Great Output Magazine - Michael Allen Photography-Artefact Studio

Check out this months issue of Great Output Magazine. We got a call from the editor a couple of months ago to talk about our book design & publishing thoughts, and we were happy to offer our input for their article about the newest book publishing offerings for pro's looking for the newest info for printing photo books for our clients and brides, as well as info for all the great and aspiring pro photographers out there in the world today. We offer a great new book line from Artefact Studio, which has a lot more options than books that we've carried before. Our favorite aspect of the new Artefact line is the ability to print on watercolor paper, opaque, glossy, matte and linen.

The professional quality of these books is amazing, we are able to produce high quality photographic books printed on archival paper, with complete design control. The editor's story focuses on several new ways for photographers to print photo books, and we were glad to be a part of their story that will go out to over 20,000+ photographers worldwide.

We do a lot of photography books for a lot of our customers. Not only coffee table books for weddings, but books for our commercial customers as well. There is a huge paradigm shift in the printing world going on, and printing high quality professional books has become very affordable. In the past years it would cost thousands of dollars to print books, and you had to order several hundred copies. Today we can order 1 book, or 20 books. Our staff has the ability to design custom books for our commercial clients, which will take the place of brochures. Now customers can have books made in any size, any quantity, and with reorders at a more affordable price. For our bridal books, can offer really incredible professional books for just a few hundred dollars, and brides can order various sizes of clone miniature books for under $50. We believe that our photography business has now entered the publishing world, and that more and more customers will turn to photographers for the custom book designs. Be sure to log onto Great Output and read the full article!

Michael Allen Photography- Sara Groves Concert

Each summer I help sponsor the "Summer Concert Series" at Hope, along with Compassion International, and several other sponsors. This year Sara Groves appeared in concert along with Matthew West in Hopes new 5000 seat arena. This year Sara won best album of the year at the recent "GMA" Awards. I must admit, I'm one of Sara's biggest fans, and have met her before at Hope a few years back, and she is an amazing person. She is as kind and warm as her music. I've had the opportunity to photograph many recording artists over the years, and she is one of the most genuine people that you can meet. Sara and her husband, (who is equally as nice as Sara) along with their 3 children came to Memphis for the concert which was the christening concert for Hope's new facilities. Be sure to visit Sara's website at www.saragroves.com, and Matthew West's site at www.matthewwest.com to find out more about their incredible music! I hope you enjoy a few of the photos I shot from the concert. I used my Canon 5d with several lenses, the 24-105mm L lens, the 70-200mm 2.8 L lens, and the 15mm fisheye lens. Shooting concerts I always use available light, and run my ISO anywhere from 250 to 1600 depending on the lighting situation. I always shoot the aperture wide open with shutter speeds from 60 to 15. Hope's new "Christie HD" 25 ft projection screens throw an amazingly clear image into the room, as you can see on some of the photos, I was able to use the HD images as my backdrop.

Real Wedding Awards on THE KNOT

Thanks so much to Amber & Travis for allowing me to enter their beautiful Southern Wedding

in The Knot Real Wedding Awards. Their wedding was a true traditional Southern Style wedding in Oxford Mississippi. Special thanks to Kate at Abash Events, and The Colonel's Quarters for their amazing wedding designs. The competition is lot's of fun, and Amber & Travis have a chance to win a Safari Adventure. Be sure to visit www.theknot.com to see more of their photos, as well as all of the other entries from around the world.

Bella in Calla Lilly

I love the Art of photography.

You may have seen some

of my earlier posts of the

"Ballerina Collection" where I

created a simple, timeless collection

of children. In the "Bebe Collection" I love to

add creative elements, I used a recent session with Janna and her beautiful new baby "Bella". My goal for Bella's session was to capture very simple photos in a "real life" approach.

When I ran across this shot, I knew exactly how "Bella" could bloom. When I got into post I had an idea in mind inspired by Anne Geddes using flowers. I pulled my flower collection, but I did not have just the right flower, so I ran down to the florist and ran across this calla lilly. The florist didn't have a very large one, and the detail was not as defined as I would have liked, but it works well for this pose of "Bella" growing out of the flower as a new baby in bloom!

(Janna and her family recently had their house broken into and all the photos taken, hopefully this will get their collection growing again)

Hope you enjoy this beautiful piece of art!

Jenny's Bridal Session at The Esplanade

Last week our team

had a lot of fun with

Jenny's bridal session at the

Esplanade. I love the bold colors

and the blend of elegance that

the designers created at this

beautiful new facility. For Jenny's

session I wanted to capture a very elegant 

side of Jenny  - it's not every day that you

get to be a bride - so I wanted

to let her create some beautiful

memories to last her lifetime. . . . . . . . . . 

Janice created the hairfashion for Jenny 

that would complement her veil, and 

let her beautiful long blonde hair be

seen. The dress is a very simple, yet

very detailed dress that is absolutely

gorgeous. . . . . . . For the set, I used

several room sized reflectors, as well

as a strobe flash on an extender cord,

which allowed me to position the

flash where I wanted it.  Also, I took 

advantage of the natural light coming

in from the massive windows. In the last shot I

let the sun blow out the photo a bit, just to give

the photo a nice artistic edge. I used a Canon

5d with a 24-105 L lense, wide open at f4 and

controlled by speed to get the exposure just right.

These have not got to post yet, where I'll boost

the contrast, clean up the backgrounds and make

small adjustments to the exposure.

Thanks to the staff at The Esplanade for letting us

use this great facility! Visit www.esplanadememphis.com

I love the great use of colors, elegant interior space,

and modern ambiance. Be sure to visit them for

a tour of this beautiful new facility located just

a few yards from our studio in the town square in

Cordova Station.

Bridal Session at The Pink Palace

Last week I had a great time with Janna and her bridal portrait session. I love it when brides find incredible places for their
weddings. The Pink Palace has been a landmark in Memphis way before Elvis was born, my grandfather used to take me there as a kid, so it's always a flashback for me to enter the building.
For this shoot I used my Canon 5D, some fill flash in a couple of situations, along with a 4ft silver reflector. Janna was so much fun, she brought her mom and Justins mom, and we all had a chance to talk about her wedding plans, and just get comfortable in front of the camera. My advice to every bride, do a bridal session, it gives you a memory of a lifetime! I'll take these into photoshop

and do a little post production before they are printed, and Janna

will select her favorite for her finished framed portrait

Hey Everyone...here is some new techno stuff I'm trying out for the website. Check out
Animoto...some pretty cool stuff!
http://animoto.com/play/cae24b7ea77dd0be24669d24b2098722"target="_blank"

Memphis Wedding Photography Southern Bride Magazine

Last month I got a call from one of the editors to photograph a segment for next years issue of Southern Bride Magazine. I wanted to use as much natural light as possible, so most of what you'll see in the magazine was 100% light from the window the studio. The sun was coming in from the west, and I had sheer white fabric diffusers and some silver diffusers.

I did use one 1/2 k hot spot for some fill, but only when the clouds covered up the sun. This article is yet to be written, so I can't elaborate on the details, however,

the photos will feature wedding veils and head pieces.

I used a Canon 5D with a 24-105 IS f4 lense, and working in available light and low light, the camera performed incredibly well. I wanted a soft look, and lots of detail, I'll go back in and do some touchup and may add some softness around the edges. This photo is right out of the camera. Before it goes to print it will undergo a bit of photoshop retouching.

Keep an eye out for this issue, it's sure to be a favorite for brides in 2008. I shot about 300 photos for this segment, we will use about 6 most likely.

Jeremy Horn & Brenton Brown Concert

Here is a great new recording artist that I photographed last month for his debut concert and CD release, Jeremy Horn. Jeremy opened for very well known recording artist Brenton Brown http://www.brentonbrownmusic.com/ Take time to check out both of their sites, it's well worth the time.

Visit Jeremy at http://www.jeremyhornmusic.com/ and find out why his new CD debut at #10 on http://www.amazon.com/ last week in the new worship music category. Here are just a few of the photographs from the concert held in Memphis last month as part of the Hope Summer Concert Series. Visit http://www.hopemusicacademy.com/ for more info. For this concert I used my Canon 5D with the 70-200 2.8 IS lense. The light conditions in concerts are all over the place, so I stay in manual and make constant changes on about every dial on the camera....quite a workout....but some nice results. I guess living in Memphis has it's perks getting to be a part of some great music moments.

Jill Dyson opens Concert for Mark Schultz

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This is my friend Jill Dyson at www.jilldyson.com. Jill is a talented singer songwriter and recently opened for Mark Schultz www.markschultzmusic.com at the summer concert series at www.hopepres.com. Jill has recently written several new songs for her upcoming CD, and is being mentored by Bruce Carroll at www.brucecarroll.com in the studio at Hope. Jill and her husband Shannon are great friends & neighbors, we hang out with the family when we get a chance, and I've been helping her develop her business. Here are a few photos of Jill taken in the studio, and around the corner from my house in old town Cordova. Keep and eye on her career, she has tremendous talent. www.megapixel.bz

Memphis Wedding Photography Southern Bride Magazine

In between everything else I do, I've had the great opportunity over the years to work as a contributing artist to several magazines, the experience and rewards are great. This past year I've been working for http://www.southernbride.com/ and I wanted to post a few photographs from the recent issue that just hit the magazine stands. Some of the photos are pretty simple and straight forward, for the in-studio shots of the models, used 2 low 50 watt voltage halogens just to see what would happen, I've used much larger 1 k fresnels in the past, but I wanted to see how the new Canon 5D would handle this situation. I added the bubbles in photoshop just for kicks...For the cakes, http://www.thattakesthecake.net/ I used natural light with a reflector, for the candy I used a reflector overhead with a Canon strobe pointed straight up, and the outdoor shot had just a tiny bit of fill flash, just enough to let the colors of the clothes pop a bit. I also had the opportunity to work with a couple friends (also photographers) http://www.ramblinrosephotography.com/ and http://www.bellphotoart.com/ along with my wife Janice at http://www.estonsalon.com/ and Julie the Aveda Color Director for ESTON. Also, thanks goes to the editors at Southern Bride, Alyssa and Lyndsay and the http://www.brooksmuseum.com/ for the location.

My little girl Amelia loves to help me with sessions. Her she helped me with the new
"Ballerina Session" that I offer in the studio. For this session I used a halogen softbox, and a small light on the backdrop for a little dimension. Each photo has a bit of photoshop work just to add a bit of softness. From these sessions I create a mini album, and a framed print or gallery wrap for the clients. This is a favorite with most moms that have little ballerinas at home. I used my Canon 5D with the 24-105 4.0 IS lense.

Last Month I had the opportunity to shoot some concerts at Hope for their summer concert series. Here are a few shots from two of the concerts, I'll try to post
a few more photos later. Most of you are familiar with the song Via De La Rosa, it was written by Billy Sprague who performed with his friends Bruce Carroll and Bob Bennett. Photographing concerts give me a lot of time to try new techniques, shoot
in some impossible lighting situations, and stretch my creativity by catching the artist in just the right moment. I also had the opportunity to photograph another well known christian artist, Nicole Mullen, www.nicolecmullen.com who has written many of todays most popular songs. She is a powerhouse of energy, and catching her was quite a job, I was able to get several dozen action shots using my Canon 5D with a 70-200 2.8 IS lense.

Bridal Portfolio's are the hottest thing in weddings right now, I love to work with new brides in creating a session that brings out their beauty in a romantic way. For Mandy's session, the backdrop set the mood at the historic Nineteenth Century Club in Downtown Memphis. I encourage every bride to include a bridal session at the top of her wedding photography priority list. Every bridal portrait becomes a cherished part of the brides memories. I get many brides calling me wishing that they had done a session for their wedding years ago.

A lot of my bridal sessions take a lot of planning, and some sessions I do several months after the wedding day, and some brides give them a surprise gifts to their husbands, so it's well worth the time and expense.I tend to shoot the bridal session as I would a fashion models session, using special locations, extra studio lighting, and special attention to the hair and makeup. I also want to stretch the bride a bit from her wedding poses, and direct her in the style of the session. I want the bride to walk away from the session having fun, and a lot of choices from her session. More than one portrait, but a complete portfolio with photographs she can use for years. She also let me do her engagement session, and that's posted below as well.Mandy did an incredible job in her session, and she's been very gracious to let me share some of her portfolio on my blog and on my website. Thanks Mandy!

Mandy & Jerry's Engagement Session

I love to take photos of couples in love. Their expressions toward each other are almost like watching a romantic movie. I talked to Mandy and Jerry about shooting their engagment photos, and I asked if they would give me some freedom to shoot their engagement photos.

I love to scout locations and find places that are unusual, different, and not always the expected.This old railcar is about 500 feet from the busiest streets in the city, but no one even knows this old car is sitting abandoned on the tracks. It's mostly overgrown with weeds in the summer months, but the rest of the year it's an amazing spot for some great photos.

Mandy needed little direction, Jerry followed her lead well. I was a little concerned about lighting, the sky was overcast, but it was bright. One of those days you need to wear sunglasses to keep the sky from making your eyes tear up. We spent about an hour and moved to a couple of locations near the tracks. Old town Cordova has been rezoned for industrial, so the old charm of the original small town has diminished, but the building remain intact, and offer some nice backdrops. I used my Canon 5D in manual mode

for most of these shots. I only did a small amount of post in photoshop. I may go back in a do a little bit more at some point, but I like the results so far. No flash was used, as the 5D can work well in almost any light source. See my gallery for the rest of the photos, I'm booked solid for the next 10 months, so I can't get to the blog page as often as I'd like.