ALN Photography

Vacation aka creative refill!

2011-05-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

Home again! There is absolutely nothing like a 9 day adventure followed by a 6 hour drive to clear your mind and allow the creative juices to flow. As I sit here listening to my new cd (Adele) I find that I am stoked for wedding season!!!! I can't wait to see Angela on Saturday and photograph an amazing bride and good friend.... it's just soooo exciting!!! Wooohoooo!

Ok so my vacation didn't so much as start out as bumpy, let's call it..... ROCKY! Cruising out of NJ sounded like a good idea, until the tornados came through and we ending up in.... what did the captain call it?? Oh yeah "gail force winds!!" yeah that's what we went through! You know it's bad when you start down the steps and have to walk around people throwing up in baggies that the cruise ship ties to all the stairs! No I did not get sea sick......THANK GOD!!! And the waves were AWESOME!!!! I was thinking "ok no big deal I got this!" You should never ever say that..... never, ever.....because I got food poisoning! WTF! I made it through GAIL FORCE WINDS!! Now I'm throwing up!!! What!!! Yep that was my vacation! I totally missed Bermuda (my favorite place ever) but by the time we got to St. Marteen.... it all started to come together. We saw St. Marteen, St. Thomas and San Juan......I thought I would share with you :-)

HAVE A GREAT DAY!!! HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!

Pee, poop and biting....

2011-01-19T11:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've been able to write on my blog. Life has kinda taken over lately, however today left me inspired. To say that I've had a really rough week is an understatement. I felt like my life had been picked up, turned upside down and shaken violently until I could no longer recognize it as my own.

I started my morning wallowing in self pity with an overall poor pitiful me kinda attitude. I got in my stupid car this morning.... drove my sad self over to Natalie's house to do a photo shoot. I was feeling sad.... pitiful.... pathetic..... moody and plain annoyed with my life. I stomped up to the door and knocked. I was met by one of my favorite people on the planet. She was smiling.... I sighed and smiled back.... feeling a little less sorry for myself. She sat down on her couch and gifted me with her sweetness...... my mood improved (slightly)..... Benji came down the steps and handed me Emma..... I looked into that tiny little face and fell in love. All my problems and bad attitude was washed away. Natalie's dog HATES me..... hates me so much she bit me (again). Yep.... she is a short Chihuahua that wanted to bite me so badly she jumped as high as she could to bite my knee..... but I didn't care. She made me laugh.... Emma pooped on the blanket we were using.... I laughed then she peed on my blanket and I laughed.... for the first time in 24 hours I was laughing. Natalie had given me a gift I will never be able to pay back. She made me realize that there are things in this world WAY more important than my petty problems. No matter how big they seem to me.... they could be worse. My life is blessed with friends and family. I don't say I love them enough, I need to say it more.... and realize that sometimes being baptized in baby poop, pee and dog bites is what it takes to make you appreciate your life :-)

Lauren and Jared

2010-10-20T06:00:00.001-07:00

I met Lauren via email, like a lot of my brides. However unlike a lot of brides, she was emailing me 2 weeks before her wedding. She was originally supposed to get married at the Outerbanks on the beach, but hurricane Earl put a stop to that. With a mandatory evacuation all of her plans went up in smoke..... so plan B. Plan B included me shooting on a friday before a wedding 3 hours away on saturday. But I really felt for her and broke my own rule and agreed to shoot 2 weddings on the same weekend. What I hadn't anticipated was that the 2 of us would completely "get" each other. She was awesome, plus as a bonus she came with one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen....... Thanks Lauren and Jared for making me feel like an old friend.

The amazing wedding of Lauren and Jared took place at the Picasso Salon in Barboursville. This is the first wedding that I have shot here and I was pleasantly surprised. The house itself is the oldest home in Barboursville, so the architecture was super cool. However, the best part was the service! Lauren was able to get her hair done in the salon on-site and she was given the whole upstairs to get ready. The food was great and the people were wonderful. www.picassospaandcafe.com

The Ryans and bridal tip number....hmm can't remember :-)

2010-09-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

I was in my office probably on facebook one day when I get this email out of the blue. A girl named Ryan emails me and says " I don't want a photographer for my wedding but I want you to meet me and photograph me and my soon to be husband Ryan for a formal couple shoot, after the wedding" I thought hmmm this is different... sure I'm all yours! At least I can remember the grooms name! This should be interesting..... well interesting wasn't exactly accurate. Awesome, amazing, fabulous, surreal..... those are appropriate words for what happened last night. This is something I am going to do more of..... let me explain:

Bridal Tip:

On the day of the wedding it is utter chaos. Everyone is on a time frame, you can't enjoy each other, you are constantly rushed.....this is so much better. The Ryans were already married. (no worries about getting the dress dirty) We met at her family farm and took our time. We did whatever we wanted. I fell in love with my job all over again. It was the best formal shoot I have ever done because I was able to work at my own pace....my only clock was the setting sun. When (bride) Ryan says can I jump in the pond in my dress......well you know what I said! Here are some of these amazing photos.....

Thanks to the Maxey family and the Ryans for being so much fun!

Unplugged and unwound

2010-09-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

When I think about vacations, I always think that you should go in the summer. However, when we get there it's always crowded. We decided due to my crazy wedding schedule that we would go in September. Thanks to Earl we almost didn't make it, but as luck would have it, he skipped the Outerbanks! Thank you Earl for staying mostly out to sea!! So for one week, the cell phone was off and the computer was unplugged...I rarely used my camera (yeah I know...strange huh!) I caught fish and wiggled my toes in the sand. I even kissed my husband enough that my 6 year old started giving me dirty looks! It was great......here are a few of the very few photos that I took......

The quest

2010-08-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

So I've been shooting weddings for about 10 years. I have been a "pro" for about 5, and in that time I have searched religiously for the perfect wedding lens. The lens that I could put on my camera and never take off (unless I just wanted to). I finally found it and it was Amazing! I shot my entire wedding last night with 1 lens. I'm pretty impressed with the results so I thought I'd post a few of my favorites!

PS: My couple from last night was wonderful! They were willing to do anything that I asked them to do plus some. It really made my job a lot of fun! Thanks guys; you were awesome! Have fun on the honeymoon!

Me being me....cookies, beer & cameras

2010-07-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little mad at myself right now. I don't know why I do this, but it's a viscous cycle that I can't get out of. I sit down at my computer and I google "the photographer" the one everyone is talking about.....the one who doesn't shoot like me. And here I sit, comparing myself to that person, and I think why don't I shoot like that? What's wrong with my work? Why doesn't my name sound that cool or my website look that bangin' ?? Sometimes it costs me a few nights sleep, sometimes it costs me a new lens or god forbid a new camera!

So I am going to stop it. I am going to love my work because it's mine. I'm going to be myself and stay true to me. I will not jump on some band wagon because this look is hot right now or buy some $2,000 action that I can't use in a year.

I am just going to be me. And this is the photography I like to shoot.

WOW!

2010-05-24T09:41:00.001-07:00

Ok, so wedding season didn't so much as go off with a bang, more like an atomic blast! It has been the best May so far in my 10 years of weddings. My brides were fabulous and the venues were phenomenal! It has been AWESOME! We are getting so busy that I am beginning to think I need a studio (as if there wasn't enough stress in my life!). Here are some of the best photos so far since May.

Wedding Eve

2010-04-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

As I sit here charging batteries and editing photos, I feel myself getting more anxious for the wedding this weekend. It feels like the first day of high school.....the butterflies are back! It's so funny because I get like this before every event but on the actual day of the wedding I'm calm and totally focused. I think it's the anticipation that gets me. It's like christmas eve and I can't sleep because I'm so excited. So this is my wedding eve....right before I shoot the 1st of my weddings for this season. Maybe I should hang some wedding stockings by the fireplace to see if they will be filled with filters and lenses .....hmmmmm I wonder what santa would think?????

Soooo in honor of me having no social life for the next 5 months, here are a few of my favorite personal photos that I just shot. This will probably be the last time I pick up my camera for fun for a while.......

2010-03-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

ALN Photography was featured in today's Herald Dispatch in the business section!

BUSINESS

March 27, 2010 @ 08:00 PM

The Herald-Dispatch

Photographer sharpens skills at convention.

Amanda Nagy, owner of ALN Photography in Huntington, attended WPPI, a photography convention in Las Vegas earlier this month, to learn the newest trends in photography.
She attended classes from world famous photographers such as Bambi Cantrell, Kevin Kubota and Jerry Ghionis, each of whom has been awarded Top 10 Wedding Photographer in the World by American Photo.
"It was an amazing experience to learn from the best photographers in our industry and bring that knowledge back to benefit my brides," she said in a press release
ALN Photography specializes in wedding photography, as well as photographs of families, children, sports and corporate events.

WPPI

2010-03-15T05:22:00.000-07:00

So, I finally have a minute to sit down and write about the whirlwind that was Las Vegas! I can't tell you how much I learned while I was away. I almost feel sorry for my brides this year because I am sooooo ready to try everything I learned....so lookout girls, there is a mad photographer on the loose!

I don't think I could even express into words how lucky I was to get to go, but to be honest I missed my family. I was torn between wanting to learn as much as possible and wanting to be back home at the same time. I think I had some separation anxiety! I felt like Bella on the first day of school!

I attached a few of the photos that I took while I was away. Most of you don't know who these guys are...... so let me just tell you briefly. Each of these photographers have won multiple awards for their work or contribution to the wedding photography industry. Meeting people like Bambi or Kevin was like meeting a rock star at a concert. It was nuts.....if you saw them walking through the casino, people would be yelling for them or following them.

Just for the record...I did not yell nor did I follow ;0)

I did however have class with most of them so I grabbed a photo for you to see!

Yervant teaching class during the trade show.

Kevin Kubota during my VIP class (thanks to him I have a ton of work to do)

Bambi and Jim Garner during the awards ceremony

Bambi Cantrell right before the awards ceremony

Jerry Ghionis during class

Marcus Bell during his presentation

HELP!

2010-02-25T05:26:00.000-08:00

So I'm leaving out next Sunday to attend the annual photography conference in Las Vegas. To say I'm nervous is an understatement but I know I'll be fine once I land. I am taking suggestions for music for the trip, flying alone has never been my cup of tea. Hopefully once I arrive I will be able to send you updates and photos.

The calendar has gotten very full already for the upcoming wedding season. I met with Korenne yesterday and discussed this summer and let me tell you it's gonna be busy. I have been putting this off but I believe that is time to do it. So here we go: I am looking for a part-time assistant. If you have someone who is interested please have them call me. There are 2 dates this summer for sure when I won't have her with me sooooo that means I will need help. Basically what I will need is someone to keep up with the gear. Set up my lights, put them back in the car when we're done. Someone who I can hand a camera to and say grab a couple shots of this or that. Also someone who will make sure all the dresses are in place. So if you know someone who's not afraid to work and put up with me, have them contact me ASAP!

-A

Welcome

2010-02-19T05:17:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the new blog site for ALN Photography. I will be phasing out the old one and using this one instead. I hope you like the layout better, I know I do. For whatever reason, there were a lot of technical errors on the old one, so fingers crossed this will be the answer. There will be a lot of changes this year within ALN Photography and hopefully this will help keep you up to date on what's happening. I will continue to add tips and advice on here for all of my future brides, as well as the weekly wedding updates.

WPPI is just 2 weeks away and I am super excited to learn from some of the best photographers in the world. I will be getting a photo critique on my work as well as taking classes. I believe you should never stop learning, so this should be a great experience for ALN Photography and hopefully you will see it reflected in my work this year.

Korenne has been promoted from Assistant AKA pack mule (I say that with love) to Assistant Photographer. She has worked really hard these past two years and I feel like she has earned it. She will begin taking weddings on her own this year! YAY Korenne!!!

This also means at some point we will begin looking for a new assistant so be on the lookout for new things this year! I told you.....big things are happening! It's a great time to be a part of the ALN Photography family! Love Ya!

-A

Tips for Brides # 4

2010-02-03T05:11:00.000-08:00

We all know that bridal portraits are beautiful and the family photos are necessary. We love looking at pictures of the bride because well it’s her day and it should be all about her. But to make the story complete we need to take a look at the little things as well. The brides and mothers of the brides have worked tirelessly planning the wedding. These women have thought of everything from shoes to flowers to serving trays....so part of my job is to show how much time and effort that they have put into the wedding. When you are looking for your photographer consider the little things, make sure the photographer includes some of these things in their portfolio. It can be very easy to just focus on the bride and forget to look around. The bride does not always need to be staring directly at the camera or even be in the shot to create and amazing image that tells a story about her wedding. Here are just a few of my pictures of “tidbits, this and that and some whatnot!”

Tips for Brides # 3

2010-01-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

I sit here tonight thinking of the weddings from last year and the new ones coming up this year. I can’t help but think that it must be so hard to make a lifetime’s worth of dreams become a reality. Didn’t we all dream about what our wedding day would be like? I really don’t envy the stress that comes along with trying to pull that off. But I will use this blog to try and offer some advice that I hope will help you out.

For whatever reason this is tip #3, it should be tip #1......

Have fun on your wedding day! That’s it. My big piece of advice!

I know it’s easier said from here, not being the bride and not being so emotionally invested in it, but it’s true. I have been to so many weddings and I have seen all kinds. The one thing that I have learned is that something will go wrong, be prepared for it. The unexpected will happen and you will have to make the choice to either roll with it or let it roll over you.

I like to tell the story of one of my brides (I won’t name names) who planned this gorgeous ceremony outside. She planned for everything, except the weather. You can pray, make deals and beg but the weather just does what it wants. The ceremony went off as planned, but the clouds started to roll in. She was greeting her guests and I walked over to her and put my hand on her arm and said if you want any pictures at all....run. We did....we ran. Her in her heels, holding her new husbands hand, laughing wildly....we ran. We got 2 shots off and the storm hit..... and not some typical rain storm. We were drowned in 3 seconds flat, my camera and her wedding dress, hail stones the size of golf balls, we laughed madly as we ran into the house. She was amazing, she rolled with it. She looks at me with water running down her face and said well......I only planned on wearing this dress once anyway!

She handled this with such grace and humor that I could have hugged her. Had she not been able to roll with it, she could have ruined everything.....the day.....the pictures....everything. Don’t let the things you can’t control, control you.

Tips for Brides # 2

2009-10-31T05:05:00.000-07:00

While preparing to speak to the camera club in Charleston on Monday, I began to think about posing and the style of wedding photography in general. I really love it when my brides play and pose in front of the camera. It allows me to really have fun and create some amazing work. This really works for my girls as well because they get to keep these fabulous images forever.

So here is some advice to anyone who is about to do a photo shoot. Practice in front of the mirror, look at magazines and red carpet photos. See how the girls stand, they don’t come out of a box looking that good, it takes practice. Most of my girls have more than a year to plan their weddings, that is plenty of time to do just a little research on posing.

Also if you come in with the attitude that you really want to have a great time and enjoy yourself, it will show in your pictures. If you are relaxed and happy you will look relaxed and happy in your pictures.

So the tip of the day is: Have FUN, RELAX and a little practice goes a long way!!!!

Tips for Brides # 1 AKA THE LIST

2009-10-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to write about this for a while, so today I decided to sit down and do it. Hopefully this will not be the last time I write about things that can improve your experience with your photographer.

When you booked your photographer I hope that you did this because you liked that person’s work. That of course is the most important reason to book with someone, aside from their personality. I mean if you don’t like the person you definitely don’t want them following you around all day long! But today’s blog is not about either one of those things, today it’s about THE LIST.

Unless you want all or most of your pictures posed......you should really think about throwing that list away. I know every bridal magazine and website says make a list to help your photographer, but trust me any photographer worth their salt can get all of your shots without carrying around a piece of paper and a pen. As a matter of fact it slows us down. Let your photographer come in and work and just do what they do. They don’t have to take 1000 posed family photos to cover your wedding properly. Most of the time the best photographs are the ones you didn’t see being shot. This also will allow you the freedom to get married and enjoy your day without turning it into a portrait studio. If you want to do family portraits I think that’s just great, but don’t allow that to become the focus of your wedding.