2014 | Story Of Our Year

2014 began with a lot of uncertainty. This was going to be my first full year in business as a destination wedding photographer in Los Angeles and I needed to make it work, no excuses, no second chances. That type of pressure tends to focus the mind and with the support of my wonderful wife Clare I am able to look back at the last 12 months with great pride. When I look at what I’ve achieved, the people I’ve met, the far flung places I’ve visited and the incredible amount of once in a lifetime moments I’ve witnessed, I smile from ear to ear. It is honestly a job that offers endless satisfaction and I fall more in love with what I do with every wedding.

The year started better than I could have hoped for when I won a sought after Fearless Award for ‘that sparkler shot’. I have also just received a ‘2015 Best Of Wedding’ award from the knot.com which is no mean feat. If you’d told me last year that just one of those things would happen this year, I would have laughed in your face, loudly..

As many of you know, I actively market myself as a Destination Wedding Photographer available to shoot weddings all over the globe, and this year I started to see the benefits of that. In April I headed off to Bali for two Bali Destination Weddings in one week. We started with Julian and Stine’s wedding at the glorious Alila Ubud Hotel followed by the phenomenal cliffside wedding of Lauren and Paul overlooking Balangan Beach. Santa Barbara was my next (not so far away) destination for Julie and Nick’s beautiful beach wedding and then in May I headed to the UK for Jig and Emily’s two day wedding in London and during the same trip I got to work with Adam Johnson of ARJ Photography for Helen and Rob’s spectacular Byland Abbey wedding.

Over the summer period I got to take another trip back to Solvang for Erika and Walker’s stunning Santa Ynez Valley Vineyard wedding and many incredible weddings right here in the City of Angels. July saw me travel to the great state of Alaska for the first time. Jess and Dakota’s Alaska Destination Wedding at Crow Creek Mine combined with some personal travel time was just the most insane experience – I was totally hooked with the place and the people. Lucky for me I got to go back again, this time for Marilyn and Jonathan’s winter wonderland wedding last month.

A crazy September included Abigail and Chris’s Catalina Island wedding which was one of the best weekends of the year. I got to meet the most wonderful, genuine group of people and at the end of it all I came away with two very close friends who I hope will be in my life for a long time. Jen and Tari had the privilege of taking my same-sex wedding cherry down in Laguna Beach and in the process taught me so much about what weddings are all about or should be. So many other highlights of course, I simply can’t recount them all here but you get the picture – my year was a very good one and I know all of my couples will look back at 2014 with much fondness. I’m just very grateful to have played a small role in each of their special days and I’m very humbled they chose me in the first place. I’m also thankful for all the reviews every single couple took the time to write and just really happy to have met each and every one of you.

The following selection of images tell the story of 2014 through my eyes. Eyes that are tired and looking forward to a break from a long season of editing, eyes that cannot wait to see my family in the UK next week.  In 2015 I have ambitious goals to grow the business and to be recognized as one of the best wedding photographers in LA – I think they call that a stretch target.. One certainty is that I will get to work alongside more great couples experiencing priceless moments on the biggest day of their lives, many of whom I’ve not met yet, many of whom I will soon call friends.

One other thing I know for certain, there’s no turning back now.