The new portfolio is done, click HERE I would love some feedback.

So if you are here because you are looking for a photographer for your wedding, or portraits please excuse the mess.

Along with the blog and portfolio my own personal shooting style continues to evolve….

Among the many metaphors for life the most persistent are the traveling metaphors. “I came to a fork in the road and chose the one less traveled…” and so on. I’ve been planning my own wedding for a few months now. The hardest part has been finding a photographer. Never before had I sat down and really looked at the legion of wedding photographers in our area. If you are reading this then you are likely in the midst of that same discouraging search and know exactly how bewildering that can be. A bride contacted me the other day about her wedding, which happened to be on the same day as mine so obviously I was not available. In her email she wrote that every photographers pictures all looked the same. The only difference was in the cost.
On top of that I’ve been shooting a lot of personal work, trying to figure out who I am behind the camera. Shooting a lot of film on my old, fully manual Nikons and loving the simplicity of it. You look for the light. You wait for that moment to happen. You make the image and live with the result.
And, and I’ve completely stopped looking at any other wedding photography. I felt like it was polluting my personal vision with ideas about how a wedding should be photographed. I just thought one day “I don’t like looking at wedding photography. I do like looking at this other stuff. I’m going to photograph what I like regardless of the subject matter.”

Back to the metaphor. Hokey as it sounds, I’m on a photographic journey and part of that journey is bringing my personal shooting style to the front when I’m getting paid to shoot. I think, well, to be honest I fear it will lead to far fewer bookings. I know it won’t appeal to folks who want images like what they find in bridal magazines and on the blogs. But it will, I’m confident, lead to better images.

The other result of all this is I’ve realized that I would much rather shoot an event or wedding or some portraits for what ever someone can afford, given the subject matter is compelling enough, than to miss out on an opportunity to express myself photographically just because someone can’t afford me. I have my rates. They are right there under the “rates” tab. If someone has the budget for those rates then I’ll trust them to be honest and pay those rates. If they don’t I hope they won’t be discouraged and hire someone else less capable only because they are “cheap.”

We have a winner from our “I shoot your wedding, you pay $0 story telling contest.” The winner has been contacted. More details to follow. The goal of which is two fold; one to offer wedding photography to a couple who would ordinarily have to settle for some hack, and to add to the portfolio a wedding that gets closer to how I want to cover weddings.

I’m currently on the search for a couple who are interested in something a little different for their wedding. If you are up for it I would love to photograph your wedding entirely with a Holga (google it). It isn’t for everyone for certain but I think the right couple will love it.

I’m also working on developing a rates structure for a pure documentary style coverage in film. Just me, a 24mm and a 50mm. No formals. Right now the way I picture it the getting ready and reception will be shot with Tri-x and the ceremony in the new Portra 400 (LOVE LOVE LOVE that film). Again this is a step towards bringing my commercial work in line with my personal shooting style. I expect fewer bookings but tons more fun. As it’s falling out a wedding would likely cost me about $500 to shoot. Of course I will charge a commission on top of that.

I’m also working on a couple of personal projects that I’m very excited about that will find themselves in at least one self published books. While speaking of books, I’m culling images for book to leave with vendors who might be inclined to refer me. It’ll be like a wedding album… but not so much. I’m thinking soft cover. And the layout won’t be anything like a wedding album. More of a showcase that says “hey, this is how I shoot. you know you like it. please book me.”

All this talk about personal work and personal shooting style reminds me. I have a little personal blog with some images that are directly from the heart. Check it out: a light tight box/ if you like what you see and you want that for your wedding or portraits let me know. I’ll do a little dance and do everything I can to book you right then and there.

Now, just because this is a photography blog here are some recent images…

I have a camera (err, well several).

When I’m shooting I get lost in a world of light and form. This is good.

Since going into the commercial realm I’ve had many outlets and some great subjects. All that shooting, all those click, click, clicks of the shutter have been a process. An evolution. Every time I pick up my camera I move farther along the path of realizing my own personal vision of the world and who I am behind the lens.

Over Christmas Becky and I were in Turlock and my soon to be nephew, Ian, and I were out playing on the farm. Well, he was playing and I was was watching. I wasn’t getting paid to shoot. No one had any expectations for the images. It was just me, my Nikon, a roll of Portra, and this little boy being himself.

” Art teaches us what it is to be human”

To which I say amen. That is why I photograph. That is why I pursue images with people. I’ve never enjoyed shooting landscapes or abstracts. But if you put a person in the frame in front of my eye my heart thumps in my chest.

I work hardest not at the technically “good” image, but rather at getting to know the people I photograph. I love the consults I have with brides and grooms. I get to know them and their story.

I studied (among other things) Anthropology in college but fell short of ever exploring another culture. So maybe I’m a frustrated anthropologist, my camera being my way of studying people.

Henri Cartier Bresson said the hardest thing was to get his camera between the shirt and the skin of the person he was photographing.

Maybe so.

I also think it is the point. To get not only between their shirt and skin, but under the skin and into their world and then reveal the captivating uniqueness of the person I’m photographing.

That’s why I shoot weddings and portraits. Because of this need to know and understand. When I’ve captured it in an image I think somewhere in my head I feel I’m contributing to the world body of knowledge of humanity.

Doing my part to learn and share what it is to be human.

(thanks to Kirk for the quote)