Photo Element, Denver

Photo Element Studio is a photographer’s dream—the interior is a Rubik’s cube of different settings, colors, and backdrops, and the half-acre garden studio has rural, rustic charms such as a rushing creek and a tattered shed. For photographers Tait and Julie DeBaca, the studio is the setting for their family, newborn, and high-school-senior portrait sessions. Many of the photographs in the duo’s portfolio have saturated, contrasting colors, which help to accentuate the green trees and blue skies of an outdoor shoot or highlight the subjects’ faces and emotions of a black-and-white photo against a white backdrop. The photographers also let the sun's natural light impart a sense of warmth, but not like the one you get in your cheeks when someone catches you eating ice cream straight from the carton with your finger.