Madison at the Mill: Alicia & David

David Allen August 23, 2020

Prologue

It’s 2005. A high school sophomore learns from a friend that there is this website where you can journal you thoughts and feelings and no one you know will see it. This sophomore already had a myspace account but he figured “okay, I’m 16 and I have feelings… let’s give this dang ol thing a shot.”

You may want to sit down for this, but spoiler alert, that sophomore was me.

Little did I know I’d be writing in this website for the next 15 year. Granted, I did take long breaks here and there, but overall, it’s nice to go back and read through. It’s like a history of how I grew up and the experiences I gained. I actually grew close to some of the other authors on the website, commenting on their profile pics and then commenting back. I didn’t know any of them in person which was nice because I felt like I could be totally honest.

Alicia and David

One of those friends on this website was Alicia. She had been writing for a long time and, while I don’t remember how we first connected, my oldest memories were reading about her complaining about nursing school. So, as a fellow student, I could relate! I followed her journey for years, and then one day she starts writing about this guy named David. As a fellow David, I could tell this dude was probably good looking and charming as heck (and probably hilarious like me).

Well, fast forward to last year and she sends me a quick Facebook message explaining that she will be visiting Austin with David. She suggests meeting up for some couple’s photos, although she wasn’t engaged at the time. I’m like “yo this sounds great to me! Let’s do it!” So, unlike 99% of my other relationships on that journal website, I finally met someone in person. Although it was brief, it was really surreal meeting someone whose thoughts you know so well, yet you have no clue who they are in person. I wish I could explain it better, but I’m not complaining. Alicia and David were warm and fun and while the photo session was just a little mini session, it was a lot of fun and the photos turned out great!

Austin Texas Engagement Photography Example

More fast forwarding… Alicia reaches out and says “hey yo dawg what up fam, we’re actually engaged you down to fly over to V-town to shoot our wedding?" (Probably not her exact words but that’s how I remember it). Of course, I’m super down… but we had no clue that the world was about to fall out.

February, March, April all pass and we all know the story. Weddings are being reschedule, cancelled… everything is up in the air (thanks a lot Covid). Props to Alicia, for real. She works as nurse AND planned a wedding through a pandemic. I can’t even imagine how difficult it was to juggle those two super difficult jobs. There should be an award for multitaskers.

Anyway, the wedding day comes around and honestly, besides the cloudy weather, everything felt so perfect. Hand sanitizer and masks are readily available. People seems to be in good spirits (I guess they were just excited to be out of the house!) and from what I could tell, were wearing masks and social distancing as well as they could. Hooray!

Well, after a lovely ceremony and most of the way through the reception, the sun comes out. I’m like “dope! As soon as the sun sets a bit more, the light will be just right and we can grab some sunset photos!” I look at the sky and don’t see any clouds coming back soon, so great news! Because it was definitely a bit early for sunset photos, I like the sun to be pretty close to the treeline for the optimal lighting conditions. However, disaster strikes. Clouds come back about 20 minutes before the sun was getting where I wanted. At this point, I’m pretty freaking sad because I risked it all and lost. I am getting ready to tell Alicia that we should just shoot our couples photos while there is still light outside, albeit, cloud lighting.

But then, I take another look at the sky and see a small break in the clouds coming. Did you know that photographers are short term meteorologists? So I run over to Alicia and I’m like “Hey we need to get to the field like immediately because the sun is going to peek out briefly and then go away forever!.” She runs over to David and he replies with “Word homie, I’m finna rock these photos you feel me?” (again, that’s probably not exactly what he said but it’s how I remember it).

So we run over to the field and just as I thought, the moment we arrive the sun peeks out… for legitimately, like 90 seconds. I couldn’t have been happier with the way the photos turned out honestly!

I’m super looking forward to continue following Alicia’s story with David on our new journal website (rip DE…. we will miss you). Okay, onto the photos… enjoy!

Madison at the Mill Orange Virginia Wedding

Photographer - David C. Allen Photography
Venue - Madison at the Mill
Florist - Endless Creations Flowers and Gifts
HUMA - Charlottesville Makeup Artist
DJ - 804soundz
Cake - Sugar on Top Cakes
Dress - Madi Lane Bridal
Coordinating - Jes Frank Events

The Plant at Kyle: Chloe & Tyler

David Allen March 25, 2020

Chloe and Tyler are the kinds of couples I have trouble forgetting. The energy and love they shared was such an experience. I feel super bad for the other photographers Chloe may have passed up on before she hired me!

Chloe and Tyler’s venue choice, The Plant at Kyle, was also such a treat to shoot at. It was the perfect size for a smaller intimate wedding, with plenty of space for dancing indoors and some seriously lovely looking architecture. A lot of venues I visit look like they were residences that were converted over to a venue, but this is one of the venues that you can tell was built from the ground up to serve as a venue (I could be wrong, but it just looks that way!). I’ll leave a link to their website at the end of the blog. Check them out!

Okay, enough of my ramblings. Onto the photos!!!!

Bride and Bridesmaids having fun during formal photos

Bride and Groom Embracing After Ceremony

Click to View Venue Website

New Braunfels, TX Engagement

David Allen December 22, 2019

So this will be slightly sad, but not for the reason you may think.

Earlier this year Breanne reached out to me about shooting her wedding. After spending some time talking to each other, we both decided it would be a good idea if I shot her and Eric’s wedding! Well after some unfortunate planning issues, she had to move her wedding date back a few months and I was unavailable to move my date with her, so she was forced to find a new photographer (luckily we found an amazing replacement photographer in the area who was free!).

So why is this sad you ask? Well because we decided it would still be fun to do our engagement shoot together (and possibly a bridal shoot later) and I just really heckin enjoyed their company so much. Like many couples they seemed a bit reserved at first when we started shooting. (Believe it or not, not everyone works as professional models as their day job!). But by the end of the shoot, they were very relaxed and comfortable, and I even caught a few glimpses of their goofy love in action, such as when they decided to do their secret handshake in front of me. Which, I may add, was very impressive and well coordinated (and cute!).

Also I will add that Breanne was so thoughtful. I would have been willing to drive anywhere she wanted, but she tried her best to choose a location that was between us both to keep traveling to a minimum. She suggested Faust Street Bridge in New Braunfels, TX. I highly recommend you check this place out because it was amazing!

Here are some of the images from that engagement shoot and I’m not at all jealous of the photographer who gets to be there on the big day in mid 2020! (he lied…)

The Best Time Of Day For Engagement Photography

David Allen April 30, 2019

So you’re planning your engagement shoot… awesome! I’m here to help you understand what time of day is best for engagements, because there are definitely right and wrong answers here.

So first of all, if you’re thinking “Okay let me knock these out during my lunch break” or something similar…. STOP. Photos shot mid-day are almost going to look less than stellar (unless your photographer is a magician or something!). You’re going to want to either shoot super early in the morning, or late in the evening. I’ll explain further below.

Images such as this one, shot by @timothypaulsmith, during mid-day may look nice (due to the photographer’s skill level), however it would benefit greatly if shot with the sun lower in the sky, casting softer/more flattering shadows.

So when the sun is lower in the sky, several things are happening. Shadows falling across someone’s face is far more flattering during these two times. Don’t believe me? Have someone stand below directly below an overhead light (such as a ceiling fan) and snap a photo on your phone. Then do the same thing, but next to a desk lamp. You should see a very noticeable increase in quality!

So why is photography better when the sun is lower in the sky?

This photo, (shot by yours truly!), demonstrates how the sun can act as a rim light during an outdoor shoot. Notice how the edges of the couple are lit really brightly, resulting in a more dramatic appearance.

When the sun is lower in the sky, several things are happening. The light takes a longer path to reach you, so during that time, more of the blue light is filtered out due to chemical composition of the atmosphere. This results in an overall warmer tone, which is far more flattering to skin tones and feels more intimate (I personally think this is why tungsten lighting is more popular for lighting homes).

Also, a greater proportion of the light for your photos comes from the scattered light in the sky, resulting in softer shadows. Softer shadows are one of the primary reasons why photographers spend unforgivable amounts of money on light modifiers. Many of these modifiers can be boiled down to “light softeners”. The softer the light, the more flattering it is to the photo subject, such as you and your loved one!

And finally, when the sun is lower in the sky, the sun can act as a rim light to your photos. For the photography layperson, a rim light is a backlight that helps highlight the edges of your subject, helping draw your eyes to the subject and away from the background. See the included image for an example of natural rim lighting!

The Best Time For Shooting

Another example of how sunset photography creates that warm soft lighting that couples love so much!

So there isn’t a single good time that is good for photos. The sunrise and sunsets in your area are affected by your time zone, location relative to the equator, and whether or not you observe daylight savings. Luckily, the internet has our back here. Most weather apps can tell you the sunrise and sunset of any given day for the foreseeable future (assuming robots don’t take over the planet and destroy the sun, obviously). So my advice is to check the sunrise/sunset of a date close to when you’re planning your shoot, and then create your timeline from there.

If you plan to shoot around sunrise, then be sure to meet with your photographer 15 minutes before sunrise, so that way you’ll have plenty of time to get familiar with them and comfortable in front of the camera. The best shots are going to happen right as the sun is rising above the horizon.

Which leads me to my final point. Sunset engagement photography sessions are so much better because you can end the shoot with the best photos. Your engagement shoot is likely the first time you’ll work with your photographer, so there will be that awkward time where you’re all getting familiar with each other and getting comfortable in front of the camera. So the less awesome photos that are shot while the sun is still in the sky can be almost like a small “meet-and-greet”, and then later when the sun is super low in the sky, you’re mega comfortable with each other. It most definitely shows in the photos!

I hope this is helpful for planning your engagement shoot. Your photographer will likely have their own opinions, but I feel like most of them will agree with what I said here. Good luck out there!

Not All Shoots Go As Planned

David Allen November 14, 2018

So here’s the thing, not every shoot goes as planned. Shocking news am I right!? The day of Amanda and Steve’s shoot started out with me finding out that my car had been towed. Super fun times there. It wasn’t supposed to be towed, because I had the parking sticker, but it was the old sticker before they updated. I was told it would be fine, and there was no need to update. However, I guess the towing company had some different plans for me.

After I retrieved my car, I run back home and pack my gear. Only then do I realize that I don’t have my camera charger. It was probably lost at the wedding I had shot the weekend before, but I hadn’t realized because I have plenty of batteries and was just swapping them all out. Well, of course, every battery I owned was now completely dead. So I set out to a Best Buy to purchase a new charger. I worked at Best Buy back in the day, so I knew they carried chargers. Well I guess between when I worked at Best Buy, and now, they have gutted their camera departments. I spent two hours driving between different stores looking for any kind of camera charger. Finally, the third Best Buy in the area had one left in stock (and they’ll likely just not buy any more now).

So that struggle was out of the way, but now I was running super late and was worried about rush hour traffic, because the shoot was located about 3 hour drive away. I called Amanda, and wow she was so understanding. She had every right to be upset, yet, was very calm and encouraged me to just get there safely and we would figure everything out. So, yes, while traffic turned it into a 4 hour drive, I was determined to get some good photos with our short time together!

And, wow, did we ever! We only had time for about an hour of shooting in one location, but the photos just turned out so good. She had the excellent idea of shooting on a pedestrian bridge in Dallas. I’ll shut up and get to the photos. I was just blown away with how so many things could go wrong and yet still end up with some excellent shots!

Sidney & Preston

David Allen October 9, 2017

Here are just a few preview images from a wonderful wedding I had the pleasure of shooting a few days ago. Congratulations to Sidney and Preston!

Bridal portraits coming soon!