wedding photography faq

I suppose you could say that it's sort of a reverse rebellion. I am a straight laced Christian guy who is very happily married with two children. I don't have any piercings in unmentionable places, nor memorable hairstyles, nor do I protest every time someone does something I don't like. People with these views are becoming more of an oddity attacked by main stream society and considered a hateful group of bigots and nutcases. Ergo I have become a part of the rebellion without even trying. My rebellion is about being an artist with a purpose. Being an artist who has unpopular conviction and who will not give it up. That is the mantra of all artists.

The rebellion also stretches to what is expected of a photographer. When I was a kid I HATED going to a photographer because they were typically stuffy old boring people who wanted to twist me into a pretzel and make me look like everyone else who had come through that studio. When I opened my first studio my sole intent was to do work that hadn't been done with seniors, weddings and whatever else I could find to do. It didn't take long for me to become the most popular high school senior photographer in the area.

Film is a great, fantastic 100 year old technology that has not really improved a whole lot on since it was created. Since I was young I really tried to stray away from those things that were old. But, I was a die hard fan of film and was very hard to convert to digital. This confused most people because I've been an extreme computer nerd since I was 10 and was into every technology out there. I was convinced only by print quality and the end product after months of testing. Since then I've bought higher resolution cameras and have been really happy with the amazing final results. After that I put all of my old film cameras on Ebay.

Canon EOS 5Ds and a big pile of stuff that plugs into those bodies.

I like cake. And the brides are always something beautiful to take pictures of. I never know what to expect. I've been surprised by all kinds of emotional and physical outbursts at a wedding. I don't like to be bored, and I a never am.

Lots of shots. I find myself composing shots in my head even when I don't have a camera and am overjoyed when there is something in my hands that can preserve what I see.

We meet about a month in advance and talk about what's going to happen at the wedding: unexpected things that might happen, events or people to note and what formal photographs we shoot. I try to limit what is posed fairly dramatically. Time is important and I prefer not to spend hours shooting 200 variations of a photograph i.e. bride with mother, bride with father, bride with mother and father, bride with each sister, bride with the photographer, and on and on. There are important photojournalistic life-as-it-happens shots that will be missed while we are lining people up in an unnatural group and trying and coerce a smile out of them. What about a tear that is shed as a grandmother sees a bride for the first time? That's what's important.

At that meeting we establish a timeline and where those posed formals fit in.

After the ceremony I like to do what I call romantics. With these I try to grab that excitement of the bride and groom just participating in a life changing event. Typically people are pretty excited by this event and are somewhat wired. I capture that energy.

At the reception I become paparazzi and go right back to my newspaper photographer experience and shoot what's exciting. I don't tell you what to do or where to stand. You're a unique individual and the last thing I want is for pictures from your wedding looking like the last wedding I shot. Goodness NO!

I used to meet at coffee shops but it didn't make sense to do that anymore since I have a really cool studio in Austin.

I have a nice little contract with way too much writing on it which you sign and send back to me with a deposit of $750. You can obtain the contract by meeting with me at my studio or emailing me.

Wherever I haven't shot before. I always am looking for something new to view through my camera.

Yes, I regularly travel for weddings. I add a $250 travel fee to Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio (and anywhere else between 50 to 250 miles outside of Austin) plus two nights at a hotel. There is no travel fee for a location within 50 miles of Austin. We also have custom travel quotes for those who are out of the area but desire our services.

OH BOY, DO I! I am the self proclaimed king of romantic, intense engagement portraits throughout all of Texas. I have this wild and crazy talent for drawing something out of people that they didn't even know that they had inside. My engagements are evocative and rather than there being just a picture of of a couple, it makes you yearn to feel in love as much as those in the picture. I'm a freaking rock star! Come in close and maybe I'll let you touch me!

With a bridal session, it's not so much about discovering locations as finding out what kind of limits the bride has. I'm trying to create something beautiful but compelling as well which may not always happen in a grassy field. I love to contrast the beauty of a bride with the ugliness of the world in a way that emotes something more.

Seniors! High school graduates are rocking the world of our new studio in Austin and seeing just how much the walls can take! Click here to go to the Rebel with a Camera seniors website and experience the awesomeness!

I was assigned to photograph the President once. It was fun. I was stuck on a press stage about 100 feet away with all of the other media. I stood in the same spot for three hours.

In 2002 I won an Associated Press award for my photographs from the Biscuit Fire in Oregon while employed at a small paper there.

I could be coerced into teaching an occasional class about freeing yourself from all of the rules of your camera. I Like to help other photographers unleash what they really want to do in photography and enjoy teaching about technique, technology, and how to create art despite those two.

Not really. People rattle off names to me all the time trying to sound smart and I typically have no idea who they are talking about. I don't read photography magazines. I do however like this new crop of Australian photographers who have a really unique view of everything. Yervant comes to mind as some one whose name I can remember.

"You're the Elvis of wedding photographers!" I don't know how drunk the guy who said that was but have always held that comment close to my heart. I'm not sure what it means. Should I take it as the young attractive Elvis who was the heart throb, the bigger than life musician who set the world on fire with a style not seen before, or the old, crazy Elvis wearing jumpsuits, shooting TVs, eating fried chicken and sweating grease?

My first choice is my amazingly talented wife whose artistic eye is fabulous! She typically accompanies me to all photo shoots and weddings and pays attention to details that I might not be able to catch or even notice.

My second choice is my good photojournalist friend, Kevin Launius, whose journalistic approach to weddings brings pictures that blow me away. He's a full time photojournalist who has worked on both sides of the Rockies.

The music and the food! Austin is the best place to live in the world! My wife and I are both originally from Los Angeles. Our parents thought the end of the world was coming and moved us up to rural Southern Oregon when we were kids and stocked up on guns and survival food. Well, the world didn't end! But it may as well have. Southern Oregon is no place to be an artist, have a career, make money, or have a life! After we got married and started our business, we decided we wanted to live SOMEWHERE! Going back to LA wasn't an option. Who wants the traffic, the smog, the 10+ million people, and the $500K 1 bedroom houses? But to where? My wife's grandmother was born and raised in San Antonio, but had moved to the West Coast 50 years ago. Christina wanted to rediscover her Texas roots and to reconnect with her long lost relatives. We knew Austin was a haven for artists and musicians, so we packed up our family and went East. I thought it was a pretty rebellious thing to blaze a trail back to civilization!

Somewhere new doing something crazy with my family just like I am right now. Life's an adventure and I am just along for the ride.