You would think that fall colors — the changing of the guard from green leaves to yellow— would be something one could come by in a town called Aspen, in the mountains of fair Colorado. After all, the town shares the name of our favored and most famous* autumn-hued tree. Sadly, it seems there’s some sort of rule that dictates you will not be able to find such colors when you’re hoping to use them as a backdrop for an engagement photo session. At least not very easily.

Luckily, the couple in question are among the loveliest you could ask for and worked with us to find the perfect setting, rally against the fading light (and quickly dropping temperatures of a mountain valley in late September), and come up with some photos that I love. Particularly this one.

I love the in between moments of photo shoots. Brides and grooms spend a lot of time posing for pictures from the time they get engaged through their wedding day. We work hard to make those poses comfortable, natural and beautiful. But there’s always something to be said for the moments that are off script. There’s a realness to them that can’t be directed.

We shared several more photos from Kevin and Ellery’s session over at A&D Photography. But as I was looking through my take again and thinking about engagement photography and weddings and the role we the photographers play I thought I would go ahead and share this one with you. So that’s that for now.

(*I have no statistics to back up this declaration. It just seems like it’s probably a true fact. How’s that for the scientific method?)