Rebecca & Lucky: Part 2 [Athens Wedding Photography]

A bit behind on blogging in case my avid readers can't tell.  Here is part two of Rebecca & Lucky's Athens wedding.  I will say out of most of the weddings I shoot- these guys threw a pretty wild reception!  I start this series with the following shot of the father of the groom- just to give you an idea of the festivities to come.

Yep- the fire department showed up.  I'm not entirely sure if we had anything to do with it or not...but I assume so.  We waited until the firemen went inside the hotel before we lit the sparklers for the exit.  ;)

Greta and Chris Teaser

It's been early winter since my last wedding and I was very eager to get back in the game!  What a way to start off, with Greta and Chris's wedding at Kellum Valley Farm and Ruins in north Georgia.  A gorgeous venue and a damn good lookin' couple!  Here's a sneak peek at a few shots from the weekend!

'Lil Mac 6 Months

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to take 6 month photos of Mac Brown.  Aside from his pretty awesome name (I always think of Mike Tyson's Punch Out when I hear "'lil Mac"), he also happens to be a pretty darn cute baby.  I'd say he did a great job being a model while on a cold floor in front of a big flashing light.  Maybe next time I'll bring an electric blanket to put underneath the white seamless paper.  Photographing babies is always a learning process for me.  :)

And for those interested in the white backdrop setup, here it is- though you can't see the big studio light & softbox off the camera left.  Sorry Kacie for including you- I just had to show that "about to freak out" face of Mac's.  :)

Working for Their Wedding | Lindsey & Mario @ Donaldson-Bannister Farm in Dunwoody, GA- Part 2

In case you missed the photos from Friday of Mario and Lindsey's wedding, click here!  Now, check out Part two of their beautiful wedding at Donaldson-Bannister Farm in Dunwoody, GA!  

Homemade cake by a family friend and Dad rehearsing his toast:

One of Mario's brothers' notes for his toast....

...and he was a huge hit.

There are two distinct ways to get a man on the dance floor, as shown here:

Working for Their Wedding | Lindsey & Mario @ Donaldson-Bannister Farm in Dunwoody, GA- Part 1

I shot Lindsey and Mario's wedding in October last year on the same weekend as Rachel & Andy's wedding.  I also recently met with the woman who helped with the venue to put it on, Linda Shulin.  When I initially met Lindsey & Mario and heard they picked a beautiful location that generally doesn't host many events, I didn't think much of it other than "cool!  I new venue to check out!"  During and after the wedding, I came to find out how much work went into just getting the wedding approved there, let alone the WORK they all put into it!

When Keri and I had our wedding, we did it semi-DIY by choosing venues where we could bring all our own stuff versus paying the venue to do it all or contract it out.  We thought that was a challenge at times.  Lindsey and Mario chose a historical home owned by the city of Dunwoody that had never seen a wedding in recent years and was being modestly maintained by volunteers.  Lindsey, Mario, their families, Linda and I'm sure a number of others made it happen through much paperwork, permitting, and heavy duty landscaping!  It helps that Lindsey is a lawyer and Mario is a landscape architect.  :)

I was told a number of hours were put in for many days making the venue as beautiful as it was that fall day.  The most notable of which is that the location where the actual ceremony took place (the grassy area with the hand-made-by-Mario white arbor) was an old swimming pool just 2 days before the wedding!  Mario, friends, and family filled it in and sodded it so they could hold the ceremony there!  I don't know about you, but I've never heard of so much hard work going into a wedding on top of all that jazz about finding a dress, caterer, DJ, and god-awful photographer.  ;)  Check out the photos below from one of the most beautiful DIY weddings I've ever heard of.

This was a POOL a few days prior!

And finally, a groomsmen idea.  :)

Winter Post, Summer Wedding- Adam & Rebecca

Here is the other wedding from last summer that I completely slacked on putting on the blog.  Adam and Rebecca had a beautiful wedding in Marietta with their reception at the Roswell Mill (one of my favorite venues!).  The happened to be on the hottest weekend of the year, but fortunately they planned their wedding indoors.  It was quite a challenge getting any photos outside due to the 100 degree+ heat (as you'll see in one of the photos below).  I made sure to only run outside for a few shots at a time as there is nothing worse than a hot and sweaty wedding party.  A hot and sweaty wedding photographer is a different story... I wore all linen to try and beat the heat but by the time I got to the reception even my pant legs were soaked.  A/C was my good friend that night.  :)

Christmas In Febtober: A January Summer Wedding Post

With the New Year comes reflections on 2012.  Though I have no grand ideas and emotions I'd like to emote, I will say I am launching a few ventures this year to help Alex The Photo Guy keep the business strong in the new year.  I resolve to shoot more projects for myself and hang out with Marc Del Santro taking photos out in the wilderness (I have a few ideas for 2013 on that).  I also resolve to market my wedding business harder, update my website, follow-up on emails quicker, and stay on top of the blog.  With the latter resolution comes two blog posts- both way late, as they were weddings I shot during the summer at the height of the heat wave.  I generally stay on top of blog posts, but with wedding season continuing strong from summer to fall I fell behind on these two on the blog.

The first wedding I'm making up lost ground on was Sallie and Aaron in Asheville, NC.  Sallie is one of my sister's best friends and she had a beautiful wedding at the Biltmore UMC and Doubletree Hotel.  It was a beautiful location wedding, albeit a very hot weekend.  The one thing Sallie told me was "I HAVE to have a mountain view shot."  My trusty second shooter, Curt, accompanied me on the trip and we spent a few hours the day before scouting locations near the church that we could get to and from before the reception.  In the end it turned out, the best shot was in the parking lot of the church.  Few people saw this shot with their naked eye beforehand.  That's because the trained eye of a photographer knows he needs to to lay on the black asphalt with a long lens in order to avoid parking barriers and the rusted chain link fence below the hill.  Plus, it helped that the sun poked its head from behind the clouds for just a moment, parting the way for the mountains.  ;)

 

Andy & Rachel’s Wedding at Park Tavern- Part 2 | Atlanta Wedding Photographer

Here is part two of Andy and Rachel's Park Tavern wedding.  Not surprisingly, Park Tavern knows how to host a good party.  You'll easily see below that this wedding was quite the party.  :)

Did I mention I was the second most talented photographer at the wedding?

Double-Header + 2 Portrait Session Weekend Teaser!

My friends generally know that I often have busy weekends.  However, this weekend was my first wedding double-header in a while- one Friday and one Saturday.  On top of that I had a maternity/family session on Sunday and a 3-month baby session on Monday.  Needless to say I was a bit nervous about it all week.  My main fear, oddly enough, was that I throw my back out at the Friday wedding and was unable to shoot the Saturday wedding.  That obviously didn't happen, but I did find out for sure that I have begun getting tennis elbow from lifting about 15 pounds of camera, batteries, battery grip, flash, and wireless flash trigger over 1,000 times each day with poor form by my right arm.  Both nights I actually had to ice my elbow!  I'm getting old!

Both weddings went great.  If you were outside at all this weekend you know the weather was some of the best Atlanta has to offer.  Blue skies, warm days, cool evenings- just about everything you could ask for in a wedding- both of which were outdoors!  I'll give more dedicated posts on both weddings once I get through editing the photos, but I will say I had a ton of fun all weekend.  Rachel and Andy had such a fun group of guests and bridal party at Park Tavern that I ended up spending most of my time on the dance floor!

Here are a few photos from Rachel and Andy's wedding:

Lindsey and Mario had a beautiful wedding at Donaldson Bannister Farm in Dunwoody- actually the very first one that the venue has seen!  I initially thought they "just" planned the wedding (note: the word "just" is in quotations), but after the ceremony Mario told me the ceremony site- a beautiful grassy garden area on the property- was a swimming pool just about a month ago!  He laid all of the sod and did the landscaping himself!  Here are a few from their wedding:

Now here are a couple from the Sullivan family shoot followed by two from my sister's 3-month old- Hudson.  I know I know- I'm an incredibly efficient blogger!  I say that jokingly- more on these 4 events to come!

Jessica and Jeff | Atlanta Wedding Photography

Jessica and Jeff's wedding was one of the most fun weddings I've been to, including many that I attend as a guest.  The two of them did a superb job of a true DIY wedding.  Take a look at the photos and see at how they turned a grassy field into a beautiful ceremony and an open part-time photography studio  into a warm party palace.  The incredible food was provided by the tastiest food truck I've ever met met- Ibiza Bites (see marshmallow fluff covered sweet potato fires below!).  There was beauty at every turn, be it the weather, the preparations, or simply the bride and groom.  I couldn't have asked for a better wedding to shoot.  Even after the bridal getaway, the DJ  (Andrew Wroblewski, featured below) spun tunes while the bridesmaids packed up the decorations and leftover beer.  I can't say I didn't end up with decorations and beer in my hatchback at the end of the night.  ;)

 

New Alex The Photo Guy site is LIVE!

I've owned the domain since college.  Three years ago I re-upped it's registration and I contracted my good friend Greg Vilines at Webnormous to begin work on the site.   Then a combination of producing an album, playing in a band, get married, and having his house burn down slowed Greg's progress on the site a bit.  A combination of helping with the album, buying a house, running a photo business, general laziness, and getting engaged slowed me down too.  I know my excuses aren't as valid as a house fire, but regardless of the timing, it is finally LIVE! Greg built the whole thing from scratch and he did a damn good job on it.  I know I was a difficult client at times but in the end we got it all worked out.  There will be a few tweaks made in the coming months, but since it's 99% done, we figured why not launch it?  This will be a soft opening for my six blog readers and facebook friends until I get it 100% finished.

Keep in mind the new site isn't going to be a replacement for the blog- just think of it as a "best of Alex the Photo Guy."  I'll still keep you up to date with my crazy photo antics here on the blog, so don't stop reading!

Let me know what you think!  Many thanks again to Greg who did all the hard work.  All I did was take a few photos.  If you need a website, let me know and I'll get you in contact with Webnormous.

An Auburn Wedding

Apparently going out of the country means you forget about all the work you wanted to do before you left.  My sister, who attended Auburn for undergrad, sent me a text last night that read "hey- you still haven't blogged about that Auburn wedding! I want to see the pix!" Sorry for the delay!  I had a great time in Auburn for Regan and Jeff's wedding weekend.  Everything was beautiful and was at a cute little chapel right across from Samford Hall on campus.  There were hints of rain, but never caused anyone any problems.  Regan looked beautiful in her dress and Jeff looked distinguished with his silver vest and tie.  The reception was definitely a party!  I have so many pictures of people dancing you'd think they were at a downtown NYC club and not an antebellum home in Auburn.  Afterward I went out with all the bridesmaids (and their husbands) and ended up eating pizza with a few friends from the wedding in a hotel room until 4am.   Most photographers don't get such a royal treatment...  :)

War Eagle!

Schnorf | Hunt Wedding Photo Booth!

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.

Evelyn

These were taken months ago and I just got around to finishing them up.  Evelyn is a co-worker of Keri and I.  She was approached by a friend of hers asking if she'd like to get into modeling.  Evi, being as modest as she is beautiful, was very reluctant to do it but after some convincing from friends and her husband she decided to look into head shots. This is where I came in.  I had never done true headshots before- just kid portraits (this shoot happened before the "Glow Atl" photos you can see a few entries down), so this was a freebie for a good friend.

In fact, I think I was paid in taco bell and asthma attacks.  An odd combination I know, but we did the shoot at Evi and Nathan's house in Buford.  I can usually control my allergies to her cats by taking Claratin and staying away, but when I get into "photographer mode" I move quick.  Moving quick leads to sweating, hightened heart rate, and increased breathing... which leads to increased allergies apparently.  Had to take a few breaks throughout the day- one of which for taco bell.

Without further ado, here is Evelyn.   Remember to click on the individual photos to get the full effect.  And don't worry, she's fully clothed in all of the photos-  just some creative angles.  :)