PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM | The Sands

2 hours ago
5 min read

At the heart of The Sands is a desire to preserve the soul of a wedding day. Husband and wife team Maggie and Carson's approach is intuitive and observant, influenced by a sincere curiosity about people and relationships. The duo aims to produce photographs and films that authentically represent the day's events, reflecting the unique experiences of each couple. The Sands capture weddings across California and the West Coast.

Tell us about your business!

The Sands is the two of us, Maggie and Carson. We’re a husband-and-wife photography and filmmaking team documenting weddings throughout California and the West Coast.

Our work has always been rooted in the belief that the most meaningful photographs and films are created through presence rather than performance. A wedding day is not a photoshoot. We’ll always make space for the beautiful portraits you’ll frame in your home and have for the rest of your life, but never at the expense of actually experiencing the day.

We want our couples to create their own memories, spend time with the people they love and be fully immersed in what’s happening around them. The trust they give us allows us to work intuitively and preserve the day without constantly pulling them out of it.

Film leads the way we see and document a wedding. Maggie photographs primarily on medium format alongside 35mm and digital, while Carson works across Super 8 and digital filmmaking. Each medium holds onto something a little differently, but the intention behind all of it is the same: to create photographs and films that feel true to the experience of being there.

What would you like couples to know about you?

We care a lot about people, and a huge part of that is respecting the experience of their wedding day.

We take the time to understand who matters to our couples, what they’re excited about and what they want to remember years from now. It gives us a perspective that is specific to them rather than approaching every wedding with the same idea of what is important.

We’re also very aware that this is your wedding before it is something for us to photograph or film. Sometimes making great work means stepping in, giving direction and creating space for a portrait. Just as often, it means knowing when to leave something completely alone.

Some of our favorite photographs and films come from moments that were never created for us in the first place.

How would you describe your style?

Documentary at its core, with thoughtful portraiture woven in.

We want our photographs & films to feel like the people in them. There is movement, humor, emotion and life. We aren’t interested in making every wedding fit the same visual formula.

When a moment is already happening, we let it happen. When a little direction will make someone feel more comfortable or create a stronger photograph, we give it.

The goal is never to make a wedding look like something it wasn’t. It is to notice what was already there.

What inspires you?

Human interaction, more than anything.

We’re endlessly interested in the way people love one another and how differently that can show up. Sometimes it’s obvious and emotional, and sometimes it’s funny, familiar or so ordinary that no one thinks twice about in the moment.

There’s something really special about being able to show our couples the way their people love them. The expressions, reactions and interactions surrounding them become another perspective on the day and often some of our favorite moments.

We’re drawn to work that makes you feel like you understand something about the people in it, even if you’ve never met them.

How would you describe your working style?

Observant, involved when we need to be and very human.

We don’t believe documentary photography or filmmaking means standing across the room with a long lens waiting for something to happen. We’re inside the day with our couples. We get to know their families, move with the energy of what is happening and have a good sense of when our presence is helpful and when it isn’t.

At the same time, we’re very conscious of not turning a wedding into a photoshoot.

We’ll guide portraits, help when something needs direction and then give the day back to you.

The best compliment we can receive is that our couples felt completely present and somehow we still caught everything.

Do you shoot digitally, on film or both?

Both, but we are film first and digital second.

Film has been part of our work for years, not because we want a wedding to feel nostalgic for the sake of nostalgia, but because we love the way it records a memory. More recently, Maggie has been especially drawn to medium format, which now makes up about 95% of the film photography we shoot. There is an intentionality to the process that influences both the way we photograph and the final image.

Digital gives us the freedom and speed to respond to the pace of a wedding, while film naturally asks us to slow down and be more considered. We love what happens when the two live beside one another.

The same is true of our filmmaking. Super 8 captures movement and energy in a way that feels incredibly close to memory, while digital video preserves the voices, sounds and moments of the day more fully.

None of these mediums are there simply for the aesthetic. Each one changes the way we pay attention and gives us a different way to preserve the same experience.

What is a favourite product or service that you offer and why?

Our photography and Super 8 collection has a really special place in our hearts.

A photograph can hold onto a fraction of a second: an expression, a gesture, the way someone looked at you. Super 8 remembers the same day through movement. The way someone laughed, reached for another person or moved through a room.

We’re drawn to Super 8 because it feels so true to the experience. Watching it back has a way of making a memory feel close again rather than simply showing you what happened.

There is something really special about giving our couples both ways of remembering the same day.

Who is your dream client?

Our dream clients are people who care deeply about other people. They love to host, they think about how their guests will experience the day, and they understand that while their wedding is about the two of them, it is also about everyone they’ve brought together to share it with.

They care about beauty and design, but they aren’t precious about everything being perfect. They want the day to feel like them, and they want to actually experience it rather than perform for the camera. They may not even love being photographed, and that’s okay. We love getting to know people well enough that they can relax into being themselves around us.

More than anything, they trust us. They trust our perspective, give us the freedom to work instinctively and allow themselves to be immersed in the day while we document it.

What is your advice to couples getting married?

Leave room to actually be at your wedding.

Some structure is necessary, but every minute doesn’t need to be accounted for. Hire people you trust, trust your own instincts once the day arrives, and then let yourself experience it.

We see people become aware of the camera and suddenly wonder if they should be doing something differently. You don’t need to. Finish the conversation. Hug your grandmother. Reach for your partner.

Stay on the dance floor. The best moments tend to happen when no one is thinking about whether they’re making a good photograph.

And at some point, take a few seconds to look around and take it all in. We tell our couples this all the time. See the room, see your people and let yourself register that this is actually happening.

The day moves quickly. Give yourself a chance to be in it.