Welcome to the OC photography blog!
This is where we will show off our most recent work, share helpful wedding photography/planning tips, and share anything else that we feel is noteworthy or that we find interesting.
If you’ve found your way here, I’m guessing you know at least a little bit about us, but if you don’t, we are a buffalo based husband and wife photography team. And in this first post, I thought it would be helpful if we took a deep dive into our story, so you could get to know us a bit better!
How we met
Taylor and I actually started dating when we were 16 years old. (Super embarrassing at the time) but for our first bunch of dates, we needed a parent to ride shotgun because we only had our learners permits. (Cue the awkward pictures of us as teenagers!)
But even through the embarrassing beginnings, we made it work and we found ourselves growing closer together each day! We dated through college and it was during our junior year of college, that I worked up the courage to ask Taylor to marry me. To this day I’m still shocked she said yes!
Then comes marriage
Then the real craziness began as we found ourselves wedding planning in the middle of a pandemic, which shut down the entire world. We ended up planning several different weddings, for all the different possibilities of when things would open up again. We had plans, A, B, C, and D for our wedding day which included different ceremony locations, reception locations, and guest counts for each possibility. So needless to say, we got good at planning weddings, because we had to plan several of them!
Our wedding date was set for July 11 and that summer was one of the driest we've had in years... But, as wedding planning during a pandemic goes... of course things don’t go as expected.
As you probably suspect, on the morning of our wedding day it rained like it never had before. So much rain came down that morning that my groomsmen had to tear off their suits, jump into some shorts and bathing suits and bail water off of the tent where we were having our ceremony. Even with all the rain, we were able to get wedding pictures that were truly special. We cherish them to this day.
The rest of our wedding day was amazing and one of my favorite traditions is each year on our anniversary, we look back through our wedding album and watch our wedding videos. We have only been married for four years, but I feel like each year they get more and more special to look back at and relive each of those moments from our wedding day, even though things didn't go as planned.
One of my favorite moments from our wedding day was actually after it was over. Taylor and I got back to the hotel we were staying at and she had a gift for me. As I tore it open, I saw that she had gotten me a brand new Canon camera.
Photography had always been a hobby of mine, and actually, my father was a wedding photographer for over 20 years. So growing up I always loved taking pictures and playing around with cool camera gear, but I never had a professional camera of my own. And I wouldn’t even fully realize how special this gift was until years later.
I think Taylor might have regretted getting me this camera immediately because on our honeymoon I was taking pictures constantly! The problem? I was not a very good photographer at that time. As shown by the embarrassing pictures below. (And it's quite clear that she was fed up with me taking so many pictures...)
But that didn’t stop me from taking photos and learning as much as I could about what makes good photography. All of these pieces started coming together when a couple of our friends were getting married. This was also a pandemic wedding, but a few months after ours and they were having a very small intimate wedding. They asked if we could shoot photos for their wedding, but they prefaced it with “If you guys can’t then we’ll just take them on our iPhones.“ although we were nervous, this seemed like the lowest stakes wedding we could possibly ever shoot. Surely, we can do better than an iPhone picture! So we reluctantly said yes.
How OC Photography Came to be
In shooting this first wedding, Taylor and I thought back on how our photographer did certain things during our wedding day, and the couple would want captured, but we still felt like we were flying by the seat of our pants.
However, halfway through their wedding day, we started scrolling back through some pictures we had taken, and we started to realize how special these photos were going to be for the couple. These would be the pictures they would put up around their house and look back at for years to come. That feeling was what sparked the creation of OC photography.
(Some of the photos that started it all!)
Since that first wedding years ago, we have continued to have fun shooting weddings together and giving our clients beautiful, authentic pictures that help them to relive their wedding day for years to come.
Thank you for your interest in OC photography, and now, you know a little bit more about us! We'd love to hear more about your love story!
If you are looking for a wedding photographer, we would love to chat about your wedding vision! Use the link here to schedule a call to see if we’d be a good fit.
In the meantime, if you feel like you could use some help with wedding planning, feel free to check out our free wedding planning guide at the link here
Happy planning, and we’ll talk soon!
All the best,
Mike O'Connor