Who is Mark Gardner?

I’m a husband of 13 years, a dad, a friend, a colleague, etc. I’m sure the more people you ask, the more adjectives you’ll find to describe me. I love fishing, poker, baseball, classic cars, motorcycles, and good times with friends and family. I am also a documentary wedding and portrait photographer serving the entire Mid-Atlantic region as well as popular destinations in the US, Caribbean, Mexico, and the world.

My passion for photography began during my Army days as a creative outlet, and also to remember the places I’ve been but might never see again. Somewhere along the way a talent for capturing people and emotions quickly emerged. My life experiences have evolved into an ability to skillfully capture moments and memories in a distinctive style. I strive to create beautiful images that are not only unique and different, but more importantly, real.

With a documentary approach, I’ll capture the emotions and moments of the wedding day as they unfold anticipating what’s about to happen, but your wedding day is more than actively capturing moments; it’s also about the creation of amazing portraits. I'm using the influence of art history tell stories with images. I’ll scout each location for elements that will not only make great scenes, but will allow me to create unique images that characterize individual couples and details their wedding day.  Posing clients quickly, in such a manner that they look great, feel great, and have a blast doing it.

I certainly hope you enjoy your visit. If you surfed from a link posted on another blog, you might want to take an hour or so to check out my NEW website featuring HUGE full screen images from recent weddings and portrait sessions. Please subscribe to our RSS feed, as the latest greatest stuff will make its debut right here first.

Select dates are still available for the Fall/Winter of 2008, 2009 weddings are booking a very rapid pace. Don’t hesitate to contact me about your wedding photography or portraits. You can always drop by the studio to view my work firsthand.

I’m an active member of Professional Photographers of America as well as the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, and Wedding and Portrait Photographers International.

“Are your images as important to you, as they are to me?”

Monthly Archives: August 2008

Portraits of Jordan

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Here are a couple of images of Jordan during a recent trip up to Valley Forge State Park.

This last one was a technique called Painting with Light.

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Powerful images

So as I go about my duties of editing weddings I often notice my expression changing as I view the images, lots of laughs and smiles as I replay the days events back in my mind. Today was no different, except I ran across this image of David and his daughter prior to the start...

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Krista and Chris’s Engagement session


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Digital Photography Workflow

This post is geared to my fellow photographers who ask quite often about my workflow and methods I use to speed things up without sacrificing image quality.
I’m not talking about actual Digital Asset Management (DAM), but rather individual image editing and album page layouts. I’ve always known that being efficient when working images will greatly...

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Photographing Musicians

It’s not often I get to photograph musicians, but when I do, I’m looking for something different. Here are a few from the jam session last night at The Pickled Herring Pub here in North East, MD.

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