I’m sitting in our office, going over everything for the upcoming year and I can’t help but look back at the year we just had. It’s been incredible! We were a part of so, so many weddings and made so many memories, and met so many great people. We were not only voted No. 2 in the Best Photographer category in Louisville, but we claimed 2nd in video, too! As great as those awards were, it was a bigger honor every time we were asked to document someone’s big day. That may sound like I’m blowing smoke, but I am serious. It’s an honor every time someone asks us to capture the moments on one of the most important days of their life.
Going forward as the founder of Hands Up, it’s my job to make sure we keep growing and learning so that we can remain the best we can be. I’m proud to say that in 2012 we will still be one of the few professional photographers you can book for less than $2,000. Seriously, where else can you find a company that gives you a professional photojournalist at your disposal for less than two grand? If you’ve shopped around you know it quickly reaches $3,000 just to get someone to show up. For $3,000 with us, you could get a photographer for 6 hours and a professional, custom designed, leather bound wedding album.
I’ll shoot my last wedding of 2011 on Saturday, and as soon as I can get those photos processed and to the client, I’ll be spending all of my effort on making sure we have the best 2012 possible. I’m excited to see what happens next year!
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Posted by Brad Luttrell, filed under Blog. Date: December 12, 2011, 2:27 am |No Comments »
Greetings one last time from Memphis. For this third and final installment of my Best of 2011 Wedding Photos, I give you Jeff and Rachel Maxwell who were married on June 18, 2011.
Once again, if you would like to see a few more photos from Jeff and Rachel’s Wedding, you may check them out on my personal blog: here
Here is my second of three installments on my favorite wedding images from 2011. This photo comes from the wedding of Becky and Jamin Carter on June 11, 2011. For more photos from the Carter’s wedding, visit my personal blog here.
This is my first of three installments I will be posting for the next three weeks on my Best of 2011 Wedding Photos where I will feature some of my favorite images from the past year. This first installment is from the wedding of Jeff and Katie Saunders who had an outdoor wedding on June 4, 2011 here in Memphis. If you want to see the more photos from their wedding, then hop on over to my personal blog here. Enjoy.
Thirty minutes after the engagement shoot began, thunder rumbled.
Pretty soon only half the shoot was complete and a severe thunderstorm, packing 60 mph winds, chewed through the Lexington, Ky., countryside and downed numerous trees. Lexington photographer Jonathan Palmer and I forged ahead and our subjects were happy to oblige.
After manuevering around several downed trees that obstructed many roads in Fayette and Woodford counties, we spotted the first rainbow but we weren’t in a good place to make a picture. We kept driving. But the rainbow was not going to hang around forever.
After darting into a field, umbrella in hand, the couple stood for a few shots. Rain was still falling, but the sky, light and colors were too good to pass up.
All of the shortcuts we took were well worth it — the four of us toasted afterward with bourbon and beer at dinner.
Location shooting is full of surprises. That’s one of the main reasons I love documentary photography. “How can we turn this into a visually appealing situation?”
When shooting weddings, churches and venues all start to look the same, so one of the first things I do is wander around the neighborhood to look for something different, something that doesn’t scream wedding.
Jennifer and Keith were married July 16, 2011, in Louisville, Ky. I scoped out a few streets around the church for some after-ceremony photos. This side street had depth, character and even though the light was still hard (about 6 p.m.) the quick stop and kiss worked.
We had a great time at Cortney and Andrew’s engagement shoot, and I was equally impressed with Andrew’s new beard and then immediately saddened to hear he’s losing it before the wedding.
Thanks Cortney and Andrew for a fun shoot, and congrats on your engagement!
It was an honor to shoot Chris and Ashley’s wedding. Ashley and I had mutual friends in college, so she knew I shot weddings and asked Hands Up to photograph her wedding sometime last year. It’s hard to believe their wedding has come and gone, but it was a great time! I got to see some of those friends, one of which I had not seen in over two years.
So here’s a couple of photos from the wedding, because I’m fairly certain Ashley won’t make it another day without seeing a few. Enjoy and congrats!
Documentary photography is all about those candid moments, but we can’t forget those details. A good collection of detail photographs can really make your collection of wedding photos standout. Put any photographer at a wedding and they know to watch for the good moments at the first dance, the cake cutting and the toasts, but a great photographer will watch for moments at inopportune times and constantly be searching for details. The detail shots will help you remember the small things that may not seem important now, but in 30 years will be true treasures.
I always try to capture little details that people might not think about, too. Like that funny moment when the bride lays her leopard covered cell phone down next to her flowers. Or when the groom leaves his bow tie next to a pre-wedding beer. These are still “moments,” but it’s a picture within a picture, a snapshot within a snapshot. As someone who has gotten married and had a great photographer, I can vouch that it really makes you proud of your wedding to see these moments.
As a visual artist, I’m less obsessed with the tools I use than how many different ways I can tell a story. I work at a documentary video and photography firm that places storytelling as its No. 1 priority. We recently launched a new website and demo reel.
At Hands Up, we are constantly seeking new ways to tell the story not only of a single eventful day, but also we try to capture the values and emotions that comes out of a couple’s relationship together. Storytelling rules our creative lives, from design to video to photography.
