Morgan Lynn Razi: Best Wedding Photographers 2013

Morgan Lynn Razi met both of her great loves— photography and her husband-to-be—when she was just 15 years old. By the time she was a fine-art photography and business student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, she was already shooting weddings—never mind that her sideline didn’t impress her instructors or peers. “I didn’t feel like it was a cool, hip thing to do,” she says. But she combined her artistic training with a meticulous technical approach—and came into her own just as wedding photography was becoming more respected. “Now it’s a really desirable job to get into,” she says.

Even more than her photographic skills, it’s her affinity for great love stories that allows her to bring out the beauty in each event. “I get excited and inspired by people’s joy and emotion, and by people who are in love,” she says. “I can really relate to that, because I’ve been so lucky in love.” The couple are now based in Houston, where her husband, Amir, has recently started shooting with her full-time.

Razi applies her technical skill in the Houston event halls where receptions with elaborate and varied lighting are often held, seeing the possibilities in challenges that many photographers would find daunting. Her view reflects the sanguine attitude she has toward every wedding she captures: “I probably have rose-colored glasses on,” she says, “but I want to believe that these are two people who are insanely in love with each other.”

See the rest of our Best Wedding Photographers of 2013 list here.