Wedding on the "L"

Just returned home from a great wedding in -- not Chicago, but Morgantown, WV. Turns out West Virginia University has an elevated train, or something like one, that runs between the school's two campuses and the city's downtown. The PRT, or "personal rapid transit," was built by Boeing in the early '70s and has been voted (by folks who build and study such things) as the best non-metropolitan rapid transit system in the country, even beating out Walt Disney World's monorail. Pretty impressive for an old coal town with fewer than 30,000 people.

Now, Morgantonians are pretty proud of their PRT. Being big WVU fans and alumni, Allison and Justin decided it would be a great thing to spend some time shooting on the mini train. And so we did.

A lot of fun, especially when you're riding the rails in a wedding dress and those shoes.

Congrats, A&J.

-Andy

Engagement Season '08

Spring is in the air, and that means weddings...lots of them. Hand in hand with photographing weddings means engagement sessions...lots of them.

I'll give pause for a moment for PJ hecklers who think the only thing more lowly than shooting weddings is shooting engagement sessions. I understand, because I used to be one of them. But with the advent and growing popularity of wedding photojournalism, fact is that shooting weddings and the like has become an extremely competitive business with a lot of great photographers participating. There are plenty of folks with Pulitzers and credits like National Geographic behind their names who are delving into weddings.

And I'm glad.

Anything that whets the public appetite for strong photography and true photojournalism is good in my book -- especially in an age when the truth of the visual image can hardly be trusted, newspapers are failing, and cliche images have saturated the marketplace and our imaginations. With so many people buying cameras and rushing into photography these days, I want to do all I can to encourage the gifted, passionate ones to rise to the top.

I strive for originality, storytelling and beauty in every image I shoot. And I believe in accomplishing such things in the camera, not in Photoshop. But that can be challenging with weddings and, especially, engagement shoots.

I generally don't walk away from any shoot until I feel I've captured something of the essence of a couple, usually in an unguarded moment. Most people are afraid of letting their guard down in front of the camera. So one of the rewarding things about working the way Erika and I do is that we get to show people great photos of themselves that were taken during a "stolen" moment, and they love it. And in that moment, we do a little something to build the reputation of photojournalism.

That's just good for everyone.





Above: Plain-old portraiture, but Sam and Amber really loved their engagement photos. I was pleased with the serendipitous expressions of their mutual affection that seemed to show through - not (in my humble opinion) in a cliche or posed manner.