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One Last Wedding?

Last fall I came to an important decision in regards to my photography career. I realized I do not love shooting weddings. Don’t get me wrong, I love to see a couple make a commitment to each other. But, I don’t like the traditions. I don’t like to see a young couple start their life together with a giant expense for what amounts to a party they feel obligated to throw. There’s this pressure to keep up with the ever expanding Disney-style princess wedding day that they’ve been brainwashed to believe they’re destined to experience through a lifetime assault of commercialized popular culture. The fire is fueled with Pinterest boards to find the perfect decorations and party favors, and countless wedding blogs telling you what you have to spend your money on. Not to mention local, regional, national, & global bridal magazines to make every decision feel inadequate unless you go all out.

So I stopped taking wedding jobs altogether. I would rather someone pay their hard earned money with a photographer who’s passionate about wedding photography, of which there are plenty in the Charleston area.

It was like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders – I gave something my all and learned that it wasn’t for me.

But…

There’s always a but.

Look at that face on the groom as he catches his first look at his new bride-to-be walking down the isle. That’s my brother-in-law Chip. How could I not shoot this guy’s wedding? Look at him – He’s awesome. So, I strapped on my 70-200 and decided to ride that horse into battle one more time. Besides, look at his wife – She gorgeous! This won’t be hard at all.

The Wedding of Chip & Pie | May 30th, 2015 | The Martha Washington Hotel in Abingdon, VA

The Bride & Her Bridesmaids:

The Groom & His Groomsmen:

The Wedding Ceremony:

With this ring…

Just married:

The Reception:

Dinner, dancing, & this guy:

So, this Grinch still managed to let his heart grow a few sizes bigger that day.

I’ll admit, I had a lot of anxiety about writing this. It’s not fair to the couple to attach my personal baggage, but I just didn’t want to publish a wedding blog post and have the brides I’ve turned down see it and think I was a liar. I’ve been nothing but honest on this blog about my journey in photography and art, so I hope you understand.

Good luck Chip & Pie, you guys rock.

Mira & Brian Are Having A Baby

Pinterest is a great thing. You can find inspiring photography in just about any practice of the craft. Much like YouTube is for video, you can chase an idea and end up in unexpected places along the way, sometimes going off in a completely different direction.

It’s also a problem. You start to see patterns in a derivative way. A search for maternity photography will garner a plethora of similar results. Some expertly executed mixed in with a bunch of terribly imitated images. After a few minutes, everything seems so similar. Photography really is an insestuous form of art – But I guess every form of art suffers from this. It just seems that photography is more readily copied than any other.

So when Brian & Mira announced they were having a baby (and by announced, I mean I accidentally figured it out, but that’s a story for another time), I was excited to try a different approach to maternity photography.

I wanted to put the couple in an environment that captures who they are and what they represent at this time in their lives. They are both very outdoorsy people, and Mira works a lot with Charleston Area Therapeutic Riding, a horse farm that specializes in improving the lives of children and adults with disabilities. What a perfect environment for these two!

They also recently celebrated a non-traditional baby shower under a tree in Hampton Park. No silly “Guess what’s in the diaper” games going on, just a nice picnic in the park for family and friends to come together and show the new parents-to-be some support.

Earlier in the summer, I snapped this shot of Mira at Folly Beach during the 4th of July celebration. It captures her just as she started to become a little more obvious with her pregnant state:

We’re super excited to welcome “Baby X” into the world with them, I just hope they hurry up and pick a name so we don’t have to keep calling it “it” 🙂

Country Wedding in the Fall

Congratulations to Bryan & Kara Peck on their wedding! I shot their engagement session in downtown Charleston, and now their wedding out in the country.

The wedding was outside on a perfect fall afternoon. Sunny weather, traditional BBQ, and great people made for a perfect day.

My wishes go out to Bryan & Kara for a long and fruitful marriage. I don’t think it will be long ’till I’m shooting some maternity/baby shots with the way these two lovebirds are going 😉