"My camera helps me capture fleeting moments of beauty, light, human expression and emotion and creates my visual poetry."
On becoming a photographer...
" May the beauty we love be what we do." ~ Rumi
I have been falling in love with photography in different ways since I was a teenager. However, my relationship with photography has not always been easy. I dropped out of my first photography class in college because my eyes kept glazing over as the instructor talked on and on about F-stops, reciprocity charts and flash ratios. My second photography teacher forbid his students to take any photographs of their pets. About the same time that I found Elliott Erwitt's book on "Dogs", I realized that I choose what to capture on film... and sometimes those moments capture me.
I became hopelessly in love with photography after my first darkroom class. An hour taking photos would seem like five minutes and a day developing prints would seem like an hour. I have never lost the initial excitement I felt when I first watched an image come to life in the developing tray... I also must admit that I get into my darkroom less and less these days because of the digital revolution. I have overcome my bad attitude about digital photography and have embraced it as another tool to use to express myself or a vision. I now turn to my darkroom when I crave solitude, need to meditate or work something out. Lately, being in the darkroom feels like going back in time.
My biggest hurdle as a photographer in my thirties was to work on letting go of fear and sometimes that meant not being afraid to do the things my teachers told me not to! Like most photographers, I suffer over the photos I did not take.
Later on, I kept trying to figure out what my "subject area" was and I finally figured out that it's anything that my heart is drawn too... and when it comes to matters of the heart, I don’t want to ever limit myself.
I got tired of photographing trees, rocks and mountains and when I ventured into wedding photography I felt something ignite in me that was drawn to the raw intensity of emotions at a wedding.... My past experience as both a high school teacher and a counselor has given me a great foundation for my work. I love the multi-task nature and excitement (even the stress) of the wedding day. More often than not, a couple is under a fair amount of stress from all the excitement... So, to make it possible for a couple to re-live their wedding day, through their photographs, is rewarding for me.
I initially resisted photographing weddings. A friend reminded me that I once made the comment that I would never do wedding photography! The thought of it would conjure up heart shaped images of a bride and groom montaged inside a champagne glass! At the time, I was completely unaware of the creative potential in wedding photography. Then, six years ago I agreed to photograph a wedding for a young couple that I was unable to say "NO" to and within one year I had completely merged a fine art photography focus with wedding photography. In this process of applying art photography to wedding photography, I became hooked and have been ever since.
However, I do still love trees, rocks and mountains...
"My goal is to capture the heart of a couple's wedding day."
My Cameras...
I love my cameras. Actually, I'm obsessed with them. They are the tools that make it possible for me to capture those moments in life I fall in love with... Moments that would be lost otherwise.
I work 35mm format and these days primarily digital but I have not let go of my film cameras. My first camera, at 16, was a Rollei Rolleiflex single lens reflex which I go back to periodically to remind myself why I got into photography.
My professional cameras include the Canon EOS 5D , the Canon EOS Mark ll, and EOS 20D as a back up, Canon EOS 1V, the Contax G2 rangefinder (my absolute favorite wedding camera), the Mamiya 7 and 645AF as well as the Canon Digital Powershot (modified for infrared capture). I use the following Canon "L" lenses at all weddings: 2.8-16-35mm wide angle, 28-70mm, 80-200mm,(image stabilizer), 50mm, 14mm fisheye and 135mm portrait lens.
My other cameras include the classic Polaroid 195, a variety of Polaroid 600s that I used to love to use with black and white film, which unfortunately Polaroid has discontinued. I also have more vintage SX70's than I know what to do with, several "toy" medium format cameras (the Holga and Diana) as well as other plastic disposables and underwater cameras which help me to "get out of the box" creatively speaking.
"There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are. "
~ Ernst Haas
On photographing weddings...
My goal as a wedding photographer is to create photographs that capture the heart of a couple's wedding day. Every couple's wedding is human-unique. In striving to express that uniqueness as a visual story my wedding images reflect the hope and promise that are the essence of a marriage celebration. If someone gets tears in their eyes looking at their wedding photos then I have succeeded.
My photographic style is ecclectic and combines fine-art, photojournalism and illustrative photography. My work style is improvisational, flexible, unobtrusive and client centered. I am not a high volume photographer and have no desire to be. It's crucial to me to be completely and absolutely present on someone's wedding day. I never schedule more than one event on the same day and rarely two days in a row - unless one event is very small.
I also teach photography in my studio, local schools and in various agencies where I use polaroid and digital photography as a teaching tool to build self-awareness, personal discovery, healing and personal growth. I have received numerous photographic awards and continue to get my fine-art work "out there" through photography shows and exhibits.
When I'm not involved with photography, I am swimming with the master's swim team, skiing, at the movies or hanging out with my dogs/family and friends in the California foothills.
Member of Professional Photographers of America (PPA), Professonal Photographers of California (PPC) and Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI). Professional member of Profotos.com - All Photography. All the Time.
