Carrington Family at Cottonwood Creek Park

Cottonwood Creek is a great location for morning sessions! Let me just say, I absolutely love this location! It's magical, it's easy to access and there's not a lot of hiking. It's pretty perfect for morning sessions with small children! And, did I mentioned that there is a HUGE and AWESOME playground right around the corner from where we shoot? #parentingwin.

In addition to waxing poetical about the location, I am also in love with this family who came down from Denver VERY early on a summer Saturday to shoot with me in Colorado Springs, even though I know they could have found 1001 photographers in Denver. I am always honored when people choose me as their photographer, go to great lengths to get to me and I am able to create images and a full experience that they love!

Without further ado, let me walk you thru the session! (Like me, amy (mom) really like black and white images...so that's over half the gallery!)

We started out right by the road in the super little spot I found near the back of the park. The light streams thru the trees and creates a magical kind of back lit situation. The kids were still warming up to me at this point, but we got some adorable smiles out of all of them!

After we shot near the road for a bit, we walked about 100 feet down to a cool bridge, wooded area. I find that changing locations slightly with small children serves one main purpose with lots of extra benefits: everyone likes variety in their portraits! Extra benefits include the fact that a change of scenery is good for everyone and (mostly) it takes the pressure off the kids and lets them run around, find some sticks, hold my hand and chat with me as we walk.  After we walked down, Swift (the son) needed some Mommy loving and wasn't having my standing poses. We quickly adjusted, let Mom hold him and got this gem below!

One of the things I love about what I do is the need to quickly improvise and change. While I always have a shot plan in my mind for before a family portrait session, things don't always go as planned. Luckily for my clients (and you...if you want to become one), I have been doing this so long that I have no less than 75 poses swimming around in my head at any time and tweaking poses to perfection in about 10 seconds is what I do!

As a professional photographer here in Colorado Springs, I always deliver the absolute best in artwork and imagery to my clients.  After we have captured the perfect family portrait shots, we move into Mom and Dad groupings with the kids. Sometimes we do it individually and sometimes we do the kids all together, but these images are important - especially for Moms who are usually behind the (cell phone) camera. As a Mom myself, I truly treasure the images I have with my kids, as they are a bit less plentiful than those my hubby has. And, God forbid something ever happened to me, (or just as they get older) I honestly believe that my children would/will treasure those images as well.

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And finally we made it over to the fun bridge - lots of bikers passed by as we were shooting, ooooohhhhing and ahhhhhhing at this adorable family! After we got a few more kid smiles, courtesy of some gummy bears I found in my camera bag, I put everyone on the bridge, got them posed and then told them to tickle their kids! Mom and Dad love this image because it summarizes their family relationship. They are an absolute blast and then all love to laugh together. The bottom image is the kind of interactive shot that I love delivering to my clients!

I hope you enjoyed checking out this session of the Carrington family portraits, on location at Cottonwood Creek park. If you are looking for the best family photographer in Colorado Springs, I hope that you'll reach out and schedule your pre-session consultation! I typically book 1-2 months in advance, just for planning sake :)
- Lindsey