Sippo Lake, Ohio Adventure
Long hugs every morning. Spending time taking in the sunshine. Good food. And family. That's what's important to Corinne & Justin. To these two life is, as Corinne put it, either a daring adventure or nothing at all. The why is important to them. They never want to forget the experiences and people that brought them to where they are, they never want to forget all the love that surrounds them as they embark on a new journey together.
The girls on Holiday | Malibu, California
El Matador Beach Editorial
El Matador Beach is one of three cove and cliff beaches along the Pacific Crest Highway in the Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach. It's one of the most beautiful places we've ever been. Although it's beauty is no secret, this beach draws photographers from all over, all of the time. In the summer and at golden hour the small portion of beach is peppered with photographers and awe-seekers trying to catch that moment when the golden California sun sinks low enough to just barely touch the mountains behind, creating a magical glow over the cliffs that drapes around everything and turns into a blue and white emulsion of sparkles off the water. It's a busy and bustling place but if you time it just right, you'll find a bit of solitude. Once the road-rippers have made their way back to their cars and the picnickers have headed back to LA, it's then that this place can really been seen for what it is.
This editorial shoot came together without much planning at all. My high school friend Crystal lives near Malibu and her two girl-friends had been on holiday that week visiting her. We planned to meet at sunset with cameras and a cooler full of snacks and this is what happened!
Rachel (above) is an aspiring model and would love to be hired for future editorial, commercial and fashion shoots. Get ahold of her at rjrufener@msn.com
Of all the places that I've been...
I'm no place with out you....
That's the song lyric. That's the thought I've been finding myself thinking as each day and each adventure comes to it's end. Today, I'm 30. This summer marks our 10th anniversary together. We're feeling a bit excited about this new chapter. Getting older is never easy because it's just one less day...one less year that we get to spend doing life this way... but I'm so thankful for my 30 years and especially that the last 10 of them have been spent with Justin at my side every. single. step of the way. This next chapter is going to be quite a story. It took us 10 years to figure things out but this chapter is going to be the best one yet. This chapter looks a lot like this: Us, together, loving life, living with intention, traveling when and where we want, staying an extra night just because, drinking bloody mary's at every opportunity and cuddling, always cuddling. My birthday advice today is to find your people and love them hard, do what you want and find what makes you crazy passionate, forget the norm, the standard, the socially acceptable...do you and do it with someone who loves you and makes you feel like the best human you can be!
This chapter looks like a lot like this....
(HUGE hugs and thank you's to our new friends Nate & Amanda Howard for capturing this adventure for us in Malibu last month, we had the raddest time, learned so much, saw the dopest sunset over the coast and made new adventure friends...thanks guys!)
Tim & Holleh | Redondo Beach, CA
Every so often we get a unique opportunity to travel for work. It's been becoming more of a frequent thing and we love that. It's been a goal of ours to have our work serve as a way for us to see the world. We love to travel to begin with but when we can travel AND document a story for an awesome couple like Holleh & Tim, well that's exactly what we want to be doing with our business and with our life.
This is a unique story for me to share because the groom is family. It's a long and involved, coming of age story that Tim and I share as cousins. We shared laughter, shared friends and shared tears over fond memories. But over the years, as adults do, we got busy with our own lives. Miles between us and a collection of life events shared over facebook but I've always looked up to Tim as a beacon of positivity...and comic relief even in hard times. To say that I was ecstatic when they agreed to let us shoot their wedding in California would be an understatement. I was honestly jumping. We had the pleasure of meeting Holleh when we got to California and she's literally the sweetest, most sincere and loving person ever. She was complimenting US the whole time we were doing her portraits. Ha! And I saw so much joy and so much love between these two. As always, it's an honor to document such a joyful day for two people but especially more so when they're your family.
From the East to the West
Adventures of this magnitude always take time to put into words. Those words are coming. And so are many, many
more photographs from our travels from the East to the West coast and back home!
For now, this...
Kaitlin + John | Brookside Farms, Ohio
I knew when we met Kaitlin & John that their wedding would be one that fits right in with our vibe of living and documenting the most authentic stories. They're a laid back, loving couple that planned a day as equally laid back and loving. The timeline was slow and casual and left time for them to spend the day with all their favorite people. Their joy shines in every single photograph and it was real. They made memories and we were honored to be the ones to witness and savor it for them!
Coast to Coast!
"Because there's nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline,
no matter how many times it's sent away"
- Sarah Kay
The winter season is way way over. We woke up this week and it's summer and we're wasting no time getting around to adventures of all kinds. We're road tripping east with our friends for their wedding on Hilton Head Island next week, then a quick stop in Savannah and Charleston before we set off the California coast for a wedding and a week's worth of exploring and shooting.
The mountains AND the ocean are calling and we must go!
Lakeside Love
Carmen + Tommy
Evidence that love is the greatest adventure.
These two have obvious chemistry. An energy that can't be concealed.
The adventure is over in STORIES.
Home in the Heartland
Where I'm from the back roads spread like veins between acres and acres of family-owned farmland much like the place we wandered around on last week with Angela & Donny. We're from the same small town and we share a love of the not-so-small heartland that surrounds it. This old falWe're so excited for their wedding in September!
I'll keep you warm
"And I, will hold you tight, like the moon in the arms of the sky
And I, will keep you warm, I will build a fire in this house"
Sarah + Chuck
Backroads & Rooftops, Somewhere, Ohio
The Artist
I was driving the other day thinking about artists and their work. Artists are blessed or burdened, depending on how they look at it, with passionately feeling everything. Not only passionately feeling but passionately seeing everything about life. I'm starting to realize that I own some of those characteristics. I'm deeply affected by the simplest things. I can be overly passionate about a feeling and I'm easily transfixed by things most people pay no attention to. The other night in a caffeine induced insomnia, I started connecting the dots. In college I had a period where I painted emotive paintings with deep meaning to me. I lived and breathed inspiration that mused me to create more deeply and I made some of my favorite work during that time.
I don't necessarily see myself as an artist. I think I'll continue to strive for that. But I am starting to realize that my need to create is inherent. I'm starting to realize that my work is synced with my mood. With photography, I'm able to continually feel and see, so passionately, the romance and elusiveness of human connection and love and I try to make art out of it. I've come to see that I'm more an introvert, exhausted by crowds and happier in my own head. And I've come to realize that telling stories is my form of art. Our adventures, our photographs, our view and how we document love is our art.
If you asked me three years ago about my work, I would have said it was for our clients and for the purpose of savoring a moment. And all that is true. But now, it's for me too. It's for what I'm passionate about. When I can create a moody moment that induces a passionate feeling about anything and romance about that feeling...in the moment and in the photograph, then I am the artist.