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Welcome to our Blog!

We are Rich and Heather Smith, a husband and wife team based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Rich is a wedding photographer, while Heather helps to keep the business running smoothly at home while chasing around our baby daughter and taking a few photos in the process. 

We are two extroverts who adore meeting new people. We love laughing, chai tea lattes, and Rich can't get enough of Heather's lasagna. We're addicted to LOST and are trying to kick our 24 habit. 

We are so thankful that our clients trust us to document their lives, and so 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! 

Category Archives: lifestyle

Lori and Eric | Engaged!

I love my clients. Have I said that before? That’s because I mean it. I have the best clients in the world and Lori and Eric are no exception.  I loved hanging out with them. We had been rescheduling trying to find a day that worked for all of us and was NOT raining.  It took a while but we finally got it done and I couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome!  Some of my favorite images I’ve ever taken are below.  I hope you all enjoy!

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A cool photo for cool clients!

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Love this photo!

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Showing Lori’s fun side!

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One of my favorites!

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Love it!

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I took this photo accidently when I was lowering my camera and absolutely nothing in the photo is in focus but for some reason I love it! There’s just something so compelling about it that pulls me in.

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Hello…

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Chattanooga skyline…

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Gorgeous.  I guess I’m becoming known for lines because Lori knew exactly what was on my mind when I pointed them to this location.  haha

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A goodbye group shot!

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Thank you again for such a wonderful time! Can’t wait till your wedding in September!  We’re going to have a blast! (Lets be praying for cooler weather!)

The Powell Family

I got to spend a couple of hours with David, Tami, Preston and Hudson on Thursday. I’ve known them for a while now and even photographed their new born son Hudson in the hospital a couple years ago.  We were first going to do this session in October of last year but postponed it till it got warmer. Well, it definitely got warmer!  It had to have been 98 degrees outside!  But we still had a lot of fun fishing and riding four wheelers.  Enjoy some of my favorite pics below!

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Hudson hasn’t quite grasped the concept of fishing yet but he loves to use the pole for digging around the muck. haha

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My best “Andy Griffith Show” impression…

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We then went 4 wheeling!  Woot!

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Love Hudsons face in this picture as he watches his parents kiss.  haha

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Then it was swimming time!

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Love this picture! Look how high Preston is!

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To end the session, we allowed the kids to play and I took David and Tami for a mini “we did” session.  They did a great job!

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Thanks again for letting me document your family!  I really enjoyed it!  Enjoy your photos!

Workshop Pics!

Well, another workshop has passed and I could NOT be more proud of my student!  I’m so excited to show you her stuff!

It was Leslie’s second weekend with me and we dove into some more advanced photo techniques and then went out and put them to the test.  Our brave models who volunteered for the shoot were the wonderful Robert and Aston.  They’d wanted a photoshoot from me anyway, and since we needed models, this was the perfect opportunity! Aston is 31 weeks pregnant, and Robert is an aspiring photographer, so he said he really enjoyed listening as I talked my way through each shot… he felt like he was getting a free photo lesson.  So everyone wins!

I’ll show you some of my favorites and then show you Leslie’s images from the locations.

Here’s our attempt to make the ordinary look extraordinary.  Love the orange cone.

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Repetitious crates:

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Here I was talking about light and shadows and how to work with them…NOT be afraid of them.

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Really like how this one turned out!

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Utilizing the background but not letting it interfere with the subject” lesson:

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Loving the flowers in the dilapidated parking lot:

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The “rim light” lesson:

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The “shooting while walking and the camera is by your knees” lesson:

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“Compressing the background” lesson:

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The “Knowing your subject and capturing their personalities” lesson:

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“Working with harsh light and shadows” and “showcasing the pretty girl and letting the guy fade in the background” lessons: :)

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The “abstract” and “finding the lines” lessons:

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More rim light:

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The “photographing your subjects when they’re not expecting it in order to capture a genuine moment” lesson:

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The “using the environment around you to it’s fullest potential” lesson:

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Now here are some of Leslie’s images, edited courtesy of yours truly.  I’m going to say from the outset that I think she did an extraordinary job! I’m just so proud of her!

Check out the light and shadow - dramatic beautiful moment captured. Unbelievably beautiful!

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Here’s Leslies version of my photo from above.  I actually like hers better!  Great job Leslie!

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During the “rim light” lesson:

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Leslie really wanted me to include this photo of me laying on my back getting a photo.  I guess we’ll call this the “how to take photos with your fisheye lens that has  a 180 degree angle of view without photographing your own shadow in the setting sun” lesson.

Answer? Make your shadow as minimal as possible by laying as flat as possible!

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It was a great lesson to be learned but I wasn’t particularly happy with the photo, so I didn’t include it above. But if you’re curious what my fisheye sees from that perspective, here it is.  Look… no shadow from me!

This next photo is probably one of my favorites. It’s absolutely amazing!  Way to go Leslie!

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Fun shot from the worlds thinnest slide.

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Here’s another shot from Leslie that I love.  I think the power lines actually add to the photo. Again, beautiful job Leslie!

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Again, incredible.

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One last photo with the beautiful Aston!

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Again, I can not express how impressed I am with my wonderful student Leslie!  She has come along SOOO far in these short couple of months. She is grasping advanced photography techniques with ease.  I’m just so proud that I’ve been able to be a part of her journey!

If you, dear blog reader, are interested in taking photos like Leslie, please e-mail me for information about how to get your own one-on-one photography workshop with me.