Why I’m An Elopement Photographer

I’m glad you are here reading this. I decided to write this story about myself to help couples hear why I’m so passionate about this incredible career as an elopement photographer. I also wanted to help encourage other photographers that might be thinking about pursuing elopement photography as their career. So here’s the story of how I became an elopement photographer.

Surprisingly I don’t know the stereotypical story that you see from most wedding and elopement photographers. I never had an interest in taking photos. In high school, I was never artsy. I was more of a jock that loved to lift weights, play sports, and I worked on my parent’s farm. There was one thing I was enjoyed though that aligned with this career, traveling and exploring the outdoors.

If you don’t know many farm families, it’s pretty common that they rarely ever travel. I was very fortunate to have taken some cruises with my family and a couple trips with some friends during my time in middle and high school. However once I got into college I could never convince any of my friends to travel. So I ended up never exploring any places I wanted to see aside from the traveling I did with the rodeo team when I was riding bulls.

Then after college I ended up coming back to the farm with the intentions of taking it over. However as the years passed I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing and that I might not be on the right path. If I became a dairy farmer I knew that I would rarely get to travel as it’s almost impossible these days to find good and reliable help. So I started to think of different paths that would work.

I had three cousins that all decided to go to college in Europe and ended up staying over there. One of them was between contracts for work and kept inviting me to travel with her. I figured this was the perfect time. We planned a three week trip through Europe exploring the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and France. Before I left I wanted to get a camera to create a travel video. However I never bought one and instantly regretted it. I had the time of my life and soaked in every minute of the beauty that I was seeing. I never felt so alive as I did when we were out exploring in the mountains. This trip also gave me the courage to travel alone and not use the excuse of family or friends not being able to travel with me to say no to a trip.

Once I returned I bought a camera and planned a trip to Arizona. I began taking photos of the places I was seeing like Sedona, Horseshoe Bend, and Antelope Canyon. The photos were not good I’ll admit but I was having fun. I ended up meeting a father and son at Horseshoe Bend during sunset taking landscape photos. I began talking to them and asking them questions because they were way more knowledgable than I was. Quickly I realized I knew nothing.

After that trip I began taking trips in my home state of Minnesota to the North Shore. Every weekend I would hike up there and take photos to learn how to use the camera better and compose photos. I also spent endless hours improving my editing skills. I never watched tv and became hyper focused on mastering photography.

At this time it was all about landscape photography. I started to plan dream trips to keep traveling and capturing dream photos. My first solo trip was to Hawaii for two weeks and then I flew to Iceland a month later for ten days. I was having the time of my life seeing landscapes I never even knew existed. Hiking and exploring these places made me feel so alive. Walking away with a portfolio worthy landscape photo was just a bonus for me. Luckily I was blessed to capture multiple on every trip.

The next year I really dreamt big. I planned a two month solo trip from the end of January to the end of March. I started out with a full month exploring my dream country, New Zealand. Spending multiple days planning out every detail for New Zealand allowed me to find some incredible hidden gems. New Zealand in particular really changed everything for me. Here everything made sense to me. I never felt more alive, passionate, and grateful for what was happening. Everyday in New Zealand honestly felt like it was the best day of my life! However I did feel like something was still missing.

After New Zealand I spent a week in Western Australia exploring its beauty. Australia was a good change of pace from all the hiking I did in New Zealand. In Australia, I spent my time exploring and photographing the coastline. I once again got absolutely spoiled with EPIC photos.

From Australia I flew to South Africa for a week exploring the beautiful coastline around Cape Town. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and photographed one of the most stunning beaches I have ever seen.

Now I was finally onto my last two weeks of the trip. I flew to Tanzania for two weeks of safari in the Ndutu Conservation Area and the Serengeti National Park. Everyday felt like a dream here. Never in a million years did I believe this small town farm boy would be in Africa photographing wildlife in their own natural habitat. But here I was. So many memories were made from elephants chasing mating lions up a tree and trying to knock them down, to listening to hyenas, lions, and elephants in the night as a lie in my bed inside my bush tent. I saw cheetahs hunting, lions huntings, millions of zebra and wildebeest, and much more.

After I returned home from this trip, I got asked a question that I never expected. A friend wanted me to photograph their wedding because they loved how amazing my landscape photos were. After spending time heavily debating it, I decided to give it a try. I ended up enjoying it and took on some more weddings after that. However it wasn’t until I started to look into the world of weddings on Instagram that I found out there was such a thing as elopements and more specifically adventure elopements.

This really caught my eye. Instantly I felt so connected to the idea of couples spending their wedding day exploring and adventuring in beautiful places all around the world. The best part was I could use all of my knowledge I gained from planning my own landscape photography trips to give them an experience that made me feel so alive.

Remember when I said something felt like it was missing at the end of my New Zealand trip? Well this was it. Being able to share an experience with couples and help them plan a day that’s completely unique to them and their love story resonated with me so much. I wanted to be able to help them create memories that they would never forget and feel like they had the best day of their entire life.

I began setting up elopement shoots to build my portfolio and shortly after started to book actual elopements. Everything started to fall into place as I worked hard investing into my business. Now I am able to proudly say that I am able to help couples have the wedding of their dreams in some of the wildest and most EPIC places in the world.

Looking back I never would have guessed this is where I would be. The only reason I found myself in this position is because I opened myself up to doing something uncomfortable at the time, and that was saying yes to a three week trip through Europe with my cousin. From their I just kept pushing through my comfort zone by picking up a camera, learning photography skills, investing into education, planning solo trips across the world to dream locations, and finally saying yes to photographing a wedding.

Look for opportunities that will help you grow as a person and do things that you have always dreamed of even if it scares the absolute shit out of you. Because you never know what that could lead to. Trust me when I say it is ABSOLUTELY worth it!