March 2018: Contrast at Share Six | Fort Collins, Colorado Lifestyle and Fine Art Photographer

The March blog circle theme at Share Six is CONTRAST. I started shooting SLRs, processing my black and white film, and spending countless hours (and – later – all-nighters) printing my images in darkrooms nearly 30 years ago. My love for contrasty images is very closely aligned to those days, but I have brought that love to color digital images as well, albeit to a lesser extent. I generally process my fine art images with the full range of tones, from pure black to pure white. I use histograms to help guide this aspect of editing, but there’s always an element of artistic license, as well. I am a bit of a purist in my photography work, and never shoot or process with HDR, and I rarely blow any value out of an image, other than the occasional bright sky. I think balancing the tonal values and artistic vision associated with contrast in an image is as delicate as any balance – and certainly as worthwhile. I was very tempted to pull images from my all-time favorites for this post, but decided to stick with a goal of shooting new ones, in the location, time, and light available for creating this blog post.

As I write this post, I am preparing for one of the busiest and most challenging weeks of sessions I have ever had, so I had to *make* time to shoot. We’ve had a few recent days that smiled upon us with the promise of Spring to come, and my family took advantage of one such day to explore a new-to-us hiking area. The images from this post are from an hour there, finishing about an hour before sunset. Shooting when I did presented me with harsh light that I often struggle with, but generally love for its contrast and dramatic conversions to black and white images.

As always, I hope you will follow my blog, as well as follow me on Facebook and Instagram to see more of the work I share. I also hope you will take the take the time to link around the full blog circle of talent. You’ll find the next link and details about how to submit your own images to be featured at the bottom of this post.

I sincerely appreciate you dropping by to check out my take on CONTRAST. Next in the blog circle is the highly-talented It’s Still Life Photography! Please link over and see the blog post Elizabeth has generated for our theme. For a chance to be featured at Share Six, please submit your CONTRAST images to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages (tag #sharesix_contrast) by April 5th.

 

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January 2018: Winter Light at Share Six | Fort Collins, Colorado Lifestyle and Fine Art Photographer

The January blog circle theme at Share Six is WINTER LIGHT. As you may recall, I took a spontaneous road trip to Wyoming and Northwestern Colorado over Thanksgiving, from which my last Share Six post was derived, for WONDERLAND. Thus, it may come as no surprise that I was on yet another spontaneous road trip and shooting for the current theme when blogs went live on the 6th – except mine. I am tardy, but I hope you won’t mind, once you see this month’s beauty below. As always, I hope you’ll take the time to link around the full blog circle (next link at the bottom), and then submit to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages for a chance to be featured.

Christmas came and went, but I still had 11 days to figure out before my children returned to school. So what’s a girl to do but take a spontaneous road trip – leaving less than 24 hours after deciding to do it? This one took me to New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and the Western Slope of Colorado. I re-visited a number of beloved places and went to lots of new ones, too. I could have easily posted a hundred images for this blog post, but I just rolled a dice to decide which ones to use – almost! Below, you’ll see beautiful, soft, warm winter light play on adobe structures in Ranchos de Taos and Santa Fe, as well as golden hour shots in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. I love the warmth of the light – especially on adobe walls and red rocks, as well as winter’s long, deep shadows. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram to track my adventures in something a bit closer to real time!

Moon Over the San Francisco de Asis Mission Church, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Arches National Park, Utah

Arches National Park, Utah

Turret Arch, Arches National Park, Utah

Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

I sincerely appreciate you dropping by to check out my take on WINTER LIGHT. Next in the blog circle is the unparalleled Ceri Herd Photography! Please link over and see the post Ceri has generated for our theme. For a chance to be featured at Share Six, please submit your WINTER LIGHT images to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages (tag #sharesix_winterlight) by February 5th.

 

Elements Dance Center Portraits – Fort Collins, Colorado Dance Photographer

It was an honor and a joy to shoot Elements Dance Center’s individual and group portraits this weekend. I am still working my way through images, but wanted to go ahead and share some. If you need dance, sports, school, head shots, wedding, high school senior, family, maternity, or most any other kind of photography – including on-location, in my studio, in natural light, or with artificial light, I can help you out. Please contact me with your needs and I will be happy to meet for coffee or work up terms or a quote for the work. As always, thank you for your interest in Roots and Twigs Photography!

The Nutcracker by Contemporary Dance Academy, 2017 – Fort Collins Fine Art and Dance Photographer

I had the honor and pleasure of photographing Contemporary Dance Academy’s performance and warm-up classes for their ballet performance of Clara and The Nutcracker, both at The Lincoln Center, here in Fort Collins, Colorado, in December 2017. It will take a while to go through the performance photos, but I wanted to share two early favorites, with many more to come!

Roots and Twigs Photography’s Birthday Sale!

 

Extended Family at Sunrise

Sisters

Extended Family at Sunrise

Motherhood

Aunt and Niece

Many of you know I have a whole other professional career, which I am very proud of, and passionate about. However, my serious work in – and love affair with – photography pre-dates that career, and working as a professional photographer was my dream for decades. It wasn’t until I had children and chose to stay at home with them during their ongoing early years that I had to cut way back in my other career, and was able to carve out smaller chunks of time for photography projects. Four years ago today, I officially launched Roots and Twigs Photography. Long before my first “birthday”, I was booked solid with weddings, events, and family sessions, week after week. Soon after, I moved across the country and had to start all over again, which is no joke. Re-building has been harder and slower than I ever imagined, but momentum is building. Just this week, in a twenty-four hour period, I booked a local wedding and finalized plans to be flown back to shoot three big sessions back in my previous market. I am looking forward to busier times ahead!

As an incentive to bring more new clients in, I am offering 50% off all print packages for every session booked through the end of November. Session must take place by the end of 2017 to take advantage of this offer.

Professional Print Packages, Available only at time of booking

Aspen Print Package: $100  $50 >>   Includes (1) 11×14, (3) 8×10, and (25) 4×6 or 5×7 Prints;
Spruce Print Package: $75 $37.50  >>   Includes (2) 8×10 and (15) 4×6 or 5×7 Prints;
Pine Print Package: $50 $25  >>   Includes (1) 8×10 and (5) 4×6 or 5×7 Prints

Many of you will want photos for holiday cards, or just some updated family shots. I also want to make you aware that I am available to shoot throughout the Thanksgiving holidays, so if you have extended family gathering, there’s no better time to capture some memories of your time together! I hope to hear from you soon!

Best,
Tori

November 2017: Harvest at Share Six | Fort Collins, Colorado Lifestyle and Fine Art Photographer

The November blog circle theme at Share Six is HARVEST. I hope you’ll take the time to link around the full blog circle (next link at the bottom), and then submit to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages for a chance to be featured.

I have lived almost all of my adult life in cities and when I have gardened, it has been in small raised beds or  mixed in with flower beds. However, as I tell people, I grew up “gardening by the acre.” It’s in my blood, but I am far from a legitimate farmer these days. Still, I want to ensure that my children know where food comes from and that they have a certain measure of self-sufficiency when it comes to growing and preserving their own food. The images I am including here include home-grown carrots, lettuce, and rhubarb. There’s also an image I shot at my childhood home, as my daughter learned how to crack open walnuts from the walnut trees there on the property with a hammer, just as I did as a child. And I’m not sure I could get away without a couple of pumpkin harvest shots! I haven’t grown pumpkins as an adult, but we grew them a lot when I was a kid, especially “Tennessee cooking pumpkins” which are great for pies, but less brilliant orange for jack-o-lanterns. Of course, we carved them up, too, and also toasted the seeds for snacking.

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I sincerely appreciate you dropping by to check out my take on HARVEST. Next in the blog circle is It’s Still Life Photography by Elizabeth Willson! Please link over and see the post Elizabeth has generated for our theme. For a chance to be featured at Share Six, please submit your HARVEST images to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages (tag #sharesix_harvest) by December 5th.

 

Teen Twins – Fort Collins and Boulder Family Photographer

Family with Dogs Portraits! – Fort Collins and Boulder Family Photographer

I looooove working with families with dogs! They inject so many more opportunities for candid moments than many sessions offer. Plus, I am just a dog person. =) We got such beautiful light for this session, another golden hour one. Thank you so much for a fun and beautiful session, guys!

Family Portraits – Fort Collins and Boulder Family Photographer

I just realized that, while I shared photos from several of my last sessions, I never blogged them, so watch me go add them! I met this fun and easy-going family during the golden hour for a park session. I love it when the parents are happy to let the kids be themselves and express their true personalities in photos. The son, especially, did this in front of my lens. Thank you so much, for such a great time, guys!

July 2017: Artificial Light at Share Six | Fort Collins, Colorado Lifestyle and Fine Art Photographer

The July blog circle theme at Share Six is ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. I hope you’ll take the time to link around the full blog circle (next link at the bottom), and then submit to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages for a chance to be featured.

Just one year ago, as an almost-exclusively natural light photographer, I was quite intimidated by studio lighting. For years prior to that, I claimed (and believed) I hated flash photography. Well, I’ve come a long way, baby. Learning to control and position off-camera flash have been wonderful skills to develop, and they have made me a much better and more versatile photographer. I now regularly use off-camera flash in my photography studio, but also outside quite a bit, to supplement or balance natural light.

For this post, I considered blogging Independence Day fireworks, but quickly decided to focus on getting some simple, but nice studio shots of my son. He is eight years old with a silly streak a mile wide and zero attention span when his sister is engaging him, as was the case when I snapped these, all within the few minutes he granted me. I took some similar ones of my daughter a couple of months ago while he was at school, so I am especially glad to finally create a set of him. He seems to be in some in-between stage, but I suppose children always are? I am so very happy to have this record of him, with his mouth full of awkward adult teeth, too-long summer hair, Peanuts bandage, and sillies. When he simply couldn’t keep it together anymore, he sneaked off with his sister and they returned in various ridiculous costumes and fits of laughter. Those made for some good images to ward off high school girlfriends and to share at his wedding, should I feel a bit naughty!

 

 

I sincerely appreciate you dropping by to check out my take on ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. Next in the blog circle is the wonderfully talented KG Ledbetter Photography! Please link over and see the post Kathy  has generated for the theme. For a chance to be featured at Share Six, please submit your ARTIFICIAL LIGHT images to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages (tag #sharesix and #sharesix_artificiallight) by August 5th.

Canyon Concert Ballet Showcase Studio Portraits, Fort Collins Dance Photographer

June 2017: Dreamy at Share Six | Fort Collins, Colorado Lifestyle and Fine Art Photographer

The June blog circle theme at Share Six is DREAMY / DREAMS. I hope you’ll take the time to link around the full blog circle (next link at the bottom), and then submit to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages for a chance to be featured.

Macro photography feeds my soul. I passionately love looking at the world – particularly the natural world – from new and different perspectives. Although it may sound odd to some, macro photography reminds me of my snorkeling experiences, in that it leads me to observe things I simply don’t see everyday. I refer to my macro botanical work as “buds and bugs” as I also love witnessing life at the scale of insects when shooting macro.

For this themed post, I took a little time to shoot in my gardens, something I hadn’t done in recent months. As an aside, you know how when you go biking or running, you often become aware of hills you hadn’t noticed before? The same thing happens when shooting macro in nature and breezes. Those tiny breezes magnify so much. I say this to say the breezes – nay – the WIND – in recent days made several of the subjects I wanted to include unusable, for lack of focus as the plants swayed about! In any event, I love the abstract qualities and the delicious, dreamy bokeh in these images, and hope you enjoy them, too!

I sincerely appreciate you dropping by to check out my take on DREAMY / DREAMS. Next in the blog circle is the highly talented Ceri Herd Photography! Please link over and see the post Ceri  has generated for the theme. For a chance to be featured at Share Six, please submit your DREAMY OR DREAMS images to the Share Six Facebook and/or Instagram pages (tag #sharesix and #sharesix_dreamy or #sharesix_dreams) by July 5th.

Canyon Concert Ballet Promotional Studio Portraits, Fort Collins Dance Photographer

The Queen of Hearts came by Roots and Twigs Photography’s Studio for some pretty fierce promotional shots for Canyon Concert Ballet’s April production of Alice in Wonderland at The Lincoln Center, here in Fort Collins. Look for these photos in various print and online ads, promoting the show!