Thinkwell Creative

Here are a few samples from a recent commercial shoot for my clients over at www.thinkwellcreative.com. We did a full business session to build up their stock images for their new website. Each month I get to work with 3 or 4 businesses who are staying on the leading edge by keeping their portfolios current. For this shoot we spent the morning at Shelby Farms, brought several props from our planning session, and came up with several concepts for their campaign. These photo sessions are great for businesses for keeping ahead of the competition, highlighting what your business does best, and involves your staff by building enthusiasm and team collaboration. If your business would like to book a session, contact us and we will walk you through the creative process for designing your photo shoot for your business. We can make it simple, or go all out for a full production shoot complete with makeup artist, set design, on location or production studio facilities.

Capture Memphis & Michael Allen Photography

Be sure to check out what's going on in Memphis at the Capture Memphis website. It's great to see all the amazing photographers posting there beautiful work. This summer I selected a few of my most recent photographs to enter into the Capture Memphis contest. I'm very excited to have several of my photographs voted in the top rankings by several hundred thousand fellow Memphians. The photos will be included in the "Capture Memphis Book" to be released at Davis Kidd Booksellers in November. If you would like your own personal copy featuring the very best photographs of Memphis by some of the best photographers in the region, be sure to visit www.capturememphis.com and order a copy.

Trash The Dress -John Michael Cooper Workshop - Memphis - Michael Allen Photography

In July I had a great opportunity to attend an advanced workshop by the world famous John Michael Cooper, along with 15 or so professional photographers from across the country. John Michael Cooper is known for starting the "Trash The Dress" craze that is sweeping the world.

He and his wife Dalisa came to Memphis on their recent nationwide tour to teach a workshop about their photography style, business workflow, and a little creative session for all of the participants. John's website is www.altf.com and he is a great guy, very wide open about teaching his profession, and not quite as wild as his photography may imply. My friend Jake Morrow hosted the class, and there were a wide range of photographers in the workshop for the day. Everything I show in my photographs here on the blog are shots of John Michael at work, showing and teaching his style, camera techniques, and creative ideas for models and concepts for each session. The "Trash The Dress" concept is basically a style of photography where the bride and groom are photographed after the wedding, and not as concerned about keeping that beautiful white dress so perfectly clean. Not every dress is totally trashed, but the locations where the photos are taken are very unusual and very artistic. In fact, John Michael taught his concept was mainly a publicity stunt to drive his business, it took off and the rest is history. Some of the photos I shot here show John Michael at work with several models, and one part of the concept session was a tribute to Malcom X. I hope you enjoy seeing some photos of the workshop. 

Ginny Owens - Bebo Norman Concert - Michael Allen Photography - Memphis

Here are a few shots I took for the Hope Summer Concert Series a few weeks back. One of my favorite recording artists is Ginny Owens. I've worked with her a year or two ago, and she is amazing. Not only is she very funny, she is very down to earth and friendly. At the concert, she was playing the grand piano in the 5000 seat concert arena, she has a very soulful, soft way of playing, here I am firing away with my Canon 5d, which is not a very quiet camera, I hoped that the shutter noise would not be too much of a distraction. I asked her later in the green room if she was able to hear my camera, she laughingly said yes, but she did not mind. She will be coming through Memphis this year to record her new album, and I hope to work with her in the studio. Another amazing artist is Bebo Norman, I hope you enjoy a few of the photos from the concert that I shot. There will be more posted on the Hope Concert Series website if you want to see more.

The Red One Camera - On Location Shoot - Hope Production Crew

This Sunday I had a lot of fun working on the set of a local production company in Memphis for an inspirational documentary segment for my great friend Brian Albrecht at Hope Studios. The team was comprised of myself, Jerit Abart, Brian Albrecht, Andy Dean www.deanfv.com (who owns The Red One)

Shannon (our talent for the lemonade making segment), and several other guys from local studios in Memphis. I've been a videographer for many years, mainly on high end productions, and love to work on certain projects as they come up. For this project, I worked in a couple of roles as key grip, and audio engineer for the production. I was very interested in working on this project with Andy, who has the new Red One very high end

production Cinema camera. This camera has incredible capacity, utilizing a full frame 35mm sensor, shoots in RAW, and is essentially the next generation of digital film camera, surpassing most any camera in the world. I recommend going to The Red One website for more technical info at www.Red.com if you are interested in film production, video production, or professional still cameras, as it's

pretty amazing. Andy also has a full production truck with all the pro gear, a full kit of Zeiss lenses, and state of the art digital capture essentials. Here are a few stills i shot of the morning segment of the crew at work. We had a blast, and worked all day indoors, out in the rain, after the rain stopped, we got to enjoy some Memphis humidity, and then some scorching rays of sun in the afternoon, all in true hollywood production fashion. I'll try to set up a link on my blog when the piece is finished for you to see.

Southern Bride Magazine-Kids Shoot-cupcakes and candy - Michael Allen Photography

Back in the spring I had the opportunity to shoot a special feature for Southern Bride Magazine. Most photographers don't want to tackle 9 models at once, yet alone 9 child models, but I love photographing children. I also had lots of help, so we kept the kids pretty busy, without a lot of downtime. You have to work fast, because kids will loose their attention span quickly. You want to keep the activities simple, and have things that they really enjoy. If they stop to play, then it's all over, you have to keep the activities well organized, and make sure to supervise the entire party all the time. This kids party was a true fairytale, complete with magic tricks, flying doves, lot's of special tricks, balloons, candy, and incredible clothes for the kids wardrobe. I love photographing kids, they have a way of being themselves, and once they are used to the camera, they get quite comfortable with the surroundings, making it a great opportunity to catch them having fun. We had an early morning call time for the shoot, around 8 am. I must admit, I'm not a morning person, but it's better than a 4 am call time! Be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine at your local newsstand or bookstore. For this shoot I used my Canon 5d, a canon 580 flash, and bounced off my California Sunbounce 6 foot reflector. The room also had overhead skylights, so the light was good. I wanted to achieve a very natural look, and still have an editorial look as well. I used both the 70-200 Canon and the 24-105 Canon "L" lenses throughout the morning. The kids were a blast! I had lots of help from the entire team, the mom's, the editorial staff, the vendors. I think the candy table kept the kids interest the most, and the Magician had his hat full of tricks too. Special thanks to the editors & staff at Southern Bride, Alyssa and Sherra, and Kim. We had candy furnished by Dinsthul's Fine Candies, Angela with Southern Event Planners arranged all the displays, Mr Nick provided the magical distractions, Clothes by Halo Hattie, and hair styles by Julie Beck and Janice Allen at Eston. Cupcakes by La Baguette, Shoes by Baby Deer, Dresses by Strasburg Children, addition clothes by Bella Bliss. And, of course, all our wonderful little models!

Southern Bride Magazine-Michael Allen Photography

Earlier this month I did a shoot for Southern Bride Magazine in Mobile, on the gulf coast region of Alabama. The location was the Bragg Plantation in Mobile, an 18th century southern mansion located near Mobile Bay in the historic district. I've driven through Mobile many times, and love it when I can shoot in the downtown district. The downtown district is a very scenic, bustling area full of history, great architecture, and full of beauty. When we arrived at the Bragg Mansion, it was an extremely hot day, part of the nice weather we have in the south. When I changed from indoors to outdoors, my lenses would fog over with condensation., that's how humid it was that day. Since we did not have a full day to shoot, I chose to keep most of the shots indoors, and kept the outdoor shots brief. I did not want my models makeup to melt, or have their faces flush with the heat. A good friend of mine, Brian Crain, a fellow photographer for Southern Bride Magazine, lives in New Orleans, and faces the humidity more than most. We've both learned some tricks to help with the humidity, but I know you really just want to see pictures and not hear my stories, so here are a few of the shots. I shot around 1100 photos, but we were on a 4 hour schedule that day, so I normally would shoot more. All of these were shot on my Canon 5d with the 24-105mm IS lens. I did pull out my fisheye lens for some of the detail shots, but mainly stayed with the 24-105. These have not been retouched yet, I'll have a bit of post to do in photoshop. I really liked the first shot you see posted, a trash the dress look.

Pictage Modern Book by Michael Allen

The new "Modern Book" is now available from Michael Allen Photography! You'll love this new modern twist on the coffee table book. Definitely a step up to a great new wedding book that everyone will love to have to showcase their wedding photography! This is probably one of the first out of the lab in California, I'm sure a lot of photographers are waiting in line to get these incredible new books.

While at the WPPI show in Las Vegas I spent some time at the Pictage Conference, and at several of the Pictage educational events. 

I love learning more about my craft,

and take many trips each year to learn

and strive for excellence in my photography.

One of my goals at the recent WPPI (Wedding Portrait Photographers International) was to bring in a new book and album line into my studio for the many weddings that I do each year. There was a sample of the new "Art Book" from Pictage, and I definitely liked it as a new style book for my clients. I also got some information on their new "Modern Book", which is a book style that very nice high end coffee table book.

I just got my studio sample in yesterday, and took 

these photographs for my website package portfolio

last night. You can see by the photos, it is a pretty nice book. I ordered the 12x12 size, and it is something I think brides will like. It is a heavy book, but not too heavy. The quality is very good, and the pages are true photographs bound on a board page. 

The pages are not as heavy as the Sequoia Album, but I think I like it that way, as it seems more like a coffee table book. The dust jacket is a nice feature, and the photo cover is simple and modern. For this sample book, I chose Morgan & Nick's Wedding. I like the flush mount pages, and I'm an avid fan of the Pictage album designer software, which makes it easy to design a book. The turnaround was about 6 weeks, but Pictage is promising a 4 week turnaround, so I was pleased with the delivery time. I've got one more sample book on order, I'll see how fast that one comes in. 

Brides will like this new option for their weddings. The Coffee Table books are nice to have, but this gives them an upgrade to a nicer book without having to have a big heavy wedding album. I usually suggest to brides to get both the Sequoia Album and a coffee table book, now with the ability to order a clone book, this will be a great option. My brides will love the new Modern Book. It's the next level in coffee table books, and for the modern bride, a perfect fit.

Shannon's Maternity Session

Here's a photo from Shannon's maternity session that we did last week. Shannon and Peter got married a couple of years back, and they are beginning their new family with a new baby boy! We did several styles for the session, here is a sample of one of the styles. We had a lot of fun and came up with about 6 totally different sets. I also mixed in several black & white shots, and we did some silhouettes on black and brown backgrounds looked great! Be sure to schedule your session around 6 to 7 months. We also so newborn sessions! I do most of my maternity sessions out of my home studio, so mom's feel a bit more comfortable. I also do sessions right at your home, I shoot lifestyle looks and also bring a couple of backdrops too, all I need is a nice bright window along with one of my large softboxes.

Destination Weddings

In June we went to Perdido Key to shoot a session for Destination Weddings and Southern Bride Magazine. Here are just a few of the shots with Summer and Kris on Perdido Key. We were able to shoot on location at Eden Resort, which is Perdido Key's premier resorts. Special thanks to Keven with Eden Resort for giving us free reign on the resort property. We loved this location for it's incredible tropical landscaping, sand dunes, and remote beaches. Be sure to check back on our website for the full portfolio soon. Thanks to our models Briana, Summer & Kris. Thanks to Morgan Allen Armstrong for helping with the dresses. Additional thanks to the editors and staff at Southern Bride Magazine, Orange Beach Weddings, and Eston Salon, my wife Janice Allen, for the incredible hair and makeup!