A studio of two
A small studio that has been quietly photographing weddings since 2016.
One lead photographer. One second shooter when the wedding calls for it. One editor who has worked alongside us since the second year. The shape of the studio has not changed because the work has not asked it to.
The room we work in
A small room above a print shop in the Mission.
The lead works out of a one-room studio with a north-facing window and a print drawer that has not been closed properly since 2019. The editor works from a quieter room three blocks east. The work moves between the two rooms the way it always has — slowly, and with the same two pairs of eyes on every frame.
What we are after
The picture you do not remember posing for is usually the one you keep.
We work in a documentary register. Two cameras at the hip, three primes between them, no flash unless the room genuinely cannot be lit any other way. We do not direct laughter and we do not ask anyone to tip a chin. Family groups move fast and the portrait window stays short, so the day keeps breathing.
Observation
We move with the day
The photographer is the slowest moving piece of equipment on a wedding day. We try to behave more like a guest who happens to keep noticing things.
Restraint
Three lenses, two bodies
A 35, a 50, and an 85. We have shot with this kit for nine years. The pictures look like the pictures because we are not changing rigs every twenty minutes.
Editing
True to the room
Skin true. Whites warm. Mid-tones held. We do not desaturate weddings into a fashionable haze. The gallery looks the way the day looked.
The studio in numbers
Small enough that nothing about your wedding gets handed off.
We have intentionally not scaled. The lead shoots every wedding. The same editor works every gallery. No subcontracted associates, no franchised second names. The work below is the work of the same two pairs of hands, year after year.
- Weddings photographed
- 193 (and counting)
- States & countries worked
- 11 states, 5 countries
- Lead photographer years behind a wedding camera
- 14
- Second shooter
- Same person since 2018
- Editor
- Same person since 2017
- Average gallery
- 620 frames, 8 to 10 weeks turnaround
What we do not do well
We are honest about the days we are not the right fit for.
The closer the work runs to its instincts, the better it comes out. We have learned, slowly, to turn away from a few kinds of days where it does not.