Tsali Notch Vineyard Wedding Styled Shoot - Kathryn + Hunter
Styled shoots are always a great chance to try out interesting poses and direct the models to achieve beautiful images representative of our style; however, Kathryn and Hunter, the gorgeous couple featured today, didn't need any direction from us at all, and we were so excited to capture their natural interactions with one another.
Kathyrn's dress was her own, and we love it when our brides or ladies that we shoot choose a flowy dress. We can catch amazing moments of movement, and the desire to sway or spin comes naturally with such lightweight fabrics. A simple dress with a special touch, like Kathryn's gown with lace sleeves and scoop back, can sometimes be underestimated, but being comfortable and easily achieving graceful movement is invaluable on a long wedding day and results in super elegant images.
Our favorite styling element of this shoot was the basket used to house Kathryn's flowers. This unique spin was a perfect alternative to a traditional bouquet, and it meshed flawlessly as a whimsical touch amidst the vineyard setting.
Kathryn and Hunter impressed all the photogs who came together to network for this styled shoot, and we are thrilled to share this bridal inspiration with you today.
The Dress Theory | Sarah Seven | Beauty by Blair | Hair by Christi | A Blooming Collective | Vintage Inspiration Rentals | Tsali Notch Vineyard
Jodi and Ed's Hobbs Farm Wedding
Jodi and Ed's special day took place at The Hobbs Farm in Loudon, Tennessee. This gorgeous venue features a lovely, hidden outdoor ceremony location as well as a spacious barn for a unique reception experience.
We absolutely loved the incorporation of a first look between Jodi, her mother, father, and adorable son. This was such a sweet moment along with Jodi opening special gift from Ed prior to the ceremony, a beautiful silver necklace embellished with the word "Mrs." Little country touches with mason jars, a draped pergola, and stunning wooden doors adorned with wreaths for the entryway, set the scene for the perfect outdoor ceremony on a fall afternoon.
The bridesmaids' beautiful navy blue dresses were accented with simple bouquets of baby's breath, and we loved Jodi's elegant floral arrangement incorporating timeless peach roses. This group was a ton of fun the entire day, posing and joking throughout the photos, but we most enjoyed our time with them as they cut a rug on the dance floor the entire evening.
We hope you enjoy this rustic, fall wedding as much as we did, and wish Jodi and Ed a big congratulations with us!
Ceremony/Reception: Hobbs Farm
Film Lab: The Find Lab
Food: Evelyn's Catering
Cake/cupcakes: Publix
Wedding Dress: Alfred Angelo
Bridesmaid's Dresses: Alfred Angelo
Tuxes: JC Penneys
Floral: Oran's Florist
Amanda and Billy's Sunrise Engagment Shoot
We met up with this adventurous couple, Billy and Amanda, at 6:30 am in Sequoyah Park. Even though the overcast day never provided us with the true sunrise we were looking for, we were so thrilled to mix up our normal routine with a daybreak shoot. As soon as we heard their story, we knew we would be starting their engagement session here as this is quite a meaningful location that the two frequent. This is also why we included the adorable cell phone pictures depicting their actual engagement in the same spot during our shoot.
Everything about this session celebrated the lives of these two from the shots cuddling on the quilt (which Billy and Amanda often do together) to the photos taken at Old City Java (a place that they often go for their caffeine fix). Billy shared with us that when the visit the coffee shop, he writes personalized messages on Amanda's cup, so we really wanted to incorporate that special sentiment of the two composing sweet messages for each other.
We so enjoyed spending time with these two love birds, and we are even more excited to capture their big day at Nolichucky Vineyard in October. Enjoy this morning engagement session of an amazing couple, Amanda and Billy.
Jennifer's Maternity Shoot
I am so excited to share with you Jennifer's maternity photo shoot from Mayor Bob Leonard Park in Farragut, TN. I worked on capturing these moments with Megan Kiphart, so first and foremost, a huge thanks to her for such a fun experience. The best thing about a photo session is amazing clients, and this couple definitely fits that bill.
Jennifer was only about a week or two away from having her baby and actually had Miller just a few days after the shoot. I loved working with this family, and you can definitely see the love that have for each other in these photos. Congratulations to Jennifer and Jonathan on their handsome baby boy and to Lily on her baby brother.
Enjoy the photos from the Houghton's shoot.
How to Photograph Art & Lighting Techniques
Hello friends and photography enthusiasts,
This past week I was asked to photograph some paintings for a friend. This would be my first experience with art photography, but I already knew that I would need a good lighting set up to do it. Luckily my uncle, Michael Messing of Michael Messing Photography, was available to help with the lighting set up. We used 2 strobe lights set up at a 45 degree angle from the paintings with the camera placed in the center.
Diagrams of the set up:
To make sure we had the correct amount of light hitting the paintings, we tested each corner of the painting to see if the light was evenly hitting the picture. The light meter showed us what aperture to set the camera to for best results.
Setup: For these shots of the paintings we used the sync speed of my camera to the flash which was 1/200 shutter speed. The aperture was set at f10 and ISO at 100 for best results without introducing digital noise. My camera, the Nikon D610 with the 24-70mm f2.8 was zoomed all the way to 70mm to flatten the image as much as possible. You could even go higher using a 70-200mm lens to further the flattening.
When creating digital prints of paintings, you want them to to look exactly like the originals with no glare from the flash, and the color has to be on point.White balance is key! I shot in RAW format so I could make any changes necessary later if needed, but if I was shooting in JPEG format, I would have to make sure that everything was exact. Before taking the first shot, I used my white balance cards and had Michael hold them up in front if the painting.
I took a test shot of the cards in the frame, so I could use this shot later to correct white balance in Lightroom when cropping the paintings and correcting the color.
Once we had everything where we needed it, it was time to take the photos of the paintings. Every shot was framed so that the focus point was in the middle of the picture with little surrounding area. The way to do this is to keep the lens zoomed in but move the Tripod forward or backward depending on how much you are trying to take out. This makes it so that you will not have much cropping to do later on.
Here are a few examples of Maria Walker's Art. If you like her work and would like to purchase a print copy of the art, please leave a comment below, and I will get you in touch with her.
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Juicebeats
Wedding Photography 2
The wedding day...I was pretty excited to be able to go to this wedding and see a beautiful couple get married. I also wanted to keep practicing my new found hobby and interest. I brought by 55-210mm lens with me this time to get those close intimate shots. I could really tell a difference in how much room I could see around my subjects. It was a lot closer and tighter shot, and I could really zoom in on faces and expressions. I wanted to be able to enjoy most of the evening and partake in the whole celebration, so I only took 175 shots which will probably come down to the best 50 or so maybe. I haven't finished editing all of the pictures yet so I will see what that number comes down to.
The day was pretty perfect for lighting and the weather couldn't have been better for a day in June. The venue: The Bleak House is an antebellum Classical Revival style house in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The house was first occupied by Robert Houston Armstrong and his wife, Louisa Franklin. It was built for the couple as a wedding gift by the bride's father, Major L.D. Franklin. Robert Armstrong's father, Drury Armstrong, gave them the land. The Armstrongs named the house after Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" novel of the same name. [1] The bricks in the house were molded on-site using slave labor.[2]
The home was used by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Lafayette McLaws as their headquarters during the 1863 Battle of Knoxville. Three Confederate sharpshooters who were stationed in the house's tower were killed by Union cannonballs. Two of the cannonballs are still embedded in the walls, and Civil War-era sketches of the slain soldiers are displayed on the walls of the tower.[1][2]
The home now belongs to local Chapter 89 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is commonly called Confederate Memorial Hall. (wikipedia)
"These walls have history" as I would say. The venue was beautiful and the set up of the ceremony around a fountain made it all the more surreal.
This is a view of where the ceremony was held.
They had live strings to set the mood.
The ceremony was a traditional Christian wedding and the reception was lively and entertaining with a great local DJ.
I feel like a captured some pretty good moments during the wedding. I was towards the back of the seats, but with my 55-210mm lens I was able to still get those close intimate shots. It was really good practice for me. My next attempt will probably be nighttime and low light photography. Its pretty tough without a good flash or a tripod/mono-pod. I noticed toward the end of the night that the shots I was taking didn't come out too well in the dark, so I definitely want to practice on that.
All in all it was a good experience, had a great time with some amazing friends, and got a chance to practice on my craft.
Juicebeats