Our journey as a husband and wife photography team really began two kids and one country ago, when we lived in South Africa. While photography was already a hobby and a passion for Mark, I began taking photography more seriously as a medium to raise awareness of the great need for ministry and resources in impoverished areas throughout SA. Fast forward five years, a transcontinental move, and the arrival of two more children in our wee family, and we have discovered a joy we never expected by launching a photography business here in North Carolina.
Working as a team to serve our clients and produce beautiful imagery for families and newborns and seniors has been gloriously good. And getting to know our brides and grooms, working to capture beautiful imagery for them on one of the most important days of their lives has brought us heaps of joy — more than we ever could have expected. I use the word ‘privilege’ to describe it, almost daily, but there just isn’t a better way to say it. It’s such a privilege!!
A Favorite Image from one of Quiver Tree’s First Weddings
For a couple of years, we’ve been contemplating the idea of expanding Quiver Tree’s offerings to include videography. Like photography, videography is an absolutely wonderful medium for capturing a moment in time in such a way that the viewer is able to see and experience something they may or may not have initially been present to enjoy. The lengthy, traditional wedding videos, created to simply document the ceremony and perhaps snippets of the reception, didn’t really make us want to jump up and down with excitement.
However, the artistically edited “Wedding Films,” pioneered by some fantastic videography teams on the West Coast, inspired us to want to create something similar for brides and grooms in our neck of the woods. These brief, beautiful, fast-paced films give the viewer such a great insight into obvious things like the settings of the ceremony and reception, what people wore and how everyone looked, but they also give such a great sense of the mood and ambience, allowing the viewer to taste and feel the day, without watching 90 minutes of footage to see it all. Creating something beautiful, interesting, and share-able was an idea we really wanted to grab on to.
Even though we were inspired and excited, we didn’t immediately jump on the video bandwagon, because we didn’t want to dilute our primary offering to our brides and grooms, photography, by spreading ourselves too thin over the course of a wedding day. Having two cameras working the photography scene at every wedding has been the lynchpin for our success. One person cannot be everywhere, but with two, we manage to get a much fuller gallery of imagery at each wedding. There are almost always two cameras pointed at the important moments, to make sure we don’t miss the first kiss as Mr. and Mrs. or the moment when grandma’s eyes light up as her grandsons escort her out of the church.
While we were pondering the idea of expansion, we were also working with a friend named BJ Emerson on some social media and video-related projects. If we were going to expand the Quiver Tree team, we knew we’d need the right person to take on the role of lead videographer. BJ is an all-around fantastic chap, very technically-minded, with years of experience in creative content creation, and if there was anyone we could think of to work with, BJ was at the top of the list.
After months of thinking and talking, we finally decided to just give it a try and see how it went, so BJ came along to Cortney & Justin’s wedding this May. We talked strategy before the big day, and then we focused on photography while BJ focused on videography. While we bounced ideas back and forth and talked song choices and direction, BJ spearheaded the editing process, and the results were just. plain. wonderful!
We were excited with how things turned out, and felt like we were headed in the right direction. One of Cortney’s first comments when she saw the video (after, “I’m still crying!”) was, “You guys HAVE to start offering this.” And so, dear friends, we are!
We’re very pleased to announce the newest addition to the Quiver Tree collection — Quiver Tree Films! Being able to lock arms as a photography and videography team and produce beautiful, elegant, fun and artistic imagery for our clients has us AMPED! Mark and I will continue to focus on photography on the wedding day, while BJ and a second shooter will focus on capturing videography footage. We look forward to continuing to share these precious moments with our brides and grooms, and to having wonderful imagery to share with you afterwards!!
And, we’re sure you’d like a sneak peek… So here’s the first ever Wedding Film from Quiver Tree Films…
Cortney and Justin May 3rd, 2014 {Washington NC Wedding Video} from Mark Collie on Vimeo.
We are excited to work hard and work together to produce even more fantastic imagery — both still and moving — for Quiver Tree brides and grooms to treasure long after they’ve said their I-Dos.
You can find out more about Quiver Tree Films right here, and if you have more questions or you’re interested in booking us for your big day, please get in touch!