How many professionals are really from Tahoe?

Why do our clients come to Tahoe for their weddings?

These are all the questions that have been rolling around my brain as I start on this journey of rebuilding a life and future in Tahoe. My journey started in 1999 when I came to Lake Tahoe specifically with the intention of becoming a snowboard photographer. This feels quite ironic considering that I grew up in South Africa and the first time I even saw snow was backpacking through Israel in 1993. I didn’t actually even get on a snowboard till 1995 in the Czech Republic while I was working and living in London. From the first time though, I was sold. I followed this with 2 winters in New Zealand where I learned about Lake Tahoe from some of my local NZ snowboarding friends.
So following this, I arrived in South Lake Tahoe within the next year – not withstanding a few hiccups with immigration in the UK, but suffice to say a free trip back to South Africa where I could get a new passport and a US Visa helped me to get to beautiful Lake Tahoe.
Arriving in South Lake Tahoe, December 1999 – I was immediately struck with the sense of majesty, power and grandeur of not just the lake but the mountains all around us. It felt that for the first time in YEARS, I could breathe, be at peace and have a sense of belonging. I was not expecting these feelings, considering that I considered myself a ‘world’ traveler, having been traveling around the world for the past 7 years.
This might be the biggest factor why I believe people keep coming back to Tahoe year after year, why couples flock here to get married and start their lives together.
People come for the beauty off the lake and mountains, they come for the beaches and the meadows, but it’s more than that… It’s slowing down, it’s stopping to breathe and appreciating the beauty around us.
One of my favorite authors, Paolo Quehlo wrote in in his iconic book “The Alchemist”
“It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.”

I was super fortunate right from the start, partly because I fully embraced my new ‘home’, I fell in love with the people, the community and the lifestyle of Tahoe. I got involved with a local church and met my wife and dedicated my life to building a life for myself and my new family. Soon to be followed by my daughter and son. This I feel was the proof and result of another very famous and true quote from Paolo Quehlo in The Alchemist: “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.”

For the next 10 years, we lived a typical Tahoe life, I was fortunate to work with most of the Ski Resorts in the area, but early on I was embraced by Sierra-at-Tahoe, the community and passion that is so evident there allowed me to become part of the family. I met life long friends among not just the athletes who grew up there and continue to call Sierra home even after 20 plus years, but also staff, fellow photographers and a whole network of friends.
This time was one of the most rewarding times of my life, watching my kids grow up, my son overcome a heart defect at birth with 3 open heart surgeries and becoming a well known and respected snowboard and skiing photographer in Tahoe.
But as with all things in life, change must occur and due to family dynamics and economic challenges in 2010, our family decided to make a change and move to Texas. For me it was one of the biggest sacrifices of my life. I remember vividly telling my friends that I was going to move to America in 1999 and saying – “It’s not LA, or New York… I am moving to the mountains in Lake Tahoe… and it could be worse, I could be moving to Texas !!!” As my mom used to say to us as kids… “Many a true word spoken in jest”.
In Texas, we started yet another life, I was heart broken not to have my snowboard community, and creative outlet, so I started focusing on Wedding Photography, I had already started expanding my photography from action sports to Weddings and Portraits in Tahoe, but now I could dedicate all my energy towards that. I relished the new opportunities and the one thing that excited me was the excitement of working with so many clients from different cultures. Drawing me back to my years of world travel, I got to work with families from India, Egypt, Vietnam, Nigeria and many more. I even managed to return to Tahoe a few times to photograph weddings on our beautiful shores.
My heart though, was always in Tahoe. When life changed for me in 2019, I decided to move back to Tahoe, my kids went off to college and I was free again to follow my heart. I remember so vividly coming back for a visit in 2020 and sitting overlooking the lake and reliving that original feeling I had experienced in 1999…. I can finally BREATH again… I know right then that I had to return…

Unfortunately the Covid pandemic delayed my return a little, but it did allow me to take a look at my life and decide what was important. Obviously getting back to Tahoe was my priority, but what was even more rewarding was reconnecting with an old friend who had also moved away for a number of years. We started to focus on us and on what leaving Tahoe meant to us all this years ago and how important being able to start over was for both of us. Returning within 6 months of one another, we began the process of healing and restoration. Without being in Tahoe, I don’t believe that we would have had the freedom, the restored joy of life and hope that we found. There followed 3 years of finding ourselves again. So many adventures, camping trips, beach days and kayaking sessions…. Oh and not least of all, a 6 week motorcycle trip that I did with one of my best mates from London to raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Lake Tahoe. Riding from South Lake Tahoe to Panama – Raising over $50K in the process.

After the epic 5500 mile motorcycle trip, I was so excited to come back to Tahoe, and the cherry on the cake, was getting to marry my amazing wife Melody on Labor Day weekend 2024.
Life back in Tahoe, could not be any better, filled with friendships, both old and new. Powder days at our local mountains and dreams of new adventures that fill our summers and winters and every season in between.
For me that is the joy of living in Tahoe, it doesn’t matter if you missed an opportunity to enjoy the things that Tahoe has to offer, there will always be more of them, we are SO BLESSED to be able to call Tahoe home. We have made it our motto and even though we say it kinda tongue in cheek….
“Wait, stop… look around… see where we get to LIVE, in TAHOE…”