CBP BOOKLET 072014 Jul. 2014 | Page 5

The path that led me into wedding photography may surprise you. It was never something I planned. In the beginning of my career, I wanted to be an awardwinning photojournalist for a big wig reporting magazine like National Geographic. My heroes were people like Steven McCurry and my dream was to travel into forbidden countries, photographing real people, and sharing their stories with the rest of the world. One day, a friend asked if I would photograph her wedding. at the time, i had no experience photographing weddings. But as much as I resisted, she just kept asking...until I finally agreed. a few weddings after that, I began to realize that documenting weddings brought me an incredible sense of joy that I had never experienced before. I couldn’t help feeling like documenting wedding stories was where I belonged. I used to think it was only important to make people aware of the world’s despair. But the more weddings I photographed, the more I saw how reminding people of the love in the world was just as crucial, if not moreso... While I still look for opportunities to photograph people who otherwise would not have a voice, I continue to passionately pursue the true, beautiful love story and retell it as I see it. 05 / Introductions