Evie and Kyle

I have worked with a lot of wedding venues and they have all been stellar. The Grand Plaza on St Pete Beach a few weeks back was no exception.

These guys really have their wedding game down. I felt like I was apart of a wedding SWAT team (forgive the very guy reference), their ship was run so well. But they don’t leave out the fun either (wedding are supposed to be fun right?).

Just as Lex (my lovely 2nd shooter) was talking to me about something at the reception, Bono’s huge, arcing solo on where the streets have no name came on. I, of course did what anybody has to do during that part of the song threw back my head and closed my eyes and lip synched the whole solo with enough feeling to qualify for a spot on a carnival parade in Sao Paulo. Lex, used to my 17 year old behavior, waits (and probably rolls her eyes) for the solo to finish. I stop and open my eyes and standing there, also waiting for me to finish, is Claudia, one of the Event VP’s there. “I’m sorry” I say, half embarrassed, half thinking this is hilarious, “I really like that song”. Claudia, laughing, agrees.

It must have been the atmosphere there at Evie and Kyle’s wedding, everybody was excited, there was energy in the air, especially at the reception where I got to see like 3 generations of Evie’s family on the dance floor at once walking like an egyptian and Kyle and his brother doing the funniest version of the worm I’ve ever seen.

It was awesome to be apart of that energy, to get to capture it, and make some great images from it.

 Cake by the awesome Laurie Cinelli, of Piece of Cake

Rachel and Justyn

Weddings on reeeealy windy days on the beach are a bad thing, right? Well, I will say that finding sand in, like, every crevice of my camera and my, well uh, me, after the wedding day was not super duper awesome fun. But I can say that having Clearwater Beach totally clear and bereft of any and all souls except Rachel, Justyn and myself and Lex was pretty awesome!

Plus, the wind blew these amaaaazing clouds in making for a dramatic sky like none I’ve seen in awhile. Clouds that would languidly adorn the background of Michelangelo’s touch of creation on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. Clouds that would haunt the skies over Tolstoy’s burning Moscow or Batman’s brooding Gotham. Clouds that..... ok, I’ll stop.

I really liked the clouds.

A great backdrop at a great location like the Hilton is wasted without a great couple though. Rachel and Justyn are that great couple. Totally natural, totally at ease with themselves and their quests, they totally understood my there-are-no-rules-just-have-fun-and-be-in-love way of working with my couples.

They didn’t worry about the wind. They didn’t worry about what ‘you’re s’posed to do’. All they cared about was each other, and living that beautiful day of their wedding.
Perfect.

Flowers provided by Jana, at Events in Bloom

 Cigars provided by, uh... Cuba?

Kaleidoscope

A kaleidoscope is a couple tubes with a faceted glass lens and a handful of different shaped and hued glass bits tumbling around, right? Its a pretty simple thing, but it can make infinite variations of color and pattern. Like actually infinite. Turn the tubes and you'll get a pattern that will never, ever be repeated. The translucent bits will never rest and refract to make the pattern you see just that way ever again, there's just too many combinations. Keep turning, and what you see will slink and fall and dance into the next shape, itself entirely new, entirely unique.

Casey has been my wife for 11 years now, and I can't think of two years that have been quite the same in our relationship. Love changes flavor over time and keeps changing ceaselessly because the two people in love are individually ever changing.

There was the Casey who sang to me on the porch swing when we were dating, her voice softly lilting just above the dark breeze through the oaks. There was the the Aaron who whisked Casey off to London by surprise a few years after we got married (and discovered upon arrival that I didn't pack nearly adequately for Casey which made shopping fun and a necessity). There was the Casey who amazed me by how effortlessly she became the embodiment of gentle nurturing as a mother for our Jude and Violet. There was the Aaron, on a moped, who scarred the wits out of Casey (on the back) while diving through hairpin turns on an island in the Grecian Cyclades (as it turned out, shopping, therapeutic shopping this time, also repaired that mistake).

There have been lows too, lot's of em, and some very low. But when I look at her, I don't think of any of them. I think about how my love for her has never quite felt like this, the way it tastes, the way it feels today. It's always amazing. It's different than it was last year, and it will be different next year.

What will it feel like then? I have no idea. I'll have to wait and see. But one thing I do know,
it'll be great.

Ali (or Pam)

Ali is the kid sister of Shanna, a friend of mine, and so Shanna has me do her senior portraits. I'd hung out with Ali a few times before with Shanna and her husband Pete, and I was mesmerized by how she totally reminds me of Pam, from The Office. The way she walks, the way she laughs, even the jokes she made, totally unassuming, confidence sans any hubris at all, mild without a trace of boring, with a wit that's incisive but relaxed. You know, Pam, I mean Ali.

So it was really fun to get to know Ali a bit, then show her personality off with a collection of pictures. Being a photographer has everything to do with making people feel content and happy to be who they are, and relaxed enough to let me see it. And if you know how to use a camera, well that's good too.

 

Miranda and John

Certain things never go out of style. The Beatles, Cashmere, Tuscany, Audrey Hepburn. They are perennial and ageless because their appeal is more than skin deep. Every generation finds a resonance with classic things, places, and people and make them their own.

John and Miranda's wedding looked amazing two weeks ago. It will look amazing next year and the year after and the the generations that follow, and any that came before it.

And like other timeless things, the appeal came from their depth. John and Miranda are clearly beautiful people, but stop a moment and talk to them, and you'll admire John's assured poise and his quiet, wry wit. At first blush you'll fall in love with the lithe, effortless way that Miranda carries herself, but you'll soon find her warm, effusive, young spirit is what captured John.

You can try to fake depth in a photo, but you'll always fail. John and Miranda have fathoms of depth, and they freely and generously displayed their beautiful relationship before my lens. And for that I am so grateful. 

Leyka and Pedro

"Give this man anything he wants. And if he wants something you don't have, get it for him", says Pedro with a beaming grin on his face to the bartender on my behalf. It's great to be loved.

Pedro and Leyka had overflowing love for everybody on their wedding day, the staff at the Hilton Carillon (Wendy and her people are so good at what they do it's hard not to love 'em), Sara Rivera (their great planner), their guests, their family, and most importantly and oh-so-intensely, for each other.

They didn't hold back a thing. These are people that wear their heart on their sleeve. People who know what they have and can hardly believe how good they got it. People who's love and happiness and warmth and immediacy pours out of their eyes and their laugh.

My favorite kind of people to take pictures of.