I’m starting a series of posts detailing some of my favorite landscape and portraiture photography shoots, and I’m beginning with my first portrait session I ever shot. It’s an exciting feeling having a really good friend get engaged, and it’s a completely different feeling when they ask you to shot their engagement photos. I was pretty nervous because at the time I was just getting my feet wet with photography and generally had no idea what I was doing (a feeling that continues to this day).

This first session taught me some pretty valuable lessons, but the most valuable would be not to underestimate the ability of fiendishly creative people to run with an idea. One of my best friends, Laine Dobson, is an accomplished watercolor painter and was tremendously helpful when planning this shoot. Our idea was to haul a loveseat that belonged to a coffeeshop that I frequent (and he managed at the time) up to Taylor Reservoir about 45 minutes away from Gunnison. Taylor Reservoir is flanked by gorgeous mountains, and is just a remarkable place to visit. The only problem was that it was November and Taylor Res. sits at over 10,000ft in elevation. Though it certainly was not warm that day, it was a pretty nice day in the Colorado mountains. And I’ve got to hand it to Laine and Tamara for being exceedingly patient and brave the elements to make these photos possible.

These photos were some of the first portraits I photographed and to this day remain some of my favorites. Please visit Laine Dobson’s website to view his incredible watercolor paintings.

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