ABOUT DANIEL

After leaving my newspaper career in 1995 as a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, I set out to capture images for some of the most respected publications and corporations in the world. By accident I wound up shooting weddings 2 years later.

For 10 years at New York Newsday, I covered the NY Giants & Jets, Yankees & Mets, fashion collections in Paris, Milan and London, and the bombing of the NY World Trade Center in 1993. After covering wars in Haiti, Afghanistan, the Soviet Union, and with a team of colleagues, winning the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for local news, I moved to Seattle and began a peaceful business shooting stories for magazines.

One day I got a call from a couple that was desperate to find a photographer. They were getting married on short notice and everyone they called was booked. I never considered shooting weddings while working as a photojournalist. At Newsday, it was not considered cool to shoot weddings. But these people were really nice, so I agreed to shoot their wedding the same way I would cover a news story, documenting their day with a photo essay. They liked the idea (I think they were out of options). The resulting photographs proved very satisfying for my clients. For me it was something of a revelation. I actually enjoyed telling a joyful story for a change.

Since that day I have made the transition from covering hard news to weddings, documenting them in the same way as my editorial stories and corporate events. Now instead of getting shot at in conflict zones, I get to photograph joyful celebrations of love, family and friends. (The food is always better too).

After 250+ nuptual celebrations, weddings have become my most gratifying photography. One highlight was photographing Conan O´Brien´s wedding. I have also won a number of awards from the Wedding Photojournalists Association and was named an International Award Winning Photographer.

I love to be present when a couple looks over my pictures of their day. It gives me joy to see my photographs make people so happy. Sometimes, a couple looking at photos from their wedding, will gasp with surprise, being bowled over by a wonderful moment captured in an instant and say "This is so great and we didn't even know you were there." For me, this is the highest compliment.

I enjoyed weddings so much, I got married myself and now live with my wife Jana and daughters Ema and Claire in a Craftsman style bungalow in Seattle, Washington.