About Me
My family and I...
Live near Kansas City. My wife, Anna Marie, and I have been married since 2010. Time has flown by and the Lord has blessed us with six delightful children: Joshua (2012), Ruthanne (2014), Lydia (2015), Daniel (2016), Elizabeth (2018), and Simon Peter (2020).
Anna Marie actually helped me photograph several weddings in the first few years of our marriage. While we're not generally able to work together as a team anymore, we sure had a blast at those few weddings!
Growing up...
I always said I wanted to wait until I was 30 to get married. I felt I had a lot of maturing to do, and I wanted to wait on God for the right person. I met the right person in 2010 (when I was 31 years old), and she happened to live in Washington state! Thus began a long distance relationship which soon led to long distance wedding planning.
While I always knew that wedding planning was a lot of work and a lot of decisions, it wasn't until my wife and I were planning our wedding that I was able to experience that for myself. Wow. I could now identify with the couples whose weddings I had been a part of!
Our wedding was on a beautiful October day in Washington state - and we wouldn't change anything about it. My brother Joseph, and her brother Michael, did an amazing job with our wedding photos.
Since then it has been a joy and delight to be together. We love our expanding family and are grateful to the Lord for each little blessing He has entrusted to us!
Our wedding. October 23, 2010.
Little Lydia!
Daniel, our 4th, is always up for an adventure.
Joshua, our firstborn.
Ruthanne with her mischevious little smile.
How it all started...
When I graduated in 1997 my grandparents gave me a $250 graduation gift to spend on whatever I wanted. Two years prior to that, my older brother spent his graduation gift on a camera, and that sounded like a great idea to me. I hadn't really been interested in photography up until then, but I began researching cameras. I ended up purchasing a 35mm Nikon N90s camera and lens. The journey had begun!
I began taking pictures of everything: family, friends, church events - you name it! In 1999 a family friend had a friend who was getting married. The bride-to-be asked our friend, who wasn't a photographer but did do Creative Memory Scrapbooking, to take the photos. The friend recommended me as the photographer - and it was a perfect fit for my first wedding.
The couple were thrilled with the photos, and I had an absolute blast photographing their wedding!
Thank you David and Michelle for allowing me to photograph your wedding!
Prior to the wedding I asked the groom what photo was most important to him. His reply? The recessional.
The Second Wedding
As I was growing up, a number of years my family was able to take an annual trip to the mountains in Colorado. We would stay in a cabin at a small Christian Conference Center during the off season. In the year 2000, as my parents were reserving the cabin, the conference center staff mentioned that the day we would be arriving an outdoor wedding would be down by the ponds.
While some of my siblings were a little disappointed that they would need to wait until our second day in Colorado to begin using the kayaks, I began wondering if the wedding had a photographer. I can still remember thinking to myself, "Surely they do - every wedding that is only 2 months away already has a photographer!" Eventually I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, and a message was passed through the conference center staff to the couple. I said I loved photography, had photographed a wedding, and that if they didn't have a photographer I would love to show them some sample photos. The reply came back that they needed a photographer and wanted me to take the photos!
My whole family drove out to Colorado a day early that year, and what an amazing second wedding it was for me to photograph. A stunning location, an amazing couple, and bright sunshine made for a day I'll always remember.
Thank you Keith and Sharon for allowing me to photograph your wedding!