I love this video. It makes me smile, cry, laugh and love people. If only all documentary projects had such power… and yet it is so so so simple. I would love to follow Matt Harding around with a camera on his next journey.
It is amazing. Please watch, you will like it, I promise.
My two favorite chefs in the world… The World Famous Photographer, Art Rogers, and the Almost World Famous Musician and Entertainer, Arann Harris of The Bluebellies. The specialty of the night… Barbecued Pizza and more red wine than necessary…. the key to every woman’s heart.
This is what celebrating Independence should be… well, really it is all for my dear friend Michelle’s Annual Wine Country Birthday Bash… but it just so happens it is the same weekend as the 4th. If ever there was someone who should have been born on the holiday known for barbecuing… it is Michelle. Happy Birthday, Michelle!
The Rollei added another light leak this time on Anne’s shoulder, so I played in photoshop again… this time I copied my favorite friend Thomas’s trick and added a lens flare filter… if he can do it, then so can I. It looks looks a little odd, but it is just a desperate attempt to save a fun photo.
This is an example of the kind of unexpectedness to expect from the Rollei, which I talked about in the last entry. Not sure what happened, but there is not much photoshop can do for this… so hopefully you like large alien blobs across the only three photos I took on my Rollei of this cute baby, who made his guest star appearance on my blog a couple of weeks ago (click here).
I really was happy with the digital images I took at Jodi and Dan’s wedding…. and then I scanned my Rollei photos tonight… and I LOVE them. It is a combination of the way people look at the camera and the ridiculously amazing quality of film.
For Jodi and Dan’s wedding I took more Rollei photos than normal, for two reasons. First, I was inspired by an email I received from a potential wedding client who asked, “How much would it cost to have a whole wedding shot on a Rollei?” That email made me so excited about the possibility, but I confessed I would feel more comfortable if there was another photographer who was photographing on a more traditional camera at the same time, because the Rollei is so slow and it can be unpredictable. It only takes 12 photos on a roll before you have to change the film and add that with unexpected light leaks or a sticky film advancer and there could be a lot of heartache. But when the Rollei gets it right… it gets it really right. And I definitely want to use it more and more.
The other reason I photographed more than usual with the Rollei, is because a friend and I are trying to see how it would be to make a real documentary album for wedding couples and we used Jodi and Dan as our guinea pigs. We recorded interviews with Jodi and Dan and all their important people and we hope to combine the photos and transcripts from the interviews into a book, similar to my final project for school. And if the sound quality is good enough, we’d also love to combine the sound with the photos for a Jodi and Dan multimedia show. If nothing else, at least it will be a good project for the slower winter months.
First of all, I need to define Documentary Photographer, so this is wikipedia’s definition: The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people.
That definition basically says enough about why I like photographing weddings and the way I approach photographing them, but I am still going to say more.
It is odd because within the documentary photography world, there is some snobbery about photographers who photograph weddings. But if you are a documentary photographer (see definition above) then there is no reason not to love photographing weddings… there are usually 50-200 people to photograph and that means lots of moments, stories and emotions everywhere you look. And generally, most everyone is in a good mood and happy to be photographed (although I have definitely learned that is not true for everyone!)
As for my approach to photographing weddings, I love telling the story of weddings through photographs.
I would so so so much rather take candid and truthful photos than any posed photos. Posed photos make my stomach flip with nervousness. I am getting better at directing, but at the weddings I photograph, I can’t wait until all the formals are over and I can get back to taking candids. I feel like a wedding should be about enjoying the day and living in the moment… not stopping the moment, and leaving the moment, so you can go and freeze a false moment. (Although I know that formal portraits are important too… but I keep them to a minimum, and my philosophy is: the faster, the better.)
The one formal part I do look forward to, is stealing the bride and groom soon after the ceremony and photographing them alone and happy being brand newly married… but I try to make them forget I am there.
Here are some of my favorite parts of the wedding I photographed a couple of weekends ago. It is the story of Jodi and Dan. Their story is more emotional and complex than some; it involves Dan’s 8 year old son, a considerable difference in ages and Jodi’s mom who is living with cancer, all coming together on this one day to celebrate.
And then… the ones below are some of my favorite extras and outtakes. 
It’s baby time! Seems like everyone we know is multiplying… which is fun for me.
Meet Michael, the son of two amazingly talented and loving people. When he gets a little bigger he will no doubt: play music, grow vegetables, go to Antarctica, love hiking, and have cute dimples just like his parents. But for now, he is moving to San Diego to start a new life with his parents, and we all wish them the very best.
This was the crib his mom slept in when she was a baby… yay for reusing!
See, you can kind of see that little dimple forming on that big juicy cheek.
I wasn’t able to make it to my friend Tauni’s baby shower a couple of months ago, but earlier she had mentioned she wanted some pregnancy photos, so as a present, I promised we would make it happen. And tonight, three weeks away from her due date, we had our pregnancy photo session with her beautiful belly and her husband Dan.
We spent the first hour playing in their home, and we took some really intimately beautiful photos. But on my way to their house, I thought about my favorite field, as Arann calls it “Paige’s studio,” and I suggested that I would love to go up there later in the evening when the light was better. They were psyched about that idea, despite the rapidly approaching cold Pacific fog.
So I have just returned home and after quickly looking over my photos of the night, these are my immediate favorites. I just adore their expressions of complete happiness and love with each other and with the new human they are creating. What a lucky kid to have such a wonderful environment to come in to.
And a fun fact I learned tonight: Tauni and Dan don’t know if they are having a boy or a girl. Yet, Tauni says the most popular interactions she has had while being pregnant are with complete strangers who confidently predict the sex of her child based on the way her belly looks. She had a guy in Home Depot come up to her and say, “You’re having a boy. My daughter looked like you every time she was pregnant and she had all boys.”
Well, three weeks to go, and we’ll see if he was right.
Oh, and a sad fact, the developers have started to move their bulldozing equipment into my field, so “Paige’s studio” will soon be 6 new houses. Aren’t we in the middle of a recession? Why are they still building new houses when so many are being foreclosed and abandoned? Well, if I go missing for awhile, you may be able to find me in my field and tied to a tree in silent peaceful protest.
Jude and I met yesterday and picked our top 15 photos to submit to the stock agency in order to hopefully get accepted and hopefully start getting paid for all the fun photo shoots we have been having. Here are 5 of our favorites that have not been posted yet… to see some of the other ones (preteen rock-star and skater girl, bed in field, woman on bicycle) click here.
Don’t worry we only took one photo of crying baby, after her sister knocked her with the plastic fish and before mom picked her up. So no babies were mistreated in the making of this photo… but even crying she is still so cute.
It was hard to choose only 15, we have so many more that we love… so hopefully we will be admitted to the club and then we can put them all in. Thank you to all of our beautiful and wonderful models!!
My good friend Rebecca runs the Sonoma Garden Park garden and she has started her own business helping people plant and maintain organic fruit and veggies in their own gardens. Rebecca wanted some photos for her business and to help promote the garden and she thought I might get some good photos for my stock photography project. Arann and I were late and I was bummed that we were going to miss the good evening light… but we made it just in time. We had lots of fun eating yummy fruit, arranging bouquets for her Saturday market and drinking cold micro-brews. It was a perfect Friday night and these are my favorite photos….
somewhere between a handshake and two kisses 
