Gay Street & Downtown Knoxville Engagement - Kayla + Derick
"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that's what you've given me. That's what I'd hoped to give you forever." - Nicholas Sparks
Sometimes, there are people that you meet that make you have an immediate emotional reaction. You can actually feel the spark between the two, and it is just so blatantly obvious that they are madly in love. This is how we felt about our first encounter with Kayla and Derick in downtown Knoxville. These two beautiful people didn't need much directing as they just naturally gravitate towards each other, and we were so thrilled to be able to capture their energy as a couple in these images.
Kayla and Derick met at Lee University when Derick decided to make some life changes and move to a new school. The two were instantly attracted to one another, but they initially only interacted on social media. Eventually, Derick asked for Kayla's number, and they spent their first date chatting over coffee. Each says they fell for one another that night through their smiles and laughs. Derick's insanely romantic proposal was a scavenger hunt set up for Kayla including her sister as a driver, a playlist of all of their songs, clues that led her to all the places that are part of their love story, and a go pro to record it all. So thoughtful and endearing!
This engagement session took place along Gay street in downtown Knoxville--beginning at the Gay street bridge, moving to the iconic Tennessee sign, and wrapping up in Krutch Park and the surrounding streets. We are beyond ecstatic to share this couple's photos with you today, and we can't wait for their summer wedding next year at Black Fox Farms. Join us in giving Kayla and Derick your best wishes!
Downtown Knoxville
Hello friends. Juicebeats here.
Saturday morning I was on a mission to take some artistic photography in downtown Knoxville. I met up with fellow photographer, Lev Gross-Comstock of Comstock Photography. We grabbed our Starbucks' coffee and headed to start shooting in Market Square. I've been downtown many times, but I've never really stopped long enough to see the area through an artistic perspective. We both had our 50mm lenses and started shooting in Market Square. My first few shots weren't of any buildings; I actually saw a bed of flowers that caught my eye. Since it is spring, I thought it was only fitting to take a couple snaps.
After getting a few different shots in Market Square, we headed down the street toward old Gay Street. We caught a couple of early risers walking down the street.
We also stopped to shoot a few cool things in the window of a production company.
Next, we headed over to the bridge overlooking the train tracks. I know that a lot of photographers have shot on this same bridge, but I wanted to try and get a new perspective and maybe achieve something new. I decided to capture a few high dynamic range images (HDR), which is taking a few of the same images with different exposures and putting them together to create a photo with a lot of detail. Here are a few examples.
They may almost look like paintings or drawn pictures, but they contain all the detail from the pictures I took. I set my camera up for the shot and took a normal exposure photo first; then, I took two more shots with the exposure compensation at -1 and +1, then to more at -2 and +2. This captured all the highlight and shadow detail that the original shot could not pick up. I edited the original photo in Lightroom as I would normally and synced all the same edits to the other four photos and exported to Photoshop. Finally, I combined all the images together in Photoshop and exported back into Lightroom where I finished the editing. Several steps were required to create these images, but I think they turned out pretty well.
After taking those shots on the bridge, we headed down to the tracks to take a couple shots.
I love how taking a shot on the railroad tracks with a wide angle lens makes them look like they go on forever. I had a lot of fun walking around and looking for things that I normally wouldn't pay attention to when I go downtown in the Old City.
Lev and I ended up walking around all over downtown from Market Square, to Gay Street, the Old City, and back up through the other part of Gay Street. We got some good exercise and took some great photos. It was a great learning experience for me and fun to capture some of the art of downtown Knoxville.
All of these photos in the blog and few others are available for purchase. Just click the slide show below. You can also download copies as screensavers or backgrounds.
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Right now I am offering a $50 print credit with an individual or couple portrait session and $75 for a family session. Contact juicebeats1@gmail.com for more information.
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