Close

somewhere between a handshake and two kisses

kissing

Engagement Photos and Haiku’s…

Meghan and Tom wanted engagement photos because they did’t have any photos of just the two of them together. And that made me very happy because…

  • it gives us time to get to know each other better
  • I get to see how they photograph
  • they get used to me hanging around and documenting their every move
  • and we get to play without having to worry about time constraints, like on the day of the wedding.

So we met in San Francisco at the Ferry Plaza where we warmed up with baguettes and swing dancing in the bright sun.

Then we made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge where the fog was playing at the edge of the sun, which made for great light and cold photos.

Meghan and Tom were good sports and open for anything, even dusty old phone booths. And they were perfectly happy to be told to “get close” and “snuggle in” because it gave them a chance to talk about haiku’s and laugh.

But my favorite photos of the day were at the very end. We were all more comfortable with each other, the wind was blocked by the tress and the grass was glowing green… everything was perfect.

Come again soon to see their Nicasio Valley wedding photos.


A Documentary Photographer’s Perspective on Weddings…. candids, candids, candids

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.


A match.com success story and why I love weddings…

Jennifer and Steve met 5 months ago on match.com and last weekend I got to photograph their wedding story. I was a little nervous, because it had been over a year since I photographed a complete wedding, do to my year-off for grad school, but this wedding was the perfect reintroduction. Everyone was so happy, the location they picked had gorgeous light and wonderful shade from incredible oak trees and so I just got to play. And weddings are so good because they have everything…. stories, happy people who actually want to be photographed, emotions, products and lots of action, so photo possibilities are endless.


product photography….


Another Comparison…

I apologize for being repetitive… but now that I have said sorry… here I go again… these are the Rollei’s version of the same weekend adventures… and my conclusion on the battle between film and digital… I like both. I think both have the potential (depending on the human making the decisions) to take really beautiful photographs… but they are different. They create different photos… and depending on what you want to photograph, you have to make the call. Or not, like me, and just lug around two obnoxious cameras and see what you get.

Here my cold friends are admiring the view for me, while I fiddle with the Rollei’s knobs, I think at this point, as their heads were blowing away, they would have preferred I stuck with digital.

And this is for Frank, he wanted the kiss…. and he almost has it.


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