Squaw Pass, Evergreen Colorado | Colorado Family Photographer

Part of creating a luxury experience for my clients is knowing and recommending the best locations to them for their photoshoots. Choosing a location for your portrait session here in Colorado can get complicated. There are hundreds of beautiful spots all with their own rules, perks, and often fees for use. Luckily I navigate this for my clients. Your session fee includes not only your hair and makeup so you can look amazing, but also travel fees and location permit fees for any location listed on my blog. When we sit down for your consultation you can tell me what you envisioned for your session, and I can give you a few suggested locations that match your vision. After that I’ll take care of the rest. Or if you see a location here that you love, mention it when you contact me! Here is another mountain location on my favorites list!

Best time of year for this location: 

This mountain location Is beautiful all year round, not only do you have beautiful mountains any time of year but also the evergreen and aspen trees are beautiful even after the leaves drop. In this post I show images of both my favorite trailhead along Squaw pass and also some spots higher up along the road that are just spots you can pull off on the side of the road. While the spots higher up are not going to change much for views in summer vs. winter the roads may be icy and harder to navigate in the winter. For the open space, it features beautiful yellow flowers covering the field around June and gorgeous changing aspens in the fall.

Best time of day for this location: 

This location would be beautiful for sunrise or sunset sessions however since my sessions come with hair and makeup I only shoot here in the evening to allow time for hair and makeup to be done.

Drive time: 

This location is just under an hour drive from the Denver metro area.

Parking: 

The main open space where I typically start my sessions up here has a large dirt parking lot. The last few images shown are taken further up the road where there are only small areas to pull off the road.

Family friendliness:

The open space is a great spot for family sessions with many beautiful spots close to the parking lot and no dangerous areas. There isn’t a restroom at this location, however. I would not recommend the spots used in the last few images for small children since they are close to cliffs and right next to the busy road.

I would love to set up a session for you here or at any of the many beautiful Colorado locations that I offer my clients. To get more information on a session please click the link below and fill out my contact form.

Jennifer Tavera is a Luxury family, maternity and newborn photographer in Denver Colorado who specializes in creating an experience that will make mom feel confortable, papered and beautiful so she will be excited to turn her portraits into art for her home. Sessions are available outdoors all over the Denver and Boulder area and studio sessions in the studio space in Arvada. Ready to start planning your dream session? Click below to schedule a call.

Jennifer

Wall art sizing guide | Denver Family Photographer

When I started working at the commercial portrait studio 15 years ago I sold prints and wall “enlargements”. In the one week of training, we received before starting as a photographer and “portrait artist” not one bit was about how to help our clients choose the best size of art for their home. Most of our clients came in, bought 8x10 prints, and likely went home and realized they were way too small for their space. After 9 years as a business owner, I started offering my clients wall art and studying interior design. While I still have so much to learn one thing I have learned is that there are rules to choosing the proper size wall art piece, especially if it is going to hang above a piece of furniture. So today I am sharing those “secrets” with all of you.

You may be reading this because you are a current client of mine, or looking to hire a photographer, or maybe you stumbled across this trying to decide what size painting to hang above your couch. Either way, whether you come to have your portrait taken in my Arvada photography studio or a beautiful outdoor location in the Colorado mountains and allow me to design your art for you or you just need to find the right size for the landscape print you are ordering the rules are the same.

The Basics

If you are planning on hanging your portrait or gallery wall centered above a piece of furniture like a table, bed, or couch you will want the image to be 50-75% of the size of the piece of furniture. The same rule applies if you are using a gallery wall, you will want to space the images 1-4 inches apart and have the full set be no more than 75% as wide as the furniture below it.

There are two different rules for how high to hang your images. The rule for hanging above furniture is 6-12” inches above the furniture piece however the general rule is at eye level. Here is how I handle these two sometimes contradicting rules:

For a low piece of furniture that is well below eye level, hang the images at eye level. In the image above it appears that the table is fairly low so when I created this sample I “hung” the images at what I believed to be approximately eye level. You could put something decorative on top of the table (maybe candle sets on either side?) to give the table some height and then hang the art 6 inches above the top of the decorations if you wanted to try and follow both rules.

For higher furniture pieces, go with the 6 images above to hang as close to every level as possible.

And in the case you have small children who may touch your art, either choose a durable option such as canvas or hang just out of reach of your little one!

Choosing the proper size for above a bed

This is a quick “cheat sheet” for creating art galleries above your bed based on the size of the bed.

The program I use to show my clients their art, which is also what I use to create these sample galleries, shows me the total width of the full gallery set so that I can make sure I create the correct size for your home. So having a cheat sheet to check those numbers against is really helpful to make sure that when it arrives it will fit perfectly like this set that I created for a client last fall.

Sizing “cheat sheet”

If you are hanging your art above the headboard choose this size for the best fit:

Twin bed- 22-30” inch art

Full bed - 30-40” art

Queen bed - 34-45” art

King bed - 42-56” art

Crib (above the long side) - 30-40”

Hopefully this gives you a start in choosing the correct size. I would love to design portrait art that fits perfectly into your space. When I plan your session with you and create your art I take into account the colors and design style of your space as well to make sure your art looks at home in your space! Ready to get started? Click below to schedule a call and get all of the information about your session!

Jennifer Tavera is a Luxury family, maternity, and newborn photographer in Denver Colorado who specializes in creating an experience that will make mom feel comfortable, papered, and beautiful so she will be excited to turn her portraits into art for her home. Sessions are available outdoors all over the Denver and Boulder area and studio sessions in the studio space in Arvada. Ready to start planning your dream session? Click below to schedule a call.

Jennifer

Clear Creek History Park, Golden CO {Denver Photoshoot Locations}

Part of the planning process for your photo session is of course picking the perfect location. There are so many amazing locations in the Denver and Boulder areas that it can be hard to choose which is best and I find myself often emailing or texting images back and forth to clients. So in an effort to make my job and your choice easier I am starting a series of blogs featuring all of my favorite locations with a variety of images and details on each location. I hope this will give you as my clients a better look at what a session at each of these locations looks like and help you choose the one that is right for your session! So here is the first of many locations I love for sessions!

I chose this location as my first to feature because it has so many different looks within a short walk from each other. Believe it or not all of the spots shown below are within a 5-minute walk from one another.

Best time of year for this location:

Year-round, with the great old buildings and beautiful spots along the river this location has some great spot even in the winter when the trees are dead.

Best time of day for this location:

Honestly, the answer to this for almost all of my locations is sunset, if you would like the mountains behind you or the shot with the white schoolhouse you are going to want a sunset session however this location does have some spots where shade can be found for morning sessions.

Parking:

This location free parking for the park and additional parking on the river side at the library. When we plan your session I will tell you which side to meet me on based on where I plan to start your session.

Other info for this location:

The biggest conflict for this location is local festivals. Make sure to check Golden’s festival schedule to see if anything is scheduled near the park. I do not book this location during the weekend of Buffalo Bill Days or other large festivals in the area. Check the festival schedule here: https://www.visitgolden.com/events/festivals-of-golden/

Get more information on a session at this location:

My name is Jennifer Tavera, owner, photographer and gallery designer for Truth Photography LLC. I have created beautiful custom portraiture for my clients here in the Denver and Boulder Colorado areas for the past 12 years! I specialize in growing families including children, maternity, and newborn. I love what I do and I cannot wait to share my passion with all of you.

As a busy mom myself, I understand that you need a photographer who will go the extra mile to help you with every aspect of creating cherished imagery of your family.

I would love to become YOUR family photographer and can't wait for us to get to know each other better!