About Colorful Colorado Collective
Colorful Colorado Collective is a community that encourages all photographers (Amateur, Professional and anywhere in between) to share their perspective of our beautiful state through their own lens. We also showcase the best photos on our Feature Pages on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Our main goal is to promote photographers/artists, their work and to help people connect with likeminded individuals.
We look forward to seeing the beauty of Colorful Colorado through your lens!
Please consider giving us a follow on our social media channels.
Thanks a ton! 💙🤍❤️💛
Candayce Abney
Salida, Colorado, USA
Candayce Abney is a Landscape Photographer based in Salida, Colorado. She specializes in Astrophotography, Landscape and Wildlife Photography. She absolutely LOVES photography! She finds it very enjoyable and quite addicting. Photography is not her hobby, It’s her passion!
Candayce was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. She moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2007. She relocated to Salida, Colorado in August 2021. She has much love and respect for this beautiful state. She enjoys hiking, camping, fishing, traveling, seeing beautiful things, and of course taking photos to share with her family, friends and followers. Colorado is her playground!
Candayce is extremely active in the photography community on Facebook as she is a moderator and admin for several groups. It is very important to her to promote other photographers/artists, their work and to help people connect with likeminded individuals. Which is why she decided to create her own community/feature page called, Colorful Colorado Collective, founded on October 30, 2020. She organizes this group with many other talented local photographers and she’s also proud to call them her friends.
Lars Leber
Salida, Colorado, USA
Lars Leber was born and raised in Wuppertal, Germany. Since moving to Colorado, he has spent a lot of his time in the outdoors to pursue hiking, backpacking, and fishing. Lars is extremely passionate about photography and always comes up with new exciting landscape photographs to share with his followers.
Lars’ main goal simply is to “take interesting photos”. He is mostly known for his landscapes but also takes portraits, does commercial photography, and offers workshops/lessons. He has won the Gazette’s “Best of the Springs” Fine Art Photography Award in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
In August 2021, Lars moved from Colorado Springs to Salida. He is enjoying finding new photo and fishing spots in the area.
Jay Briggs
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Jay Briggs is a wedding filmmaker and photographer with a passion for all things nature and landscape photography. He was born in Texas, moved around a bit and landed in Colorado with his family in 1998. He always says he, “shoots anything and everything with a camera”. He has been hired on shoots from the east coast all the way west to Hawaii and down to Mexico. From filming High Octane races in Mexico to filming the most intimate weddings in Colorado and beyond. Filming and photographing anything he can with a vision to create and capture the beauty and awesomeness of the moment.
Jay thoroughly enjoys capturing nature, weddings, family portraits, and everything on the spectrum! He has been doing photography and videography for almost a decade now and is loving every minute of it. The reason he does it, simple, to make people happy. He thrives in creating special moments that happen on camera. You will find him behind the lens of his camera most days!
Daniel Forster
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Daniel Forster is a Fine Art Photographer based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He took the long road to finding his home in Colorado. He grew up in California and Oregon. Then he raised a family in Arizona and Texas, and finally making his home in Colorado. In grade school, he spent many afternoons exploring the old growth redwood forests and creeks in California. In high school, you could find him in the forests, beaches or mountains of Oregon. He has always had a drive and passion to explore and experience the natural world around us.
Daniel also has a passion to create. That passion has led him down many creative journeys. A few years ago, he picked up a digital camera and hasn’t looked back. The merging his passion to create and exploring nature has become a perfect outlet for creating and sharing his passion with others.
Much of Daniel’s life has been spent supporting his family by working in the corporate world. He exited corporate America in 2020 and has now been able to commit more time to learning about photography and exploring this beautiful state we get to call home. Since that time, his work has been published in Landscape Photography Magazine and has won multiple awards.
Zach Connor
Aurora, Colorado, USA
Born and raised in Colorado, Zach Connor cannot imagine himself living anywhere else. He grew up in Greenwood Village, Colorado in a family of 6. His parents, and 3 sisters. Growing up in Colorado helped him appreciate the beauty and ruggedness of the outdoors and this is one of the inspirations for him pursuing photography.
One of Zach’s main goals as a photographer is to show you something you have never seen before. Even if it is a familiar place, he wants to photograph it in a unique way. This coincides with the photography motto he uses with his business: “Photograph the world to help open the eyes of those who are blind to it, and enrich the minds of those who see it differently than you.” This is what he lives and photographs by.
After Zach served time in the military as a medic, he needed something to maintain an active lifestyle, but still inspire others, inspire himself, and continue his passion for the outdoors. Photography fit the bill. He has been shooting all around the world for over 12 years and has been awarded multiple national and international awards for his work.
Jae Jarratt
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Jae Jarratt is a professional landscape photographer currently based out of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. Throughout his life, he has always felt most at home being in the mountains: from growing up in Colorado, to living in the Pacific Northwest for several years, to traveling frequently to Alaska where he has family ties. Spending lots of time exploring these vastly different landscapes has given him a profound love for the outdoors.
Jae made a decision in April of 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 lock-down, that he was going to be a professional photographer. He always had an interest in photography and decided to set his sights on doing something that made him happy. From that point on, he has relentlessly worked on manifesting his dream into reality. He is now blazing his own path into the Colorado photography community. He has partnered with Garden of the Gods Park and teaches basic photography workshops at the park twice a month. His work is making its way into several galleries throughout the state of Colorado. He is also regularly featured on various news and media outlets.
Jae is a huge advocate for being active and giving back to the photography community. He volunteers his time moderating and presenting in local photography panels. He is a moderator for the Colorful Colorado Collective. He has also teamed up with Our Community News (OCN) to provide content to all of their various web platforms. His goal is to enrich the photography community by inspiring people in the same way that so many others have inspired him.
Jonathan Nicholas
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Jonathan Nicholas is a landscape, travel and portrait photographer currently residing in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Originally from the East Coast, he moved the Colorado in early 2019. He began photography in the world of film, before the shift to digital in the early 2000s.
Jonathan started Crescent Photography in 2005 and hasn’t looked back since. Having done more commercial portrait work with magazines and clothing companies in Florida and Southern California prior to living in Colorado, he now spends the majority of his time doing landscape photography work when he is in the US.
While Jonathan spends most of his time shooting landscapes and teaching workshops in Colorado, you can also find him traveling to all corners of the world, doing photo and video work for companies, tourism boards and private buyers.
Benjamin Burke
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Benjamin is a landscape photographer and videographer who finds therapy in capturing special moments through the lens. Originally from Wisconsin, he found love and passion in the mountains of Colorado. While nature is his main focus, Benjamin has grown to love capturing engagements, maternity shoots as well as wedding ceremonies!
Benjamin loves the peace and mindfulness when he’s capturing photos or videos. When he’s not behind a lens, Benjamin is skateboarding, snowboarding, spending quality time with friends and family, motorcycle riding or reading. He also finds peace in camping, hiking, and adventuring new places. If you see Benjamin on the slopes or in the mountains, ask for a photo! You won’t be disappointed!
Lacy Elam
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Lacy is a travel, landscape, and portrait photographer based in Colorado Springs. Her mission is to inspire people to explore the earth and experience the rawness of nature, while protecting wild places. Lacy’s photography journey began 17 years ago in Virginia, where she worked as the videographer for her mom’s wedding photography business. She worked as an in-house copywriter, social media marketer, designer and photographer before becoming a full-time photographer in 2019.
Exploring became her life in 2013 when she moved to Europe and rediscovered a passion for the unknown. Her adventures evolved into a love for storytelling and staying outside her comfort zone. She returned to the United States in 2015 and moved to Colorado where she felt at home in the Rocky Mountains.
Lacy travels year-round working on personal and commercial photography projects as well as adventure elopements. In her free time, you’ll find her playing music, watching movies, painting, hiking, snowboarding, and off-roading with her boyfriend Jim and their two huskies.
Mya Livingston
Buena Vista, Colorado, USA
Mya Livingston is a Landscape Photographer and working on Macro Photography as well. She really enjoys being in the outdoors with her camera. Her passion is creating beautiful photos to make people smile and forget about their problems for a moment.
Mya was born in Denver, Colorado but grew up in the Colorado mountains between Fairplay and Buena Vista. She is a free-spirited person who loves to help others. She enjoys being behind a camera and is always willing to learn more. She loves camping and hiking as well!
Mya is a moderator for Colorful Colorado Collective and a very active member of many photography groups on Facebook. She is also extremely active on the Instagram community of photographers.
