Shanon and Jeff travled from St. Louis to Yosemite to marry last week. Although it was just the two of them, this was by no means a spur of the moment thing. They have been planning their wedding since last summer when I first talked with Shannon. The best part of their wedding is that it isn't just for one day. They are spending the entire week in the area, sampling a bit of everything - even some whitewater rafting.

For almost all of their vacations and free time, Shannon and Jeff will end up outdoors, so it was only fitting that they would marry outdoors. One of their dreams, which I secretly share, is to purchase a VW bus and travel to all of the National Parks together. Shannon and Jeff decided to marry in Yosemite simply because of the park's amazing beauty, and it's easy to see why. Their down to earth nature feels perfectly inline with the this setting.

We met up in my hometown of Mariposa and were a little ahead of schedule going into the park, so I pulled over in El Portal to stop by the old Hetch Hetchy Railroad. It's the old railroad that used to run to Yosemite, but is now sitting unused just across the river from highway 140. It's worth checking out on the way to the park, especially if you have little ones that like trains.

As we moved into the Yosemite Valley, the weather began to quickly change. The blue sky overhead turned grey near the west end of the valley, but it remained warm. They had a small ceremony in El Capitan Meadow standing in a small grove of trees - just the two of them and Rev. Carol Dewey. Just as they shared their first kiss, the sky opened up and a light rain fell on them. I'm not going to add in some cheesy metaphor here about what that means, I'll just simply say it was a cool experience for us all.

As soon as their marriage started, we traveled around the park for a while creating images in a few different spots. Shannon looked awesome and Jeff knew it. Of course, just like everyone else I work with, they both made it clear to me that neither of them photograph well - yeah right.  Where ever we went, Jeff seemed not to know where to look, the beauty of this world or at his wife. Shannon was living in the moment, soaking everything in. Together they were all smiles.

I finished the day with two more friends that I started with. I love days like this - beautiful light and great people. Congratulations again Shannon and Jeff!