About Armando
I’m Armando. I document elopements the way they deserve to be remembered — on film, on location, exactly as they happened.
HOW I GOT HERE
I didn’t plan to shoot elopements. COVID changed that.
When the big weddings stopped, something else started. Couples were stripping everything back — no venue, no crowd, no production. Just the two of them and a place that meant something. I started documenting those days and something shifted in the work.
The photos were different. Not because the locations were better — though they were. Because without all the noise, something real came through. Their personalities showed up in the images in a way they never had before. The way she laughs when she’s actually happy, not when she’s performing happy. The way he looks at her when no one’s directing him to.
That’s what I’d been trying to find in weddings for years. It was here the whole time. I just had to get outside to find it.
THE DIFFERENCE
Here’s what I do that most elopement photographers don’t.
I shoot hybrid — 35mm film, digital, and video — as one complete record of your day. Not because it’s a selling point. Because each one catches something the others can’t. Film slows everything down. Digital catches what film misses. Video holds the sounds and the pauses that never make it into a still.
I also handle every permit, timeline, and logistic as part of the process. Every elopement I take on is fully planned — location scouting, vendor coordination, backup plans — before your day arrives. I’m the only photographer in the Lake Tahoe area doing both as a complete, always-included service.
The reason is simple. You can’t be fully present if you’re worried about what comes next. My job is to remove everything standing between you and actually being in your day.
The day isn't rushed. It's calm, relaxed, and it unfolds naturally.
I love getting to these beautiful places at sunrise or sunset and capturing a couple's story — why a location means so much to them, and what it looks like when two people slow all the way down and just be together.
When I’m not working, I’m usually outside.
OFF THE CLOCK
My wife and I spend a lot of time hiking around Lake Tahoe — the kind of trails most people don’t bother with because there’s no Instagram sign at the trailhead. We travel to national parks whenever we can, partly for the landscapes and partly because we’ve developed an embarrassingly specific obsession with finding the best Mexican mocha in every park town we pass through.
We love good wine. We find wineries the way other people find restaurants — slowly, on purpose, with no real agenda.
I tell couples this not to fill space, but because it explains something about how I work. I’m not in a hurry. I like being in places that make you go quiet. I notice things when I slow down. That’s exactly what I bring to every elopement I document.
NEXT STEPS
If this sounds like the kind of day you want — let’s figure out the rest.
I work with a small number of couples each year. I’d rather build your day right than book it fast. Fill out the form and tell me what you’re thinking — location, timing, what matters most to you. We’ll take it from there.