It’s not very often you get to shoot the wedding of someone you babysat. But that’s the case with this one. I remember Spencer when he was a rambunctious little guy who wanted to talk about nothing other than baseball. I must be getting old because now that kid went & got married & I think we barely even discussed the current horrors of the Mariners. In other words, it was pretty cool to be able to photograph Spencer & Tara’s wedding. Not only that, Since Spencer & I share a few cousins I got to hang out with Emma & Deonna a little too.

I don’t think there’s much I can say that the photos don’t other than the wedding took place at one of my favorite places on earth, Tacoma’s Point Defiance (I think I’ve mentioned that a few times before)! I loved the uniqueness of the whole day. The orange & gray colors were perfect. I love Converse shoes & the fact that they matched Spencer’s tie & even the wallpaper in his room was a nice touch.

Then there’s the Donuts. Mmmm, donuts as Homer would say. Spencer & Tara met while she was in line buying donuts for her class so they’re a pretty important part of their relationship (I wish I had a reason, any reason, to like donuts like that). These donuts were brilliantly good & they were specially prepared for the bride & groom by Legendary Doughnuts.

Since this was the third of four weddings that weekend (& the only one west of the mountains) we didn’t have time to shoot the “day after session” the  day after their wedding. So we’ll call it a “week after” session since I had a Seattle wedding the next weekend. We decided to meet up in downtown Tacoma & hang around the Museum of Glass. I loved the challenge of trying to take unique portraits in a location that’s so loved by photographers. I’ll let you decide whether I succeeded or not. Regardless, we had a blast & these two super-photogenic subjects were a great inspiration.

Photos from the “Day (week) After Session” we had in downtown Tacoma.

A bit of radness: over the past few months, Matt Shumate Photography has been featured all over wedding blogs on the web. I’m honored to be featured, as are my brides. I’d love it if you’d click on the links & leave some love over on the various websites that are willing to feature the weddings & portrait sessions of my clients.

The Wedding Chicks Post

The Original Post on my website

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The GSS Post

The Original Post on my website

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The Apple Brides Post

The Original Post on my website

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The Spokane Bride Blog Post

The Original Post on my website

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The Apple Brides Blog Post

The Original Post on my website

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The Spokane Bride Blog Blog Post

The Original Post on my website

Trust is a great thing.

This was one of my all time favorite sessions I’ve had because of that reason. These guys trusted everything I threw their way. They know it was my job to make them look good. I think trust goes both ways too. I trusted that they would work with what ever I threw their way and they’d just work it. Plus I trusted that they’d look as fantastic in the camera as they do outside of it.

On our way to the first location I told them that the pressure is on me when I have great looking clients, because if something goes wrong and the pictures don’t look fantastic, I don’t have any excuses. I didn’t have any excuses. Danielle mentioned that she didn’t feel terribly comfortable in front of the camera. Never has there been a person who had less reason to be uncomfortable getting photos taken. Danielle has a perfect face for photos. No offense to Cory—he can hold his own (he’s family, what am I supposed to say?), but Danielle is stunning. Fortunately, trust came in to play and 5 minutes in, they forgot about the camera and did what they do best—look good.

One of the reasons for the wedding dress shots was that they made the cardinal mistake of hiring somebody they weren’t in love with as their wedding photographer. To all of you future brides reading this, take heed. The pictures suffered because of it and they ended up with wedding photos that they don’t really enjoy. The only solution was to get the photos after the fact—I’m glad they entrusted me with that. Because of it, I took some of my favorite photos I’ve ever shot.

This also technically counts as a “Trash the Dress” session. Notice they didn’t really ruin the dress, they just made the photos the priority rather than keeping the dress immaculate.

After covering my camera—and feet in ocean water and sand (you can tell my camera is wet in the left side of photo #5. See the softness around her dress—wet lens. Also you can see the fog/rain in the atmosphere behind Cory’s head) we headed back so they could change and take some head shots before heading out to the bridge. We only got to shoot a few minutes since the rain started coming down and my lights kind of frown on that.

I hope you enjoy looking at these as much as I enjoyed making them. Cory & Danielle, You guys freaking rocked it. I’m glad I had the chance to work with you.

Thanks to Gina for her help carrying lights and holding them down so they didn’t blow away on this wet & windy day.