The 2019 Rangefinder Wedding Award Winning Image, a Lesson in Letting Go of Perfection

The 2019 Rangefinder Wedding Award Winning Image, a Lesson in Letting Go of Perfection

As most of my photographer friends know, we go through multiple phases in our carrier. From excitement and loving our whole shoot, all the way to doubting everything we do.  I believe that part of it is because, as artists we strove for perfection, and while that pushes us to become better at our art, we sometimes lose sight of appreciate the beautiful moments we have captured. This past year I have particularly struggled with this. But a wedding that began as a literal natural disaster, that erased all of the hard planning for their perfect day taught me to seek the beauty in what is in front of us.

I am beyond honored to have one of my images win one of the biggest photography contests in the wedding industry. When I started this career I never considered I would win awards, I just wanted to capture beautiful pictures. While I was growing as an artist I didn’t realize that I was growing as a person too. These are the images I aspire to capture for all of my clients. Images that tell their story, photos that they will look at twenty years from now and recognize themselves and all the special details, photographs that will make them relive every emotion of their special day.

Engagement portraits at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia - Kristin & Shawn

Engagement portraits at Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia - Kristin & Shawn

When I met with Kristin & Shawn for their engagement portraits they were really excited and at the same time they were visibly nervous.

Sometimes we are raised with the idea that portraits have to be straight forward, looking at the camera, fake, cheesy smiles. And even though I go over the process with all of my couples, those first 10 minutes sometimes can be intimidating… On the contrary though, Kristin & Shawn got comfortable by spending a relaxing late afternoon at the lake, knowing that they were going to be doing one of their favorite hobbies, spending quality time with each at one of their favorite locations, Smith Mountain Lake.

Here is a little bit about them!
How did you meet?: We met in a class at Virginia Tech. (Go Hokies!) we were in a group for small business management and our other two partners were of NO help. It was just often us two working on it and our relationship grew from there!

Growing up multicultural

Growing up multicultural


Hi, my name is Patrizia Corigliano Giovannini. Most call me Pat for short.


One of the biggest feelings I remember growing up was a being in a constant state of confusion. I grew up in the US, then moved to Italy at the age of 9, then back to the States again as a young adult! I was born in New York to my Italian immigrant parents. My mother & I have a language of our own. It's a mix of English an Italian dialect from a little town in Calabria, the south of Italy, where both my mother and father are from.


During my early years in the US there was once a class project where everyone had to wear the flag of where they came from. I was wearing the Italian one and most other students were wearing the United States Flag ... I didn't understand why I was different since I was born in the States like everyone else, but my family identified as Italian.