Rich Smith Photography » Misc.

Presenting Darin Wright

Rich Smith — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:38:27 +0000

Was so excited when Darin, the owner of Elea Blake – Chattanooga’s best locally owned makeup store, contacted me to do some headshots for an association she’s a part of and for a book cover she’s working on. So she called her buddies at Hunter Museum to see if we could use their space and off we went! Love these types of shoots because I really get to play around with external lights to give a more magazine-ready quality to the photos.

Darin was perfect in front of camera. So we had a lot of fun joking around and exploring light and shadows. Check out a few of my favorites below!

Here’s a couple of book cover concepts we were playing around with…

Let me know what you think in the comment area below!

A Silverware Affair!

Rich Smith — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:27:33 +0000

A Silverware Affair, a Chattanooga caterer, was so kind to ask me to photograph some of their gorgeous food creations! When I got there, I was blown away by how beautiful the food was. With this food being catered at a wedding, it’s like having a 5-star restaurant coming to your event. These would definitely impress your guests!

Thai Sesame Noodle Forks!

Asian Beef Salad Atop a Fried Won Ton Plate! They can customize this and do a vegetarian salad or chicken or pork!

Urban Stack – Chattanooga’s Newest Coolest Restaurant

Rich Smith — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:53:10 +0000

Had the incredible privilege to photograph Chattanooga’s newest hamburger joint. Urban Stack is owned by Mike and Taylor Monen, the same couple who created another excellent restaurant in town called Taco Mamacita. If you’ve never been to these two restaurants, you definitely need to try them out. Some of the best burgers and tacos you’ll ever eat.

Their incredible branding is by Steve Hamaker from Stevaker Designs!

They even have a line of vegan burgers if you like you veggies. This is their Vegan on Shrooms burger. Homemade vegan mushroom patty, roasted red pepper, tomato, lettuce, balsamic onions and vegan garlic mayo.

Be sure to check out their extensive menu and then head there tonight with your family!

Mini Beach Session [part 2]

Rich Smith — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:52:32 +0000

If you haven’t check it out yet, look at our mini beach session below this post!

Because the look and feel of the photos are so much different than the last post, I decided to go ahead and just create a new post! Was practicing a new technique with light but didn’t have any modifiers with us so I had to make due. Think they turned out pretty well!

Most of these photos are almost exactly the same but I didn’t want to cull down anymore so you’ll have to just look at all of them! haha

Love that you can see the moon in the background! Isn’t Heather so beautiful in these shots!? And how cute is Sierra?

By this time Sierra had enough. The wind was blowing too much and she was cold… poor thing! But so glad I was able to snap off this last photo of my girls!

Thanks for looking!

Mini Beach Session [part 1]

Rich Smith — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:05:26 +0000

When we come to Ft. Lauderdale, the most obvious thing they have down here vs. what we have in Chattanooga is the beach. So we love going here to take some pics. While Sierra is so small, she doesn’t tolerate much so we don’t stay long. We had a good 30 minutes before we had to bolt.

Alana when she was a baby was TERRIFIED of the sand. Now she can’t get enough of it. We wanted to take photos of us as a family and she wanted to run around and play in the sand. So I got some photos of her joy.

Many thanks for my mom-in-law for taking these photos of us! One quick lesson on back focusing and the proper stance and she was a pro!

Beauty and innocence…

Rich Smith — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:14:41 +0000

There’s so many things my daughters teach me. Most of the times I don’t have my ears and eyes open to see and hear what they’re teaching me.

This is Alana looking out a window. What I don’t show is what she’s looking at with such wonder. We’re sitting in an airport cafe and she’s watching airplanes take off and land… and very loudly proclaiming each time it happens with equal enthusiasm.

She’s so beautiful while she’s discovering our world. It seems that as adults, we’ve grown tired of discovering new things. And bored of being in true wonder of them. Our world is big enough to never discover everything but somewhere along the way, we lose that quest of discovering new things.

Check out this photo of my daughter. Study it and then go out and look at the things you pass by every day with new eyes and regain some of that wonder.

Introducing Limestone Films!

Rich Smith — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:28:59 +0000

There’s a brand new videography business in town and we’re so excited to let you know about them! Robert and Aston Miles started Limestone Films a few months ago and they’ve already done some incredible wedding/engagement videos! Go check their website out! You’ll love their stuff. They’re definitely on Rich Smith Photography’s highly recommended list! If you’re looking for a videographer for your wedding, contact them. I know they’d love to work with you! www.limestonefilms.com

And check out the engagement love story they just posted with my wedding clients and good friends Kellie and Danny!

Kellie & Danny » LA Engagement

Rich Smith — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 23:05:17 +0000

When Kellie and Danny first proposed to me that they wanted their engagement session done in California I was thrilled! Not because I love to travel but because I’ve never been to California before. I know, everyone is SHOCKED! I’ve only been in the LAX airport on my way to Hawaii. Heather has been wanting me to go to CA for a while now to show me where she grew up in Orange County. That didn’t happen on this trip but Kellie and Danny (and her WHOLE family) showed me an amazing time! They really spoiled me and treated me like a member of the family. For that, I am so thankful and feel extremely blessed to have the type of clients that I do!

Hanging out and working with Danny and Kellie over the weekend, I just couldn’t like this couple any more. They’re that awesome and genuine. Pair that with how amazing Kellie’s family is, I just had an unbelievable time. For a first time trip to CA, it couldn’t have been better.

Enough talking. Let’s check out some of Kellie and Danny’s amazing engagement pics from the trip! I’m only showing a few but there are a LOT more in the slideshow below!

We started off Saturday by going to the Huntington Botanical Gardens, which provided for us an assortment of vastly different ecosystems to work in. Desert, Japanese gardens, Chinese gardens, sculptor gardens, this place had it all. But it was a huge place to walk around, it was 104 degrees outside and we only had a 1.5 hours. I could have spent days there…

Foothills of Angeles National Forest.

We went to dinner at LA Prime and afterwards went around taking more pics at night! This particular place below was at a museum close to the La Bria Tar Pits.

Sunday, Kellie and Danny had an engagement party with all of Kellie’s super fun family. Any time it got slow, we headed outside to grab a few pics.

Up at Kellie’s grand uncles beautiful house…

Santa Monica Pier! (thanks to Kellie’s bro-in-law Cory for being my living light stand)

We didn’t have much time there because we had to go catch Leno’s stand up act! What a blast.

Monday: our plane was leaving at 12:10p but they really wanted to do a shoot at UCLA. So with bags packed, we headed out. I absolutely loved the campus!

Check out this photo I took of the LA skyline. Beautiful city! Every place we went, I felt I could have spent so much more time there but we had so many other cool places to go. Next time, I want more time!

Thank you Kellie and Danny for flying me out to document your engagement! I absolutely loved every minute of it!

I rarely do slideshows, so please sit back and enjoy these photos I took! I encourage you to turn up the volume or put headphones on. The first person to comment below what song is playing in the slideshow wins a $10 iTunes gift card! No fair using Shazam. Sorry, Kellie and Danny, you probably already know it so you can’t win.

Enjoy your slideshow!

California Highlights (just if you’re interested)

meeting Kellie’s family! I knew Kellie’s immediate family was cool but I didn’t know her whole extended family was just as cool.
In-n-Out Burgers. Got to experience this for the first time. Did not disappoint!
iPad. It’s so fun to travel with this little piece of amazing technology.
Going up the elevator that Arnold did in True Lies with the horse!
Seeing the US Bank building (that got blown up in Independence Day)
Cruising around Hollywood at 12:30 at night. I saw some very, uh, interesting people.
Going past THE Fredrick’s of Hollywood and seeing a 6 year old little boy on a leash STARING in with his mouth open and hands on the window while his dad is looking elsewhere completely oblivious.
La Brea Tar Pits?
The Walt Disney Concert Hall — what a beautiful building. It was night and it wasn’t lit well so we didn’t shoot there.
Doing U-turns in the middle of Rodeo Dr and Wilshire blvd and probably other places because it was 1am and NO ONE was around.
Spontaneity
Santa Monica Pier
Seeing Jay Leno in person
Traveling back with Kellie and Danny and going through Priority seating, security and sitting in the exit row on both planes on the way home.
Seeing my wife waiting for me at the gates TOTALLY excited to see me again (unless she was waving at Kellie and Danny)