Woke up at 4am to catch a plane to Vegas and it was totally worth it because I got to make these up-and-coming photographer's day.

My camera could not get enough of these people!

​Heaven for photogs!

I just got my second photo published in the Colorado Springs Business Journal (my first was in the Denver Post). When I was younger I thought that just having my name in the local paper for high school soccer was a great thrill, so even imagining that one day, one of my images would be included in a massive Denver publication would have been the epitome of being a photographer. Guess what. It's not. Don't get me wrong, I am very proud that my images have been used by reputable news sources to help tell their stories, but it is hardly where I want to be as a photographer. While I do enjoy covering events, especially if they're socially important, I get far more fulfillment from the one-on-one intimacy of portrait photography. To me, and surely other portrait photographers, there is nothing like capturing a fleeting moment from another human being at 125th of a second. Think about it, in less time than it takes to blink, you can forever freeze (relatively speaking) another human's mood and emotion. Granted, there are many other elements that contribute to the interpretation of your image, such as lighting, wardrobe, background, etc., but when you boil it down, the only thing that matters is the human connection at that moment, and that can be said for just about anything in life.