An autumn elopement that started on the bluff at Elk Flats and finished with the tide out at Hug Point. Two people, a short walk between the two, and the coast doing what it does in October.Days like this are why I keep the coverage loose. Nothing here was called out or arranged. I stayed close, stayed quiet, and let the light off the water do the rest.

A fall elopement on the Oregon Coast, from the headland at Elk Flats down to the tide caves at Hug Point.

Elk Flats and Hug Point

A full summer wedding day at The Griffin House, with the Columbia River sitting below the ceremony and the hills going gold behind it as the evening came in.The parts I care about most on a day like this are the ones nobody plans: a parent steadying themselves before the aisle, the pause between the vows, the first minute alone afterwards.

A summer wedding above the Columbia River, at a hillside venue in Hood River.

The Griffin House

Loloma Lodge sits in the trees on the McKenzie, and a wedding there stops feeling like an event and starts feeling like a long weekend with everyone you love.Weekend celebrations are some of my favourite work. There is time for the day to breathe, and the photographs stop being about the schedule and start being about the people.

A wedding in the woods along the McKenzie River in central Oregon.

Loloma Lodge

An hour on the sand at Cannon Beach with the sun dropping behind Haystack Rock. Barefoot, mostly walking, occasionally getting wet.Engagement sessions are the best rehearsal there is. By the time the wedding comes around, being photographed is no longer a thing you have to think about.

An engagement session on the sand at Cannon Beach, shot into the last hour of light.

Cannon Beach at Golden Hour

An early start on the little peninsula at Government Cove, with the Gorge still holding mist and almost nobody else awake.Sunrise is worth the alarm. You get the light, you get the quiet, and you get the whole rest of the day to yourselves afterwards.

A sunrise elopement on the peninsula at Government Cove, in the Columbia River Gorge.

Government Cove

Vows in the mountains, a tent, and a night spent where the ceremony happened. No venue, no timeline beyond the weather and the light.Elopements like this need real planning underneath the spontaneity, permits, conditions, how long the walk in actually takes. That planning is part of what I do.

An elopement spent camping in the North Cascades, carried in on foot.

North Cascades

The Pacific a long way down, wind coming straight up the cliff, and two people getting married on the edge of it.Big Sur gives you almost nothing to hide behind, which is exactly why it works. What is left in the frame is the two of them and a very large amount of ocean.

A clifftop elopement on the Big Sur coast in California.

Big Sur

Red sand, sandstone the size of buildings, and a wedding held somewhere that makes everyone go quiet for a moment when they first see it.I grew up overseas and I have never really stopped travelling for work. If your day is happening a long way from Oregon, that is not a complication, it is the whole appeal.

A wedding in the desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan.

Wadi Rum

Eucalyptus haze over the valleys in the Blue Mountains, and an elopement that took full advantage of it.Travelling to photograph a day like this is one of the real privileges of the job. Somewhere neither of us knows well, and a whole day to find it together.

An elopement in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia.

Blue Mountains

Standing close enough to Skogafoss to be soaked through within about a minute, which is more or less the correct way to do it.Iceland asks you to give up on staying dry and staying warm. Once that decision is made, the photographs get much better.

A couples session at the foot of a waterfall on the south coast of Iceland.

Skogafoss

The Tetons come up out of flat ground with no warning at all, and there is no photograph that quite prepares you for standing under them.Sessions in the national parks are worth planning properly, light, permits, and where everyone else will be. Getting that right buys you the quiet.

A couples session below the Teton range in Wyoming.

Grand Teton

A wedding in the city, in a building with good bones and better light, put together by two people with a clear eye for how they wanted the day to look.Not every wedding wants a mountain behind it. A room full of people who know each other well is its own kind of landscape.

An artful city wedding at a converted building in Portland, Oregon.

The Baker Building

A session built around the van these two actually live in, out in the desert at Joshua Tree, ending with the light going pink over the rocks.Photographing people inside their own life rather than in front of a backdrop is nearly always the better decision.

A van life couples session in the California desert at Joshua Tree.

Joshua Tree

Red canyon walls straight out of green water, a houseboat, and a couple of days of swimming between photographs.Some of the best frames I have made came from sessions where the camera was down for long stretches. People forget about you eventually. That is the point.

A houseboat session on the water at Lake Powell, Utah.

Lake Powell

Up early, up high, and married in the meadows below Rainier with the wildflowers out and the mountain fully clear, which it very often is not.A hiking elopement is a real day out. Boots, weather layers, a pack, and a ceremony somewhere that took effort to reach.

A summer elopement hiked into Mount Rainier National Park.

Mount Rainier

A wedding with a guest list you could fit around one table, held on the coast, with dinner afterwards in the house they had rented.Small weddings tend to be the warmest ones I photograph. Nobody is performing, because there is no crowd to perform for.

An intimate wedding for a handful of guests on the Oregon Coast.