Your destination wedding photographer who's already there.

Hi, I'm DOUGLAS FAVERO An American Wedding Photographer in Oaxaca

My wife and I got married at Carmen Alto, here in Oaxaca, with only our closest friends and family. The Mass was in Spanish, and my family simply went with the flow. They got to know a very different Oaxaca from the one in the news.

I began capturing images with my own camera at the age of 9. There were only 12 exposures on the roll. Each click had to count. A trip to Morocco in 2006 showed me that I needed to do more with photography. Before I knew it, I was shooting my first destination wedding in Oaxaca.

BOOKS, FILMS, AND ORDINARY DAYS

I grew up loving The Princess Bride: the gusto of even the villains, the comic timing, the story within a story, and a romance that's lost and found again, never sappy, with wit and charm. I also loved The Goonies and Ferris Bueller, ordinary people on an ordinary day that turns into an adventure.

In my late teens and twenties it was The Graduate and Breathless, and that quiet confidence of the underdog who is down and out now but feels sure he'll come out on top. Then Paris in the '20s and '30s. It's extraordinary to think that it really is up to us to make life meaningful, and every day presents a new opportunity to do that.

I moved to Oaxaca in my late 20s, shortly after backpacking around Spain and Morocco, and I've always related to Hemingway's A Moveable Feast because of that move. When I went back to Europe in my late 30s, I made sure to see Anaïs Nin's home in Louveciennes and Hemingway's apartment. I went to both Shakespeare and Company shops, the new one and the place where Sylvia Beach's original stood, and it was the original spot that lit up my imagination. I keep thinking that if she were alive today, she might have married Adrienne Monnier, the woman she shared her life with, instead of keeping the distance they kept in public. And I had a cup of hot chocolate where Baldwin, Beauvoir, and Sartre sat and wrote.

What ties all of this together for me is that when a whole life can hinge on a moment, any ordinary day can become extraordinary. The day you commit to each other is one of those days. That's what a cinematic, literary approach to photographing and filming you means to me. I photograph couples as they really are, the way the cinéma vérité films did, but through a cinematic lens. I'm looking for the moment that seems ordinary and isn't, so you can go back to it for the rest of your lives just by looking at it.

Photo · Video · Drone · Film

MY STYLE

You want photos that feel like the two of you, and that still make you feel something years from now. Warm light, real moments, the people you love close by, and a little grain, like stills from a film. I think that comes from a life of reading novels and watching films. A good one puts you right back in the scene, and that's what I want your photos to do. You can see it in my real weddings.

On the day, I look for the best light and give you a few easy things to do, then step back and let you be together. If you feel awkward in front of a camera, that's normal, and it passes fast. You won't be holding stiff poses.

During the ceremony and the party, I stay close and quiet, so I'm there for the tears, the laughs, and the hugs without getting in the way.

You'll still get the family photos your parents and grandparents want, done quickly so everyone gets back to the party, and the details you worked so hard on. Everything is finished in the same look, so the whole day feels like one story.

- Douglas

Your Free Consultation Call

Booking the right photographer for such a momentous occasion is a daunting task.

Finding someone who shares your vision, and your taste, whose personality vibes with yours, and who is experienced, trustworthy, and professional takes time.

In your free discovery call with me, you can expect me to be forthcoming, accessible, and transparent as I guide you through my process and take your questions, so you can easily see if we make a good fit.

You will feel confident about your decision and know when the time is right to check photography off your list.

Book your free call

TL;DR

Here's all you really need to know.

one.

I speak English and Spanish with both families.

two.

I've lived in Oaxaca since 2007 and know its traditions.

three.

Photo, video, drone, and film, with one style.

a little More about me

When I'm not photographing weddings, I'm ...

...reading, going to the movies, or exploring new cafés (did I say cafés??? I meant ... places! all kinds of places! places in different places!) with my family. Here we are on the wooden bridge going over the railroad tracks in my hometown in Illinois. Growing up we'd take the family car over this old fire-damaged relic. And it was a one-lane bridge with two-way traffic! You had to get to the top first - and there was no way to see if anyone was coming up the other side. Always an adventure! Now it's a quaint walking bridge closed to vehicles. My wife and kids were all born and raised in Oaxaca, so I am really happy whenever I can show them little pieces of my childhood like this in person.

Otherwise, I enjoy living in Oaxaca as much or more than they do.

My first few months living in Oaxaca, I'd get homesick for typical food like homemade chili and chocolate chip cookies. But soon my hometown tastes were completely replaced by the memelas, tacos, quesadillas, pan de yema, hot chocolate, and mole of Oaxaca.

While I love to travel and always take my camera on every trip, as a photographer I can't get enough of Oaxaca. Color, texture, mood in every scene. Layers of history everywhere you look. A land of harmony and contradiction. I wonder if I would even be a photographer if I didn't live in Oaxaca.

Oaxaca has a literary side, too, the same as Paris does for me. José Vasconcelos was born here. The Zapotec writer Andrés Henestrosa left the city his library, now in the Casa de la Ciudad, where I've shown my own work. D.H. Lawrence spent the winter of 1924 here and wrote much of Mornings in Mexico. Malcolm Lowry came through in the late 1930s. Juan Rulfo photographed here, and Italo Calvino set a story in the old convent that's now the Quinta Real. Eisenstein filmed on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and Oliver Sacks came with a group of fern hunters and wrote Oaxaca Journal. The painter Francisco Toledo gave the city a graphic arts library and a photography center. More in Literary Oaxaca.

What else can I tell you?

Destinations Beyond Oaxaca

While Oaxaca is home, I also travel for Mexico weddings more broadly, elopements, trips back to my Chicago-area hometown, and as far as Heidelberg, Germany, and San Miguel de Allende.

• Mexico Weddings
• Elopements
• Chicago
• Heidelberg
• San Miguel de Allende

As Seen In

My work has been featured in El País, The Wall Street Journal, and the Wedding Photojournalist Association Awards.

Certifications & Values

Thrive Graduate, Adventure Instead's course on running an unconventional wedding & elopement business.

I proudly photograph love in all its forms, including same-sex weddings and elopements.

Leave No Trace graduate, trained in minimal-impact outdoor practices for elopements and adventure sessions.

What are my photos made of?

Your trust in my creativity

The first time I had the chance to capture a wedding day, May 31st, 2008, I was overcome with excitement. It combined every kind of photography I loved--portrait, documentary, architecture--and all the details.

I loved knowing how much the bride and groom trusted me with every moment of their day.

From that day on, I have been driven by the same wide-eyed enthusiasm and the desire to honor the trust my couples place in me. This is what grounds me in the source of my creativity--and my sense of integrity, too.

what else can i tell you?