January 7th, 2011:

You know, back in the day… (insert voice of a grizzled old curmudgeon here), I always wanted to find a girl who would work until she develops blisters on her feet, a cramped index finger and a knot in her right shoulder the size of a tennis ball – and then, after all that,  decides to come home with me.  I my have have given it the old college try whilst bartending, but I never could find that perfect uncomplaining and dedicated girl.  So instead I packed my bags, and told the world I was leaving (…or arriving depending on which continent you were on in 2006).   Then, it was a 1 1/2 years and 17 countries later when I bumped into Felicia in the Tibetan Steppe.

All of the sudden, here was a woman who (against all advice of family and friends) wanted to see Tibet, so she proceeded to pack her backpack and head into a foreign third world country alone with just her wits and a camera.  She was willing to brave stomach viruses, altitude sickness and a crass American, to make the most out of the few months she had to spare before taking up her post as a diplomat.  Unfortunately for her, I was that crass American (although I will still contest that I am boisterous/excitable, not crass), and after a few days we began to see things in each other we didn’t think existed for us as individuals.   We were happy together.  A couple weeks later I asked a question that I still feel is the defining moment of our relationship.

“Do you want to go to Mongolia with me?” I said as casually as possible, hoping my voice wouldn’t crack and give away my sincerity.

Now, it may sound like nothing, but to me it was committing to someone at that point in time when I committed to very little, I knew if I asked that question and she said “Yes.”, we were in for a very serious long distance relationship.  Needless to say she did give me that “Yes.“, and after a few more amazing weeks together we had to part.

The story continues (and you can read about it all over the older posts of this blog), but to summarize, we spent quite a bit of time/money on Skype, I went to Singapore to meet her family, she came to California to meet my family, we traveled through South America, I went to live in Singapore for a while, she gave up her exceptionally esteemed post as a diplomat, then we were married. We finally settled in our 1940’s house in downtown Burbank.

Now that you know the back story I can get to the point of all these wedding pictures that are posted here today. These are all Felicia’s pictures.

She shoots almost all our weddings alongside me, capturing details that I may overlook, providing another prospective to our work, capturing new angles and providing me with such amazing amounts of support by just being there. Many times while editing images from a wedding, I can’t recall if she or I took a particular image and must ask (we tend to constantly pass our cameras back and forth depending on the lens that each of us wants to use to get the shot, so on one memory card is both of our work).  I find more and more my vision is definitely becoming OUR vision.   She watches me work and tends to know if I’ll be asking for something before I usually do, and likewise, If I know she can get a shot when I can’t be there, I have complete faith in her creative skills.

So, I guess you can call this a public “Thank You” to my wife who works tirelessly behind the scenes, while my name is on the door (or website as it were), and I take the bulk of the credit.   This is just a small sampling of her work,  many more are mixed throughout the blog and wedding galleries on our site.

AND…. at the end of the day she comes home with me! (Although, most of the time she won’t touch me because I tend to sweat over the course of a 14 hour wedding day and I may not be at my most fragrant)