Nicole and Patrick's Eagle's Landing Country Club Wedding | Stockbridge Wedding Photographer

My second shooter, Sharon McMahon, and intern, Kara Johnson, all had a blast photographing Nicole and Patrick's amazing Eagle's Landing Country Club wedding this past weekend. Nicole and Patrick were so sweet and tender with each other it made Sharon cry. Here are a few of my favorites from the day. I'll share photos that Sharon and Kara took in tomorrow's post.

Getting Ready Photo Takes 2nd Place in the WPS Contest

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My new friend Les Atkins, North Carolina Wedding Photographer, just informed me that I took 2nd place in the Wedding Photographic Society Live Judging Contest. The judging took place at the WPS convention I attended in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a few weeks ago.

Everyone got to listen to the judges comments as they reviewed the images. Favorite comments about my photo: "Everything works together in this photo." "Love the bridesmaid in the back in her socks." "Wish this were my photo."

I especially liked the last comment. It's always nice to be the envy of one of the judges :)

Award-Winning Wedding Photographer

Wedding Photographic Society Convention | Part III

The second day of the convention, my friends and colleagues Sharon and Kara and I joined Cristobal Perez's live engagement portrait shoot. I showed up with my Quantum Trio and Phottix 4-in-1 Wireless transmitter/receivers. The only problem ... Cristobal is a photojournalist and wanted us to work on seeing and capturing emotion in natural light. Rebel that I am, I ended up spending most of the time practicing my epic lighting. I figured since I was at a conference I should try some things I rarely use. Here are a few of the funky photos I took during Cristobal's shoot. He was awesome and fun and inspiring and easy-going AND he let us shoot and shoot and shoot. Thanks Cristobal!

Cristobal Perez Live Shoot

Engagment Portrait Live Shoot

Cristobal Perez

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Atlanta Wedding Photojournalism

Piedmont Park Engagement Safari in the Rain | Atlanta Weddings

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing Nicole and Patrick's Engagement Safari at Piedmont Park and San Francisco Coffee. The weather report predicted a 30 percent chance of showers and Nicole was concerned about the session. We had planned to photograph in Piedmont Park and maybe another park or two, but I decided we needed a backup plan. Nicole suggested San Francisco Coffee or Murphy's in Virginia Highlands. I called ahead to San Francisco Coffee for permission and they were kind enough to agree to a photo shoot that evening. (I didn't try Murphy's since it's a restaurant and I was pretty sure it would be swamped on a Saturday night.) She and Patrick later told me that the Virginia Highlands area reminds them of the part of town they lived in when they met in Cleveland, Ohio. So they really feel at home there. I asked Nicole to describe what she would be wearing, so I could buy an umbrella that would harmonize in color with her clothing, just in case rain was still falling during our shoot. Of course I ended up preferring the black-and-white photos, but that's just the old school photojournalist in me.

Here are a few of my favorites:

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Atlanta Engagement Photographer

Wedding Photographic Society Convention | Part II

In WPS Convention Part I, I talked about photographing with Tim Sayer during the live shoot. Below left is a photo showing what his beauty dish set up looked like and below right is a photo I took while he was lighting a model with a video light. Here are a couple of photos by my second shooter, Sharon McMahon. The one on the left was taken while Tim was holding the video light. In the one on the right, we commandeered the light, I asked the model to sit under the portrait, and Sharon came up with this awesome photo.

Atlanta Wedding Photographer Cindy M Brown

Fun @ the Wedding Photographic Society (WPS) Convention | Part 1

I'm finally getting around to blogging about the WPS convention I attended with my second shooter, Sharon McMahon, and intern, Kara Johnson, earlier this week. The event took place at the lovely Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, NC. I had a blast networking with lots of friendly North Carolina photographers. I left motivated to put the work I love doing out there for all the world to see. I learned a lot about the business of wedding photography, was introduced to some cool new gadgets and learned several shooting tricks that should make my job easier and my work better. Here are a few photos from the live shoots that took place Sunday and Monday evening.

We had awesome models available, so everyone had the opportunity to take beautiful photos.  Here are two of the models from the live shoot with Tim Sayer. While Tim was doing his amazing epic lighting tricks with another model, I focused on the other two models who were taking a break from posing for the camera.

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Here's a photo of Tim showing those in his live shoot group how to create epic lighting by underexposing the ambient light to supersaturate the background and popping in properly exposed gorgeous soft light from a beauty dish.

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I don't have any photos showing what the epic lighting looked like, because I didn't have my radio transimitters or a beauty dish with me, so I can't show you how amazing Tim's photos looked, but I can show you what Tim looked like while shooting the photos.

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After the workshop, I was inspired to wake up early and take some epic photos of Erin and Jenn, the owners of the Lazy Turtle Farm in Hillsborough, where we were staying. Here's what Erin and Jenn look like in epic lighting, without beauty dish or soft box or anything else to soften the light from my Quantum flash. I think the harsh light works here, giving the subjects, who had been working on the farm for three hours by 9 a.m., a gritty feel.

I kind of got carried away with the whole epic lighting thing. Details to come in WPS blogpost Part 2 .Atlanta Wedding Photojournalist.

Atlanta Wedding Photographer

Kelly and Daniel's North Georgia Winery Wedding | Georgia Wedding Photojournalist

Thought I'd share some of my favorites from Kelly and Daniel's Blackstock Winery wedding. These were taken by my assistant photographer Sharon McMahon and my intern Kara Johnson. We all had a delightful time photographing the event. The Blackstock Winery is a perfect place for a wedding. I love the way they have it set up so that instead of walking down the aisle, the bride and her Dad enter through an aisle of grape vines.

This wedding included some wonderful touches, including Adirondack chairs for guests to sign, some artsy boutineers, and paper bags with the letter "T" (for Terrell -- Daniel's last name and Kelly's, too now) cut in a variety of typefaces:

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Georgia Wedding Photojournalists

Atlanta Marriott Century Center | Wedding Venue

I met Jennifer Hill, Senior Catering Sales Executive at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center, at a recent networking event. A couple of weeks ago, she was kind enough to take me on a tour of their awesome event space. There are 20 meeting rooms available at the Century Century Marriott with more than 25,000 sq-ft of meeting space. The 5,000-sq-ft Century Ballroom, largest of the rooms with a capacity of 800, is perfect for a luxury wedding.

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In addition to the meeting rooms, those planning weddings or other events can take advantage of poolside event space.

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The guest rooms are newly remodeled and great for out of town guests.

There's plenty of free parking and easy access to I-85 at Clairmont Road. If you're planning a wedding, check it out. Jennifer will be glad to show you around.

Photos by cbrownphoto | Atlanta Wedding Photography