Steve Smith Photography | Seattle wedding and portrait photographer

Happy New Year!  What a way to start it off with a wedding.  It was typical winter in Seattle a very blustery afternoon,  so any outdoor photo op’s were out of the question.  The ceremony took place at  The Sanctuary at Admiral, a restored and renovated church, recently designated a Historial Landmark in August of 2009.   After a quick ceremony the guests then headed to Salty’s on Alki for the rest of the evening.   It was still decorated for the holiday season, which always makes for great backgrounds.   The cake was created by Jennifer’s grandmonther, she not only did a great job with the decorating, but cake tasting amazing too!  Enjoy the first photos of the year!

It’s back again for the third year, here are the details of my 2010 wedding photography giveaway contest!

While we have some great locations locally for weddings, I love to travel and experience as many unique and interesting locations as possible throughout the wedding season.  The requirements are pretty simple; the wedding needs to take place at a location I have not photographed before.  Your wedding location can be anywhere in or out of Washington State, but a preference would be in the Pacific Northwest, California or Vancouver, BC regions.  The more interesting or unsusual the location, the better (such as resorts, wineries or garden locations).  Previous contest winners have had weddings taking place in Hood River, Oregon and Lopez Island, Washington.

What you’ll receive if chosen; full day of wedding coverage, engagement portrait session (if located in Western Washington) two photographers, rehearsal dinner coverage or fun editorial style day-after or trash the dress session.  In addition you’ll have online viewing of images, digital negatives, and a DVD slideshow of the best images.  A retail value of over $4000!  

Ok so what’s the catch, you ask?  Just a few things to remember about this contest, it will have to be for a day that I am actually available, some 2010 dates are already booked.  Your wedding must take place in 2010. Clients are required to pay for two nights lodging and any other travel fees (billed at actual cost).

To be entered into this contest, please email me (or go to my website and fill out my contact form) your wedding date and location and why you think you should be chosen for this contest.  I’ll confirm your entry when received. Entries must be received by midnight, December 21^st.

To enter the contest, send me your details here (shortcut to my contact page).

The winner will be announced on my blog on December 24^th!

Last weekend I was part of the planning team for OSP West and annual gathering of West Coast wedding and portrait photographers. OSP (Ospen Source Photo) is an online forum that help photographer’s network, share ideas, and help each other. This was the third year of the event, and the first time in Seattle.  It was founded several years ago by David Jay a sucessful southern California wedding photographer.  

All the months of planning finally paid off and we had a very successful event.  There many great speakers, including Gene Higa, Mike Larson, Ken Sklute Kevin Swan and Jim Garner.  They all had great messages to share, some of them even help lead our shoots which we had scattered throughout the day in downtown/Pike Place and Pioneer Square areas on Saturday and at the UW Campus on Sunday.  The weather decided to hold out for us and was only a bit chilly in the morning. Oh and our new puppy, Simba also got to be in a few photos!

Here are several of my favorites of the weekend!

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, so I’d figure I’d start with the first wedding of the year! Hard to belive it’s already been a month since it’s happened!

I met up with all of the family at Hotel Deca in the University District for the final preparations.  Once everyone was ready to go we took the short ride down to the ceremony and reception location which was the Lakeside Events Center, located at the south end of Lake Union.  A few things to note about this wedding is that Peter went to Viet Nam to have his suit custom made, in addition he purchased hundreds of silk orchids (which looked just like the real thing) to compliment the fresh orchids that were flown in from Columbia a few days prior, the end result as you can see was pretty amazing.

Congratulations Peter and Rob, we were honored to share in your celebration!  We’ll also working on a  photo+video montage for them so look for that in the next month or two!

I would like wish all my current, past and future clients and warm, safe and happy holiday!  I also wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for an amazing 2008, and I’m very excited for what’s in store for 2009!

Last year I created a slide show that showcases some photos of holiday lights that I’ve captured over the years. Click on the photo above to play the show, or click here.  Please note this show only works on a PC, sorry Mac users.