One thing about making Las Vegas your home is you forget how fun of a town it really is! Now that we are no longer living there, it has been great continuing to book a few weddings each year there! For one, it gives me a chance to visit my parents, who live in nearby Summerlin, but it also allows for me to see the town from a different perspective! It is now a destination location for me which has given me a fresh appreciation! My clients can benefit from my having had the experience of knowing the town and having photographed several weddings there. Now, however, they also benefit from me having a renewed energy coming back to this completely unique environment that is so different from anywhere else in the country! There is truly no other place in the USA like Vegas, especially in regard to photographing a wedding!

That’s why I was so happy that Melanie and Brad found me and commissioned me to photograph their wedding this past month! They truly had a great plan for a uniquely Vegas affair! Not only was it held in one of Vegas’ more famous venues, Caesar’s Palace, but they had a great turnout from their family and friends who traveled mostly from Edmonton and other parts of Canada! Most everything took place at Caesar’s Palace: getting ready photos inside their hotel suites, the ceremony took place at the Venus Gardens, and the reception took place at Spago’s Restaurant. Between the ceremony and reception, we were able to take a ride out to the famous Las Vegas sign for a few portraits and back to Caesar’s for additional fun photos around various fountains on the property. To top it all off, what Vegas party would be complete, without Elvis? Sure enough, the emcee and resident crooner himself (a look a like, actually!) entertained the guests during dinner and dancing! Enjoy some of my favorite photos above and below. To see the highlight slideshow with even more great photos, scroll down to the bottom. Oh yah, could not resist selecting an Elvis song for the show! Enjoy!

The photos on this slide show are my favorites from this past year’s wedding season.  I photographed 30 wonderful weddings in 2010, all of which provided opportunities for capturing documentary moments.  Not every wedding is represented on the slide show, however.  This year, I decided to be very discriminating in the selection of photos that made my favorites list, unlike previous years where I made sure to have at least one photo represented from each wedding. The photos that were chosen, best represent my ultimate objective when photographing a wedding: finding powerful, meaningful and artistic documentary imagery that transcends time.

In all of the photographs I capture in the wedding day, I seek to find the following three elements: an interesting composition, great light, and wonderful expressions.  The images on this slide show are those captured that, I believe, have a fourth element, which is what makes them so special.  It’s difficult to describe what makes up the fourth element, but it is that “something” that draws you into the photo, a story that is either conveyed concretely or, perhaps, not so concretely, but lingers as a mystery that causes you to stop, stare, and wonder.  The photographers that I admire the most are those who are masters in finding these moments. In years to come, I hope to continue mastering my ability to find imagery that has “the fourth element.”

That is what pushes me each year to be better than the last. I am a wedding photographer today, because I am passionate about finding these moments: that split-second where there is a combination of elements colliding simultaneously as if in concert with one another.  Most of the images are pre-composed.  I see the unique setting and possible composition in front of me. The natural, available lighting is there for an exquisite photograph. I see the people nearby and anticipate the possibility of a unique moment developing.  Suddenly, the person or people step into the frame of my camera at the perfect millisecond…the camera clicks…and a moment is cemented forever.  I hope you enjoy what I consider my favorite wedding stories of 2010.  Please share your feedback.

There is one image that I would like to provide some background history.  It is the very first photograph you will see in the slide show.  This bride is my hero, not only for 2010, but for the entire span of my wedding photography career – which dates back to 1992.  The bride’s name is Terry. When this photograph was captured, Terry was suffering from stage-four, breast cancer.  If you already watched the slide show, my hope is that you didn’t even notice that Terry was missing her hair, which was due to the results of her chemotherapy treatment.  Rather, you were locked in the beauty in her reflection.  In Terry’s reflection – you see her beautiful eye.  The eyes are the windows of our souls.  Our soul is the true essence of who we are and Terry’s soul has now passed on to her next life.  She passed away just before Christmas in 2010. Terry will always be loved and remembered by me.  I am truly honored that she selected me to photograph her wedding and invited me into her world.  My heart goes out to Terry’s husband, Chip, and the loved ones she’s left behind.

Rebecca and Darryl are from England and contacted me last year about photographing their wedding in Las Vegas. It’s not the first time I’ve photographed a wedding without meeting the couple in person, but the first time in that they were from another country. They did have one requirement that I had not had before: to photograph their “Stag and Hen” Parties a couple of days before the wedding. It’s not odd to photograph an event before the wedding, but I had no idea what Stag and Hen parties were! Simply, they are the American equivalent to our bachelor and bachelorette parties! Not only did I have a great time photographing these events, but it gave me the opportunity to meet both Rebecca and Darryl prior to their wedding day.

The entire wedding took place at one of Las Vegas’ premier hotels, the JW Marriott Resort Spa in Summerlin. It is one of the best months to have an outdoor wedding in Las Vegas and it ended up being a perfect October day in the desert. The temperature was typical for this month, in the low 80′s, as was the clear, blue sky. The Marriott has an expansive, lush garden setting. You could literally stay there for a few days and be perfectly happy not leaving for the Vegas strip. There is everything there for a tropical-like get away and the Rampart Casino is attached to the hotel. As for the wedding party, I loved being surrounded by all of the couples’ family and friends. It was the first wedding I’ve photographed where one hundred percent of the guests all spoke with English accents! It was very cool! Every person I met was absolutely fantastic and I definitely hope to photograph a wedding in the UK before I retire! I believe about fifty or so traveled to celebrate with Rebecca and Darryl. These two are a very special couple! I am not just saying that! They are very genuine, easy going, and know how to have fun. After getting to know them, it was easy to understand why so many people were willing to travel such a long distance to be with them on their wedding day.

Check out some of my favorite photos here and be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the post to view the highlight slideshow set to music.

I love finding moments from a different point of view. When you were a kid, did you ever find yourself fascinated with looking at reflections through windows, or maybe in a pond, and seeing two worlds at once? You could see through the window inside the house or through the pond and the life underneath, but you could also see the outside world that was being reflected when the light was perfect. I loved finding those realities as a kid and I love finding them as a wedding photographer!!!

Recently, I had the opportunity to pop in on a wedding my Las Vegas associate, Rudy Ortega, was photographing at Canyon Gate Country Club in Las Vegas. Having camera in hand, I was ready to find a few artistic moments. The scene above is of the bride and her father walking to the door inside the club house to the patio outside where the guests are seated and wedding party waiting for her arrival. Standing outside on the patio, I am shooting into the window, looking inside. You are looking at a reflection off the window of the scene outside, the bride and her father are not a reflection. I was able to catch this moment as Alexis and her dad happened to be walking into a pool of light from the sun shining through the window, allowing both the inside world and out side world to be seen simultaneously.

Do you like the photo? I would love to hear your comments.

My only criteria to the couple was that they better know how to have fun! Well, that was the last requirement I needed to make with Lori and Nick! Talk about fun? They must have invented the word!!! This couple, who flew in from Mobile, Alabama, were soooo much fun, that my job was as easy as it gets! I started with them at their suite on the 57th floor of Trump Towers where I photographed them getting ready. From there, we jumped in an Expedition Limo and headed out to Valley of Fire for some cool portraits just as the sun was hitting the horizon! We literally had about 20 minutes to climb up the rocks before heading back to Vegas to catch the helicopter. The nuptials took place somewhere between the Stratosphere and Bellagio, and the couple – who met sky diving (go figure) – were hitched! We circled back over Mandalay Bay and headed for the landing pad. After a few more photos in front of the helicopter, we drove over to the new City Center to see what we could find for some fun post-ceremony photos. We found a few backdrops in the City Center mall and caught the tram to capture a final portrait in front of the fountains at Bellagio.

Enjoy the photos below! This was a first for me! I hope its not the last, I was in photo Heaven!