It’s important for us to feel connected to our couples, and part of that is sharing who we are and how we got to where we are today.
Hazel Eyes Photography is operated by Marissa and Johnathan, New York based photographers currently living in a sleepy mountain town in the Catskills. We met in Charleston, South Carolina as juniors in high-school and in 2013, we got married on a rainy afternoon getting absolutely soaked while we grinned for photos. We’re best friends and always have fun with each other whether we are actually doing something fun, or trying to make a boring task more interesting. We have two dogs, Letty, a spicy little mutt with a big personality, and Marlow, a lazy Australian Shepherd with one blue eye. Since getting married we moved around a lot looking for “home” (which we finally found in the Catskills) and even spent two years traveling full-time, living out of a cargo van that we converted into a camper. We love being able to travel, and while we’re based in the Northeast, we have established ourselves as destination photographers which has enabled us to broaden both our art and clientele as we now accept weddings anywhere around the globe.
how did we get into photography?
Marissa - I grew up watching my grandfather surround himself with national geographic magazines. He had dozens of cameras and was always playing around with the latest piece of photo gear. When I got older I started to share his love for photography and journalism. When I was 14 I got my first camera and it basically became an extension of myself. I would take it everywhere and was constantly taking photos of landscapes, flowers, and nature. That love of landscape photography evolved into a love for photographing my sisters and eventually friends and classmates as well. I actually started Hazel Eyes Photography while I was still in high-school. I photographed my classmates senior photos and eventually started photographing families and couples as well. I photographed my first wedding in 2014 and haven't looked back since!
Johnathan - My love for storytelling through photography began when I became interested in dating Marissa. I would tag along with her during photo sessions and had her teach me how to take photos and how to edit them. Eventually I broke through the friend zone, somehow convinced her to marry me - and ever since we have photographed every wedding together as a team. I believe photography is one of the most effective tools we have for telling stories that matter and there's nothing else I’d rather be doing than helping to tell the story of couples in love.
We can’t believe that this is our job. We love working with people and being a part of such important days in their lives. We love that this business has taken us to new cities, states and countries. It’s such a privilege for us to be a witness and document the moments we are invited to be a part of and we are so grateful for the hundreds of couples that we have had the privilege to work with so far. We’ve traveled throughout the entire United States for our couples, crossing off 49 states (we’re only missing North Dakota), and have recently started filling our passport with stamps from all around the world documenting truly unique weddings and elopements. Photography and the magic of documenting moments is a major part of our lives and our relationship, it’s an extension of ourselves, and it’s our life’s passion.
We can’t wait to hear your story.