Let me start off by saying that Norm blew my away every step of the way! He completely exceeded my expectations and deserves more than the arbitrarily set limit of 5 stars!
I contacted him two months before my elopement. My husband and I initially planned on getting married in the courthouse and last minute decided that we wanted breathtaking photos so we were scrambling to get everything planned out. Norm responded very quickly and told me that our date (our 5th anniversary) was technically available despite having an elopement the day before in Yosemite and the day after in Joshua Tree. He said that as long as we were somewhere in between that he could make it work--so we decided on Joshua Tree!
Despite Norm being so busy with the amount of elopements he had to photograph, he was quick to respond to my questions. My husband and I had never been to Joshua Tree National Park before but we wanted to be involved in the process and scout for locations to take photos. Norm was kind enough to give us a list of spots to check out for different types of photos (i.e. sunrise/sunset, day/night). We absolutely fell in love with Joshua Tree and realized it was the perfect place to elope! We had taken some photos and written down coordinates we thought could be great for photos. Norm appreciated our efforts and told us he does a similar process when scouting for locations. Norm was so cool that he even let us join him when he went location scouting 4 days before our elopement!
Scouting with Norm was a blast. We were able to ask him lots of questions, tell him our vision, listen to what he was envisioning, and so on. I typically don't do well with meeting new people since I'm antisocial, but Norm felt like an old friend I hadn't seen in forever! He's definitely someone you want to keep in your close friend group. Getting to know him before the big day made me certain that I had made the right choice in choosing him as our photographer!
On the big day, we met up at Cap Rock at 5:15 AM. Now let me tell you--it was FREEZING (freezing is an understatement!). Despite being there before sunrise, not being able to feel our toes, and only getting a few hours of sleep, Norm was very attentive, ready to shoot, and in such a good mood! He made us feel so comfortable with taking photos (and we definitely are not the photogenic type). We shot from sunrise to (almost) sunset. We initially planned on doing sunset and night photos since there was supposed to be a full moon, but the weather decided to do its own thing. Our afternoon photos were a bit cloudy and caused us to miss sunset since the sun kept hiding behind large clouds. Plus, there were no moon or stars in the stormy night sky so we called it quits since we had seen some sneak peaks of our photos throughout the day and loved them. It was a good call since it started pouring as we drove out of the park!
One trait I really appreciated about Norm was seeing how much he actually cares about his work. For example, the wind blew my bangs into a weird position and Norm said, "Hey, Christian. Can you move Ally's bangs to the other side?" Later in the day, the wind picked up and started making Christian's shirt unattractively poof out and Norm said, "Christian, tuck in your shirt!" and made a hand gesture showing that the shirt blowing in the wind was giving Christian the appearance of a major belly. With Norm, it's not about the money--it's about the art! He poured his blood, sweat, and tears into giving us the best photos imaginable. Not to mention, he gave us 6 sneak peak photos just 2 days after the wedding! Also, the final package he sent with our photos brought me to tears. It was just so beautiful and thoughtful. Norm definitely cares about his work and the people he photographs. He knows it's all about the memories and does everything he can to make it an amazing and enjoyable experience.
Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend Norm (and I already have been!). Norm went ABOVE AND BEYOND!! I cannot thank him enough for giving us the best gift ever--the gift of breathtaking photos and amazing memories. read more