The "boutique studio" named "Goddard Studios" is the distilled experiences of a husband and wife team; Collin and Anna Goddard.
Collin's formal training was on the job, starting in New York City in the eighties, working with some of the greatest names in fashion- such as Bruce Weber, Albert Watson, Alex Chatelain, Scavulo, Bill King and many more. While on- and off the set, Collin would watch, listen and observe how each photographer composed-, lit-, and styled their subjects. He also started to see common threads that each shared in their ability to put their subjects at ease, which led to much better images due to them "feeling great" about themselves. There is a rhythm and tone that the great photographers all seem to share on some level when shooting, and they have the ability to capture a life, energy and beauty which ALL people possess. It takes an exceptional photographer to combine the two, and Collin is honored to have had these greats as his mentors.
Anna met Collin in the late eighties during a modeling assignment in Europe. She moved to the US with Collin and got married soon thereafter. Carrying on her career which took her all over the world, she finally settled down in one place -Laguna Beach, California- while pregnant with their first child in 1998. Unable to continue to model internationally, she too started getting an interest in being behind the other side of the camera and refined her natural talent by formal training under Collin. It didn't take long for the duo to see a need for photographers who will shoot a different style than the "usual" posed and staged photographs. Collin and Anna's photos by contrast, tell a story.
Rather than imposing some random- or overt idea about what is considered to be artistic, Collin and Anna see the art of the moment; the magic and energy of their subjects, knowing when a moment is going to happen before it's happened, the attention to detail, as well as the importance of great locations. It's been said that their photography looks as if it's been clipped from the reel of a movie or the pages of a photo journalistic lifestyle diary. "We believe that EVERYONE is photogenic, and we know how to pull out the best qualities of each person by making everyone feel comfortable and good about themselves", Collin and Anna say.
What sets their wedding photography apart is that they prefer to use natural- and available light for most of their photography, even at night where the only source of light might be candle light. Using state of the art camera equipment and lenses, technical know-how and their afore mentioned experience, results in simply put beautiful and moving images, capturing the very soul of the wedding and its participants. The subsequent wedding album truly is coffee table worthy, rather than an album tucked away on a shelf somewhere collecting dust.
Collin and Anna refuse to hire "staff" that takes care of retouch and album layout as well as "associate photographers". With their experience they refuse to give this out of hands. Therefore, they only accept a limited amount of weddings per year, as they want to make sure they can dedicate enough time to each wedding and the post production work involved.
Regardless of your photography needs, with Goddard Studios you can guarantee that there will be nothing generic about your shoot.
XO Anna
