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.

Vera Wang - Extraordinary Beauty Fashion Reel - Southern Bride Magazine 2012

Here is the featured reel from my recent shoot with Southern Bride Magazine just outside of Birmingham Alabama. The "Extraordinary Beauty" shoot included amazing gowns from all the name labels in the bridal fashion industry, including Vera Wang. Special thanks to the magazine editors Lynn Walker and Sherra Meyers for coordinating this amazing shoot, the models were stunning, and the chance to work with up and coming model Jessye Bullock was an honor. Of course Katherine, Jill, Nick and Jordan made the shoot with their incredible fashion sense. With dozens of dresses on the set, with names such as Vera Wang, Amsale, and more selections from Lows Bridal, we walked away with thousands of photos from the shoot. Special thanks to my second photographer Tracy Welch and the talented Rob Lyons, we created some stunning scenes. For photographers, I used an Aliens Bees 60" moon light as the key light with Canon 580 EX flashes as fill and backlight, all triggered with Pocket Wizards. Using full sun as our backlight, we matched our flash power to balance the intensity of the sun. And more thanks for the soundtrack from The Music Bed and one of my favorite artists Marie Hines

Southern Bride Magazine 2012 - Tennessee Wedding Photographer

Southern Bride Magazine new 2012 Issue on newsstands today!

We are once again very excited to have our beautiful photography featured on the cover of Southern Bride Magazine.
We love shooting for Southern Bride, and are always humbled by the honor of being featured.

Here it is . . . the Winter cover for the Tennessee Arkansas Mississippi issue of Southern Bride Magazine! They are hitting shelves over the next couple of weeks across the MidSouth! This cover shot was taken at Russell Crossroads in Alabama by Michael Allen Photography with his team featuring Tracy Leigh Photography and guest photographer Rob Lyons of Rob Lyons Photography. The model is Cat! Gown: Gilda by Enzoani (available at Low's Bridal and Formal Shoppe) Ring: from Margaret Rowe Vintage Couture Jewelry, Earrings: from Nina Shoes, Makeup: Make Me Up by Danielle, Hair: Janice Allen of Eston Salon Spa. Visit Michael Allen Photography to see more of the images included in the magazine!

A Beautiful Winter Wedding - Memphis Photographer

Memphis Photographer - Memphis Tennessee Weddings - Michael Allen Photography - Bridal Portraits - A Beautiful Winter Wedding in Memphis
Here's a few sneak peak images from Joslin & Jason's wedding in December 2011. I love the softness and beauty of Joslin' bridal session, we had just a few minutes before the ceremony in the last light of the winter day to capture some special moments. Those moments right before she walked down the isle, contemplative, warm, and loving. For this post I chose just a few black & white images mixed with just a couple of color images that I think really tell the love story of their day! I love the last image of the night that Tracy captured as they left the reception, the available light from the sparklers framed the couple perfectly, and the movement of the photo caught them in a special moment that tells the whole story with just one frame. My last wedding of the 2011 wedding season was simple, elegant and endearing. Congratulations to Joslin & Jason!

Nutcracker Ballet Memphis

During the holidays we had the pleasure of shooting for The House of Talent's production of The Nutcracker Ballet. I love the grace and beauty of the ballet, and this team of dancers performed well together. December was a very diverse month of shooting for us, from a major catalog shoot, to a worldwide release for sensational country pop star Lauren Alaina, to shooting 2 music videos, and a documentary, we had a lot of family portrait sessions for the holidays, a portfolio shoot for singer songwriter Jill Dyson, and last weekend we photographed our last wedding of the season. We've still got a couple of weeks left this year, and several more photo shoots on the schedule, it's been a great year in photography!

Here's a couple of my favorite photographs from the ballet.