Actor Headshots - Nashville - Memphis - Atlanta - New Orleans

I get a chance to do lots of actor headshots in the studio. There are some subtle differences in shooting headshots for portfolios and photos for editorial spreads.  Sometimes I like to break the rules from the typical plain background for headshots and capture some lifestyle images. For my client Nancy, she came in last year and got some great portfolio casting images. She gave me a call recently and needed to add a series of images to her portfolio that gave her variety for the casting agency, here are a few casual styles we shot for her, and a more serious, corporate lawyer style. Nancy's worked on quite a few films, and supported actresses such as Ashley Judd in films, so she knows what directors are looking for in casting calls.

Featured on the Southern Magazine blog today!

I'm so excited to be on the Southern Bride Magazine blog today featuring one of the images from our recent shoot with the magazine. For this bridal fashion shoot, we worked with the Southern Bride Magazine team on location here in Memphis. We are always excited to work with the Southern Bride team to help brides all across the South in planning their beautiful weddings!

Here's the live link to Southern Bride Magazine!

Tracy & Matt's Tuscany Style Wedding

One of my favorite couples is Tracy & Matt. We met a few years ago when Tracy was interviewing with me to work as a photographer. Tracy has an amazing eye for photography, and her style fit in with mine very well. Since then she has shot on many projects with me, shot dozens of weddings, helped me with seminars and helped shoot some film projects. When she started talking about her wedding, she had a vision for a true Tuscany style wedding, complete with vineyards, wine, and celebration. We had dreams of going to Italy, but scheduling and family needs brought them to scouting locations a bit closer to home. Tracy found this quaint little destination vineyard within a days drive of the city, Crown Winery. We both knew that this location had the feel and charm of her Tuscan wedding dream. She enlisted the help of Angela Mazanti Events and Club Windward Catering to help set the theme. Here is the wedding album from her beautiful wedding. To view the album, just mouse over the page and scroll through the pages. You can also click on the page to view it in full screen mode. Enjoy! Here's a link to an ipad friendly version  You can see the photos here

Memphis Most Notable Weddings 2012 - Say Yes - Memphis Commercial Appeal Newspaper

We are so excited to be selected to be included in Say Yes - The 2012 Year In Review - A look at the years most notable Mid South Weddings! We were selected with a short list of the years best photographers in Memphis. We have been featured by the paper many times in the past years, it's always an honor be selected again in this elite group of esteemed photographers.

Congratulations to our bride and groom, Amanda & Chris, from Boston Massachusetts. Amanda & Chris's modern and chic wedding was held in the Tower Room Suite high above east Memphis, with catering by Wade & Company. The beautiful flowers were by Posh Design Group, and the wedding design was by Social Butterflies, with live music by The Soul Shockers. What a posh & beautiful wedding with lots of creative details, and of course photography by Michael Allen. (And more congratulations to our friend and fellow photographer Kim Miller at Ramblin Rose Photography for her beautiful cover image!) Here are some of the page spreads from this very special magazine issue!

And here's Amanda & Chris's Wedding film trailer that we created at their wedding. Our creative team creates some amazing wedding films with our modern indie film making approach. 

George Coleman Jazz Legend

I love music. Every time I get a chance to work with musicians I jump up and run. If you don't recognize the name, George Coleman has been around the block a few times, he's in his 70's now, and still plays around the world. His music has complimented such greats as Miles Davis, and a notable list of famous artists that goes on forever. Jazz enthusiasts would stand in line around the block to meet him. He's been in movies, he's been photographed in magazines such as Vogue with Madonna, and recently inducted into the Memphis Rock & Soul Hall of Fame. I recently got a call from film maker Ray Foley, who is an award winning director from New York, to shoot segments for his new documentary featuring George Coleman and his family of amazing musicians. In between shooting the film footage, I took a few minutes to shoot a portrait session of George. Here are a couple of my favorites from the session.

The Best in Wedding Photography

I recently wrote a book for professional photographers and new photographers that want to specialize in wedding photography. Being a wedding photographer is perhaps one of the most challenging types of photography in the industry. A leading photography book publisher, Dan Fieldman, found & reviewed my book and and I have teamed up with Dan to show you more about photography techniques and tips on photography. Here is a recent article from Dan's photography blog that I'd love for you to read.

 

Posh Indian Wedding Style - Memphis Wedding Films

From the first phone call I had with Grishma about her wedding, I knew that she would love a wedding film created from her beautiful event. Most Indian weddings involve a series of special events that last an entire weekend, where family, friends and guests celebrate the marriage of couples with love, ritual, and happiness. Grishma and Sandeep's wedding was held in Memphis at several locations, including an ornate, lavish Temple located in rolling hills of east Tennessee. This is one of those films that I can't wait to edit, its full of intricate detail, amazing ceremonial blessings, and incredible colors. Here is their wedding trailer, congratulations Grishma and Sandeep!

Avarice Film - A Magical Secret is Discovered - Memphis Indie Films

Two years ago I was approached by a young indie film maker and an indie production team to shoot a film. I get lots of calls to read scripts, and pitches to shoot films, most of them flame out before they ever get off the ground. I was excited about this particular film, I had worked with their team on a couple of small productions, and we had developed a relationship over the past few years. Some how I knew that this project would be a good one to join. Their team had done several very good indie films in the past, and had won several awards, so I eagerly signed on. The team wanted to get access to the new Canon 5D camera, back then had just come out of the gate, impressing some of the big production studios. I had already used my relatively new camera for lots of my companies productions, and knew how impressive it was to use. Dan Baker was the producer, and Rachel Taylor had written the film and was set to direct along with Paul Skidmore, another well know indie film maker on their team.

I won't get into the script, other than to say it is a fantasy, mystery film set with a full cast, an amazing makeup and art department, and good solid story, and a chance to do things with my camera that were way out of the box for typical productions. You can see in this first still how the film has an epic art style. I also quickly bonded with the main character, Haley Parker. As a very young girl, I've had the honor of working with her and seeing her grow up over the past few years. This girl has talent, drive and is a sweet as any young woman could ever be. If half the kids on the planet were as real and down to earth as Haley, we'd be surrounded by one of be best generations ever found in America in decades. I can't wait to work with her again!

The film premiers next week at an unusual, but fun place, along side the maker and voice of Sponge Bob Square Pants at the Memphis Comic & Fantasy Convention. The production company delayed entering several other indie festivals due to their compulsive need to make this film a unique rendering of art, mystery, and beauty. I've had the opportunity to shoot the film, and watch the company edit, hear the score, see the re-edit and see the team tweak this into a little work of art that I believe will get some great press over the next year ahead as it gets into the festival circuit.

Here are a few stills captured from the video for you to get a glimpse into the film story. Be sure to view the trailer at www.macedoniafilms.com/avaricefilm

For all the photographers and film makers that see this post, I hope you are inspired to take some risks, step out of the box and find a project like this, It takes a lot of hard work, working on sets all day long and night sometimes for weeks, shooting on remote locations, and enduring extreme heat & weather conditions, but the reward is to work on a great project that hopefully inspires those around you! Congratulations to Rachel on her successful film endeavor, it was an honor to work with her on this project.

International Wedding Style

Here's a sneak peak of just a few images from Grishma and Sandeep's wedding. We're creating a wedding film from their amazing 3 day wedding that will be a beautiful short film. We shot on 3 Canon 5d cameras along with Brian's team who used 4 more Canon 5d cameras and captured some amazing footage of the culture and tradition of a beautiful Indian wedding. We worked along side our friend and fellow photographer Brian K Crain and the visionary design of Angela Mazanti Events. I was totally awed by the warmth and friendliness of the couples families, we were given total access to shoot all of the details and special moments of the ceremonies and offered some amazing hospitality by some of the nicest people I've ever met in all my years of shooting weddings. Check back soon to see the film.

Night & Day in Memphis - Southern Fashion

As a commercial & editorial photographer I get a chance to shoot some pretty amazing projects. Being based in Memphis Tennessee, I get to shoot in Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta, Dallas, and all over Florida. For this shoot for Southern Bride Magazine, we were tasked with shooting in some very different locations than the normal, pretty day time spots that you would normally think about for a wedding are more scenic, but for this shoot we hit the streets to find a bit more urban style. We ended up on rooftops of tall buildings, on street cars, and in the basement of an old bank. For this shoot we were on location in the Downtown Arts District in Memphis Tennessee, home to Elvis, rock n roll, Beale Street and great southern cuisine. We tagged this shoot Night & Day because of the major differences in the scenes the editors chose. I can't complain, we have some pretty amazing shots in the collection, we pulled out just about every piece of studio gear we had to set up each scene for this fast paced 2 day shoot. Here are a few of my favorites, if you want to see more of the images from the shoot visit our website at Michael Allen Photography - Editorial or pick up a copy of the Magazine at Barnes & Noble or other newsstands across the Southern US. You can also see the behind the scenes video in the post below. I hope you enjoy a little Memphis soul in this post!

Night & Day - Memphis

I've been a little behind on the blog posts, it's been an incredible season for the studio, with so many weddings, commercial shoots & studio sessions, we've just been covered up with work. I'll catch up on the posts soon but I wanted to post this blog first so you can seen what we've been up to. One of my favorite shoots is featured in this post, we shot this behind the scenes video back in March, and held it for the release of the new issue of Southern Bride. Typically when you think of Southern Bride, you think of a posh, elegant, luxurious publication that tens of thousands of brides turn to for inspiration. For this shoot the bar was set high once again, with a little twist- the editors wanted a bit of an edge for this shoot. We teamed up with photographer Joe DeSciose whose images have been seen in Time Magazine and Southern Living, and set out on a 2 day location shoot in downtown Memphis. Joe coined the phrase Night & Day because of the drastic differences in the locations that the editors chose for the shoot. From soft, artistic pretty images, to edgy, elegant high fashion styles, we shot just about every style you can imagine for a magazine feature. For the video, Tracy Leigh helped me shoot both stills and video footage, and we created a quick pace feature reel that keeps you wanting more. For the details on the lighting setups, I'll give you a rundown: We used an Alien Bees ring light with a 60" moon light. We shot with backlighting from the sky whenever we could. We looked for a lot of natural light when possible, using the moon light for a little more commercial edge. There were a few scenes that offered some amazing available light, so I simply shot in full sun or shaded ambient areas that had some killer bounce light coming off of the buildings surrounding the set. It was almost like we had a hollywood lighting crew on location from the feel of the natural light. I've shot on sets with 4-2k fresnels and 20 foot scrims, and 4 foot mirror panels that created the style that we had on this shoot. It makes a photographers day to be able to shoot in this kind of light. For the indoor scenes using sunlight, I brought in reflectors and simply bounced some available light into the areas that needed a little punch. For the underground scenes, I chose a simple 1k fresnel as the key light, and went with heavy shadows for a more dramatic look, occasionally using some canon 580EX flash units with color gels triggered by Pocket Wizards to give us some beautiful rich colors in the background and just barely rimming the models from behind.

Carolyn and Fran's Engagement Session - Memphis Tennessee Photographer

Here is a peek of Carolyn and Fran's engagement session. I met them several years ago at one of their friends weddings that I was shooting, and when they got engaged, they gave me a call to be their photographer. They are so much fun, and wanted an adventure for their session, so we went to one of my favorite spots in the South Main Arts District, and set out to shoot on a beautiful spring day. I love shooting downtown, and love to reinvent every shoot that I do. I have a few favorite spots, but the time of day and position of the sun can change the look on every block in South Main Street, so I have to find new spots almost every time I shoot. Memphis has an amazing history downtown, and there are still a few rare buildings left. So many historic buildings in the downtown area have been demolished, so I love shooting before they get torn down. This first photo shows an old wall that has been repainted, now faded, and you can see the layers of history in the paint. Every now and then I find some new graffiti, like the "love" sign on the block wall below, I'm sure the building owners will sandblast that off soon, but now, Carolyn and Fran can frame it on a canvas on their wall and keep it forever!! They were so much fun to shoot, Congratulations to Carolyn and Fran!

Sara & Ryan's Engagement - Memphis South Main Arts District

Congratulations to Sara and Ryan on their upcoming wedding this summer. We set out on an engagement adventure a couple of weeks ago, in the South Main Street arts district. Usually in April, the weather is getting warm, but this weekend the temps dropped into the 50's, so our couple got to snuggle a lot! I wanted these images to have a little bit of a "love in Paris" feel to them. The back drop of the Farmers Market was so much fun, as I shot these it reminded me of trolly cars in Amsterdam, and "The Hill" in Paris. All of the open markets and cafes in Paris are so quaint, I'll always remember the time my wife and I went to Paris........anyway, on to a sneak peek for Sara & Ryan!

Emily & Josephs Wedding in Memphis Tennessee at 2nd Baptist Church & Botanic Gardens

Congratulations to Emily & Joseph for their wedding last weekend. The ceremony was held at Second Baptist Church in Memphis, with the reception at Memphis Botanic Gardens. Emily and Joe were so great to work with, we had an amazing day to capture their wedding with perfect weather and beautiful surroundings. Tracy and I enjoyed photographing their amazing wedding, Emily & Joes attendants were so much fun, they all had a great day helping them celebrate. If you got a chance to see their engagement post in October last year, you will notice Emily loves leopard print shoes, and once again, for the wedding, she got these way cool Guess shoes! Here's a little sample of a few of our favorites from their day.

Ricki and Josh's Engagement Session - Memphis Tennessee

Here's a preview of Ricki and Josh's engagement session. We had a great time exploring the South Main Art District for the session. This year Memphis has had an incredible springtime, full bloom early in March created perfect weather for April. I love shooting engagement sessions almost as much as I enjoy shooting weddings, the spontaneous moments and the romance of a couple together is so much fun to capture.