Vietnamese tea ceremony, Portland Oregon
I still love photography, 14 years after deciding to quit school and pursue it full-time. The ability to tell a story through images has always compelled me, and the more I study old photographs and past photographers, I always find I am most drawn to the ones that truly captured moments, in a stunning, artful way. The photographs that don’t feel forced or rushed, but are effortless. Those are the ones that always stand out to me. Even 14 years later, with over 300 weddings shot, I still get nervous. It’s not because I don’t know what I am doing, it’s actually because with every wedding I try to give up a little bit more control. When I first started, the stress of missing the shot for a wedding would keep me up at night. So I found myself directing a lot. I would get great moments and beautiful images, but they were posed—staged to look natural and at ease. But I didn’t want people I was photographing to remember me staging and fabricating moments. I wanted more from my photography; I wanted to direct less and observe more. The more I give up control and direction, the scarier it is, because what if I’m not directing, what if a good moment doesn’t come by? What if the great moment happened and I missed it?
It only took having kids of my own and documenting their lives for me to start to see how many truly beautiful moments I was missing because I was more focused on making the image beautiful. Or too focused on catching that big moment that I missed all the other beautiful ones.
Why am I saying all this? Because all the images you see below are unposed, besides a few of Nga and Jeremy together. No one was asked to stand in a doorway, walk a certain way, tilt their chin, grab a piece of shrimp, or stand somewhere for a better angle; these moments all happened the way they happened, and it’s Jeremy and Nga’s (actual) Tea Ceremony. As it happened.
The tea ceremony was at the bride’s family’s house which they have lived in for over 40 years. Everyone was helping to get ready including the groom (Jeremy), ironing out the linens.
Nga’s mother doing a last minute hair trim.
A cousin coming to “help” with the food and snagging a shrimp.
The groom’s parents waiting for the ceremony to begin. Jeremy's mom is inspecting the gift they will be giving Nga.
Jeremy’s proud aunts snapping photos as all the rest of Jeremy’s family lines up for the ceremony.
Groomsmen getting more ice on this 100 degree day.
