A few weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to mentor with two of my all time favorite wedding photographers, Heather Gilson and Jon Almeda of One Love Photo. It seems the Pacific Northwest is pretty much a hotbed of some of the best wedding photographers around. It would actually worry me a bit if I felt wedding photography was a singular product. Thankfully it’s not. Every wedding photographer I meet brings their own unique vision to what they do. In fact, the more I mentor with photographers I respect, the more I’m coming to trust my own vision.

Heather and Jon’s excitement for photography is absolutely contagious and I feel blessed to have had them share some of their knowledge of the wedding business with me. They spent the day answering so many of my questions… everything from the nitty gritty of how to attract clients, handle bookings, pricing, and contracts, to the details of their workflow and artistic editing process.

One of the highlights of the day was just walking around their neighborhood taking pictures with them. Heather let me shoot a little with her Hasselblad and she also got me up and running for the first time with my Yashika Mat-124G medium format film camera.

Yashika Mat-124G (captured by the iPhone 4 with ‘Camera +‘ app)

I’m so glad I saved breaking in that camera until I was hanging out with them. Below are a few shots I took with the Yashika of Jon on our photo walk.

Jon Almeda (Yashika Mat 124G with Kodak Porta 400 nc film)

I got so much out of spending the day with them. I think my favorite part was all the great conversation, hanging out well into the evening, talking about everything from favorite photographers to our favorite shows on HBO. I didn’t leave their house until well after midnight. When all was said and done, I truly felt like I had made a couple of new friends.