The Pinnacle Peak Patio, Scottsdale: The Problem, and Four Ways Out of It
An outdoor venue below Pinnacle Peak, where one granite dome dominates every direction you might point a camera.
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Venue Guides
We are writing a photographer’s field guide to every wedding venue we would happily work in, city by city. Each guide covers the light, the timing and the frames that work – and says plainly where we are drawing on craft rather than on having shot there.
The Paseo, Scottsdale: The Light Through the Day
A walled outdoor venue in Scottsdale — an open-topped room whose character changes completely with the sun's angle.
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The Haas House, Scottsdale: The Venue’s Own Logic
A small early adobe in Old Town Scottsdale, built by people who came to the desert to breathe.
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The Westin Kierland Resort, Scottsdale: What It Suits, and What It Does Not
A large resort on the north Scottsdale bajada, where the open slope gives long sightlines and the city keeps the night warm.
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The Phoenician, Scottsdale: What It Suits, and What It Does Not
A large resort at the foot of Camelback Mountain — and a scale that suits some weddings and works against others.
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The Saguaro Buttes, Phoenix: A Walk Through the Site
A desert site among buttes and mature saguaro, where the landscape supplies everything and shelters nothing.
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The Ramada at South Mountain, Phoenix: One Frame, and How It Is Made
A ramada below South Mountain, and the one frame it exists to make: a shaded party against a blazing desert.
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The Royal Palms Resort, Phoenix: The Problem, and Four Ways Out of It
A 1920s Spanish Colonial estate at the foot of Camelback, lined with date palms that give almost no shade at all.
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The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix: The Light Through the Day
A pecan grove below South Mountain — the largest, highest and best canopy in the low desert.
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The Boojum Tree, Phoenix: The Venue’s Own Logic
A walled garden venue in Phoenix named for one of the strangest plants in the world.
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