Campfire Couples Session in Twin Lakes Colorado

I love marriage. As much as weddings are fun and beautiful and full of so much emotion, I love what comes after even more because it is so real. It's honest. Weird habits, unintelligible inside jokes, farting at inconvenient times included (this is the real stuff, you guys). And loving each other in and through all of it. Photographing couples post-wedding is my favorite because they're so much more relaxed and comfortable with each other. After all the hype, the planning, the expectations & beautiful gowns & decor, you're left with just your human self, tied to another human self in all of their realness. There's a familiarity there, you fall into each other in the ways you're used to, and I love photographing that.

Jolee & Austin are two close friends of ours and they came to visit us a few weeks ago. We went to Twin Lakes, Colorado at the base of Mt. Elbert and drank good beer, made a fire, and roasted hot dogs as the sun went down. We photographed their wedding back in October (see their story here!) and got to capture a more natural and candid side of them this time around. These photos seem even more appropriate now than any of us realized at the time, because after Jolee & Austin went back home to Texas, they got an itch and quickly made plans to move up here. They'll officially be here next week. I'm so stoked.