Amber and Jerome's Stone Mountain Engagement Safari | Wedding Photojournalism

Putt Putt Golf Engagement Session

I had a blast photographing Amber and Jerome at Stone Mountain Park the other day.
They won an engagement safari at a recent bridal show and were excited to get together for the shoot. We planned to take photos at Snow Mountain, but someone forgot to reserve the tickets.

We decided to head over to the putt putt golf course to see what we could come up with there. Amber and Jerome ragged on each other about how bad they were and laughed and laughed and laughed some more.

Then we headed to the top of the mountain via the skylift, where we found out it gets very cold on top of Stone Mountain in February.

Engagement photos on top of Stone Mountain

After a quick foray onto the top of the mountain, we headed back down to the warmth of low ground.

Engagement Portraits with dog

Zsa Zsa was waiting patiently for her turn to join us on a trip to the park.

engagement photos in park

What an adorable couple. Hope they decide to take us with them for their destination wedding. (Hint, hint! :))

Engagement photographers in Atlanta

Wedding Venue Tour - James Madison Inn, Madison, GA

Last week we had the pleasure of visiting the James Madison Inn in historic Madison, Georgia. Jake Grant, Jr., General Manager of the Inn gave us a tour of the property from lobby, to guest rooms to the Variety Works Wedding Venue set to open in March. The boutique inn exhibits an understated elegance everywhere one looks, from the beautiful, leaded, beveled-glass windows saved from an older home in the lobby to the pineapple bedpost toppers in the Bonnar Hall Suite. Each room in the Inn is named for a historic home in Madison and has a painting of that home prominently displayed in the room. Here are a few of our favorite photos.

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Pine floors Jame Madison Inn

Guest room - boutique inn in Maidson, GA

Painting of home in James Madison Inn

Jake Grant, Jr, General Manager James Madison Inn

We can't wait until the Variety Works Wedding Venue opens in March. The rustic building, once housed Madison Variety Works, which manufactured furniture, windows, blinds and building materials. It is currently being transformed into a luxury wedding venue with rustic charm. Once the Variety Works is open the Inn will be a one-stop shop for high-end, rustic weddings. Can't wait to see the finished space. Hope you get some rest between now and opening day, Jake. You deserve it!

Sharing Pine Lake's Polar Bear Plunge: Better Late than Never

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On New Year's Day this year Pine Lake celebrated it's first ever Polar Bear Plunge. Considerably more foolish souls showed up to douse themselves in the frigid waters of Pine Lake than I ever expected. Here you see Pine Lake's heartiest souls enjoying the wet and the cold together. Maybe I'll take the plunge next year ... or NOT!

Children in Pine Lake at the Polar Bear Plunge

Award-winner at Pine Lake Polar Bear Plunge

Lalah warms up after the plunge

Atlanta Event Photography

Fresh Bridal Experience Show February 26th | Atlanta Wedding Photographer

We are thrilled to announce that C Brown Photo will be the preferred wedding photographer in the Fresh Bridal Experience at Ambient + Studio on February 26th 2012! The Fresh Bridal Experience is a wonderful alternative to the usual bridal show. It is not cookie cutter, instead it is always fresh. Engaged couples and their guests can expect an  intimate yet fun wedding planning experience!

Get your tickets today at www.freshbridalexperience.com!!!

2012 Bride's Choice Awards | Best Wedding Photographers

We're happy to announce that for the second year in a row we've been chosen by the folks at WeddingWire to receive a Bride's Choice Award in the category for wedding photographers. The awards are based on the quality of reviews received. Thanks to all our awesome couples for the honor.

{Athens,GA} – January 23, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce C Brown Photo has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for Photography!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, C Brown Photo was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

C Brown Photo is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate C Brown Photo for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

To learn more about the Bride’s Choice Awards™, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

C Brown Photo | Atlanta Wedding Photography

Booth at Georgia Bridal Show in Athens | Georgia Wedding Photographer

Wedding Photography Bridal Show Booth

This past Sunday, we participated in another fun bridal show with lots of great couples ... and vendors, too. Here's a photo that shows my space before and after we set up our booth. My carpenter friend John made the awesome booth, beautiful and easy to carry and set up. The booth was designed in 8 lightweight sections, each one made of a thin wood designed to be an underlay material for tile floors. A pecan stain was used to finish off the paneled look of the booth. Track lighting connected the two front sections of the booth to provide light and stability to the booth.

Athens Bridal Show Booth - Photography

Here are a couple of other shots of the booth:

Booth at Bridal Show - Photographer

Candice and Maxim's Turner Chapel AME Wedding Ceremony

I'm delighted to share a few of my favorites from Candice and Maxim's delightful wedding. It's taken a little while longer than normal to post to my blog, possibly because I broke my thumb setting up a bridal show booth the weekend after they got married ... and then crashed a scooter in Naussau soon thereafter. (Don't ask why I thought it was a good idea to be riding a scooter in a foreign country where they drive on the left side of the road.) Thankfully I'm on the mend now and am ready to share photos of this gorgeous couple and their friends and family.

Groomsmen Get ready

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Unity Candle | Turner AME Marietta

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Atlanta Wedding Photography

A response to Craigslist post: "I think your prices are WACK"

Ran across this Craigslist post to wedding photographers on another photographer's blog and wanted to add my two cents.

ATTN: Wedding Photographers:)

WHY is finding an amazing wedding photographer so difficult? :/

I am a Bride who is getting married this summer and have yet to find a decently priced, exceptional, amazingly talented, fun photographer.

WHY because the word “WEDDING” is involved photographers think they can change you $ 3,000.00 for wedding photos? Oh, because no bride is going to go without so they are going to pay it, because they HAVE to. They are ripping people off for all they have! Why when you want to get married it costs you AT LEAST 15 grand after all is said-and-done? Its such CRAP!! I love all you $ 3,000.00 photographers out there but i think your prices are WACK. All your doing is hanging out at a wedding taking tons of photos and editing them.. and thats owrth 3 GRAND!!! You’re making so much money its crazy. I just wish people would be more realistic. I mean the “average” persons salary for 1 freaking month is somewhere around 3 grand. (Thats making 19$ an hour) So you’re going to take someones WHOLE MONTH paycheck for one flippen day of photos? Just because you CAN!!?????? So that maybe they will not be able to feed themselves or pay any other bills they have, right? It makes me SICK!

I know im speaking for more than just myself right now. Alot of brides out there think the same thing. & I bet all you fancy photographers wont even read this. oh-well. Maybe there are cheaper photographers that will read this and LOVE to take my photos:)

Here's some comparative figures about what I could be earning in other jobs that might set things straight for this anonymous bride-to-be and others with similar questions.

Before becoming a full-time wedding photojournalist, I held positions as staff newspaper photographer, picture editor and professor of photojournalism.

1. One year into building my wedding photography business (after paying for my health insurance and contributing as much to my retirement as my employer used to) I make less than I did when I left my staff photographer position in 1986.

   If I work my buns off, this coming year I should to be able to build my business to the point where I will bring in what I did when I left my position as a picture editor in 1991.

   If I were to fill up my schedule as a wedding photographer @ $3000 a wedding, I would make about what I was making as an associate professor of photojournalism in 2006 (but I wouldn't have the amazing retirement plan).

   If I am able to become a super-star shooter and average $5000 a wedding, I will be lucky to make and put away for retirement what I would be making and putting away today had I accepted the professorship I was offered at a Big Ten university five years ago.

Most wedding photographers do it more for love than money, (but we do have families to support).

For more on how far that $3000 goes in supporting a family, see Nikki May's blogpost.