If anything from our wedding peeks your interest and you decide to maybe check them out for yourself please make sure that Fotovitae is at the top of your list! Brandon Schmidt of Fotovitae was one of my favorite vendors from our wedding. Here is the story of how I came to find this amazing photographer: I was just checking my Facebook when a sidebar advertisement caught my eye. I have never given the sidebar a second thought but there was something about that little photo. I clicked the photo and it led me here: http://www.fotovitae.com/ and I was hooked.
Brandon shot his first wedding in 2004, is a member of the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, and a Wedding Photojournalist Association International Award Winning Wedding Photographer. Brandon studied photography in Johannesburg, South Africa and received a bachelors degree in business administration from the University of Oregon.
Brandon describes his style of wedding photography on his website: "I'm considered a wedding photojournalist. I approach a wedding with the goal of documenting it with hundreds of individual stories. That is, each photo depicts a real, emotional, and unforgettable moment opposed to a staged, stiff portrait. I try to stay out of action working unobtrusively in the background." Although, he will happily set aside time for family portraits on your wedding day if you would like.
Brandon's photos pulled me in, his philosophy and work style sold me, but his client's kind words sealed the deal. One client said, "I just wanted to say thank you again for capturing our day just perfect, it's crazy how many things you caught that I don't even remember." And another said, "You captured some priceless moments, and we never knew you were there (in a good way)."
We wanted a photographer that would take beautiful, artistic, and REAL photos to document our big day. We got all that and so much more. The wedding package that we selected included engagement photos. I am so glad that we did our engagement photos with our photographer because it gave us a chance to get to know Brandon and for him to get to know us and how we photograph best. What did we learn from our first experience with Brandon? He is fantastic and most importantly he is a Beast. Brandon gets the shot no matter what. At one point he waded into the Willamette river just to get a good picture.
When we took our engagement photos I was suffering from a terrible stomach flu and was so miserable. You can only imagine my surprise when the pictures were A-MAZING!
I thought we had seen the best out of Brandon from how amazing he was the day of our engagement shoot, but he still had a few surprises up his sleeve. The day of our wedding Brandon was definitely the MVP of the day. When he arrived at the school I was running around outside pruning some vines to get a good picture of my dress, while trying to get my outfit ready, while also dressing my flower girls. Brandon came out, took the scissors from me, and told me to just relax because he would take care of it (and he did). Brandon ran between Eric and I (and from the school to the church and back) to help coordinate our First Look photos. During our family portraits before the wedding I was the closest I've ever been to having a "moment". I was so stressed out by trying to coordinate who was in what photo. Brandon caught my eye right as I was on the verge of tears and gave me a look that told me to just calm down, he would take care of it (and of course, he did). Brandon ended up being our photographer, AND a bit of a wedding coordinator, AND our "go to" person for anything that needed to be done. At one point Brandon even took some last minute gifts that some guests handed off. After the wedding, Brandon took us to the site where we took our engagement photos, to have some alone time before the reception. It was so nice to be able to get away and just be together, we got to walk around outside, and got some wonderful photos in the process.
After our wedding, E said he would like Brandon to photograph our lives. We know Brandon specializes in engagements and weddings but we are hoping someday when we have children to convince him to take some family shots. Brandon was so much more than just a photographer and we are so blessed to have gotten to have him as a part of our lives.
