Steve Giralt

I never wanted to be a wedding photographer. It’s just not my kind of gig, I much prefer other kinds of photography which are much more enjoyable to me. No matter what my feelings are on the subject, I am constantly asked to photograph friends or families weddings and constantly have to deny them of their wishes.

What I have come to learn is that people don’t think of the average photographer as a specialist, but much more as a generalist. You’re a photographer, hence, you photograph … what you photograph is not as important to them as to the fact that you’re good with a camera. Yet, at the same time these people wouldn’t ask a brain surgeon to do a heart transplant, it’s not what they do. The brain surgeon prefers working on the brain, not saying he may not be able to do the heart transplant, it’s just that the Cardiac surgeon is much better at that. So, why is it that someone would ask a commercial portrait, food, interiors, and still life photographer to shoot their wedding? Isn’t that what we have wedding photographers for?

What these people have learned is that I will take pictures at their wedding if they invite me to their wedding and ask me to bring my camera. What can I say, weddings are a good old fashion drinking and dancing celebration that I enjoy. While having myself a grand old time I will break out my camera and shoot pictures of whatever is going on. I can’t help myself, it’s my inner wedding photographer coming out I guess. It also helps if it’s the wedding of a photographer friend since they will usually understand my not wanting to be “the wedding photographer”.

These images are from some of the weddings I attended this year. My friends who got married were Jess Barnard, Andrea Thompson, and Whitney Dunnigan. The weddings were in Los Angeles CA, Holyoke MA, and Lambertville NJ. I must say, they were great fun weddings and the photographs show that. Enjoy!

If you ever find yourself in Idaho or the general area and feel like seeing something “different” then make your way to Craters of the Moon National Monument. I had the joy of going there on a previous roadtrip and thought It was totally worth the trip. (http://www.nps.gov/crmo/)

You feel like you’ve left this planet and landed on the moon. The landscape is made up of nothing but lava flows and tourists wandering them. In the summer is is really hot on the surface, but if you take a walk down into some of the lava caves it can be freezing cold .. careful for the ice!

This is really a very unique place and if you’re on a road trip or looking for something cheap to do for vacation since nobody seems to have extra money anymore because of the economy, make your way to idaho!

For years now I have been photographing catalog images for the clothing company Johnston & Murphy (www.johnstonandmurphy.com). They have just recently launched a women’s line to go hand and hand with their high quality mens line. I shot this image recently which is on their website currently which displays both their mens and womens items in one photograph. It was a tricky image, but looks great for the holidays.

I photographed this story recently which is now in the current issue of Philadelphia home magazine. It was an amazingly beautiful apartment on Rittenhouse square owned by Laurie Phillips and Barry Milberg. Their collection of art and furniture was impressive to say the least. All the rooms were amazing, and unfortunately there wasn’t enough room in the magazine to include all of them. They also had some beautiful wood pieces made by George Nakashima amongst others. Enjoy!

Over the last few months I photographed some advertisements for Verizon wireless. The ad agency in charge of the shoot was McCann Erickson Worldwide here in NYC. Here I photographed the new Dare Phone and the new LG Chocolate 3. Here are some of the ads that the images were used in.