Local photog shoots fun gig on Baldy
By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
Of all the fun places to exchange "I do’s,"
Sun Valley, (even to those who live here), seems a magical one. And
sometimes that magic brings with it the eyes of the happy couple’s home
town.
So it was when The New York Times Sunday edition,
which carries a section called "Vows," featured a couple from
New York tying the knot on Bald Mountain.
Jordana Merlis and Jeff Jacobs just
after being pronounced husband and wife on the Roundhouse deck. Courtesy
Photo by Kirsten Shultz
Written by Lois Smith Brady, "Vows" covers a
single wedding, told in story rather than factual fashion as is done in
the regular wedding section. The weddings chosen for the section have a
New York association and are deemed to be worthy of more print.
It was the second time a wedding was featured in the
"Vows" section that was both New York and Sun Valley
area-centric.
What makes this wedding interesting from our perspective
is that one of our local photographers was hired by the Times to be
the on-hand photo- journalist of the wedding.
Groom Jeff Jacobs, a cousin of local resident Mark Eshman,
and his bride, Jordana Merlis met kinda cute. The "Vows" article
tells a sweet story about their unlikely courtship, and subsequent
marriage. (He’s a sports-minded guy’s guy, she owns a knitting shop.)
The couple, who live in New York but have vacationed in
Sun Valley, were married March 16 at the Roundhouse Restaurant on Bald
Mountain. Local photographer Thia Konig was hired by the couple to be
their wedding photographer. Since the Times requires a separate
photographer to take pictures for the column, Konig recommended a few
other photographers, including Kirsten Shultz, for the assignment.
The paper checked her references and called clients. When they saw that
she often worked for The Times-News of Twin Falls, they
hired her.
The first wedding featured in "Vows" that
also had a Wood River Valley connection took place last fall and featured
a couple in Bellevue, Ed and Ann Mulick, who happen to live next door to
Shultz. Yes, yes. It’s a small world.
Writer Lois Smith Brady, who lives in Aspen, was stuck, on
this particular March day, in a snowstorm in Colorado. Since she couldn’t
make it to the festivities she also asked Shultz to go, as well, to Place,
a Ketchum restaurant, where the reception was held, to be "her eyes
and ears."
The wedding was held on the Roundhouse deck. Jill and Mark
Eshman’s young daughters Erica and Emily were the flower girls and a
huppah (wedding canopy) held aloft over the couple was attached to four
ski poles. The guests and the couple all were in ski wear, (the bride wore
a white down jacket), and following the ceremony skied or snowboarded down
Baldy en masse, followed by both photographers.
The New York Times had very strict rules for Shultz’
assignment, she said. For instance they asked her to shoot only
horizontal, and to shoot "as is."
"I had a different purpose than Thia," Shultz
said.
The Times wanted nothing posed.
"I usually shoot a lot tighter," said Shultz,
who photographs weddings every single weekend from June through September.
"It was very photo-journalistic" in order to tell the story.
Shultz lives in Bellevue with her husband, Drew Furlong
and baby daughter, Coco. She has been in the valley since 1995, and says
her freelancing business has taken off this past year. Of course, being in
The New York Times is a bit of a coup for any photographer.
"People get excited when it’s the Times,"
she said, "but in the freelance business, you’re only as good as
your last job. On Sunday I was so happy, but the next day I stressed out
about another job."
