An afternoon with Liz and her son, Edgar. We went out for some ice cream and a soda (the soda was more popular than the ice cream!). We decided to face the high winds of a Colorado spring and we went to Red Rocks for some outdoor shots. We were able to find some great places with beautiful light because of all the atmospheric particles etc. No light modifiers or flash were used. Seeing the natural connection between a mother and son is a beautiful thing.

Karlene and Chris chose the Red Lion Restaurant in Boulder, Colorado for their wedding venue. It was a lovely afternoon and evening in that beautiful location with the water rushing by and gentle clouds easing through the sky. There was a mishap with one of the five cakes as it collapsed during serving, but I have no doubt that it was rather tasty. My first inclination was to help save the cake from tumbling onto the floor, but once I saw a few extra hands helping out I went back to capturing the moment. Instead of going with the grooms last name or a combination of both last names, they opted for a completely new last name – Śūnyatā – loosely translated into English as ‘emptiness’.

Allow me to save you the trouble of looking it up /wikipedia/: Sunya comes from the root svi, meaning swollen, plus -ta -ness, therefore hollow ( – ness). A common alternative term is “voidness”.

In Buddhism, emptiness is a characteristic of phenomena, arising from the Buddha’s observation that nothing possesses an essential, enduring identity (see anattā). In the Buddha’s spiritual teachings, the realization of the emptiness of phenomena (Pāli: suññatānupassanā) is an aspect of the cultivation of insight (vipassanā-bhāvanā) that leads to wisdom and inner peace. The importance of this insight is especially emphasized in Mahāyāna Buddhism, and is explicated in the tathāgatagarbha sutras.

I photographed this wedding with another photographer, Laurissa Eifler, we were both blessed to be in the presence of a couple as in love as these two are…

Two lovely ladies enjoying their wedding in a beautiful retreat near Fairplay, Colorado

My future photography aspirations include the chance to visit Ethiopia as a destination wedding photographer.