STUDIO 1250 | Fine Art Wedding Photography | Charleston Weddings

While I was in Venice, Italy over Christmas break, I decided to create a fine art collection on “The Doorways of Venice”. I was walking around the island throughout the residential areas where the locals live when I began to notice the uniqueness of the doors I saw into the venetian’s homes. I wanted to showcase the vast differences of the doors in Venice from what is standard to us, in America. Venice is an historical city and the architecture portrays the age of this remarkable place. The goal the collection was to photograph each door in a way that maintains the same balance and framing throughout all the images but displays the vast differences of them all. To do this, I allowed the door itself to change as well as other elements within proximity of the door, but kept the framing consist throughout every image, creating flow from one to another. What do you think about the textures and natural erosion that has occurred over the years?

After 24 hours of airline transit that included stops in Washington D.C., Tokyo, and finally Bangkok, an 8 hour bus ride, and 2 hours in a pickup truck, we finally made it to our destination, Si Bun Rueang. What a crazy adventure this has been so far. I can’t describe to you what this place is like. It’s different than anything I have ever experienced or seen before. Here are just a couple things. People drive crazier than anywhere in America, including New York City and Los Angeles. Lines on the road are merely suggests than a law. Drivers go inside and out of them as if they weren’t even there. Drivers also drive on the shoulder as if it were an actual lane. The amount of Mopeds on the highway is equal to the number of automobiles. Oh and people continue to drive through an intersection even after the light has turned red. Everything is incredibly cheap here. A nice hotel with hot water and air conditioning costs $20. A bottle of water is $.50. An 8 hour bus ride including lunch was $12. Power-lines literally are everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE. The sad part, is that everything is extremely rundown, dirty, and unorganized. Somehow…I can’t understand how, but it manages to function and work for those who live here. The biggest problem is not having the ability to communicate with the Thai people. Thankfully we have Kwan, a local taking care of us. She’s totally awesome and Chris is going to have a very wonderful bride on 11-11-11. I can’t wait to shoot their wedding in a week. This is going to be an amazing time!!! I’m so thankful I get to be here and experience a totally different culture.

Photos from Bangkok.

Here is where we are.

The past few days have been incredibly exciting as we traveled to a few different places in Thailand to explore and take tons of Bride and Groom photos with Kwan and Chris. I’ve learned how good us American’s have it in the U.S. with our warm and cozy homes, air conditioning, hot water, sterile cooking and eating environments, traffic laws that protect us from reckless driving, and building codes that prohibit things from practically falling apart. Every American should come and see how these people live, it’s truly breathtaking, it would make you appreciate what you have. Another thing I’ve noticed is that inspite of how everyone lives, they are really happy people, most important things to them are working and enjoying the company of others. Here are some more interesting stuff about Thailand. It’s amazing how they manage to load their trucks so high in the air, somehow it stays put; how they have some of the most interesting custom made motorcycles I’ve ever see; the locals here make homemade things to sell like a bamboo stick filled with rice and sugar then slowly cooked; everyone seems to work for themselves or in the family ‘business’; even the richer people don’t have anything close to the stuff we have, they are blessed to have a washer to wash their closes in and hot water to take a shower with; none of the homes have air conditioning; everyone here works extremely hard for what little money they make; literally every food combination is served with/on top of rice; and lastly, bugs and insects are everywhere but it doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Thailand is a very different place from America, it’s great that I’m experiencing a different culture and a different lifestyle to the luxury American one we live in.

Check out the photos:

Not much to say here…I’m speechless when I see how these people live. But you wouldn’t believe how happy they are. They don’t know any different other than how they live. When we look at it, we think, oh my gosh how do they live like this, but to them it’s all they know so it’s normal. The most incredible thing is to see how excited they get when I come into ‘their world’ and take their photo. It’s like their world has just lit up. What an amazing feeling it is to know that it has literally made their day, you know they will never forget this moment. Photographing the local Thai people has been the highlight of this trip, especially today when we photographed the family that lives in the recycling/trash center. Yes they live there, it’s their business, just like every other Thai family. But to them it’s no big deal. They are content with what they have and rejoice in it. It’s truly humbling…

On Sunday, I drove up to the Smoky Mountains for another great weekend getaway. I had to escape the busyness of life and get to somewhere a little more relaxing and secluded than the city. I knew because of all the weddings I have coming up in October, this was my last chance to do so for awhile. I packed everything up and headed up the road. After arriving in Cherokee, North Carolina, I went over to the campground and setup my tent. After everything was ready to go, I drove up to Clingman’s Dome to watch the sunset go down. The sky rendered beautiful colors of blue, orange, and pink as the sun began to fall below the horizon. It was a peaceful moment indeed. After the sun disappeared from the sky, I patiently waited for the stars to come out. I was absolutely amazed at how many stars were in the sky. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many. And…for the first time ever I was able to see the faint image of the Milky Way Galaxy. I got out my camera and began photographing it. With the camera we’re able to take longer exposures which build up more and more light the longer the time elapses. Therefore, because I was at a higher evaluation, there won’t very many city lights, and the moon was hidden from illuminating its light, I was able to capture the Milky Way Galaxy. I was going crazy because never before had I been able to do this. It was amazing as you can tell.

The next day I went out for a little more hiking in the Smoky Mountains and of course photographing the beautiful scenery and wonderful streams along the way. I know it was a short trip but I was very glad I got to getaway for a few days to relax before things get busy again.