Abraham Lincoln had a practice of leaving letters of great
import to sit on his desk over night before sending them out. His wife Mary
would often throw them away if he grew too passionate in his responses, or he’d
simply rewrite them upon achieving a cooler head. Over the years I’ve learned
to do the same with posts to the internet. This is one such post.
It is a post I have anticipated since second shooting this
wedding with my friend Aaron Draper, yet I have found it to be one of the most
difficult posts I’ve ever written. Anticipated, because of the photographs;
difficult, because of all of the second guessing. Do I make a statement? Do I
speak passionately? Do I say nothing at all?
These photographs have been sitting on my desktop for days
now, the blog post just waiting for text. I look at them each day and each time
I do I smile. I smile not because of some statement or witty turn of phrase I
have prepared, but because of the emotion -- the love -- I was able to capture
that day.
Thankfully, I thought to seek the counsel of a friend,
herself married to another amazing woman. I was worried about saying the wrong
thing, about making too bold a statement -- and even of making none at all. She
appreciated the concern but in the end confirmed my suspicions: I was indeed
over-thinking it.
I realize now, after all the second guessing, all the
worrying, all the back and forth, that the photographs speak for themselves.
They are my statement, my response, my reason for doing what I do.
I hope they bring a smile to your face just as they do mine.
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| Beautiful window light at Diablo Grande. |
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| Had to dance around two or three videographers and their gear. Luckily, videographers rarely see what photographers do. |
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| These rooms are on opposite sides of the building but somehow I was able to sneak in some equally amazing window light for Marco's getting ready shots. |
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| A fitting sign in book for these two. |
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| Now that's anticipation. |
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| Marco working on his vows. |
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| Wedding parties don't need to be huge to be meaningful. |
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| I didn't get to do any shooting during the portrait section of the day because I was holding a light stand the entire time, but I was able to capture this as the guys were heading to the next shot location, and frankly, I love it. |
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| Jared's dad built this arbor just for the wedding. How is that for unconditional love and support? Every couple should be so lucky. |
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| The looks these two shared were amazing. |
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| Marco is trying to keep it together. |
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| This moment. This is what it is all about. |
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| I can only imagine what these two might have gone through to get to this point, but their expressions tell me that it was all worth it. |
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| "I do!" |
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| Jared hired Franc D'Ambrosio, a well known Phantom of the Opera, to come out and serenade them during dinner. It was phenomenal and by far the absolutely most romantic thing I've ever seen at a wedding. |
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| Marco was nearly speechless. |
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| That is one happy groom. |
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| Definitely a keeper. |
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| It was even touching to simply watch these two listen to the performance. |
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| Franc D'Ambrosio |
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| There was dancing still to come, but to me this shot sums up the evening nicely and it's how I like to remember that day. |
Special Announcement: I've teamed up with Aaron Draper and some other photographers to do a series of critiques. The aim is to give photographers meaningful feedback on their work. Check it out and submit. New critiques every week. http://www.professionalphotocritique.org/
Discounts: Everyone in the wedding party is entitled to a $200 discount for their wedding day.
You can see more from this wedding on our Facebook page here.
And if you want to see cute pictures of our kids along with sneak peeks of what we're working on including all of David's little sketches, follow David on Instagram at: http://instagram.com/dnoceti
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