I am Jeramie Shoda, the guy behind the lens at Shoda Love (show da love!). I've been married to my high school sweet heart for over 8 years now and we have the most amazing daughter who says the funniest things. In addition to hanging out with my girls, I enjoy the usual things in life: traveling, movies/tv, legos, and anything that involves putting good food/drink into my system. I live in the Seattle area and if you asked me when the sun is shining, I'd say there's no other place I'd rather be. Photography is definitely my favorite artistic medium but I grew up illustrating and spent time in architecture school so those things definitely influence my vision.
I'll be the first to admit that wedding photography is such a crazy job. Throughout a typical day I do just about every type of photography: documentary, portrait, product, landscape, architectural, food, child, and even sometimes pet photography. The challenge of not only doing it right, but also doing it creatively definitely helps fuel my artistic drive.
The other part of the equation is the personal connection. It means the world to me for a couple to trust my vision in documenting something that will live on for generations to come. That's huge. I heard someone describe wedding photographers as anthropologists of love, and that is exactly the way I see it. What interests me the most with this work are those subtle moments when I capture two people connect on a real level. No staging, just the real deal. It can be funny, serious, emotional, cute, whatever. I'm about that. I'm documenting the love stories of our generation and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Laura lives in Chicago, Andy lives in DC, so we went with a travel theme to symbolize the long distance relationship they’re in. Normally, this isn’t my modus operandi, but they both have such a classic style and sense about them that it didn’t feel odd trying to recreate a look from a prior generation. Looking back, this was probably the most fun we had shooting the whole time and I knew this would be their favorite part of the set. You can probably catch the MadMen inspiration in the beginning too. It was an amazing weekend and I’m so grateful to have clients who fly me to their cities to do work. Now I just have to patiently wait until June for their wedding…
