Alex the Photo Blog

This post is long overdue.  I’ve been so busy preparing for my Italy trip (leaving today!) that I’ve let my blog fans world down… I’m sorry to disappoint all three of you.

The Schnorf wedding was so much fun.  As you can see from a previous post, Keri and I got to try out the new photo booth idea with a fun group of drunks people.  Though photo booth aside, we still managed to get some great photos!  I’ve always wanted to shoot a bride with that modern 1920′s look (short hair, fish net veil).  You’ll see how awesome she looks in her dress and veil a few pix down.  The wedding was at Saint Mark’s United Methodist Church- a beautiful venue.

See what I mean???  Doesn’t she look great?  So classy.

Very colorful wedding.  She said the Beatles were her inspiration.

They had childhood games on all the tables.  Hungry Hungry Hippos was my fav.

Though not Lewish…. they insisted on the chair lift.  Mazeltov!

And my favorite still from the photo booth.  Keri and I are (hopefully) off to Italy right now!  Hope to come back with plenty of pix!

As expected, I didn’t live blog well enough in KY.  I tried, but just didn’t get enough sleep to warrant staying up even later to write.  We did have a really amazing time and it opened my eyes to the experience of RVing.  I always thought it would be fun, but never occurred to me that having a house on wheels means you’re always at home… even when the A/C goes out at 4am.

First on the schedule Saturday was burger king… please note that not only do they NOT serve breakfast after 10:30, they also do NOT serve breakfast at 10:29 apparently.  Who eats lunch at 10:29!!!  Idiots and Burger King employees- that’s who (really, all major fast food chains too).  After breakfast (Whopper JR and fries), we headed out to Woodford Reserve which turned out to be one of the favorites on the trip.  Good tour, good bourbon.  Here is the cooker that mixes and cooks the first step to make the “distiller’s beer.”

And here’s a fermenter where it gets pumped into, followed by a photo of the guys smelling it.  Smelled more like beer than anything else.

One of the big differences between Bourbon and other types of whiskey is that they are distilled twice in copper stills before aging (3 times at Woodford Reserve as shown here).

All Kentucky bourbon must be aged in new (not used) american oak barrels.  They are also required by law that the ingredients must have at least 51% corn.  They are all charred on the inside to help mellow the flavor.   When they are aged, they are placed in “rick houses” that are always open to the elements.  In the summer, the bourbon expands while the oak pores open up.  The bourbon soaks into the wood extracting flavors.  In the winter, the pores close and squeeze the bourbon back out.  This process goes on until the distillers decide when to bottle.  Once in bottles, the bourbon doesn’t age any further- so if today you you sip on a 10 year old whiskey bottled in 2000 versus a 10 year old whiskey bottled in 2010, the two will have very minor flavor differences.  All bourbons are whiskey, but not all whiskeys are bourbon.

One of the other interesting items found on all of these tours is something called Torula.  It is a creeping fungus commonly found at whiskey distilleries and it eventually coats all of the trees and rick houses.

To be honest, I’m not used to all these “words” on my blog, so I’m just gonna finish up with some pix for the rest of the post- these two of “whiskey creek” at Maker’s Mark.

Though this blog is mostly about my photographic endeavors, I like throwing in a little color from my life.  Really, it’s moreso that since I have few organic blog readers, I like to update my friends and family on what I’m doing (other than facebook).

My good friend Curt put together a “Mancation” with some friends through the great states of Tennessee and Kentucky touring as many distilleries as we can in 3 days.  Though whiskey and bourbon are not my drink of choice I figure that, similar to a trip to Napa Valley, it would bring to light a better appreciation of the art that lay behind the drink.   Plus, I’ve never travelled anywhere in an RV and I was really excited about a road trip not trapped in the back seat of a car.  So far, so good.

The epic began at Curt’s place in Marietta (yes we hung out in the RV in the driveway for a good bit of time before we actually left in the morning).  Trevor cooked up his family chili recipie the night before so we’d have a hearty meal when we arrived at our campground in KY the next day.

In the morning, we woke up late (we had a little tasting session of our own the night before) and hit the road around 10.  We made it to Lynchburg, TN around lunch time and signed up for the tour.

We learned about the mashing process and how the first few stages of making whiskey are very similar it is to beer brewing (a hobby of mine).  From there comes the distilling, and then- to make Tennessee Whiskey specifically- it goes through the “mellowing” process.  This is the distinguishing factor between TN Whiskey and all other types. Mellowing, as Jack Daniels calls it, is charcoal filtering.  JD has a specific method in which they take Sugar Maple…

And burn it to make charcoal for the filtering:

From there, it is aged in oak barrels for years – they didn’t say how long, but according to the George Dickel distillery folks, it’s four years…. and that’s where most of my pictures of the production sadly end.  Photos weren’t allowed inside anywhere, but I did grab this one *illegal* shot of the barrels (from the hip, while walking next to the tour guide)

Other than that, we learned how Jack Daniels died.  Apparently he had a bit of a temper, and one day he couldn’t get his safe open, so he got ticked and kicked it…. breaking a toe.  The toe became infected and turned to gangrene which eventually killed him over the course of a few years.  Here is the fabled safe:

After JD, we attempted to make a tour at the George Dickel distillery 20 minutes away, but missed the last tour by 45 minutes.  However, we did get some really awesome commentary on the distillery by a seasoned veteran at the company.  The man spoke with so much depth and heart that it reminded me a lot of this scene from Wayne’s World.   To me, it made missing the tour worth it.

Since we have 4 distilleries on the docket tomorrow, don’t expect a live update…. but I’ll post more pics at some point.

The Schnorf | Hunt wedding was this weekend in Midtown Atlanta and it was so much fun!  I plan on working on all the other fancy schmancy wedding pictures later (beautiful church btw)- but first, I was way too excited to get these up on the blog!  Keri, my lovely assistant/fiance, was kind enough to help shoot this wedding with me and man (woman?) the photo booth.  Keri works for beer and pizza, so she’s the best assistant I could imagine for the job.  She was awesome, but so were her subjects!

And now without further ado- the Photo Booth!  Available from Alex the Photo Guy wherever alcohol and sombreros are served…  (p.s.- I recommend full screen)

Schnorf Wedding Photo Booth! from Alex Arnett on Vimeo.

Bethany and Chris were married last month in Boone, NC.  Their wedding was at a cute little church in the mountains.  However, as mentioned in a prior post, they have a ton of friends and family!  Because of this, the church got pretty hot during the ceremony… so hot that not only one, but TWO people in the wedding party passed out during it.   The first one surprised the audience, but after the second people understood why.  Aside from that, the ceremony, receptions, and weather were great in Boone.  We had a fun time and my mom got to catch up with old friends (Bethany’s mom and mine went to college together at Appalachian State).

As a side note, my new(er) camera broke about 8 shots into the wedding… however, with a little bit of googling after I got home, I found out that the repair was a known issue to Canon and they repaired it for free!  In fact, they turned it around so fast that I got the “we have received your repair and will begin work on it promptly…” letter three days AFTER the camera was already back in my hands as good as new!  Props to Canon!

The bride’s mom:

Bethany Reynolds had her wedding in Boone, NC a few weeks ago.  It’s tough to beat a small church wedding in a small town in the mountains.  The only problem with a small church wedding is when you have as many friends and family as Bethany and Chris had, you have standing room only!  More on that in a few days.

Here are her bridal portraits from a few months ago.  I wasn’t supposed to post them until after the wedding in fear that her hubby-to-be would come across them.  We shot these at Barrington Hall in Roswell.  Though I didn’t get any pictures of it, there was a play going on at the other side of the house.  So as we were taking photos of Bethany in her bridal gown, there were princes, gypises, and wizards running backstage around us.  It was funny because someone would walk by in costume and tell Bethany she looked great, and Bethany’s response would be the same.

 And now for some ridiculous HDR….

Katie and Robby had a beautiful wedding 4 weeks ago at Transfiguration Catholic Church in Marietta, which happened to be the church my family went to for a number of years of my childhood.  The wedding went off without a hitch and was followed by the prettiest church reception I’ve seen.  I never knew Transfiguration had such a classic reception space- big windows, wooden ceiling, good lighting.

I had a fun time getting to know Katie and Robby when we snapped photos at the hotel pre-wedding.  However, I really got a sense of what a great man Robby is from a toast given at the reception.  One of his best friends from high school, whom he played football with, was in a bad car wreck a few years back.  He was left partially paralyzed, requiring the use of a walker to get around.  Apparently, when he got back to his apartment after his time in the hospital, he got a call from Robby.  Robby said that he was packing his things to move in so that he can help his friend get around and become acclimated to his new way of living.  If that isn’t a great friend, then I don’t know what is. 

With that said, here are the photos from the wedding.