Farewell Colorado | Styled Shoot with Emily Gould

July 18, 2017

Farewell, Colorado

July is my last month in Colorado, so all of those little things that have creeped on to my photography bucket list suddenly carry a giant red URGENT label with them. For those who may have missed the announcement, I’m moving to Charlotte, North Carolina on August first. To all my dear friends and family in North Carolina, it really is exciting and wonderful news. But for all of my family and friends here in Colorado, it’s abrupt news to say the least. So when Emily Gould came to me with ideas for a new photoshoot, I was fully on board. If you missed the last styled shoot with Emily Gould, you can find that here!

Our Photo-trip

Emily brought her friend Tyler to help assist us and even model in a few shots for us, so the two of them picked me up and we went off toward Mueller State Park. The first part of our shoot there was in a woodsy and bouldery overlook with evergreen trees, mountains, and more. It was perfect for our mountain picnic setup! At the end of that location/shoot, she wore a “boss babe” tee I needed modeled for The Artistic Soul.

And then we got in trouble

Long story short, we parked in the grass, off the pavement by a few feet. After setting up the shot I had planned with the van in the grass, the patrol came and informed us we’d be fined $50 for the violation. We got our shots in thank goodness! But lesson learned, don’t park in the grass, not even for a minute. The next week Emily’s van was totaled in a car part failure, and she was glad to have the following shots to commemorate it:

Finally, Paradise Cove

Our last stop was at the popular partying and cliff-diving spot in Guffey, Colorado at a place coined “Paradise Cove”. We hiked in with all my gear, crossing boulders, streams, and walking along logs to get to the location. It was a short but difficult hike nonetheless. Of course, I was crawling down the rocks to get to the water, my camera back swinging on my hip testing my balance.

Despite the horde of people blasting music and jumping in the water, we set up our equipment in an open spot and the all of the people cleared the water to watch us shoot. They pulled out their phones to take photos and videos of our shoot, I guess because we had equipment and a purpose. I was glad they cleared the water and none of us seemed to mind the audience. Halfway through our shoot, someone named Shay came up and asked if she could join. We said yes, and one of my favorite shots ever came into existence. We exchanged information and went on our way.