preface: engagement session at Highland Brewing

part 1: wedding ceremony at Claxton Farm

part 2: wedding reception at highland brewing in asheville (above)

i'll be the first to admit that going in to this little photographic journey i had no idea what to expect from a wedding with a brewery as the main location for two out of the three shoots. i just knew it sounded like something i had to be a part of. 

anyway, huge shout outs to Leah and Brock for being two of the most thoughtful, friendly, and natural people i've ever photographed. they planned a fantastic event and i'm so thankful i was able to be a small part of it. i also can't forget to mention the incredible floral work of asheville's own Flower Gallery. i can't imagine they had ever decorated a massive brewery before and i have to say it was very impressive.

now that i've finally had some time to wrap this up with a final blog post i just wish we could start over and do it all again. something i suspect my wedding photographer friends understand very well.

thanks again you two. wishing you all the best.

i can't tell you how excited i am to actually post about my "new" office. first, the way in which this all came together is pretty amazing (i'll get to that) and second, i've been trying to think of the most visually interesting way to decorate and photograph it and i finally figured it out. here's how: i gave up completely and forced myself to shoot and edit (except for the logo) all of the photographs with my phone. it's amazing what an effective photographic tool a phone has become if you have the patience. 

now back to the story, which i'll keep short since i'm assuming my blog readers probably have similarly short attention spans. it all started sometime around october of 2011 after i had driven around with my daughter for a few hours one day looking at some potential office and/or studio options and had come up with pretty much nothing. i actually felt ok about that since i had never really felt the need to have one before but just as i was having dinner, tara (weddings with tara / the darling bee) called and said, "hey, are you interested in getting an office? libby found a really great place..." note: for those of you that don't know this is libby. (oh, and this is how we "met.")

fast forward to january and i can truly say that as i started dragging in some chairs to my office i couldn't believe it had worked out. even my daughter (secretary?) has a corner to play in! i share a beautiful building with my friends tara, libby, and two of my past clients. since i'm not sure they necessarily want their business info posted i'll just explain it like this: i photographed their wedding, tara was their coordinator, and libby's husband performed the ceremony. yeah, sometimes asheville does feel much smaller than it is.

2012 feels great. thanks so much to all of you who encouraged and pushed me along, i'm eternally grateful.

p.s. new larger blog images!

some of you might already know that i like to try to do things differently. sometimes it's a conscious decision and others times i don't really realize it until later. sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it's just me being stubborn. thankfully i do occasionally know when it's time to give in and recognize when something is popular because it deserves to be. so as of now i'm officially jumping on the facebook bandwagon for my photography work. i'm excited by the prospect of being able to have more personal interaction than on the blog and since i KNOW you're already on there please feel free to drop by, say hello, and check out some of my work. here's the link if you missed it on the sidebar: https://www.facebook.com/jeremy.russell.photography

a few images from a trip to death valley that i took several years ago. it's definitely one of those places where you just sit there and feel small. recommended.

current status: enjoying life.

there's so much to write about Magan and Philip (and of course, Rosa the dog) but i think i'm going to save it for their wedding blog post. here's the short version: Magan and Philip are Asheville locals, are rad, and told me to get crazy. trust + freedom = art. love this one, thanks to you both.

thanks also to: Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar and Double D's Coffee and Dessert Bus.

this evening i met up with a local client of mine to deliver an album and ended up spending about an hour just chatting about the wedding day and life in general. it was just a simple little meeting that will fade into a note on our calendars as the days and weeks fly by but i realized yet again how lucky i am to be a wedding photographer.

this may or may not be related but i came home and decided to make a little page of some of your feedback on the wedding blog. thanks Emily and thanks to all of you.

i'm breaking my rule of never editing images on the laptop but i had to post a few after having such a fun time this weekend with Emily and Michael and, yes, Liza the (extremely well behaved) dog. big thanks to you three for putting up with my "attention deficit disorder" style of shooting and walking all over the NC Arboretum and downtown Asheville. can't wait for the big day at Claxton Farm! (more to come...probably on the wedding blog.)

sure it's just a simple little ceremony image from Melissa and Casey's wedding but i was so excited to see this after clicking on the link Tara Jordan emailed me. i was even in Washington D.C. when i got the email! anyway, Tara was Melissa's coordinator for her wedding this summer at Grove Park Inn and was interviewed by The Washington Post for an article in their Lifestyle section. brides take note: free wedding advice (p.s. hire her anyway!)

update: wow, now they've posted 11 more of my images on another gallery post about wedding theme ideas and most of them include some of the vintage items from The Darling Bee that Melissa had at her wedding! what a fun way to end 2011, look out 2012!

life is good.