The Photographer

I never set out to become a wedding photographer. In fact, I never set out to become a photographer at all.

It’s been a fabulous journey to get here: to really loving every day of my life, to being excited about Mondays and doing work that, to me, is more like play.

I started out as a writer, so in one sense I have always done what I do now, which is to tell stories. I wrote stories all the way through high school, became an English major, graduated without ever feeling the slightest desire to become a teacher, and moved back in with my mom. I was at loose ends for a while, working in the grocery store deli, when my dad suggested applying for a job at the local paper. To my surprise, they hired me.

I began to learn about the power of a story, whether told in words or photos. Stories are important to people — they are how we define our lives and ourselves. I decided this new calling was important enough to warrant going back to college.

As fate would have it, the first class I signed up for was photojournalism. I was immediately hooked. I was even more hooked when, three months after the class started, I shot a photo that won a state newspaper award.

I chose to get my degree in photojournalism. Afterwards I continued to work for newspapers. I spent a total of ten years working for newspapers after college, mostly doing photography, but also design, editing, and even building an entire newspaper from the ground up.

I wound up at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the state’s largest newspaper. I stayed there for seven and a half years in the world of high pressure and daily deadlines. I loved it, and then I had kids.

After my oldest son was born, I wanted, as an older parent, to relax and enjoy seeing my kids grow up. I quit the newspaper and began an entirely new set of twists and turns. At first, I only planned to shoot editorial photography and perhaps a few documentary projects of my own. I had photographed a few weddings as favors for friends, but I never saw myself as a wedding photographer.

That changed when a friend of mine got married, and wound up being extremely unhappy with her wedding photographer. Let me say right away, it wasn’t really the photographer’s fault, except to the extent that he sold her something when she wanted something else. Cindy (names changed to protect the innocent … and the guilty) wanted a laid-back photographer, candid photos of her wedding day, a chance to party and enjoy herself, and photos that captured the humor and the special relationships of her, her family and her bridesmaids. The photographer was there to capture the posed images that are standard for wedding photographers, and Cindy felt she was being bossed around. As we talked about her experience, I began to understand the appeal of wedding photojournalism to brides. Many brides prefer a relaxed, laid-back approach to photographing the wedding, and would like a photographer who can capture the necessary posed shots quickly, making the wedding day more comfortable for the bride as well as her guests.

With this realization about wedding photography, I began to see a real void in the world of children and family photography. As a parent, I began to wonder at the fact that most of the options available for family photography involve posing the child in an artificial environment, when part of the wonder we experience as parents is watching our children interact with each other and with a natural world that we have come to take for granted. I realized that years of photographing children playing while working for daily newspaper had made me an expert in photographing children, and I decided to offer that experience to parents who wanted something beyond traditional family photography.

So that’s what I do now. I provide brides with an alternative to traditional wedding photography that is both affordable and original. I provide parents with photos that capture the essence of childhood, which is fun and play. My photos capture real unstaged moments of a wedding day, of childhood, of the relationships that are the most important in our lives. They tell a story. Our story. Your story.