Who is Daniel, the artist behind the camera?
I am a high-energy, smitten husband to my lovely, bookish, and supportive wife Rachel. We have one incredible daughter, Alice, with twins (a boy and a girl) on the way.
I love the color combination blue and yellow, running/biking, fresh vegetarian food, a good fitting pair of jeans, and all things Harry Potter. (My wife and I even planned our honeymoon around the Harry Potter world at Universal Studios.) My brain runs at 1,000 miles an hour. I have a new-found enjoyment of writing (I didn’t say I’m any good at it though).
I am also, obviously, a wedding photographer. I love my job, and the greatest pleasure in it comes from the excitement on my clients’ faces when they hold their wedding album or see their pictures displayed in their home for the first time. The satisfaction I get from those reactions last long after the moment passes, and I hope my work serves my clients in the same way.
When did you first realize your passion for photography, and how has this journey cultivated you into the photographer you are now?
I’m going to Tarantino this and say that I don’t have a passion for photography itself. My interest in photography comes from a camera’s utility. It allows me to really see how I am really seeing the world. It also allows me to share this singular vision with others.
The short version of my journey with photography began in high school, snapping pictures of my friends and I riding (OK, fine, falling off) BMX bikes. Strangely, my German teacher was instrumental in my growth as a photographer. He encouraged me to play and explore the medium. That exploration continued throughout college at Kutztown University where I earned my Bachelors of Fine Arts, concentrating in Photography. I learned technique and composition and began to feel like the camera was extension of my own mind during those formative years. However, life provides plenty of lessons as well—if we’re open to listening and willing to evolve—and a real transformation in how I viewed my work came from some personal experiences, beginning with my own wedding in 2014.
After I married Rachel in 2014, our families went through some difficult changes that reinforced the importance of having photographs of the people that you love. I began to realize that the majority of my favorite photographs of our wedding are not of the “wedding moments.” By focusing on the couple so much, by seeing it as their day, I wondered if I was missing the bigger (*ahem*) picture. Sure, I love couple portraits and candid shots of people being silly on the dance floor, but the reality of a wedding—and of our modern, hectic lives—is that we are seldom so lucky to have all of our friends and family under one roof.
Our photographer did a great job of capturing the people we love (he’s a good friend), but I realized it’s too important for me to leave these decisions to chance. I need to know my couples deeply including which people at their wedding they’re closest with. This allows me to focus on the interactions and relationships that matter most so as I’m photographing I can make decisions with the couple’s best interest in mind.
Simply put, it’s not about what I think is important. Rather, it’s me knowing what my couples think is important and photographing that creatively!
How would you describe your photography style?
Most photographers believe that when you hire them it’s a process of their clients discovering things out about them. Maybe how many awards they’ve won or what their artistic process is.
For me, it’s the opposite. This is a journey of discovery you. I want to see who my couples are together—what they see in each other that nobody else does—and I want to get to know them individually. My goal is to know the couple so well by the time their wedding day arrives that I can photograph the bride as the groom sees her, and capture the groom in the way the bride sees him.
Just as important as the Big Wedding Moments, like walking down the aisle, the first kiss, and first dance, are the smaller moments that happen on the periphery to much less fanfare. My favorite photographs—and the ones my couples usually say are their favorites, too—are the photos where my couple is lost in their own little world, loving on each other, or when they’re laughing, crying, cheering, dancing, and toasting with all their friends and family who are there to support them.
In short, I want to capture the couple spending precious time with the people—in the end, it’s always comes down to the people—that will make them dig out their wedding album decades from now.
What is the process like for couples who want to book you for their wedding?
The strangest thing for me would be to do all this work to get someone to hire me, and then fall off the face of the earth only to resurface right before the wedding and say “Hey, remember me? Trust me to be around you in these very private moments.”
Trust and comfort are the foundation of any relationship and I try to build that with my clients organically. The process is simple. We’ll set up a time to get together or video chat to get to know each other a bit. It’s important that you like my photographs, but also that you like me as a person, too. (Trust me when I say wedding days are long, and I’ll be there the whole time.) If we decide to work together, all my booking is done online. After making it official, we’ll keep in touch and discuss all of the options up through the wedding.
What do you love most about photographing weddings/couples?
The energy and excitement of it all! No matter the size or setting of the wedding, there’s an aura of joy, love, and positivity that’s palpable. The love the couple has for each other seems to fill the air. It’s contagious and I just love being around that.
Besides weddings, what other moments do you like to capture?
The same care, curiosity, and enthusiasm that I have for weddings, I also bring to families. I also bring a personal approach to corporate or commercial work at www.DanielMoyerMedia.com
What other locations do you cover in addition to Philadelphia?
I photograph weddings from NYC to DC. Many are local in Philadelphia or the Lehigh Valley but I have traveled all over the United States to shoot weddings, from the coast of Massachusetts to the summer heat of Savannah, Georgia, and among the snowy peaks of Boulder, Colorado. I’ve also photographed weddings internationally in Germany, Spain, Jamaica, Mexico, and Curaçao!