Charleton Churchill is an explorer, adventure and a destination wedding photographer. In 2015 he will be photographing one of the most unique weddings on earth on a very special place to get married at: Mt. Everest, just above Basecamp. Here are his own words about him and the Mount Everest project.
I have been traveling in the mountains ever since my dad dragged me through miles of terrain high and low whilst thou a young boy. I have been photographing the outdoors as a hobbyist since 2005, and shooting weddings since 2008. I photograph between 30-40 weddings on any given year, but I am focusing my attention this year on destinations with outdoorsy couples who want an extraordinary, scenic, natural, and even remote wedding. Most everyone loves nature and landscapes, but when you add a human element to the scene and the humans are in love, it’s like the perfect combination. I trained and planned to climb Mt. Everest in 2011, training on North America’s highest peak, Denali at 20,320 ft. with a summit in 2007, and leading a team up the following year. My Everest Expedition was delayed due to a fall on Mt. Hood in 2009, which broke my tailbone.
In 2012 and 2013 I received requests to photograph weddings at Everest Basecamp, which fell through. This 2015 year, in less than a few months, I will be hiking up to Mt. Everest Basecamp to photograph a rare, but epic wedding with a wonderful Colorado couple. We are traveling with a trekking group, which provide sherpas, yaks, food, shelter, and just about everything we need to get to and above Basecamp. The dangers presented on a summit climb will not be present on a trek, and instead I can focus on taking photographs without the fear of those elements.
What I am doing on Mt. Everest
We will be traveling up passed Mt. Everest Basecamp to photograph a real wedding rarely seen before, if ever, in any publication. Not only is this a rare destination wedding, but it is also an extraordinary opportunity full of majestic possibilities and powerful imagery where most photographers will not go. We will be gone three weeks on the cold mountain at higher altitude, hiking anywhere from 4-7 hours per day. We will be at Basecamp for only a few days before returning down the mountain, so we’re praying for good weather. Whatever the temperature that day, our couple is prepared for cold weather photography. I will have my Nikon camera gear, my lighting gear from Profoto which is a B2 location kit, one OCF Octa 2’ with Grid, one OCF Grid Kit and Air Remote TTL-N, and a fashionable couple, with a beautiful dress from BHLDN. We are ready and prepared to document what we hope to be an epic wedding. We will be traveling this mid-April 2015 to the beginning of May.
Well, that sure sounds like a cool destination wedding, Charleton! Are you interested in the results? Well, we will post the story here on the blog later on so make to check it out!
Below are some images from Charleton’s previous work.
Follow his work on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. He also has a great website.
Want to learn more about the B2 and the Off-Camera Flash system that Charleton will be using, click here:
