Featured Photographer - Catalina Jean

Hi, I’m Catalina Jean, a wedding photographer based in Portland, OR and have called Oregon my home for most of my life. My earliest memories were running barefoot at Cannon Beach, which is a feeling I put into my work. I help couple’s envision weddings that focus on their relationship, community, and throwing one hell of an epic party. I’m also the founder of SEO is FUN, an educational resource for photographers and wedding vendors with a vision focused on taking all the mystery out of the mysterious thing that is SEO.

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HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN PHOTOGRAPHY?

Pretty much a bit of the classic story. Always had a camera in my hand. I would take photos on disposable cameras and head to my local drug store to have them developed on a disk and then sit for hours editing my pretty awful images of awkward high school memories. Believed society that the arts were not a “real job” and worked in corporate for nearly 10 years. Shot my first wedding, and quit my job 2 months later. I never imagined myself shooting weddings but after that first one, I was completely hooked on the chaotic beauty of it all.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE?

I think I would have said “dark and moody” early on in my career, but now I really don’t see myself as having a distinct style. I think I found that you really don’t have to have a style. Some do, or at least I perceive that from highlight reels, and that’s great. But I seemed to naturally gravitate towards shooting and editing each wedding fairly differently. I think I started to focus my main goal on every image and wedding gallery feeling just like the wedding day. I want every single image not to feel posed, or to have an editorial feel, but other than that I edit to match the light and mood of the wedding. PNW is more moody, Mexico sunny and bright (and lots of tequila) - so I feel like every one of my wedding nowadays looks very different, and I’m very OK with that.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN AN IMAGE?

Light. Like all photographers, I’m a light addict. I remember being so confused when I purchased my first “nice” camera that my images didn’t look the way I wanted them to, at all. Then I started to see light more and more. Now I can’t unsee it. Interesting light makes an interesting image. Even uninteresting things can be given life with light. After that I’m obsessed with balance in the background, depth, and layers.

WHAT INSPIRES OR MOTIVATES YOU?

My couples. Their community. Truly. That sounds corny as hell but it’s the god honest truth. I actually do not shoot much personal work as I pull almost all of my inspiration from human interaction and being able to preserve the interaction of a community on a wedding day. I would be 100% happy to never share any of the images I take on wedding days. I think early in my career I would shoot with “fame” (whatever that means, we are wedding photographer for god’s sake) and awards in mind but now I get the most joy just knowing what I created for my couple.

WHAT CHALLENGES YOU?

The wedding industry. I do have a love hate relationship with the idea of what weddings are “supposed” to be and I hate the pressure the industry puts on couples to plan a “perfect day”. Ew. To hell with that. So, sometimes it feels a little strange to exist within an industry with which I have many qualms. But I hope to be a voice with imagery that showcases humans, not events.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT OF A WEDDING?

Being forced to take a shot or a drink with my couple. Happens at almost every wedding I shoot at some point. While I never pressure couple’s to be my friend, I sure as hell bend over backwards and forwards and every way to make sure every one of my couple’s feels encouraged and supported throughout the entire wedding day. I shoot many destination weddings where I don’t get the opportunity to meet with the couple beforehand. So feeling that tug on my arm pulling me to the bar, that hug, that smile and thanks over a bit of alcohol is a reminder that what I do, and more importantly HOW I do it, makes a positive effect on such a memorable day in someone’s life.

OF ALL YOUR IMAGES, DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE ONE?

This one I took at an elopement in Paris of just hands on a wall. It taught me so much about the smaller details, and hands have so much energy in them. I take a similar photo at every wedding because it constantly and deeply intrigues me.

ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CATALINA?

I get very into specific hobbies only to abandon them in a few weeks. So I guess you could say my main hobby is hobbies? I’m usually reading 3-4 books at a time. My favorite memory is motorbiking with my partner in the countryside of Vietnam. Travel keeps me sane and I always have a trip planned. I read somewhere that you can bring a lot of happiness into life just by planning a trip a year in advance, and that was some of the best advice I ever read.

TELL US ABOUT DVLOP

I was feeling the need to switch out of the “dark and moody” thing. I was using a very old VSCO preset I had tweaked and re-saved a thousand times over. I saw that Parkerisms had launched and gave it a go. The perfectionist in me still tweaks all the things but Parkerisms gave me a great new base preset that I love.