Studio Vérité Photography

Since we are in the season of resolutions I want to renew a commitment to share on this blog more of the personal photographs I make of my life.  So that said I have compiled a few quick portraits of my brothers and my mom.  Living here in Chicago, a few thousand miles away from my hometown of Portland, Oregon, I only got to visit my family once in 2009.  Which quite frankly, kind of sucks.  But I made good use of my short visit by convincing everyone to venture outside for an impromptu portrait shoot.  At my house family pictures are always painful, but everyone played nice for the camera.  Pictured here are Terri, Me, Chris, and Alex.  Here’s to getting back to Portland, Oregon more than once this year.

Despite being a week before Christmas, it was beautiful weather for our Pacific Beach engagement shoot. It was my last photo shoot of the year and it was a lot of fun. We started off the evening on a river path with their adorable dog and finished at the beach during sunset. I wanted to share a few of my favorite images.

For my final wedding of 2009 I was lucky enough to shoot another destination wedding in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico, last week. This time is was Allyson and Nigel’s wedding at the Cabo Surf Hotel, a boutique hotel located at one of the best surf spots in the area. Allyson is a friend I attended the Brooks Institute of Photography with years ago and is a successful wedding photographer herself in San Francisco. Since the groom is from New Zealand, many of the guests were Kiwi. They made this wedding even more unique by performing a traditional Maori dance during the reception. I was honored to have been asked to cover her beautiful wedding day and to have had the chance to meet all their friend’s and family that came from around world to support them and their union.

-Kristy

I wanted to share some beautiful and some amusing images from Megan and David’s wedding at The Woman’s Club of Evanston earlier in November.

Enjoy!

Justin

I wanted to post a portrait I liked from Nikki and Sean’s wedding outside The Ultimate Skybox in downtown San Diego earlier this year. The photo is really simple but is different that a lot of photos I take. Thanks!

-Kristy

Here are some photos from the wedding day of Michelle and Tony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. With the help of photographer Michelle Kate LaVigne, I tried to capture the story of their wedding day as well as show off the destination location. I chose just a few of my favorites from the shoot.

-Kristy

. . .and thanks to Michelle Kate LaVigne for this great idea about how to display the rings above.

Destination weddings are fantastic! And I had the honor of shooting Michelle and Tony’s destination wedding in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, earlier this month, with the help of my good friend and fellow photojournalist/wedding photographer, Michelle Kate LaVigne. The first day of shooting was spent covering the rehearsal dinner which was a sunset dinner cruise . We weren’t complaining! Here are some fun shots we captured from that evening. Up next, the beautiful beach wedding!

-Kristy

Here it is!  An afternoon spent in Chicago with Micaela and Dan.  We visited the Fulton Street Bridge area, Mag Mile, and the Lurie Gardens which happens to be the exact location Dan asked Micaela to be his wife.  Congratulations to both you!  The images were worth the $50 parking ticket. Doh!  (I so should have taken Micaela and Dan’s advice to feed the meter).  Oh well.  Enjoy the images.

Once again I just wanted to post a photo I captured at a wedding that I shot at Leow’s Coronado Bat resort this summer. There was no shortage of great dancing photos from this crowd. I think I was laughing behind the camera the whole night!

-Kristy

I knew when I committed to photographing Aleese and Brandon’s wedding I was undertaking a tremendous responsibility.  Aleese told me she was really looking forward to having great pictures of her family and friends getting together to celebrate a joyous occasion.  She explained that in the recent years her family had only been brought together in mourning.  In 2006 Aleese’s father, James, past away.  With the memory of her father’s passing in the not-so-distant past,  Aleese wanted to surround herself with family and loved ones in celebration of love and life.  And party they did.  Their wedding boasted one of the most rowdy and energetic dance floors I have photographed. But amidst the elation there was also a somber moment.  Aleese invited me to join the family as they paid tribute to James at his headstone just before the ceremony. It was there that I made a frame that I consider the most important wedding photograph I have yet to make.

Aleese and Brandon, it was a privilege documenting your wedding.   Thank you.

My best,

Justin

Aleese and Brandon make their entrance.  A great frame from my second shooter, freelance photojournalist and wedding photographer Ryan Rayburn.