Hello, I'm Ara!  I'm so glad you're here!

Clad sometimes in muddy boots, sometimes in a pair of heels, my career as a photographer often requires both sets of footwear as I join my clients on their adventures around the globe.  I’ve encountered catamarans, towering ballrooms, glacial lakes, rooftops, mountains, bed and breakfasts, mossy forests, and craggy coastlines. My spirit is undaunted, and I am forever inspired by people, relationships, nature, wind, and light.

I founded my wedding brand, Aralani Photography, after several years spent as a weekends-only, waterfallaholic, Gore-Tex-clad landscape photographer seeking relief from my stressful high-tech job. I quickly found waterfalls and national parks the regular backdrop for portraits, trash-the-dress sessions, and the occasional small nature-obsessed wedding. In 2012, I photographed my first elopement on the shores of Lake Crescent. In 2015, I photographed my first Grand Tour. Since then, I’ve been on a myriad of marvelous elopement and wedding adventures, each year unfolding into magical moments I could have never predicted.

Landscapes still hold a special spot in my soul and schedule. Vacations almost always revolve around places I want to photograph, with a heavy tilt toward cold and craggy (Scotland, the Faroe Islands, New Zealand…). My husband and I often take our Jeep Wrangler and Roadtrek out to muddy forestry roads and craggy beaches, dog in the back, picnic packed, ready to chase waterfalls, wildflowers, and canyons. I also love taking my clients along these back roads and local haunts. Sharing the wonder, joy, and beauty of the Pacific Northwest with other nature-obsessed souls is one of the best parts of my profession.

Wallflower as your event is unfolding, loud enough when people need wrangling (or the wind is trying to be louder), oddly-knowledgeable when a gown needs bustling or a boutonniere needs pinning, and helpful when toes need pointing/knees need bending/chins need lifting/smiles have gone stale, I’m dedicated to preserving your memories as a beautiful, personal, photographic time machine. I'm also fiercely invested in making sure you have an incredible experience from start to finish.  I choose my clients as carefully as they choose me.

I am a native Pacific Northwesterner, and live in Portland with my husband, Nathan, who makes me really happy every day. I love hiking (usually up hills), rock climbing, swimming reading, dinner parties, puttering around the garden, trying for a new high score at the arcade, planning our next trip, and the bestest darlingest dogs, Ukee & Zula.  I also love Star Wars, perhaps a little too much.

I can't wait to meet you! Let’s plan an adventure!

HOW IT STARTED

This is my friend, Celeste, in a Goodwill (Craigslist?) dress in 2010. I asked her to walk up to a waterfall and get soaked for a hairbrained vision I had.

My first love in photography is waterfalls—I’ll cheerfully do just about anything (climbing through devil’s club branches, long hikes through the rain, ripping my pants on thorns, getting to-the-skin soaked on cold winter days, bushwhacking for miles…) to get to a waterfall. When I started photographing weddings after an exit from the tech industry, I wanted nothing more than to photograph brides at waterfalls. I got dresses from Craigslist and Goodwill, convincing my friends to come out and freeze their butts off to help me realize what I was sure was a good idea—I’d grown up on “Lord of the Rings” and many a sword-wielding princess novel, and I wanted to make it real. After serious side-eye at bridal shows for long-exposure bride-at-waterfall photos, I slowly started to find the couples who would never feel at home getting married in front of 250 people at a golf club, big church, or ballroom. Couples who, in a previous life, might have ended up at Gretna Green for a handfasting. This was long before a thriving elopement market, when it was very strange to see a wedding couple out in nature (let alone getting soaked in the mist of a waterfall while reading vows). I am incredibly proud to have wholeheartedly adventured for weddings since the days of being that wacky girl with wacky clients and a shared adoration of nature that wouldn’t quit.

Celeste’s photos brought me Erica (below). Erica brought me uncountable kindred spirits, and continues to do so to this day. I am so grateful that I get to walk through the pages of novels with my clients, with much love due to these incredible women who trusted my ideas.