Loveland Pass Elopement at Sunrise

This Sunrise Loveland Pass Elopement called for an early wake up call but it gave us the best lighting and the best mountain views all to ourselves. I took off around 2AM from Fort Collins, Colorado to make it up to Loveland Pass which is near Breckenridge, Colorado. When I arrived I was in total darkness with a little bit of pre-sunrise glow illuminating the mountains and a cute curious fox that watched me roll up. This location for elopements is a familiar one for me as I’ve hiked it and explored it many times so I didn’t need to do too much scouting. I waited for soon to be newly weds to show up and we hiked out to the pass to wait for the sun to wake up. This is one of my favorite places to photograph elopements especially in the summer when the grass is still green and the flowers are yellow. We had the whole mountain to explore and take sunrise elopement photos! For the curious photographers wondering about shooting film on elopement days, the below elopement photographs were on taken on a Leica M6 on Kodak Portra 400 35mm Film. If you’re not familiar with the Leica M6 it’s a range finder camera that’s known for street photography but I really enjoy using it for elopements as it forces you to slow down, in a good way.

After we did sunrise photos we went over to Pass Lake for an intimate ceremony with just a few friends and family members. There’s something truly special about gathering your close people and sharing your wedding vows. There’s a certain level of emotion that just doesn’t always happen in much larger weddings. I always feel so honored to get to capture these moments with the goal of letting you see and feel how the day was. After the ceremony we went down to Arapahoe Basin and road the ski lift up to Black Mountain Lodge which is a beautiful wedding venue tucked way up in the mountains. The newly weds and guests enjoyed an incredible lunch serviced by the staff at Black Mountain Lodge. There were mimosas, strawberry shortcake and all the coffee one could drink.

The below images are a mixx of 35mm Film that was an add on and then my regular digital photography which is the standard for all weddings and elopements.