Tradition

Tevia fought with something throughout the great musical "Fiddler on the Roof"- TRADITION. The wedding of Adam and Sarah was wrought with tradition and there was no struggle with it at all. From the full mass with Mariachi and the Lasso ceremony, to the reception with bizcochitos and La Marcha it was a true embrace of tradition. Though New Mexico is a culturally diverse state, It has such strong Hispanic traditions that have endured centuries and are still a part of our current culture. With so many reality shows on TV about crazy weddings and overly extravagant weddings, it is a comfort to see that there are still couples like the Arrossa Family who embrace their culture, its history, and use that in there lives to carry on the legacy of their family.
This last weekend we had a great opportunity to be apart of the joining of these two families to create one beautiful little family. Sarah and Adam were married at St Joseph's on the Rio Grande Parish in ABQ, NM.
It was an early ceremony, Desiree met Sarah At 8:30am to photograph her and her girls getting ready. The beautiful full mass ceremony was performed at 10:00and accompanied by mariachi.
The lasso ceremony and then communion ended the ceremony and the mariachi escorted the guest from the church.
The reception was later that evening at the Double Tree hotel. And, as often happens, there were a few hangups. Overall , however, the reception went off very well and everyone had a great time. Even after the lights came on and at 12:30 am when we left, the party kept going.
We had a great time with Sarah and Adam.

Cory found his Faith

It was at a wedding a few years ago that Cory and Faith met. Now in the old southwestern beauty of the Galisteo Inn, they are again together at another wedding. This one however is a wedding all their own. Cory and faith had all but a few of their closest friends and family with them for this intimate celebration.
The couple of hours before the wedding went well for Cory and the guys. While moms were taking care of last minute concerns and faith and her girls were trying to get ready in a room with NO A/C, the guys were putting the pool to it's full use. After a good hour or so of swimming, they got ready for the wedding in their small southwestern style, air conditioned room.
Meanwhile, back in the very warm room, faith and the girls were fighting back sweat and humidity to keep faiths hair and makeup, just perfect. All the effort worked, as faith walked out to the ceremony grounds and was the epitome of beauty.
The ceremony lasted just a short time and was a very personal ceremony, performed by a great friend. After the ceremony, we had a chance to walk around on the beautiful grounds of the inn and photograph Cory and Faith spending a their first few minutes alone together as husband and wife.
The dinner and rest of the reception went off without a problem. Aside from fighting with a few sets of twinkle lights who did not want to cooperate, everything was beautiful. We are very glad to be able to be a part of this wedding. Faith and Cory are to great people and it was a real privilege to work with them. Enjoy Cancun you two!!

Jacqie & Travis slideshow

We are trying to get our slideshows online for our couples. We are starting with Jacqie and Travis. Take a peak and let us know what you think! Click here to view show!!

A beautiful Friday Wedding

While being deployed in Iraq Travis was not able to help much as Jacqie and her mom planned an amazing wedding. He only returned a few weeks prior to the wedding and minus a few toenails was in great shape for their day.
Jacqie also suffered a foot injury, being smashed in a door the night before the wedding. Though her foot was swollen Jacqie was able to tough it out and enjoy a great wedding.
We started the Friday wedding at 1:00 with Desiree meeting Jacqie in the presidential suite at the Hyatt in downtown ABQ. Once again Desiree's secret survival kit came in handy, being able to sew up a bridesmaid's dress.
While Desiree was photographing Jacqie, keeping her company and running errands, I was off to Corrales to meet with and photograph Travis and the guys.
Jacqie looked beautiful stepping out of the limo into the rose garden at the botanical garden. The ceremony was short and sweet and happened without any problem.
The reception at the Hyatt was amazing. They did a great job with the decorating, serving, and just creating a great atmosphere for the reception. Mille Fleur provided amazing flowers and Karen with Celebrations Coordinated the wedding and did a great job keeping everything together. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a great time shooting it. all 12 hours!

more images from Jacqie and Travis' Wedding

A few more?!

ol' skool

Bored with some of the slow progress of digital photography in our area. We've taken a retro approach to some of our recent wedding images. Photographers can often get stuck in the same ol' same ol' being content with knocking out the same cookie cutter images. Though they may be perfectly enjoyable images. They get old, seeing the same image with the people, being the only difference. I have been guilty of that on occasion.
Anyway, in trying to step out of the box, I went back into the box and looked at some really old wedding images and portraits a-la "American Gothic".
This is our interpretation of the old school image with a digital approach.
enjoy!

The Lucky Couple 7,7,07

Dianna and Paul chose the century's luckiest day to be married. After an intimate ceremony and a small cake reception the, the entire wedding took a cruise through the quiet northern New Mexico town of Espanola. (unfortunately no lowriders were in the party).
Following that, the rest of the afternoon was spent riding golf carts around the beautiful Black Mesa golf course, taking pictures. We had a great time driving from beautiful spot to beautiful spot - just playin' around. Everyone was relaxed and having a great time, no schedule to keep on top of, no guests to make sure to say hi to, just the bridal party enjoying the afternoon together. The best man was having such a great time he asked if Dianna And Paul could get married again tomorrow. We also enjoyed our time photographing this very lucky couple, lucky to have been married on the day they did, lucky to have such great friends surounding them, lucky that the golf course let us free reign, and of course lucky to have Desiree and I there to capture every moment of it. Congratulations you two!
The images are online click here.

The new "friends first" wedding trend

Lately there has been an unfortunate trend in wedding photography. With the cost of nice digital cameras being well within the reach of most people, there has been a huge influx of people assuming they can photograph a wedding simply based on the fact they own a digital SLR camera.
This year our weddings have dropped off a bit. with brides having "friends with nice cameras"shoot their weddings. In addition to photographing friends there is also a crop of people advertising a cheap, photo for hire, wedding coverage that for one low price they photograph the wedding and the couple gets a copy of the full size images. After that the contact ends.
Though our number of weddings has dropped, we have been inundated with calls from disappointed to devastated brides wanting to know if we can fix their wedding images. In most cases this is impossible. Technical issues can be, in some cases, overcome through our editing. That is about where our ability to salvage wedding memories ends. There is no photoshop magic that can compensate for an untrained eye, and a lack of passion.
Wedding photography is more than just showing up to snap a few shots of things that happen. It is a photographic discipline that requires expertise in photojournalism, editorial, fashion, and portrait photography. It is an art form that works with the interpretation of human emotion.
To be able to connect with someone and capture the fleeting moments of their life and preserve the emotion that is frozen in the 250th of a second, is an ability that is not achieved with the simple purchase of a digital SLR. The cameras instruction book doesn't say anything about knowing that every time David sees his new wife smile he starts to tear up. It says nothing about knowing that as soon as Amanda looks at her self in the mirror as soon as she is ready to walk down the isle she will start fanning back the tears. And the last time I read through my cameras users manual it said nothing about Thom, the 6'5" 350 pound rancher that is as tough as raw hide and just melts into a sweet pudding whenever he sees his daughter in her beautiful white dress.
Our photography is our way to express our art and passion for life, love and personal connections. We love getting to know our couples and being able to spend the most intimate and important few hours of their new life together. Desiree is an amazing photographer and an amazing person. we have very few brides that don't make it a point to let me know how lucky
I am to have her as a co-photographer and a wife. She is able to provide brides with much more than a few snapshots of their wedding. She provides them with beautiful emotion filled images of the nerves, the excitement, and the love that they are experiencing before the wedding. She also provides them with stress reduction, an amazing knowledge of all things wedding. And the ability to fix almost anything that may come up during the wedding. This is not taught in a users manual to a new camera. It is part of who she is.
I know this is a long post, I just needed to express my thoughts on this. There are a few events in your life that can not be repeated. Once they are over there is but one way to remember them. Once the vows have been read, the minister gone home, the food eaten, the cake enjoyed, the dress preserved in a nice box in the attic or sold on ebay, the presents returned, there are two things that you will keep with you the rest of your life. You vows, and your wedding images. You vows last until death. The only thing your children, grandchildren, great great great grandchildren will have of you and your wedding, is your collection of wedding images. With this knowledge that you will be remembered by your offspring through these images, how is it even conceivable to entrust that to someone just because they are cheap and you receive all of the digital negatives.
Again I apologize for the rant but with all of the brides coming to us in desperation hoping to salvage some semblance of their wedding, I feel obligated to write this. Not that we need more weddings. We just want people to consider the true importance of the wedding photography - the only tangible object you will have and cherish from your wedding. Consider that and then try to put a value on it. If you value your memories as a few hundred dollar gamble. I have nothing more to say. If you treasure your memories and want a document of the beginning of your family's legacy. Search out a good professional photographer and spend the money on them.
Invest it what is truly important in life. If you actually took the time to read this entire thing. I sincerely thank you for the time you spent doing so. We would also enjoy hearing from you and the good or bad experiences you had with your wedding photos.

The end of the night

There are moments in our life that we wish would last forever. And more moments that we wished we could forget. Most weddings have ups and downs and there are always little bumps that get in the way and keep the road from being smooth. It's those bumps that, though irritating and sometimes rattle us to a point of apparent exhaustion, strengthen us and make us more grateful for the smooth times in life.
Brian and Amanda had a beautiful wedding. A beautiful ceremony, wonderful friends to celebrate with and 8 amazing cakes from flying star (of which I had not a bite, dang it.) Amanda was the epitome of grace and beauty in her dress, Brian, well he looked ok too. As great of a party as they had and as amazing a union as they created today, there were a few bumps. Fortunately, they were surrounded with people who had great senses of humor and a great love for them. These are the things we will remember decades from now when we tell stories of our wedding day.
Yes there are things that everyday will come up and make us wish we had stayed in bed, but when we do get up and make the best of the time we have, we are still able to come home again and look into the eyes of our best friend and know that everything is as right as rain.
We had a blast being part of this wedding. Brian and Amanda have cultivated a group of people that anyone would be proud to call friends. It was a real joy to be able to spend the day with them.

Old World Style

Katie is getting married in a palace in her beautiful home town in Poland.

She came to us for a bridal session to capture the essense of who she is and what she wanted for her wedding. We had a consultation to plan out a location and a look for her session. Katie wanted a fashion type shoot. We had a few great locations picked out and were ready to go.

The day of the shoot the rain wouldn't let up. Katie couldn't change the hair and makeup appointments so we decided to stay in the studio and do the full session indoors. Holding to the desire Katie had for a fashion shoot, we worked in different areas of our studio to give some real unique looks to her images.

After a few minutes Katie relaxed into the shoot and we had a great time shooting. The images that resulted were amazing. I had a hard time trying to pick a favorite - I still haven't. This image is just one of the many that I would gladly use.