Stapleton photography | Get To Know Us! 

Welcome to our blog! We are John & Heather Stapleton and we make up Stapleton Photography. We are so excited that you are here. We value creating trusted connections with our clients. Getting to know you is our favorite part! We are excited to adventure with you and share your stories here on the blog! To kickstart this, we want to share a bit about ourselves!

How did we meet?

Photography brought us together! We met 24 years ago. At the time, John was teaching a ‘Beginning Photography’ class at Tulsa Junior College. I (Heather) had just gotten a new 35mm camera for Christmas and another mom friend asked if I wanted to take a photography class with her. I went, and I loved the class! During the course John said he was a wedding photographer, and it really sparked my curiosity! I knew I loved taking pictures, so I attended a few weddings with John. That’s when I thought “you know what, I can do this! I love people, I love taking pictures- one plus one is two!” John was so gracious, he taught me everything I know.

At the time, Tulsa only had about 5 wedding photographers, so when John was booked up, he would send clients my way! I was a single mother who had just started my own business. It was such a blessing for me during that time in my life! Fast forward 6 years later, John and I started dating and got married 13 years ago! Photography brought us together. Now, we are Stapleton Photography as you know it!

What do we love to do for fun?

Well, I (John) am also a firefighter-31 years on the job. I am captain of a very elite helicopter rescue swim team. I love helping people and taking a disaster situation and try to work it out. Whether I’m doing helicopter stuff or getting deployed for a tornado, I have my cameras with me. I’m always photographing, it’s just who I am I have to capture everything!

Truly, photography is what we love to do for fun! We love to travel the world. We have had the opportunity to photograph weddings in places like the Caribbean, vineyards, Dominican Republic, Colorado, and California. We got to shoot in New York-at the top of Rockefeller center, it was last wedding in Rainbow Room before they renovated. Carmen D and Ben Stiller’s sister was there…just so many cool people. It was a whole different mentality and so fun! You could not get anyone off the dancefloor. It was so fun to capture. Definitely one of our highlight weddings in our career.

When we aren’t traveling, we love spending time in our backyard next to our Koi pond. We have 13 Koi and yes, they all have names!

What are our favorite things about engagements and weddings?

Engagements sessions are the first time we ever get to see our couples together! Personalities are so different. Once a client books us, we don’t know how they will interact! We want to spend time with our clients. It is valuable to us to understand how they interact, so come wedding day, we are all comfortable and having fun together! The engagement session is a great ice breaker session to bring out personalities, build relationships and trust.

On a wedding day, we really do feel honored. It is such a big day of your life and you chose us to be a part of it. We often play the wedding coordinator role. We really take the time to understand all of the important details of their day so that we make everyone feel comfortable and confident. We just make it fun and easy so that you enjoy a memorable, stress-free and special day. We want that day to be everything our clients want it to be!  We want you to think back on your day and say “WOW! That was awesome!”

Here’s why we love what we do.

We are always looking to see what beauty we can find! We love showing others how to look closer at things and notice the beauty. That’s what John showed me and brought into my life when we got together. Now my eyes see things I never saw before, because now I’m looking! Whatever it is, we want people to slow down and really take in the beauty.

Whether its photographing disasters, weddings, engagements, maternities, traveling or rescue operations- our cameras come with us! God has created such an incredible planet with such amazing color, details, textures and shapes. We feel it’s our responsibilities to capture it and show it to people who can’t get to the ocean or glacier or climb the mountain. How do we show what an incredible world God has created? It’s through our photography! It is one of the most rewarding things.

Let us capture the beauty in your story!

We just love what we do, and we love people! Reach out and connect with us! We would love to get to know YOU and find out how we can make you say “WOW!” on your special day!!

Xoxo, Heather + John