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

at viv’s photography, we are constantly learning to be better in all respects. honestly speaking, we don’t really have that much knowledge about SEO (search engine optimization) whereas it seems other photographers really have that stuff down pat. but we’re willing to learn. and part and parcel of that is our desire to make the most kick-assery blog in the history of photography… well, maybe that’s a little much, but at least I hope the passion shows through. there’s a lot of content we want to show in addition to the lovely families, cute babies, and the crazy in love couples who choose us to capture their most special day. that additional content includes things like what our photography style is like, miscellaneous photography related happenings, and camera geekery stuff, reviews on different camera gear… obviously it doesn’t really make viv excited to talk about the 5D mark iii, but believe me when I say she’ll forget what life was like before she had it in her hands.

we know our blog hasn’t been the best. we want it to be and will make it so.

check back here in 4 days and see the new viv’s photography blog. we hope you’ll love it and keep coming back. new design & new content. 12:00pm may 16, 2012. -carlin

please check out our facebook page in the meantime to see our latest work! http://www.facebook.com/vivsphotography/