• Welcome to our Blog!

    We are Rich and Heather Smith, a husband and wife team based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We specialize in local and destination wedding photography, and we have been blessed with amazing clients and incredible opportunities the past few years! 

    We are two extroverts who adore meeting new people. We love laughing, family dance parties in the living room, chai tea lattes, and most importantly, our adorable two year old daughter, Alana. 

    We are so thankful that our clients trust us to document their lives, and we consider our blog a place to share our lives with you. Whether you are a friend, family, client, or stranger, please relax and enjoy a glimpse into our world.

    Welcome, and thank you for stopping by! 

  • Many thanks to the Nathan and Amber Holritz for the wonderful images you see of us on the left!

  • What Rich is up to (Twitter Feed):

too much fun…

Tonight was entirely too much fun, and it had everything to do with the amazing group of people below.

I think that we met Steve and Shannon first through some mutual friends at church, and there was some dialogue about the fact that Steve is a fabulous, rock-your-world graphic designer. Those are my words, not his.:)It’s all kind of fuzzy to me, but next thing we knew, about a year or more later, Rich was doing sessions for the Hamaker Family (now plus one with baby Foy!) and we had a perfect and exciting new brand for Rich Smith Photography. We actually looked forward to our logo designing meetings with Steve because we stinking liked him so much. He and Shannon are just incredible people and we truly love every second with them. And just for posterity, this is the first session Rich did for them (what feels like a VERY long time ago), here is the second, and here is the third and most recent. Wow…time FLIES and babies somehow become two year olds!

Then we had the pleasure of getting to know Jimmy and Brittany Moncrief. Again, it was photography related as Rich photographed some family sessions for them. Then it got really exciting because Brittany decided she was inspired by Rich and wanted to be a photographer herself. Now she and Jimmy are neck deep in their own business and Rich and I are super proud of them! Also very amazing people. Extremely energetic and likeable. And again, just for fun, here is the first session Rich did for them, here’s the second session, and the third and most recent session. Baby Ada is growing up so quickly!

Most recently, we have had the pleasure to get to know Meghan and Eric Campbell. We’d been chatting via Facebook and email for months and decided it was absolutely time to meet and get to know each other. It was getting a bit ridiculous to be in the same industry in the same city with the same friends…and yet, to never have met. Looking back it’s strange how long we lasted without becoming friends! It is SO time!

Fun backstories.

Now, for tonight.

Rich and I wanted to have these couples over for dinner (plus Tobi and Corey Weldon, who could not come…soooo sad). They all know each other and we like all of them SO much we just decided it was time. So, with Meghan’s homemade fire roasted salsa, Jimmy’s homemade guacamole, Shannon’s amazing chicken enchiladas, my status quo fajitas, and Rich’s homemade cheesecake, we spent several hours chatting, laughing hysterically, comforting crying toddlers, talking photography, technology, and parenthood.

Basically, we had WAY to much to do to fit into one gathering, so my conclusion is that this needs to be much more frequent.

I consider myself the “self-portrait nazi” and so as everyone was headed toward the door, I grabbed the camera, threw it at Rich, and the following FUN images resulted. They make me soooo happy.

Notice everyone’s normal, natural smiles in this photo. Now look at Brittany. I like this girl.:)

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And here, she manages to look cute, beautiful, and totally mischievous at the same time. And Shannon decides to break the mold and get a little funky, too.

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Yes, we really did have THAT much fun.

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Jimmy and Brittany, Eric and Meghan, and Steve and Shannon…thank you guys for doing life with us. We love you all and are truly, truly thankful that you are in our lives.

Corey and Tobi, you better come next time, or else.

And Jimmy, your fake laugh looks a bit like a yawn. But we love you anyway.

february PUG!

Last night was our February PUG (Pictage User Group) meeting. Grant and Sara Dotson, our PUG leaders, had asked Rich and I to present on group shots for this months’ meeting. Rich put together an awesome presentation on our philosophy and perspective regarding group shots and he included loads of our favorite group images from 2009 weddings. It reminded me all over again how important our job is and how much Rich has challenged and inspired me to be the best photographer I can be. Wedding days are so significant and we talked about keeping group shots fresh by knowing ourselves and knowing our clients. Rich rocked it out!

So, we need to give a big thank you to Green|Spaces for allowing us to use their incredibly cool location, to Grant and Sara for organizing and planning, and to our local photographer friends who came to support, listen, and contribute. We are truly thankful for all of you!

I grabbed a few shots while Rich presented:

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The group! Nathan and Amber Holritz, Grant and Sara Dotson, John and Lindsey Bamber, Michelle McKibben, and our new friend, Eric McCarty of Wedity! (where some of Rich’s photos of Nick and Amber in Jackson Hole, Wyoming are featured! Check it out!)

SO good to see everyone, and great to meet you, Eric!

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And a couple fun images of us!

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Happy FRIDAY everyone!

The Smith clan builds a snowman!

Well, to be truthful, Heather built it. Alana kept her hands in her pockets and I documented. Alana was so excited to build a snowman that she refused to take a nap but right when it came to build it, her hands got too cold.  Oh well. We had a blast anyways!

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The big reveal…

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Alana loves her new snowman.:)

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Sadly, it’s 40 degrees today so the our little snowman had a shorter life than most butterflies.  If you went to the Tennessee Aquarium more often, you’d know how long that is.:)

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