Hannah and David's Wedding-Memphis Tennessee - Michael Allen Photography

Here are a few highlights from Hannah & David's Wedding last weekend. They were a great couple to photograph, they had a blast and were always having fun all day long. After the ceremony the reception was held at the Old Daisy Theatre on Beale Street. One of my approaches to photographing a wedding is to catch the couple being themselves. I want them to have fun and enjoy their beautiful day. Part of my artistic approach is to get the couple interacting early in the day, that's when the moments start to happen. The rest of the day seems to flow with all the details of the day. Hannah always has a smile on her face (so does David) and you can see from the photo collection here, how much in love they are with each other. They were a great couple to photograph, and even with the busy wedding schedule, we managed to sneak them away for a few moments for some timeless photographs! I also love the bride's incredible hairstyle, very elegant and classic...thanks to my beautiful wife and her award winning talents!

Sarah & Aaron's Wedding - Knoxville Tennessee - Michael Allen Photography

Last weekend we traveled to east Tennessee to photograph Sarah & Aaron's Wedding in Knoxville. Seems like this year I've been all over the country, and the Caribbean photographing lots of fun weddings. Sarah & Aaron were a joy to work with, and the hospitality that their families and friends shared with us was simply amazing. One of my personal highlights (outside of the wedding) was the 2:30 a.m. hotel fire alarm that had about 300 hundred guests standing out in the street in our jammies. We were all half asleep, but definitely made some memories with this "after-after" party. Fortunately, it was a false alarm, and we all climbed back up the 9 stories in the stairwell and crawled back in our beds and went fast to sleep. The next day I had a little "jet lag" from my interrupted sleep, but the weekend was a great adventure. We drove to Knoxville a few days early to explore the mountains, took our daughter to a real gold & gem mine where she panned for gold, spent two days with our dear friend Dolly Parton in Dollywood, and I got a chance to hike the Cumberland mountain trails and zip across five 1000 ft zip lines at blazing speeds in my repelling gear. That was about as much fun as my shark diving adventures in Little Cayman a few years back. Anyway, back to the wedding! We had great weather, a beautiful blue sky day, and perfect temperatures in the 80's. The wedding day was a pretty fast paced day, but Sarah and Aaron were game for some adventure, so we took a quick little tour of downtown Knoxville's downtown outdoor Market, which made for some great photo backdrops. As you can see, Sarah & Aaron, and their entire wedding party had an incredible wedding day! Enjoy!

Sarah & Nick's Wedding - Memphis Tennessee - Michael Allen Photography

Here are a few highlights from Sarah & Nick's wedding. They were married at White Station Church of Christ with their reception at Memphis Botanic Garden. I had a great time photographing their wedding, and they had a fun group of friends for their large wedding party. It was a beautiful day for a June wedding, and everything was picture perfect for their day! I love photographing weddings like this, everyone was incredible! We had a great day with time to shoot lots of details. I put together a few of my favorite shots for the blog, and chose a collection of black & white images that create a classic modern wedding. For the outdoor photographs I look for the best light, choosing some partially shaded areas. This was a very bright day, so I look for high canopies under large trees to soften the light. When I find the right light, it mimics a large soft box, creating some very fun and timeless images. Sarah & Nick were very at ease with the camera, and as you can see, they ended up with some incredible photographs. Congratulations Sarah & Nick!

Emily & Glenn's Wedding - Memphis Tennessee

Congratulations to Emily & Glenn on their recent wedding celebration. I had a blast working with Emily on her wedding day, her family and friends are so wonderful. It was a great day to share with this fun couple! I love working with couples that relax and have fun, capturing them on their very special day is an honor. Their wedding day was one of those potential rainy days, with looming clouds and rainshowers all day long, but when it came time for photos, the clouds broke away and the skies cleared like a scene from the Old Testament when Moses parted the sea. I hope you enjoy a few of the highlights from their beautiful wedding! Emily & Glenn flew in from New York to get married in their hometown for a grand wedding day. As you can see by some of the details, it was a beautiful event.

Kelly & Keith - Memphis Brooks Museum of Art - Michael Allen Photography

Congratulations to Kelly & Keith on their wedding, which was recently featured in Southern Bride Magazine. I really love working with Kelly (& Keith) and her eye for fine details. The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is an incredible choice for a wedding with all of it's art exhibits, fine paintings and sculpture. I particularly love the architecture of the building, including both ultra modern design and historic detail from the early 1900's. Angela Mazanti was the event designer, and offered creative uses of color and texture for their wedding, making their wedding an incredible, beautiful event. Here are just a few of the details of their day.

Food & Wine Magazine Top 10 Chefs - Michael Allen Photography - Memphis

Congratulations to Kelly English at Restaurant Iris...... One of our recent clients has just been selected as Food & Wine Magazines 2009 Top Ten Best New Chefs! This is great honor and a significant award.  If you have not been to Kelly's new restaurant, be sure to make reservations well in advance, it was hard to get in before, now with this award, it may take months just to get in. The food is absolutely incredible. 

Here is a brief review from the Food & Wine article: 

How his cooking career started: “I was filleting catfish in a little fish shack in Oxford, Mississippi, while I was pre-law at Ole Miss. I realized I liked going to work more than going to school. When I told my dad, who’s a lawyer, that I wanted to go to culinary school instead of law school, he was really excited about it. In his business, everyone is unhappy; I liked the idea of making people happy. He took me to August restaurant in New Orleans—we had gnocchi in fennel cream sauce with black truffles and blue crab, and from that first bite, I knew. That dish changed my life.”

How he opened Iris: “I was in Memphis with my now-wife, Angela, and I heard about a space that was for sale, an old Memphis institution called La Tourelle. Inside, there was a stained glass fleur-de-lis (a New Orleans symbol), and I said, ‘Oh my goodness.’ We went outside and there was a rainbow. I said, ‘What’s next, a unicorn?’ Everything about it was exactly right.”

Be sure to read more about Kelly at www.foodandwine.com/articles/best-new-chefs-2009-kelly-english

Kelly and his wife Angela were married last year in Memphis at an extravagant high end wedding at St Peters with a grand reception at Central Station. Shown here is a portrait of Kelly & Angela we photographed on location at Restaurant Iris. Congratulations to Kelly and Angela for this incredible honor.

Buckle Stores Advertising Session - Michael Allen Photography

Here are just a few commercial advertising photographs that I shot this month for "Buckle". For this session we were going for a natural lighting for an edgy fashion look, keeping a bold color palette within Buckles targeted demographics. Sessions like these are a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard work. We had over 10 models, 2 hairstylists, 2 makeup artists, 3 fashion designers, and our team. Part of the concept of the shoot was to work in a live store, creating strong public excitement of shooting on location in one of Buckles highly successful stores. The gear used was pretty simple as far as lighting. I got to put my new Canon 5d Mark II to the test and used a variety of lenses from a 15mm fisheye, a 24-105mm IS lens, and a 70-200mm IS lens - in RAW mode at 21 megapixel. Shooting on this camera reminds me of the days when I shot all transparencies for the magazines. The digital capability of this camera is fantastic. I used several reflectors, blended natural light with ambient sunlight, and worked in ISO ranges from 640 to 6200. I also used some flash depending on the spots I choose on the location, bouncing flash into the reflectors to create a full wash effect. We had the ad agency team on location who helped us stay on task and kept the team working at full steam. I've done lots of sessions like these over the years, and working with great models who know what to do takes the session over the top! Hopefully sometime next year some of these will end up in their ad campaigns, I'll keep you posted when they go to press.

Children's Spring Portrait Sessions Now Booking in Memphis

It's a perfect time to book your child for one of our lifestyle portrait sessions. We love to catch kids being themselves and having fun, you get some incredible photographs of the most simple things. Here is one image of a portrait group we are working on for our Spring Portrait Sessions. With Easter just around the corner, what a perfect time to schedule a session. We customize each session to fit your child's personality, and unlike some portrait studios, we shoot over 100 images, so you will have more choices than you can imagine. This image will be great on a 24x36 inch canvas portrait. Instead of buying expensive art for your home, invest in your child as Art.

Baby Sessions

I love the diversity of professional photography especially when I can go one day from shooting wild rock stars, then book a session with a new mom and her sweet new baby. My approach to photographing any subject is to capture some incredible images. Children are an incredible blessing in life, and if you can capture them being themselves and combine those moments with Art, then you have a great session. I did Shannon's wedding a couple of years ago, she recently called me for her maternity session, and now her new 5 month old baby boy. I schedule quite a few baby sessions each month, and love every minute of it. I used the new Canon 5d Mark II with a 24-105mm IS lens. I shot these at ISO 1000 in the studio with a soft box, 4x6 reflector, and a small backlight for the background with some spill on the subject from behind. My studio has a nice full glass wall that brings in lots of daylight, so I shoot everything in daylight mode.