Monique and Carlos married in New Zealand, and the coast did most of the work. We walked down to the beach in the last of the afternoon light and used the cliff face as the backdrop.Destination days like this one are photographed the same way as any other: a lot of watching, very little arranging, and enough space for the two of them to forget the camera is there.

A destination wedding on the New Zealand coast, photographed against the ochre cliffs above the beach.

Monique & Carlos

Madeline and Mikell married in the Oregon woods. The light came through the trees late in the day and turned everything gold, which is the kind of thing you wait for rather than plan.This frame happened between the ceremony and dinner, with no direction given beyond pointing them toward the light.

An Oregon forest wedding, photographed in warm light among the trees.

Madeline & Mikell

Lauren and Edmond married at Hummingbird Nest Ranch in Southern California, a property with enough room to let a wedding day spread out and breathe.Their engagement session was shot earlier in Joshua Tree, so by the wedding day we already knew how the two of them move together.

A California wedding at Hummingbird Nest Ranch.

Lauren & Edmond

Sabina and Tyler built their wedding around a festival, which meant a long day, a loud night, and very little standing still.Days with this much going on are documentary work almost end to end. You stay close, keep the camera up, and let the day set the pace.

Sabina & Tyler

Kelli and Carson's day was covered the way most are here: digital throughout, with film mixed in where it suited the light.The quiet frames are usually the ones couples come back to, so they get as much attention as the parts everyone expects.

A wedding day photographed close in, on digital and film.

Kelli & Carson

Erika and Christian cut the cake in cowboy hats, well after dark, with the reception going on around them.Black and white suits the back half of a wedding night. It keeps the mixed lighting out of the way and leaves you with the moment itself.

Cake and cowboy hats, photographed in black and white after dark.

Erika & Christian

CeCe and Ben wanted a record of the day rather than a set of poses, which is the brief most couples give here.There is still direction during portraits, but once the day is running the work is mostly staying out of the way and paying attention.

A wedding day photographed in a natural, documentary style.

CeCe & Ben

Halie and Thad shot their engagement session out on the Olympic Peninsula first, which is the best possible warm-up for a wedding day.By the time the wedding came around, the camera had stopped being a thing either of them noticed.

A Pacific Northwest wedding, photographed after an Olympic Peninsula engagement session.

Halie & Thad

Danielle and Vic's engagement session was made in the redwoods near Trinidad, on the far northern California coast.Sessions like this are calm and unhurried. We walk, we talk, and the pictures come out of that rather than out of a shot list.

An engagement session among the redwoods on the Northern California coast.

Danielle & Vic

A bridal session photographed in the sandstone above Page, Arizona, with a Galia Lahav gown and a canyon that does most of the composing for you.The desert southwest is a regular stop, and sessions out here are usually built around the first or last hour of light.

A bridal portrait session in the sandstone canyons of northern Arizona.

Bridal, Page

Gabby and Jake shot their engagement session in the canyons outside Los Angeles, up where the light goes long and warm in the evening.An engagement session is the easiest way to get comfortable in front of a camera before a wedding day, which is why it is worth doing.

An engagement session in the California canyons.

Gabby & Jake

Natalie's maternity session was made indoors on a plain floor, with one window and nothing else in the frame.Maternity work is the quietest thing in the calendar. No production, no styling to speak of, just enough time for it to stop feeling like a session.

A maternity session photographed in black and white, in a quiet studio.

Natalie

Carly and Dell went up to a mountain lake for their maternity session, which is a fair distance to walk for a photograph and worth every step.Sessions outdoors are timed around the light rather than the diary. Early or late, and never in the middle of the day.

Carly & Dell

Leticia's maternity session was photographed in New York, a long way from Seattle and worth the flight.Travel is a normal part of the year here, for portrait sessions as much as for weddings.