Here are some of the images… in absolutely no order what so ever…

See, a pig

I love the classy elderly lady cracking up at the dog and rabbit walking down the isle.

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Part of that process is trying to understand why I’m drawn to photograph those things that find their way in front of my camera. Sometimes it makes sense. Street performers for instance. That’s easy. They are interesting.

This process is what drives photographers to embark on photographic projects that last decades, even lifetimes. When will I be finished photographing street performers? I don’t see an end in sight.

But weddings? Why weddings?

Confession. I don’t look at wedding photography. I don’t study other wedding photographer’s work. Weddings are ubiquitous and it is hard enough to be original in capturing them, I don’t want to pollute my visual vocabulary with other peoples work. But I do sneak peaks once in a while and what I read a lot on the blogs is how so and so photographer is “just so in love with love” and that is why they photograph weddings. I have know idea what it means to be in love with love nor can I conceive of how that would at all be a motivation for giving up a perfectly good Saturday to work your butt off photographing a wedding.

I went to school for a very long time just to end up making a living as a plumber. My folks think I waisted all that time (and money) just so I could have a blue collar job. Maybe so. I studied, among other things, Anthropology. It’s a study in people; how they live, why they live that way, etc. It’s about people’s stories. I also studied Communications (you know, public speaking all dressed up). Again, story telling. Both also came with a large dose of Philosophy and Meditation on the how and why of life.

The things I’ve taken with me from my university years are those key things above. Maybe I was drawn to those disciplines for the same reason I’m drawn to photography. The inclination to meditate on life, human nature…. Who we are. Why we do what we do. I also write. A lot. When I write it’s only after a long meditation on some aspect of life and writing it down is the final step in the process of grappling with it. (If this blog post isn’t long winded enough for you, you can find some of that HERE)

Ok, what’s my point.

Oh yeah, weddings. Why do I photograph weddings?

Think of it in terms of those decades long projects. Wedding photography, for me, is another project. Another part of the process. Excuse me but I’m going to get a bit pretentious… I photograph weddings as a form of meditation on the American experience.

I think that is why I’m not looking to photograph a wedding every Saturday. I can’t conceive of something like that. I don’t think I could get my head around all those weddings and glean anything remotely meaningful from the millions of frames. But a few weddings a year. Say, ten weddings. Ten weddings a year. Big ones, small ones. Traditional, modern, vintage, weddings in churches and weddings in backyards. Ten weddings a year. Yeah, that I can get my head around.

I caught this little dude…

Sock Monkey

If you want to book my photo booth for your wedding or event you can reach me through my contact page.

you participate. you give blessing, rings, daughters and sons, unite and depart.

they’re a little micro metaphor of life at times.

Ten years old and she looks ahead.

I had an amazing time with these two. We became instant friends during our consult and they were so incredibly hot ur, um “passionate” during the engagement session. We went from a more traditional shoot at Pogognip in semi formal clothes (More to come) to the image you see below, then to Forest of Nisene Marks for a more earthy-fairy-burning-man type shoot (coming soon). I will post the full session soon but wanted to put this shot up today for your enjoyment.

What cracks me up about this image is that regular people love the image. Photographers only seem to notice the upper thigh. Which, is sad because they fail to notice I used 3 lights all in frame to get the image. Oh well. Brit and Jake love it, I love it, that’s really all that matters.

I also could not be more stoked to shoot their wedding next year at The Chaminade in Santa Cruz.

I had a few concepts and locales I wanted to try with Kevin and Primavera. None of them happened. Instead the shoot came out a thousand times better than I could have imagined.

This is how it should be. The images just happen. They lay there in the grass waiting for you to pick them up.

Thanks Kevin and Primavera. Can’t wait for your wedding in Capitola.

These two Brits were my first wedding of the year and if they are any indication of what this year holds I’m gonna have a killer year in images.

I only wish I had more time with these two. So entirely off beat in their approach to life. Such a different take on weddings. I have to admit I was a little unsure about an elopement. That little part of my brain that always worries about getting great images for the portfolio was worried that without a “traditional” wedding the shoot wouldn’t do much for my emerging business.

Boy was that a stupid thing to worry about. Yeah, yeah there wasn’t a ceremony or lots of little details to photograph that are so popular. But these two more than made up for it in flair and humor.

I love Jen’s dress. The “I DO” was their idea (thank you to what ever photographer they Bogarted that idea from). I take full credit for the “DO I.” The expressions were all Alex and Jen.