I Photographer: Bridal Traveler

Dateline Quito, Ecuador, just after events that were alternately reported as a military coup, presidential kidnapping and/or police uprising. The streets were under military rule, so there were tons of army personnel walking around with machine guns. My co-shooter and I both thought it would be great to shoot our happy couple with a machine-gun-toting military guy, so we asked permission, and he let us pop off maybe four shots before nodding us away. Heavy post-processing makes this look almost like a composite, but it’s presented as shot. Another image taken in India, this time at the fabled Lake Palace in Udaipur. The hotel is accessible only by boat, and you can only visit the hotel if you are a guest or have advance permission. This image was taken while the bride was getting ready. It’s rare to find a South Asian bride with bright blue eyes, but this bride’s father and sister also have blue eyes. This image has been published numerous times. I try to make friends wherever I go, and the owner of this carpet store in Istanbul, Turkey, was particularly hospitable, inviting us up for tea and hours of conversation. I asked if I could bring my couple by the next day to take a few shots on his seventh-floor balcony, but kept thinking that I’d like to make my bride and groom into mannequins in his store window. So that’s what we did. We worked out the mannequin poses for 10 minutes before putting them into the window display. A quick shot in the souks in Marrakech, Morocco. The bride and groom were running late, so we had only a few minutes. I brought the masks from home, and couldn’t wait for an opportunity to use them. The souks provided a perfect backdrop, and the fact that the bride wore a red dress added a bit of drama. I met this girl when she was a charming hostess at a local restaurant near my house. A few months later, she called and asked me to shoot her wedding. She wore Hello Kitty jewelry and had goth bridesmaids; this photo of her crying is one of my favorites from her wedding. Yet another shot from Istanbul, Turkey. As a crowd gathered, these three guys just kept sitting and smoking. I asked the bride to go sit close to them to see what they would do, and they didn’t move one bit. I asked her to vamp it up, and got a great range of shots. My tattooed bride loves photography, and she and I have made great friends. Her rocker/tattoo artist husband and his band played at the reception, which took place at the California Institute of Abnormal Arts. George Pajon is the guitarist for the Black Eyed Peas. His wedding to the stunning Naomi Medina took place in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and was featured on WETV’s Platinum Weddings. If you look just over his shoulder, you can see Fergie and Josh Duhamel. It’s always fun when 50 goats walk into the middle of your day-after shoot in India. I still recall the sounds their little clacking hooves made on the street. This image appeared on the cover of Professional Photographer in 2005. It was an image from the first Indian wedding I ever photographed, and landing the cover was just huge. I took this image while second shooting for a friend. Since launching my studio, I think this is the only time I’ve second shot for somebody and asked to display the image on my own site. It’s still a favorite of mine, and hangs in my studio. This delightful bride married Jeff Caplan, founder of the Digital Wedding Forum, which I co-moderate. This image was taken in the Neon Sign Boneyard in Las Vegas. An image taken in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.