Ever recognize someone the first time you meet them?

Well a highlight of my year went that way when I met my now friend Steve Yates, who was kind enough to let me stay at his home this summer in the Lake District of the United Kingdom.  He’s a wedding photographer in this legendary landscape. and if you’re daring enough to click that link you’ll see some amazing wedding images.  If you imagine me, as a scotsman, and ten years older - well - that’s Steve, a climber, adventurer, and photographer and all round nice guy!  Well, here’s a photo to end my blabbing on:

And his family with whom I stayed in the Lake District

Ever recognize something the first time you hear it?

Well it was the same when Steve had some John Martyn playing the Sunday morning I was headed for the train…We were drinking coffee in the back garden shown above.  I instantly wanted to know who it was, and he informed me - and sent me on my way with a few tracks.  I’d like to pass on his recommendation and this two disk set (available as download also) retrospective for your consideration over the weekend. The album is Sweet Little Mysteries: The Island Anthology The Amazon reviewer glows:

“Martyn has the whiskey-soaked voice of (fellow scotsman) Rod Stewart with Louie Armstrong thrown in, the spiritual intensity of Van Morrison and the jazzy folk sound of Joni Mitchell. 
I’ve never heard anything quite like it. All of his songs are melodic and interesting and some, like “one world,” “small hours” are transcendent and as beautiful as any music i’ve ever heard.”

The history on Martyn goes back through the seventies and I don’t know why he’s not more recognized than he is - cause in my perception he deserves it.  Take a listen with this player:

I’ve now used two of his songs in my slideshows, and we’ll see what else may develop in the future.

The WPJA awarded my photo from New Zealand 4th place in it’s quarterly awards:

However the judges comments went like this:

But I have to comment on this category in general. There were so many pictures of people walking away from the photographers that it puzzled me. I saw so many pictures with stunning light in other categories that I wondered what the photographers were thinking when they got to this category. All of the moments and good storytelling went away.

What is with the WPJA? Who is this judge that feel’s so strongly that there’s no story from this image that they take the liberty to complain about my photo as exemplary of the category? But they award first place to a haphazardly composed and monochromatic image of the same theme? To my experience this goes to strengthen the stereotype that ‘photojournalistic’ images are ’snapshots in black and white’ and doesn’t work toward showing how a good photojournalist can transcend the basic elements of what’s happening and make an image with stronger themes. I would love to hear Sister Wendy discuss the results.

Realistically, when you’re up there your eyes are glued to the splendor that’s enveloping you! When the couple looks at the camera the image loses it’s compelling fixation on the mountain. When you’re there, just as in the picture, it feels like you can reach out and touch it. In my picture I worked to transcend the basic experience of being dropped off on the side of a mountain by helicopter, and tried to capture gesture and pair forms that form an allegory for the wedding experience.  I was looking for body language that helped describe the awe we all felt.

It’s funny how every time I hand out the business card with this image on it, the response is - “did you photoshop the background?” Nope, I was really there - and the story of this image, doesn’t just begin when the shutter clicked. You see, it was my vision to wait until the very last minute to get the sunset on the mountain. In this position, we’re in danger of being surrounded by clouds moving up the mountain. Here’s Nigel, our pilot on the lookout for clouds coming in.

The only reason we were able to make this picture is because of Nigel’s experience, daring and willingness. He told us that on his warning we would have to be back in the chopper within 1 minute, because if a cloud covers us - we can’t take off - because the pilot flys visually. The helicopter is perched on loose stones, and Nigel got out and propped us up with extra stones before he would let us get out. The helicopter is idling with the blades spinning so we can make a quick takeoff. On the port side of the bird, there’s probably only two meters to the edge of the cliff from the rotor tips. So Nigel has made a pretty difficult landing at my request, so that I can capture this scene.

From this angle, you can see the clouds at our elevation across the valley.

Oh boy wouldn’t I have loved to had the time to get to the Tasman Peak & Ben Ohau Mountain Range side of the valley to land the couple on the west facing ridges - but that will have to wait until next time. From that side I could get more of the turquoise hues of the glacially fed Lake Pukaki also. Just plan your destination wedding at the Luxurious Mt. Cook Hermitage Hotel and I’ll be there to make unforgettable images with you!

So as a bride which would you be satisfied with a few snapshots from the top of the mountain, or would you want something that transcended your experience? something with allegorical intent?

A few more teaser shots while I work on the multimedia presentation…

Rebecca’s preparation

I tie Joel’s necktie for him.

Joel awaits takeoff for his mountainside wedding.

Just one more teaser post before the full set of images are available at www.MakeLoveReal.com

Wendy & Billy finalized their album from their Adirondack mountains destination wedding. Liesl and I were both there to capture this amazing event, it’s so fun when clients hire us to work together. You may recognize their mountain sized photos populating the rotating headers here in the journal, or recognize them from their preview gallery from September 16th, 2006. Sometimes it takes a while to get to greatness……

…..over a year later I hope it shows in their album design.