Terry Way Photography

After receiving a camera from his mom at the age of ten, Terry Way began his passion for documenting his interests with pictures. Terry learned from trial and error and countless rolls of film. Terry and his friends became active skateboarders and surfers. He would study the pictures in Skateboarder and Surfer Magazine and tries to get the same results. His slide shows became highly anticipated events. He loved the feeling of knowing his images had the power to captivate and energize a group of people.
Throughout high school and college Terry was actively documenting and presenting slide shows for friends. Assignments for local magazines in the San Diego area gave him a chance to see his images in print. Upon graduation, he embarked on a year long around-the-world adventure. Travel photography taught him many new lessons and techniques. One lesson was: When it looks good, shoot it! Easier said than done, especially in regard to photographing strangers. A fine mix of nerve and nuance is required to get the shot and not come off as just another tourist took with a camera. He also learned the importance of being flexible and open to new ideas.
After settling down in Santa Cruz in the late 1980’s, Terry found a job working in a large, local full-service photo lab. He likes to call this his “Masters degree” as he learned immeasurable aspects of both photography and printing. During this time, Terry pursued a fine art path and participated in gallery and art shows. Most of the subject matter would be time spent traveling and often local scenes in the Santa Cruz area.
His career then took an unexpected course as he started photographing weddings. At that time, wedding photography was still very traditional in its style and approach (even in Santa Cruz!). Images had a staged and stiffed look. This was partly due to the fact that wedding photographers were using manual focus medium format cameras.

Terry chose to use 35mm auto focus to document weddings and this allowed him much more creative freedom. He could travel light, shoot on the move and get much more spontaneous, natural images. Photographing in 35mm also allowed him to take many more pictures than the traditional pros. Currently, Terry shoots entirely digitally, which allows him even more creative freedom.
Word of mouth spread and in a couple of years, Terry was documenting a wedding every weekend. He found the right personality for the task, developed many techniques for making strangers feel comfortable having him photographing them and enjoys the moment as well! Terry wanted to leave the same impression at a wedding as he would while traveling in a foreign country. Make friends and keep a low profile.