like us!!) but they are truly two of the most sweet and gentle people we know.  They've gone above and beyond in being SO kind to us, and they've been gracious enough to refer us to a few of their friends as well, who we've absolutely loved getting to know. 

We were so thrilled to be a part of their wedding that took place in the Bay area at the beginning of October.  Everything went so smoothly and these two had a beautiful day!

Christina and the girls looked gorgeous!

And Jesse and the guys looked fantastic too :)

We loved all the little details at their ceremony-

I love seeing these two together!! :)

After the ceremony, we had a little time to do some fun pictures with the two of them together and we found this really neat tunnel to shoot in!

I thought these place cards at the reception were really cute!

Great first dance!

During the reception, the DJ played a game that was absolutely hilarious with the two of them - the each had to raise one of their hands (holding a shoe!) to answer questions that the DJ would ask about their relationship.  The goal was for them to answer the same way, and it was so funny watching the two of them and how well they know each other!

The day after the wedding, Chris and I were able to stick around until the following evening when we got to meet back up with Jesse and Christina and shoot the Chinese Banquet dinner that they had.  The evening was  so fun -there were lots of toasts, some hilarious games, and it was so neat to see their families come together again!

There were some really funny moments when Christina's parent's gave their toast -

And....ditto for Jesse's parents :)

And the newlyweds!

To see more from Jesse and Christina's wedding, you can see their slideshow here!

Jesse and Christina - what can we say?  You two are so special to us and we are so glad to have gotten to know you both.  Thanks for your incredible kindness - we are so lucky to have clients and friends like you who make our job so easy and fun. Many, many thanks.

Update on the first Denver SMUG!

As we recently posted, we're so excited to be two of the leaders of the new Denver SMUG!  If you're a photographer, hopefully you've already signed up for the SMUG mailing list so you heard about the date change, but just in case we wanted to update everyone!

The first meeting date has been changed to Wednesday, November 18th at 7:00 pm at Blake Street Tavern.  We're so excited to have Jeff Jochum on the agenda for the first meeting, who will be sharing some great info with everyone.  We're also just so excited to have a great time getting together with photographers in the area and seeing lots of new faces!

Here's the agenda!

New SMUG leaders Chris & Katie Humphreys and Sara Frances & Karl Arndt welcome:
 
SmugMug's chief marketing dude...Jeff Jochum!

 

Fusion... WTF (what's the fuss)?

Jeff will reprise his Igniting Fusion presentation at this month's meeting. Featuring incredible videos videos by Bob Davis, Robert Evans, JVS, Chris MacAskill, The Bebbs and The Bui Brothers, as well as the NEWEST video from Vincent Laforet's SmugMug project in Hawaii - Igniting Fusion was a big hit at this year's Collision Conference, hosted by the LA Film School, a few weeks ago.
 
If you are wondering "WTH is Fusion (and why should I care)?" - this is the meeting for you.
 
Learn how it's done (good, bad and ugly) and how to GET STARTED in this next generation market opportunity.  Old Skool is still cool, but the success of the Canon 5D MkII (and excitement around the new 7D), coupled with the exploding consumer demand for vid-media (thanks to Animoto.com and the Apple iPhones and iPods) is driving Fusion photography as the next BIG step up in the world of digital photography. Become a Fusion leader (or find one) at this month's SMUG.

Denver SMUG
WEDNESDAY, Nov. 18, 2009 | 7:00-9:30PM
Blake Street Tavern (map)
2401 Blake Street (@ 24th)
Denver, CO
 
SMUGs are free and open to everyone who loves photography.
No RSVP is needed, but SPACE is LIMITED, so get there early for the best seats.
 

San Francisco Wedding: Denise and Ray

We are little on the late side with posting from our last wedding in September because of a crazy last month but are so excited to FINALLY be posting about Ray and Denise's beautiful San Francisco wedding!   These two had an absolutely perfect day that also included a Chinese tea ceremony earlier in the day, which was such fun to shoot.  Ray and Denise are so warm and easy going, and Denise was so relaxed during her entire day - such a dream come true! :) She was positively stunning and she just glowed through the entire day!

We loved this shot we caught of the two of them on their way over to the tea ceremony -

Before the tea ceremony though, we went over to Ray's parents' home where they also had a short ceremony as well - it was beautiful!

It's always so fun to shoot something a little different, and we really enjoyed getting to capture Ray and Denise's tea ceremony that included both of their families - there were some great moments!

I absolutely loved Denise's flowers - they characterized their day perfectly: sophisticated and perfectly elegant!

Doesn't she look amazing!?! :)

We had a little extra time to do some photos with the two of them and the light was just beautiful!

We loved all the details at their reception - these centerpieces looked amazing!

To see more from Ray and Denise's day, check out their slideshow!

Denise and Ray, we feel so lucky to have met you both and loved getting to be part of your day.  Thanks for everything - you two are absolutely wonderful!

Spend a Day with The Humphreys!

We’ve talked about it for about two years.
We’ve tossed around ideas, tossed them out, and started back from scratch.
And finally, we created a new vision.

That’s why we’re so excited to be announcing our first-ever workshop for photographers! 

Chris and I both absolutely love teaching and speaking, and we’ve wanted to develop a workshop for quite a while now.   One of the things we knew from the beginning was that we wanted to create a workshop that was a totally individualized experience where we could really focus on some of the seemingly small details that are involved in running a successful business.  Things that aren’t always talked about, but that really make a difference.

The vision for our workshop came from an excerpt we found in Michael Gerber’s book – The E-Myth Revisited – one of our favorite business books of all time.
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“Great business people know that a business doesn’t miss the mark by failing to achieve greatness in some lofty principled way, but in the stuff that goes on in every nook and cranny of the business.  And so the great ones I have known seem to possess an intuitive understanding that the only way to reach something higher is to focus their attention on the multitude of seemingly insignificant, unimportant, and boring things that make up every business.”

Because we know that the small details in execution matter, we wanted to create a one-on-workshop where we could really delve into an individual photographers’ business with them and at the end of the day, leave them with practical, actionable things that they could do.  Whether it’s working on your pricing, figuring out how to systematize your workflow so your clients all get a consistent experience, or working on particular shooting issues,, we want to address these weaker areas you’re struggling with.

You can check out our brand new workshop site here!

These last two months of 2009 are a great opportunity to get together with us to tighten up any areas of your business before the new year starts, so email us today about getting  your date set for these last two months of 2009!

For the complete info, please visit our new website for Spend a Day with The Humphreys!

Wedding Planning 101

As the busy season for shooting weddings is winding down for Chris and I, wedding planning season is starting to pick up in full force!  It has been such fun these last few weeks to be talking to so many brides who are starting to plan their 2010 weddings!  I've told some of our clients and friends in the past that before I became a wedding photographer with Chris, I used to have plans for being a wedding coordinator and though those plans obviously evolved into wedding photography, I still really love the whole wedding planning process.

In light of the fact that we've been in full swing booking new weddings for next year, I wanted to share some of our favorite wedding planning tips and resources for brides (and grooms) who are going into the thick of wedding planning!

Here's our top five wedding planning tips!

1. Hire a wedding coordinator.   I've always told people that besides deciding to marry Chris, hiring a wedding coordinator was one of the best decisions I made for our wedding.  Seriously, if you don't have a coordinator already, we can't recommend it more highly!  We always give our brides references for wedding coordinators who we love, but make sure to ask your wedding venue if they have any recommendations, or check out vendor resource directories (one of our favorite resources for finding local vendors is Style Me Pretty).  Your coordinator can help you along through the entire process, but especially as it comes time to think through your wedding day timeline and deal with last minute logistics, your wedding coordinator is extremely valuable.  While you may not know how much time to allot for different things at the reception or think about where all the power outlets in the venue are, a good wedding coordinator will think through all these details and save you from some potential disasters!

 

2. Decide what your three top priorities for your wedding are and build the rest of your wedding budget around those three areas.  Whether it's your dress, your photographer, your flowers, or your venue, decide what areas of your wedding are most important and make sure that you prioritize the other areas of your budget to allow for getting what you really want in those areas.  A lot of wedding planning resources often suggest percentages to allocate for these different areas and while those are helpful starting points, we recommend deciding what's most important to you and then from there, determine your budget for other areas.  If having your dream venue and dress means taking up a bigger portion of your budget than you planned, you may just need to find ways to compromise on other areas.

3. Hire wedding vendors who you genuinely like.  We can all tell pretty quickly when we meet a new person if our personalities click and if they're someone we'll get along with.  Particularly when it comes to your wedding, you need to be aware of this and make sure you hire people who you really get along with. Your wedding vendors (particularly your wedding coordinator and photographer) will be a major part of your planning process and wedding day and there's no reason to work with people who aren't easy and fun to interact with.  There are so many people in the wedding industry and it's absolutely worth it to take the extra time (or pay a little extra money) to make sure you have a team of people working together who you really love.

4. Get inspired and make your day uniquely you..  There are so many fabulous resources available to help brides plan a wedding that's unique and beautiful.  Your wedding coordinator can be a huge help in dreaming and planning something that's uniquely you, but don't be afraid to look online and get some inspiration that you can use to make your own.  Some of our favorite wedding blogs and resources:
Style Me Pretty
Grace Ormonde Wedding Style
Wedding Chicks
Elizabeth Anne Designs
Matthew Robbins Design (not a planning resource, but his galleries, etc have some amazing ideas!)

5. Remember your wedding day is more than the sum of your wedding details.  As important as flowers and your venue and dress and cake are, don't lose sight of the bigger picture.  You're going to put hours and hours into planning your day (and if you're like many of us, you've already spent years dreaming about it) but it's possible (and probable) that something on your day may go wrong.  There might be rain or your flower girl may decide she won't walk down the aisle, but your attitude will determine everything.  On the flip side, even if all the circumstances of your day are perfect and you're stressed out, you still won't enjoy your day!  Remember - photographs only remind you of how you felt when they were taken, and even if all the circumstances aren't perfect (and they probably won't be) your day will be perfect because it's the start of your new life.  Don't lose perspective in the midst of all the little details and forget about what your big day is really about.

San Francisco Engagement Session: Chris and Stephanie

Stephanie and Chris were introduced to us by two of our favorite clients, Jesse and Christina  (whose wedding we'll be blogging very soon!!).  Just like Jesse and Christina, Stephanie and Chris are sweet as can be, and we had a blast with them when we met up for their engagement session.  We ended up shooting in Sutro Heights Park and had absolutely perfect weather!  These two are so photogenic and we got some many sweet pictures of them laughing together!

(PS. Yes, stuffed monkeys DO appear in some of these pictures and it's not just your imagination!  Long story, but if the client brings the monkeys to the shoot, we'll happily oblige! :)

These are only a couple from their session - to view more of our favorites, check out their slideshow!

Chris and Steph, thank you SO much for coming up to SF to meet up with us!  We had such a great time with both of you and can't wait to see you again for more pictures!! :)

Blogs that Challenge.

Last night, Chris and I were commenting on the crazy number of blogs that each of us follow (especially me, Katie!) and remarking that it's funny because many of those blogs are ones that we don't actually read for the most part!  But though we may skim the majority of them, when push comes to shove, there's only a handful that get our undivided attention when it comes time to read.

Chris and I have often said that a huge reason we've seen our business grow since it's inception in 2004 is because of the things we've read and the ideas we've exposed ourselves to.  Believe it or not, blogs are a big part of that and we really love that there's a few blogs that we can always count on to challenge us.  I wanted to share three of my favorite Blogs that Challenge.  I'll do a couple more in this series, but this post will have three of my favorite blogs that are specifically geared toward small businesses.

1. Seth Godin - he is hands down probably my favorite blogger on small business because his ideas are simple, yet extremely powerful.  If I could read only one blog and own books by only one author, it would probably be him!

2. Sean Low - The Business of Being Creative.  An incredibly well written blog that caters a little more towards the wedding industry, but is thought provoking for any small business owner.  This blog challenges me - my only complaint is that I wish he would post a little more often!

3. Think Splendid - This is a new find and a blog that I've only been following for a couple of months.  Liene Stevens who writes this blog is a consultant for other business owners, and her blog has a lot of interesting commentary on social media that I really enjoy. She's challenging and says things like they are. Though I haven't followed this blog for that long, I ALWAYS make time to read this one.

What are some of YOUR favorite Blogs that Challenge?