This last month I started doing wedding photography!  I have spent a lot of time over the last year researching wedding photography and have been quite inspired by many photographers.  I haven’t shown the images from my last wedding to my clients yet, so I don’t want to share any of those pictures, but they will be up very soon.  J

This last weekend I drove up to Mt. Rainier National Park to meet my friend Dan Sherman.  Dan was there early on Friday when the lighting was best, but I just couldn’t beat rush hour traffic to meet him.  In case you haven’t been to Paradise at Mt. Rainier, there is virtually no cell service, so I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to find Dan that night, but when I arrived in the Paradise, there was Dan in the parking lot making dinner.  We made our plans for the next day, and then got a few hours of… sleep?  I’m not sure either of us got much sleep, but it wasn’t from lack of effort.

In the morning we checked out Reflection Lake, which was crowded with photographers, all nestled shoulder to shoulder to capture that unique shot!  The Mountain was virtually cloudless this morning, so I focused my attention elsewhere.

Dan and I then went on about a 5 mile hike to explore some new areas we hadn’t visited yet, and to scout out a location for sunset.  Feeling good about our find, we decided to drive back to the Paradise Visitors Center for lunch, but since we had two cars, and had no way of communicating digitally, when we got separated while pulling onto the main road to the lodge in the massive car line, it would be the end of our joint exploration until we met again at the spot we decided to shoot for sunrise.  It wasn’t like we didn’t look for each other at the Visitor’s Center, and we probably brushed shoulders at one point, but that place was a zoo, and there was still a lot of ground to cover before sunset, so we both went exploring.

Dan would eventually find my car and leave me a note affirming that we would meet at the predetermined location, which I would eventually find on my windshield on my drive home.  When I arrived at the spot where we wanted to shoot sunset, we both had also looked for alternate locations to shoot, and Dan hit the jackpot!

The mosquitoes ate well that evening, and I have never had larger bug bites, but oh my, was it worth it!  The wild flowers this year were pretty weak compared to my last experience, but this marvelous meadow Dan found made this whole trip worth it!