Willow's World Photo

Hello! My name is Willow Haley, and I'm a forty-two year old photographer who, despite being a relatively recent transplant, is completely and utterly in love with New Orleans. I share half of a double shotgun house with my husband, my massive stacks of camera gear, and the world's most neurotic cat. When I'm not shooting weddings and events you can usually find me reading, freelancing, wandering the streets and music venues of New Orleans with my camera, or enjoying just about anything covered in cheese.

I began my photographic career as a photojournalist. Stylistically speaking, I have remained very close to my roots, though I also really enjoy using creative lighting, angles, and composition to subtly enhance the natural drama of an image. In the end, there's almost nothing I love more than telling a true story by capturing a series of sincere emotional moments.

Thoughts about Wedding Photography:

When picturing a wedding, there are certain key elements that immediately spring to mind: the lovely bride...the loving groom...the dress...the veil...the cake...the flowers. Weddings involve countless grand traditions, but these time-honored rituals share space with some of the most quirky, silly, touching, and profoundly, uniquely personal experiences that a family will ever share. There's the heartwarming moment in which the mother of the bride adjusts her daughter's veil...and then there's the sugar-crazed flower girl who steals the Maid of Honor's fancy bra and uses it as a hat all morning. There's the ceremonial cutting of the cake...and then there's the young ring bearer gnawing the heads off of the little bride and groom cake topper. There's the touching grace of the father/daughter dance...and then there's the uncle who has a few too many cocktails and attempts the Gagnam Style dance to When a Man Loves a Woman.

Weddings are a truly unparalleled blend of the traditional and the personal and, as a photojournalist, there's nothing I enjoy more than making sure that the full story is captured. After all, weddings inevitably provide the kind of stories that will be told over Thanksgiving dinner for decades but, with so many demands on their time, the most unique moments are also the ones that the wedding couple are most likely to miss. Personally, my wedding was one of the happiest days of my life, but I experienced the whole thing as one big, colorful, loving blur. I didn't really get to savor all the details until I sat down to look at my photos.

Ultimately, my job is to capture all of the things that make your wedding your wedding. Some of these details are elegant. Some of them are dignified. Some might just be flat-out strange. But they're all a part of what makes you, your relationship, and your wedding truly special.