Friday Film Sneak Peak, June 19

Melanie & Jay, June 6




Catherine & Chase, June 6

The Last 7 Months

The Last 7 Months from Caleb Chancey on Vimeo.

Bryan asked me to post this. Why? Duh, it features the most wonderful/beautiful/awesome girl in the world: Laura Vandal, my soon (3 months) to be wife!

8mm is magic. It takes regular, everyday, moments and makes them some of the most memorable scenes you can imagine. And if I can get a bit corny, maybe it simply provides a great reminder to how amazing life is. Maybe? Yeah, I think so.

I hope you enjoy!

Experience Over Process

I read an article in a major wedding publication today that I thought was really interesting. The source is irrelevant, but it essentially answered ten common questions regarding wedding photography. I continued to flip through the magazine and found other examples of "what to look for" and "what questions to ask" of other wedding vendors. The ideas behind the articles were great... help direct brides toward making the best choices for their big day. However, what struck me most was the mentality behind it all. It seemed a bit skewed. As I finished reading, I got the impression that the most important part of the wedding process... is the process.

I tend to disagree. As your wedding draws near, think less about the process and more about the experience. Not only will it make your wedding photography look so much better, it will make your day so much more fun. Sure, there are a million and one details to plan and coordinate before the day arrives, and planning a wedding is no small task. But, keep in mind that for years to come you won't think once about your checklist. All you will have is your experience.

Brides/Vendors, what do you think? Has the wedding industry shifted too far from the experience?

-Jeremy

Caleb's Comfort Level

I was just editing through Caleb's recent Austin, Texas wedding when I came across this photo of him and Amy (the bride) the morning of the wedding. I've known for quite some time that Caleb's comfort level with his brides was high, but was unaware that it was this extreme.
Caleb, any explanation for this behavior?

Inside Analog Photo Interviews A Bryan Photo!!

Last month I got the privilege of being interviewed by Inside Analog Photo! This is a great honor as this radio program has been a great resource for our industry. Its been encouraging as well to have a radio show devoted to talking about the beauties of film. Its amazing PR for our trade and I'm so thankful to Scott Sheppard for interviewing our studio.

The interview:



I encourage anyone who is interested in film photography to check out the Inside Analog Radio Podcast as all of these interviews can be downloaded for free if you subscribe!

Click HERE to subscribe!

Funday Monday, Episode II

FunDay Monday Ep. 2 from A Bryan Photo on Vimeo.

Happy Funday Monday! Its our 2nd episode and Jeremy and I get to dive right into some viewer mail. Thanks to Zack from Birmingham for the question. Feel free to email us a question for next week's episode ( If we are even doing it again after this embarrassing performance. Man, we really need Robby back ). Email to info[at]abryanphoto[dot]com

Funday Photo Bonus!
The first is of me and my wonderful family at Myrtle Beach last month. Thanks to my brother Phil capturing this great shot:


And here a team photo from Josh's wedding taken by Jeremiah. We have felt inspired by the blog Awkward Family Photos recently:

Friday Film Sneak Peak, June 12th

Josh and Laura, May 31st




Annie and Hudson, May 30th

The Experience Timeline

As the resident Graphic Designer, I am always on the lookout for new ways to improve our brand and better tell our story. I am currently in the process of designing an Experience Page for our website that will highlight who we are as a company and reveal the details of the A Bryan Photo Experience.

One of the features that I'm most excited about is our timeline of services. Essentially, it will illustrate timeframes for our process and establish expectations for our clients. The more I dig into this project, the more excited I get about the experience we strive to provide our clients.

Feel free to take a sneak peek of the timeline HERE. Its not a working site and you can't click around on it yet, but we would love feedback! Let me know what you think!

-Branden

The value of creativity

Bryan recently shared a TED talk with me by Sir Ken Robinson that I can't seem to get off my mind. You can watch it HERE and I highly suggest that you do. Robinson is a staunch critic of education systems around the world, and believes that we are doing ourselves a huge disservice by educating good workers rather than creative individuals.

In his talk, he boldly proclaims that creativity is as important as literacy and we should treat it with the same regard. On the surface, this seems so obvious to me. Of course, creativity is of utmost importance... it's why we have cars, teapots, bricks and Monet. It's why Apple exists. It's the fuel for the fire at A Bryan Photo. But, as I continued to listen, I realized how rarely creativity is nurtured in the 16+ years most of us spend in school.

Somehow, we've gotten mixed up into thinking that the only things worth studying and spending time on are those that lead to conventional jobs, with conventional money, and conventional thinking. Our rite of passage from one intellectual level to the next and the stick by which we measure our worth in society is based on performance within an arbitrary grading system. Consequently, we have created industrialized countries full of people scared to death of being wrong.

So, what value do you place on creativity? Is it an integral part of what you do, or a bystander you lean on from time to time?

-Jeremy

Meggie & Buck, March 28th 2009

I LOVED shooting this beautiful wedding for this very laid back couple. The ceremony took place in Rome, Georgia at Berry College and the reception was at Meggie's parents home. It was an amazing evening with two families that truly knew how to have a great time.

8mm film:

Meggie & Buck 8mm from A Bryan Photo on Vimeo.

Song: "Shelter from the Storm" by Bob Dylan


To view more details, check out their album HERE!

Inaugural FunDay Monday

So, it's FunDay Monday, that time of the week when we post a video of ourselves talking only about things that are awesome and exciting.  In our inaugural FunDay Monday video, I tout my excitement for my Wednesday blog post, Bryan mentions his excitement over Josh's return, and we open the lines of communication up to you, our valiant readers, for Viewer Mail.  Some of you may not know that Bryan and I are experts at answering questions about literally anything, but we are.  So, please feel free to send your question to info@abryanphoto.com for next weeks FunDay Monday video. 

  

Inaugural FunDay Monday from A Bryan Photo on Vimeo.

Enjoy,
Jeremy

Friday Sneak Peak, June 5th

Amy & Chad's (Austin TX) Wedding, shot by the amazing Caleb Chancey


On Tuesday nights we get our latest film scans in from Richard Photo Lab. Every Wednesday morning feels like Christmas for us as we get to go through all of our rolls! We are hoping to start a new tradition where we show a preview on Friday from what came in on Tuesday. Here are some shots from 3 shoots that came in this week. More to come on all of these later!

Courtney and Michael Cleveland are past wedding clients and are traveling the country in an RV to raise cash for a good cause! More to come!


Courtney and Sim are getting married in July here in Birmingham. We shot their engagement photos at Chez Fon Fon, while sipping some champagne. A very chill shoot with a cool couple!



Since we are talking about sneak peaks, Richard Photo Lab has started a blog we they are showing off the latest scans from the photographers who use them. Check it out HERE!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Cheers,
Bryan

A New Polaroid Camera from Caleb!

Two weeks ago Rob and Caleb had a wedding in Austin TX. While there, they found a Wolf Camera that was going out of business and bought a whole display case of professional Polaroid cameras for $40! Because Caleb is amazing, he gave me one! It shoots two frames at the same time but if you cover one of the lens you can take two different photos on the same Polaroid. I've been having such a blast playing around with it. Now I have yet another toy camera to add to my bag of tricks for photoshoots!

Here is a Poloroid that Caleb took at Amy and Chad's wedding in Austin. You can see that he didn't cover one side so it exposed the same image twice on the Polaroid. I LOVE this shot!


Here's another one that Caleb took on the morning of Amy's wedding while the bride and bridesmaids were playing putt putt:


Here are some that grabbed with my kids and wife yesterday. I am using Fuji's FP-3000B to capture these images (mainly because the f stop only goes down to 11 and it allows me to get more light). I love how instantly classic these images feel.

Ashley with our youngest son Gavin:


Some photos of my two boys with our neighbor's daughters (The Maddox's) . Their youngest Mary Aplin with Gavin are on top and Pace and my oldest son Noah are on bottom.






Any toy cameras that you are enjoying at this time that I should look into? If so, let's see some shots!

Cheers,
Bj

The State of the Wedding Photography Market

I recently read a blog post called Competition Quicksand by the brilliant, Sean Low. Sean is the President of Preston Bailey Designs, the Director of Business Development for Vicente Wolf, and a master consultant for those in the business of being creative. The point of his post was that the market for wedding photographers is over-saturated due to the extremely low barrier of entry that digital cameras have created.

He's right. These days, anyone can go out and buy a decent camera and some memory cards and be a "qualified" wedding photographer. Certainly, the typical bride is looking for more than this, but post a few images on a free website or blog and you're in business.

So, how do we as wedding photographers respond? How do we ensure that our business will stand out amongst a vast sea of competition and create remarkable products that increase the barrier of entry? It's a question we ask ourselves every day and our response seems to permeate every aspect of our business. For us, the answer affects how we book weddings, what cameras we shoot with, the experience we provide for our clients, and how we work with vendors. It's led to exciting product offerings like our Cypress Albums, Album Predesign, Portrait Studio, Polaroid books, and 8mm video. It constantly pushes us forward and forces us to think of new and creative ways to tell stories.

What does it mean for you? I'd love to hear what other wedding photographers are doing to separate their voice from the crowd.

-Jeremy

Shay & Drew, March 21st 2009

Drew has plenty of personal history with Costa Rica but never dreamt he would get married there someday. He first went to Costa Rica in college to study Spanish for a month. While in Costa Rica, Drew visited Manuel Antonio (where the ceremony took place) and instantly felt a connection with its tropical beaches. While on that same trip, he even slept on the beach right in front of where he would eventually get married someday. After college Drew and his friend (and mine) Jeremiah got in a car and drove over 7,000 miles to Costa Rica. What was their final destination? Manuel Antonio!

Here's a shot of them in Guatemala on the ride down there:



Unfortunately a short time after they arrived, they ran their car off a bridge.



They luckily were O.K. but the accident forced them both to head back to the States prematurely.

Fast forward a few years and Drew falls in love with a beautiful girl named Shay. They get engaged and start planning a wedding. Shay always wanted a beach wedding but wasn't excited about the beaches in Florida (where they live) and wanted to think about something different. Slowly they began to consider an international beach wedding and Drew mentioned the idea of returning to the beaches of Manuel Antonio to get married. Soon this unlikely option becomes a reality.

The wedding week was a relaxed time with friends and family. Most of the wedding guests (along with me and my team) the week before the wedding at Karahe, a resort which was next to the house where the wedding took place.

Overall, the entire week was an amazing experience for me and my team.

To view their album, click HERE!

The amazing Branden Lower came with me and shot an 8mm film:

Shay & Drew 8mm from A Bryan Photo on Vimeo.

Shay and Friends


Drew and Friends


The ceremony was on the beach under the trees. One of the most meaningful aspects of the ceremony for Drew was the role his father played. He had just finished his second year and seminary and was able to perform the ceremony for Shay and Drew!


Married!


The reception was at a nearby restaurant that over overlooks the ocean from above. Since Shay and Drew had spent the week before with all their guests, they could party at their reception and not feel like they had to greet and talk to everyone that came! And what a party it was!

Josh and Laura's Polaroid Portrait Studio!

This weekend was the wedding our very own Josh Hausen. It was a great event, and we are so thrilled for Josh and Laura. I've had the privilege of knowing Josh since the fourth grade and I can't imagine finding a better fit for him than Laura. It just seems so natural that they would spend the rest of their lives together.

The wedding was an all out ABP team effort. I (Jeremy) was in the wedding, Bryan and Rob photographed it, and Branden shot 8mm video. Caleb was Josh's best man and also was in charge of arranging all the music during the ceremony (by far the best wedding music I have ever heard).  The wedding and reception took place at Birmingham's own B & A Warehouse.

One of the coolest features of their very laid back reception was the Polaroid portrait studio that we set up. Using our Mamiya RZ67, Bryan shot Polaroids of all the guests.  

Here's the camera with all the Polaroid film:


We then took all of the Polaroids and mounted them in a Cypress Album, which also served as their guest book. The finished product was a signed guest book with super fun pictures of all their friends and family. We're so excited about how it turned out that it will now be available as an official A Bryan Photo offering. I love it when we are able to offer something new that really adds extra flavor to the reception. It was so cool to see all the friends and family have a great time.

Guests admiring the Polaroids:


Here's a little video I made explaining the process.

Polaroid Portrait Studio from A Bryan Photo on Vimeo.

Here are some of our favorite Polaroids:


Josh and Laura, sucessfully emulating one of our favorite poses ("The Lean") from Awkward Family Photos (.com):


A Bryan Photo clients Shay and Drew (left) and Emily & Sam (right), with friends Mandy & Joel (center):


The wonderful Amy & Chase Kuhn:


The beautiful Laura Vandal(Caleb's finance) & Erin Eades:


Laura, Josh, and friends:

Enjoy,
Jeremy