a camera and a baby. oh, how quickly things changed when I, the passionate father, using his baby as an excuse to buy a new dslr lost control of the camera to his more capable & artistic wife.
a baby and a camera. I would take shots, and viv would take some too. it didn’t take too long for us to realize she took better shots, with the same camera, in relatively the same location as I. some people are born with it, and some people have to work twice as hard to just keep up with them.
viv and my passion for photography began with this little boy, our son caleb. with the advent of digital cameras, and more specifically a dslr (or digital single-lens reflex camera), taking pictures of your children was not as cumbersome compared to using film. you could purchase a dslr for less than $1000 which made it more accessible to consumers. however, the false belief arose that a good, expensive camera was what made the picture look “nice”. but my wife and I used the same camera… and her’s looked way better than mine. and when I mean “way better” I mean it was more compelling, a stronger image, a better story told. saying a good camera is what makes a picture good is like saying a chef makes good food because he has a nice pan or a nice stove.
yes, photography is art, and art is subjective. but there are and can be objective values for quality of photo and choice of composition. I guess I might just say that viv has an eye for beautiful things and is constantly desiring to improve in her craft. it wasn’t very long after that our friends noticed viv’s work and asked if she could photograph their weddings. when she finished helping to capture four weddings, I asked her, “do you like doing this?” at which she responded, “I love weddings!” so I, the supportive husband, said “why don’t we try photographing other people’s weddings?” two full frame dslrs, a website, and $4,000 worth of lenses and gear later, we met the wonderful adam and maria. they are the most delightful people you could ever meet. apparently, their photographer had gotten sick two weeks before their wedding and couldn’t be their photographer anymore! imagine that! if I were the bride, I would freak out. but luckily, maria found viv’s photography and we found her. she even bought coffee for us at a coffee shop in chinatown the first time we met up.
we had such a great time at the wedding and worked our butts off snapping and snapping. ate a lot, learned a lot, laughed a lot. adam + maria, thanks for choosing us. we’d do it all over again in a heart beat.
from there, we continued to book wedding after wedding, shoot engagement shoot after engagement shoot. always with the desire to create stronger images, tell more compelling stories about the couples. we’ve grown as photographers and we’ve grown as people. it is so special to listen to the speeches of the people who love the newly married couple, and see what wonderful people they are. truly, a person is made up of all the contributions from the people who love them. we’re so privileged to be a part of it all.
the last photo represents some of the amazing couples we have met on this journey. we’re looking forward to the next 10 weddings we’ll be photographing soon. thanks for choosing us to be a part of your day. we’re stoked. -carlin
