Wedding season is ramping up and I can’t wait to share some of the first weddings of the year with you. In the meantime I wanted to show you what I have been up to when I am not shooting weddings.

So often I am shooting for local universities, trade publications, non profits or working on video, and my images seem to disappear in cyberspace.  It has been a while since I last saw some of my work in PRINT, which is something I took for granted when I worked at The Roanoke Times and other newspapers.

So I decided to fix that.

When I am not working for a client, I am busy working on personal projects. Lately, two of those projects have centered around violence and renewal in Durham, NC, where I am based, and marriage equality in North Carolina. I believe firmly that the camera can be used to promote change when you can share stories with people and show them something they have never seen before, never considered or are uncomfortable with. Durham is a great place to find and share those stories, and do service with my camera.

I try not to be political on this blog, but a recent project I have been working on has really touched my heart. Last fall, the NC congress passed bills that would eventually become Amendment One, an amendment to the North Carolina state constitution that would define marriage between a man and a woman as the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state. If passed, the amendment could of course constitutionally ban same sex marriage in North Carolina (there is already a law prohibiting it), but it could also strip benefits for couples in domestic partnerships (gay or straight) and ultimately harm children in non-traditional families. In short, the amendment will limit the possibilities of families in North Carolina.

Many have rallied against it and will continue until it is voted on on May 8, 2012. Since its inception, I wondered what I could do to help speak out against it. I thought about my aunt Molly and her partner of almost a decade, Susanne and realized how this amendment could negatively affect my own family. Last fall I began a portrait series where I photographed same sex couples who are in long term, committed relationships and interviewed them to tell their stories.

The project recently culminated in a gallery of the work, along with a similar project by my new friend, Lissa Gotwals and some of her friends called “Love For All.” Both projects live here where you can read the couples’ stories, see their faces and watch their videos too. The subjects and families who participated are inspiring and brave for sharing their stories with me. The projects have truly expanded my world, my experience and my community — the exact opposite effect that Amendment One would have on North Carolina if passed. Courtney and I are even getting married at the church where I photographed Heather and Suzanne and their family on the Commitment | NC homepage. Their church, Spring Friends Meeting, passed a resolution opposing Amendment One as a congregation as a result of the project. For a journalist, it doesn’t get any better than when your work encourages dialogue and action.

Several large prints of our work were on display at the Durham mexican restaurant Dos Perros for a benefit for Protect NC Families, a non profit at the tip of the spear in the fight against Amendment One. I have never produced an exhibit so it was a learning experience. But it was awesome to see the work printed at 24 x 36 inches (thanks to Roylee at Through This Lens for printing them), and even more awesome to see so many of my friends, family and subjects turn out to the exhibit. I am humbled and privileged to have worked with the families and couples I documented and to have made new friends with them, Lissa and her cohorts.

That night I also debuted a video I produced with my friend Stephen Garrett about one of the families I photographed, Kelli Evans and Karen Wade and their triplets.  I spent several days working intimately with Kelli and Karen to tell the story of their love and family, and Stephen helped me with the interviews:

The images have come down but they will go back up soon in the windows of some stores along Market Street in downtown Durham as part of the Durham Storefront Project, and will be on display until May 20. The DSP is an awesome opportunity for local artists to have their work displayed in the windows of local businesses, many of which oppose Amendment One.

I recently got back from Washington D.C. where I met with some magazine editors to showcase these projects, and build relationships with them. I took some advice from my good friend and amazing documentary photographer Jared Soares and produced a portfolio book through Adoramapix.com to show off my work. My brother Todd designed some new branding for me, including a logo based on a vintage Leica camera. I also hired world-renowned picture editor at large Mike Davis to sequence the images. I have to say I was pleased with the professional results, and so were the editors I visited. I also had a blast staying with UNC Journalism School alums Emma and Anthony Harris. Thanks for letting me eat all your food and for helping me navigate the Metro!

The wedding photography industry and the news/editorial/documentary industry are two very different worlds with very high standards and different personalities. It’s an adventure having a foot in each world and witnessing how each influences my work.

Spring is my favorite season, and I feel like I am experiencing a Spring in my work, relationship and in my soul. Check back here soon for new posts about my upcoming marriage to Courtney, and our latest wedding adventures!

You might remember this post and this post a few months back. JR, the Hernando County Sheriff’s officer from near Tampa, Florida where I once interned, made good on his promise to by me a beer one day. He and his family were vacationing in Maggie Valley, NC near Asheville and he decided to stop through Durham. Courtney and I had a blast hanging out with his family. (Photo above by the lovely Courtney Potter).

And naturally we celebrated with drinks at a classy joint born in Tampa Bay Florida itself: Hooters.

We laughed, exchanged war stories and had a good time. JR and his family were on a much needed vacation and while we talked I could tell he was still struggling with the death of his friend.  He is a talented, aspiring photojournalist, who wants to tell stories with his camera once he hangs up his badge and gun in a few years. We both have a common bond in that we aspire to help people in need with our work.

He is a rare, inquisitive and humble breed. I am glad to call him my friend.

Here are a few photos from a few hours of coverage at a recent winter wedding. Congrats Jeanne and Jody! More weddings to come as the season gets underway!

That’s what she said!! Courtney and I have been engaged since October and we just got our save-the-dates in the mail and they look great! My good friend since high school, Katie Saunders at Hatched Prints did the design. She had been wanting to do this ode to The Office for a while and I loved her idea. All the cards are printed on a recycled card-stock because Courtney and I are dirty hippies. My brother Todd shot our engagement photos in the country side near Greenville, NC last fall just before all the cotton was harvested. For the past few years he has been doing a documentary project about rural eastern North Carolina, so he knew exactly where to take us for a rustic look. Be sure to check out his projects “What Hakes a Home,” “Native” (parts one and two) and “Get to Know a Few” on his website.

Courtney and I are excited about the next chapter in our relationship and I just wanted to share that joy with you. Hopefully we will see some of you at our wedding this April!

I got a phone call the other day. A man on the other line with a soft voice introduced himself as Noah, the gentleman protesting I photographed with Anna and Jason in front of the Capitol building in Raleigh. I had given him my card and enthusatically encouraged him to contact me so I could send him some photos.

“I am wanting to get back into dating after my fiance died three years ago,” he told me. He wanted a copy so he could make it his profile on an online dating site.

He recounted the story of how the love of his life had died so suddenly three Decembers ago. One second she was here and the next she was gone.

They never had their chance to marry, and the winter months have been hard for him ever since his beloved passed.

I could feel the loss in his voice, there was a tenderness and fragility to it that gave me goosebumps. I had to pause and catch my breath during the conversation. It was hard not to be emotional.

Noah told me he and his friends had been camping in front of the Capitol for 45 days. He had heard about people “occupying” cities and towns across the country.

“The Occupy Movement helped me out of a long depression.  I made new friends and I interact with the world,” he told me.

He felt that actions spoke louder that words, so he decided to Occupy. Instead of a place, he wanted to Occupy Love.

“Love is the most powerful thing in the world. It can change just about anything,” he told me just before he hung up the phone.

Noah I hope you enjoy the photos and they help you find that special someone.

Anna and Jason were married on December 3, 2011 and their wedding was one that Courtney and I were looking forward to shooting all year. I know Anna from my undergrad years at UNC where she was a Kappa Kappa Gamma. I was friends with a lot of the Kappas and I liked to come over to their sorority house and eat all their food.

When Courtney and I met with Anna and Jason for dinner one night to talk logistics and we all ended up gushing about our love stories. Anna and Jason’s story sounds like it was lifted from a Taylor Swift song. They met each other after they had both just ended relationships that weren’t right for them. But they knew they were meant for each other soon after they met.

Their whole wedding was focused on their love for each other and it made me pause.

A whole billion-dollar industry exists around weddings and as a photographer it is easy to get lost in its machinery. It is easy for a bride and groom as well, but Anna and Jason refused to. They were laid-back and didn’t sweat the details. Instead they focused on their love, friends and family.

“We didn’t even rehearse the ceremony – we figured we could just wing it! The only thing that mattered was that we were getting married,“ Anna says.

They even planned the whole wedding, which had many do-it-yourself elements, in three months, she explains:

We planned our wedding in less than 3 months because it was important for us to get married on the date that we met. Our families and friends jumped in and helped with everything from cutting out invitations and place cards (our parents), to chauffeuring us around on the wedding day (Jason’s brother, Rob), to providing all of the flowers, decorations, and table settings for us (my cousin, Shearer), to baking the fleur de lis wedding favor cookies (Jason’s mom), to even officiating the ceremony (Jason’s friend, Casto)! And not to leave out the sock monkeys, Jason’s sister Courtney made Carolina Monkey her very own veil for the wedding! The whole thing was really such a wonderful experience and it felt awesome that our families and friends were so supportive and excited for us to get married!

The light, laid-back and intimidate tone of their big day allowed Courtney and I to slow down and make thoughtful pictures. We also had a lot of fun goofing off. To me, the emphasis on love culminated when we came across some Occupy Raleigh Protesters who had been camping out in front of the Capitol for 45 days. I posed Anna and Jason with one of the gentlemen and his “Occupy Love” sign. It was serendipity at its best.

From Courtney:

A recurring theme in conversation between Justin and I lately has been “collaboration.”  Cut-throat competition marks a lot of crafts these days, even wedding photography.

There’s a much happier alternative, though, and shooting Anna and Jason’s wedding represented the magic that happens when you collaborate during a wedding.  Collaborate isn’t even the best word for it—it sounds so industrial.  It’s more like a dance.  More like a giant contra dance with all sorts of whirling and spinning and sweating and laughing and getting dizzy.

This was the first wedding where Justin and I were hired as an engaged couple.  We met with Anna and Jason earlier this year for a fancy dinner and drinks, talked about the craziness that is being in a relationship, laughed a lot, and got excited about weddings.  That camaraderie among the four of us set the tone for the entire wedding day.  Justin and I had an entirely different groove that day because of how at ease we felt around Anna and Jason—it was out of this world groovy.

My favorite time during the wedding day was definitely the portrait sessions after the ceremony.  Even the posed family portraits (which can sometimes be a low point for a hungry, tired wedding photographer) were a blast.   I supported Justin’s legs while he stood on a chair, and together we goofed and giggled.

Shooting the couple’s portraits in downtown Raleigh was the epitome of collaboration.  It was one of those wonderful moments in creative work where it feels like walking on air, and where five minds become one. Justin, Anna, Jason, and Jason’s brother and I ran around the Capitol with still cameras and video cameras literally chasing the light, bantering the entire time.  We were all bouncing ideas off of each other and going for it—I have no idea which pictures belong to which person’s brain, because we all worked together… played together.  It was a blast.  My absolute favorite point was when Justin army crawled on the sidewalk with his 70-200mm bazooka-like camera aimed at the happy couple.  I stepped back and shot the scene because we looked too-funny.  (See picture below).

Anna and Jason, thank you so much for hiring us to shoot your wedding.  We talk about your wedding all the time and how much fun we had.  The ease in which we were able to let our guard down and be ourselves is definitely a testament to how strongly grounded you are as a couple.  Your love for each other and the people around you really made it a joy for Justin and I to go to our happy place—as photographers, as co-workers, and as an engaged couple.  We loved every minute of your wedding day, and we’re really excited about doing “coupley” things with you in 2012. 

Here is a rundown of their look and logistics from Anna:

Dress: My friends and family all know how much I love antiques. I actually found my dress at a consignment shop on a day that I was not even out looking for a wedding dress. It just happened to fit me perfectly, so there were no alterations done to it at all. I think that completely illustrates the whole theme of the wedding. Things fell into place just like they were supposed to. I literally just tied a piece of ribbon from the craft store around it for a sash and affixed the beautiful seed pearl pin that my grandmama, Margaret Alexander Stevens, wore on her wedding day. It originally belonged to her grandmother/my great great grandmother Mary Moring.

Jason’s suit: Banana Republic

Ceremony, Reception, Catering and Cake: Second Empire

Flowers/Decorations: All the floral arrangements, decorations, and table settings were done by my cousin, Shearer Bridges. She did such an awesome job! She even sewed fleur de lis table runners and valences for the bay window with our names and wedding date on the center one. She arranged my bouquet and pinned another family brooch to it. This is the Stevens Brooch which was worn by my great grandmother Ethel Sefton Stevens on her wedding day. It was hand-painted with the Stevens Family Crest and was given to her by my great grandfather, Leon Stevens as a wedding gift.

Horse and Carriage: J&L Carriage

Hotel: Sheraton Downtown Raleigh

Invitations: Designed and printed by Jason Stanley. Our friends and family know how much we love music, and the invitations actually included a cd that we put together with all of our favorite and most meaningful songs.

Next two photos by Courtney Potter

Next two photos by Courtney Potter

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Next two photos by Courtney Potter

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Next photo by Courtney Potter

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Next two photos by Courtney Potter

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Left photo by Courtney Potter

Next photo by Courtney Potter

Next photo by Courtney Potter

Next two photos by Courtney Potter

Next photo by Courtney Potter

Next photo by Courtney Potter

Next photo by Courtney Potter

So often I am asked “what do you like to shoot?” Truthfully, I love telling stories made of images across the spectrum of emotion and feeling. More and more the pictures I like to shoot are quieter and contemplative. Lately, these are the moments that live between the obvious ones, away from the celebration, and to me they reveal the most about my subjects.

Perhaps this is a phase I am going through. Perhaps it is how I feel after a year of transition from a steady newspaper gig to the life of a freelancer. From life in the mountains where the pace is slower and more deliberate, to a more hectic pace here in Durham, NC.

This year, traveling back to the mountains in southwest Virginia to shoot weddings placed the valley that had been my home for three years in a new context.  I appreciated more the beauty that I had taken for granted there. There I always slow down with my camera and shoot more deliberately. The two photos above best reflect how I felt in each moment, captured after I slowed down.

The second image of the horses from the deck, just before the ceremony in Virginia, informed and inspired the first image of the cowboy (Brooke’s father) taken months later.

I wondered what was going through his head when I clicked the shutter. It was a moment that lingered, and I lingered with it.

Moments before, he was galloping around his farm where she was just married, and moments later Brooke and her new husband, Andy, would pose on his magnificent horse.

In the quiet by the lake, it seemed that he was taking in the fact that he had just given away his daughter.

What a peculiar thing love is. I leave you with a collection of quiet moments from 2011. Thank you, all who booked me this year.

As I slow down into the coming year, I hope to move more deliberately with both my heart and my camera.

Endless possibilities are on the horizon.

I got a package in the mail a few weeks ago with a thank you note and some mementos from a friend I have never met, thanking me for helping him deal with the death of another man I will never know.

I can’t help but pause and be sad.

Blessed are the peacemakers, indeed.

Laid-back. Down to Earth. Silly. Fun.

All are proper descriptions of Ashley and Brett, who were married November 5, 2011. So naturally, Ted Richardson and I had a great time with them, their friends and family.

Ashley works with my dad at a software company in Raleigh, and he was excited when I told him that I had booked her wedding. He told me that she was a blast to work with and that I would be in for a treat. She was all that and organized to boot, which made logistics even easier.

Ted and I scouted out the locations ahead of time and pre-visualized some of our photos. He busted out his light kit to make some more dramatic photos while Ashley and Brett goofed off at the Capitol building in Raleigh, and as they crossed through traffic on the way back to the reception. I only made one lit frame of them crossing the street but it worked out well. Ted’s extra planning really made the day and I can’t wait to work with him again next year.

Brett and Ashley’s love is solid and tender. It was humbling to watch her emotions well as she read a poem he had written just for her on their big day. I included it here in hopes that all you guys out there can learn a thing or two about how to treat your lady.

The day was full of tears, laughs, joy and love and I hope these pictures do it justice ya’ll! Here is the rundown on Ashley’s look and logistics:

Dress:  “Escalante” by Watters – purchased at Victorian Rose Bridals
Tux Rental:  VIP Formal Wear
Cake:  Burgaw Bakery
Flowers:  Suzanne Page
Church:  Ernest Myatt Presbyterian Church
Reception:  The Stockroom at 230
Trolley:  Olde South Trolley Co.
Hotel:  Sheraton Downtown Raleigh (Presidential Suite)
Caterer:  Simply Delicious Catering
DJ:  Premier DJ Entertainment
Wedding Coordinator:  It’s Your Day – Event Design & Coordination (Stephanie McKeown)

Thanks again, Ashley and Brett for inviting Ted and me to your special day. Let’s on stay in touch and laugh again over a drink soon. Enjoy!

PRINTS available here

Next five photos by Ted Richardson

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In October I booked Laura and Steve’s wedding last minute at Bald Head Island, North Carolina, where sea turtles abound and cars do not, so we raced around on golf carts to get from point A to point B. After their gorgeous, windy wedding on the beach, we chased the good light on the way to Old Baldy and the reception at The Bald Head Island Club. The island is a conservancy making it a refuge for wildlife but also landlubbers who are itching to get away from grind. I did a lot of research and pre-visualization of what portraits I wanted to shoot at the lighthouse and overall I am pleased with the results.  Steve and Laura were laid-back and beautiful couple with deep love for each other and it was humbling to celebrate their love with them. My favorite moment was watching them playfully bicker as they practiced their first dance just outside the club near the driving range.  Shauna Harris at Bald Head Island Weddings helped organize a fun shindig for family and friends and the day flew by so fast I was sad to catch the ferry back to Southport. I hope to shoot more weddings at BHI or just take a trip to explore it on my own soon. Read Shauna’s blog post about the big day here.