Associate Photographers

 

The person you meet with to plan your wedding photography will be the one actually taking pictures on the wedding day.

 

Wedding Photographer Information Home

James Warden writes -

"I remember very well when I first became interested in photography. One Christmas my Auntie Murb gave her brother, my dad, the entire Time-Life Library of Photography. He had always enjoyed taking pictures, and as a youth, he had even moonlighted doing portraits. My father still had a lot of his old equipment in the basement including a Century Graphics 2-1/4 x 3-1/4 press camera. This mysterious machine, along with the strangely labeled bottles, lenses, cables, light meters and other denizens of the darkroom, made photography seem like an impossibly complex process that I would never even begin to understand.

"When I began to look at the images in the Time-Life books I finally saw the end result of having all this equipment and I was hooked! That was over 25 years ago and I am still hooked.

"My first camera was a 110 pocket camera (remember those?) My first real camera was a Canon Canonet GIII QL. I loved that camera and used it for many years. In the Canon catalog that came in the box, my GIII was listed as their simplest and least expensive model. The catalog also showed the top-of-the-line Canon F-1. For many years I dreamed of owning their flagship model, and then happily used four of them in my arsenal until I went digital. Now I have migrated over to Leica's M-system for film and digital shooting.

"My trusty F-1s and I have been working together professionally since I graduated from the University of Chicago in 1990. There I served as the Photo Editor of the student newspaper. During my years at United Parcel Service I worked the late shift so I spent my days either behind the camera or in the darkroom. I had many opportunities to refine my skills as a black and white photojournalist when I worked for The Center For Neighborhood Technology, The Chicago Defender and other organizations. These assignments took me to every nook and cranny of the city, and through that I learned how to shoot creatively and quickly in chaotic situations.

"My next period of growth as a photographer was when I worked at a photo processing lab. Until this time I had been working mainly at black and white photojournalism. Now, I was immersed in the world of color wedding photography. By meeting many wedding photographers and helping them with their prints and enlargements, I was able to see countless examples of what did and did not succeed as wedding photography. My hands-on knowledge of the production process that takes place "behind the curtain" at photo labs is invaluable when I'm on location capturing the images. I'm fortunate to have a chance to apply my photojournalism and photo processing knowledge in the service of wedding customers. Working with experienced photographers like Datu means I'm always learning about the business of photography while still enjoying the art of photography."