Carla Garrison talks about her gallery’s wedding services, primarily the ‘Borrow an Artist’ program where an artist paints live at your wedding or event.

The Green Rice gallery is also open to hosting your special event in their 2400 square feet of meeting space amongst artist studios and fine art exhibits. (click for full info)

I’m sure you’ll see what fun and energy Carla brings to the gallery, I’m sure you’ll be pleased working with her whether you host your wedding at the gallery or she helps coordinate your artist borrowing!  Thanks for the great chat Carla!  If you know of an interesting, artistic or notable vendor or wedding professional who would like to sit down with Neil and tell some stories…please nominate them in the comments!

View more posts from our theme: “Where Art Lives” or see the multimedia presentation on how to make your art intersect with your life.

My favorite quotes from Amy:

• “There’s perfection in imperfection”
• “Paper is sexy”
• TOAST (listen till you get it)
• “I didn’t care if I got married”
• “I wasn’t the Bridey Kind of bride”

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For more inspiration about Making Your Love real in art, view our themed posts about ‘Where Art Lives’.

Neil & Leisl -

Thank you, once again for truly capturing hte heart of our special day.  It is thanks to you that these special moments have been immortalized.  We look forward to sharing the albums/photos with our families for years to come.  I can’t imagine that we could have found anyone else that could have told the story of our journey more accurately.  Your talents are a gift and we appreciate your sharing them with us.

WIth much gratitude -

Tom & Kelly

Thanks guys – we are so grateful to have you as clients!
For those of you that haven’t been following our blog very long, here’s a summary of their journey:

• Kelly & Tom’s save the date cards
• Snowy Organic Signature Journal
• Kelly & Tom’s Buffalo NY wedding album

Here’s a close-up shot of Heather’s menus at her reception held in Del Frisco’s wine cellar, the menu designed by Neil.  However the story start a year infront of their wedding…

…with their Chirstmas card and save the date combo.  Here is me holding their limited edition Christmas card, custom designed by me:

Heather and Drew were overjoyed with the complements they received from family, friends and even the rescue organization that they got their dogs from that they had me do their save the date cards as well.

From the save the date postcard which used photographic imagery, Heather decided to take the rest of the suite minimalist to match her wedding decor and theme.

Save the date on the right, menu card on the left.  The paper stock is a pearlescent metallic finish that even though chocolate brown, give a shine to the color.

And here’s what it looks like in the placesetting!

Heather wanted a monogram to tie the pieces together, and with 10 years of design experience I didn’t find that hard to accomplish with style.

The name tags and menu blended in wonderfully with the rich chocolate color scheme.

The Invitations

The invitation design used a fashionable panorama fold on the left of the 5×7″ card.

Inside, flowing blocks of text communicate the details to the guests.

Here the response card design is shown front and back (back side blurry) as it was printed in creme white and slipped into the invitation’s fold.

Response card text.

So if you would like one less vendor to work with, if you would like to have the design elements continue from your save-the-date card through to your album.

Just have us do it – contact us above and we’ll get to work on your engagement shoot and talk styling!

Read on to see where Kelly & Tom’s wedding art lives…

It lives in their hallway…

You may be wondering what ‘it’ is, and I don’t bother to take a picture of it because the piece is not a picture – it is a painting with a picture in it. Kelly and Tom took me out to their wooded property for part of their engagement photo session and they mentioned this as one of their favorite photos. It was used on their save-the-date card. And for each of our clients who spent more thank 6k with us this year I have attempted to do something outside their contract, as contracts seem to constrict the heart – and I need to open mine. As a result I painted this piece, it started with an artistic retouching process:

And continued as I fastened the printed photo to a hardboard and painted in an impressionistic surface with acrylics.

Now art lives in their livingroom

Kelly used a series of framed 4×6 prints to fill her living room with emotional touch points – her wedding photos.

Here’s the same setting from their engagement photos – when the walls were blank.

We encourage you to fill your live with real moments love, service and life this holiday season – we hope our pictures documenting your year remind you of all the blessings you are surrounded with.

We are so blessed to make these pieces, that can work such small joys in your life!

Album Delivery by Neil

You’ll be just as excited and enthralled to open your album for the first time!

Order a Custom Design Series Album from our three sizes: 8 Series, 9 Series, and 13 Series

We also have an a-la-carte option that starts at $300 – and you build the album with only the photos you want by starting with an either an 8 inch cover, or an 11 inch cover.  Add each page of your album by selecting ‘album page’ from the photo page in your private gallery on the shopping cart.

Little Ryan Anthony was born November 17th 2007 and I was there to help Shannon make her birth announcements.

But sadly that’s another blog post you’ll have to look forward to another day – this one is is about “Where Art Lives” – we hope the different answers you see us helping our clients making, gives you creative ideas about how to use the art we make for you.

So here’s a look at Shannon’s classy cute bedroom arrangement, decorated with her wedding photos.

Shannon paired small prints with the added the  cutesy  touch of brown ribbon bows and hanging from a pewter pin over her bed.  The prints are a romantic selection from her reception with the signature pink lighting that pops off the walls like little pink polka-dots.

The room doesn’t end there however, on no – we took a few more than three good pictures!

The light touch of the summer sky blue, is starkly broken by the chocolate frames and ribbon on the  opposite  wall above the bed.  White shelves hold a light arrangement which is the focus of this wall.  

Shannon’s two shelf arrangement with white frames keeps the tones light, and the focus on the photos.

If you’re super-proud of what you’ve done with your wedding photos (and we don’t yet know about it) send us in a couple snapshots, or let me know when I can stop by and promo your interior design skills!

Who is Make Love Real? from Neil Cowley on Vimeo.

…the first section of four short films about our business.  We’re totally excited to share these with you over the next couple months as we book new weddings, meet new people and get used to our new home in Charlotte – anyone in the world can meet with us through our site.  A BIG thanks to Andrew Marzano the producer of our series.

I have to dedicate this first video to My wife, the love of my life – who’s inspired me to such great heights of experience, and such great depths of understanding.

With this post, I’m initiating a new category in the site called ‘Love Note’ where anyone can send in a love note that will be published as a public proclimation for the 5-10,000 people who visit this site every month.  We’re open to any kind of media, and will help you host and present it.  I hope to see us develop this into a little bit of a friendly competion – since my love note to My wife started with a big production budget – I’m winning!

But like the old horse says, “when you are real, you can’t be ugly” – so don’t be intimidated, start sending it in!!

Q: When you look at a piece of art, what arouses your curiosity? Is there some irresistable point of contact?

A: I think if you are looking for something….you’re in advance, circumscribing what you will see. You have decided at some level – you can’t afford to do that – you must become absolutely defenseless to the work. I think if you know something about the artist, you can go defenseless with more confidence.

Q: Do you think all of us are born with the potential to respond to art as you hope we will?

A: I’m sure everyone has this capacity, but it’s not activated. I think a lot of the fault is art critics who speak in a sort of ‘high falutin’ way….people are frightened, or feel they don’t know…..I wanted people to feel as though they could know.

Q: You talk about surrendering to the ‘wonder’ of the story – what do you mean by that?

A: to me it’s a crucial noun or verb; surrender. Because it means that you’re not going to have lables, not going to defend yourself by the ramparts of your own ego. You’re going to open yourself to what this has to give you, and that is not easy to do. Let this work speak to you without setting up pre-conditions.

So this begs the question when you’re probably purchasing the biggest piece of art you’ve ever commissioned:

Your wedding photography

How do you open your eyes to ‘see’ wedding pictures?

In the discussion I had with Ciara today we talked through two spectrums:

From Photojournalism (realism and raw unexpected emotion)……………..

to…….Romanticism (evoking an expected emotion)

Wall Displays ……………………………..to…………………………….. Wedding Albums

When you’re looking at the whole spectrum of wedding photographers, you have to answer questions within yourself – that will lead you to the answer of which photographer. Looking at the question of which photographer – leads to too many answers and no direction. Talk with your fiancee about your shared preferences on the two spectrums above and then you have a lens of what experience you are looking for from your photographer.

As you think about the photojournalism/romanticism spectrum we include a few articles in the category on Choosing a Photographer that might enliven your discussion together. A solid piece to kick off that discussion would be thinking about the role of beauty in your wedding photos, and it’s importance to you.

To help you on your path our site has mini-discussions based around the ‘display preferences‘ we have the category called “Where Art Lives” and it is started off with this multimedia presentation defining the topic and the creativity that flows when you make your love real. In this category you can read discussions of how we reflect our clients display preferences when we shoot and develop their products. You can also see our projects installed in our client’s homes and how they fit beautifully reflecting their love stories and personal style.

Enjoy how your discussions enrich your relationship as you prepare for your wedding.

Tammy and John’s wedding was held at the Genesee Country Museum and this natural organic album design flowed from their gorgeous event. Read the extended post below to see the full design and read Neil’s discussion of the design elements.

[svgallery name="natural_album"]

Here you can see the full layout of the photos by Neil & My wife Cowley of this 70 page album. If you hire both Neil & My wife to shoot your wedding – you too will have a hard time cutting out enough photos to keep your album to 70 pages.

Creativity in the design

What are your display preferences for album design?

Here you can see one particular spread that pushes the creative envelope for combining original photojournalism style photography and the album design. That’s Tammy’s mom peaking through the hanging dresses on the left and a shot looking through the dresses of Tammy laughing hysterically.

I’m particularly proud that our images are ‘flawless’ enough to be spread across two pages in the album design. When an image is printed 19″ wide full bleed, any imperfections show right up. This romantic image from behind is on of the side moments, that allow for suggestive interpretations and is place at a point in the flow of the album that allows the viewer to catch their breath for a moment as they traverse the pages. This suggestive photo journalistic image asks for a pause and reflection in the transition of the story of the album.

Do photojournalists do group photos? YES, of course! Are full bleed two page photos good design? Yes, all the design intention was put in while holding the camera. To me, the ultimate album would be all double truck images of all the defining moments of your wedding. However, I’m not super-human yet so that does seem a out of reach for us mortal photographers.

The floral design for this Rochester NY area upstate wedding was done by Thrive Flowers.

I look forward to creatively expressing your wedding photos in the album design.

Entry #62 poses the question – Is Beauty Enough?

Visit his page to download from his site.

“Why do most great pictures look un-contrived? The deception is necessary if the goal of art is to be reached. Only pictures that look as if they have been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.“

This simple quote strikes to the heart of the struggle of ‘choosing a wedding photographer’ when the issues of budget and beauty, of posing and photojournalism collide in your mind.

I hope you enjoy the podcast and this bit of art theory and criticism as you contemplate your photography investment and how it might pay off for you in the future. I hope our pictures look easily made to your eye, because the beauty I see is all around me.

For us, beauty is not in the way your wrinkles can be erased out of the way, but how they can so easily be overlooked when the picture is of a genuine moment or thought – and thereby looks so easily made. While photojournalism is a good word for what we do, it’s become an overused catchphrase in the wedding industry – but an understanding that we strive to make our work as ‘un-contrived’ as possible every time we shoot is probably the best way to understand what we do. The most common, and the most satisfying complement we get from our photos is “it feels just like we were there!” And that complement may not be coming from someone who attended the wedding!

If you are considering spending 5-10,000 on wedding photography and are unsure of what style photographer you want to go with, maybe you should consider reading Robert Adams short collection of essays on Beauty in Photography to find your personal preference for beauty and meaning in photographs. Maybe you’ll even decide the most lasting perspective or approach for capturing your family memories. I would not wish for you to have a personal preference of ‘romanticism’, where you prefer imaginative poses or very stylized images, and hire someone who spends their time finding unique moments of personal interaction. I would equally regret for you to be enticed by overtly romanticized wedding photos and 10 years from your wedding regret that a more inclusive approach had been taken that captures how much your grandmother appreciated being a part of your wedding.

I intend for you creative blessing and peace in your choice,

So do you know where the best art comes from now?

I didn’t include the story of Courtney and Charlie’s first date, but if you’d like to listen to it here:

[audio:http://makelovereal.net/whereartlives/first-date.mp3]

…you can see how their engagement shoot reflected their first date and how tucker got included.

In case it’s not totally clear, the framed photos are the shadowbox that I made with Charlie’s input. The frame is antiqued barn wood, and it has a two inch deep sealed wooden shadow frame. The glass is painted from the inside to harmonize with the weathered edges of the photos and handmade paper in the backing. The photos are mounted on raw nails to avoid adhesives which lower the archival stability of the piece.

I look forward to blessing more and more of your lives with joy, strength, memories and moments

When Tanya ask me for ideas for her thank-you card I recalled the sign welcoming her guests to her reception tent shown in unaltered form below and above cleverly pixel pushed to show a “Thank You” where it used to say welcome (and the pole disappeared).

I believe that the long-term value in my photographic services resides in their documentary strength. To expand that thought I believe that the images you will cherish in 12-13 years when your daughter finds your wedding album will be the gestures of love and tenderness your family extend, and the details captured at your event from every angle with those acts as the centerpiece of the stage. It’s somewhat funny, and somewhat depressing, but I often ask clients what their favorite image is from their wedding and it always surprises me! Every wedding I’m proud of a few images for artistic reasons, documentary reasons, and unintelligible reasons. But after a few years of entering contests, and winning, I quit entering for these last two years because I felt ‘shooting for the contest’ was warping my approach, and could take me too far away from the images my clients hold most dear.

Out of this breakdown, came the new business and redoubled approach that I needed to re-build our business into “Make Love Real”. The pictures my clients love most are the simplest ones, the truthful ones. So is PhotoShopping an image truthful?

The above image graces the other side of the thank-you postcard who’s front was the sign altered by photoshop (above). Did you also notice how the light was enhanced in the photoshopped image? The light in this image makes a romantic flip side for this version of Tanya’s thank-you card. Her real favorite photo is described in this other post. But without Photoshop I wouldn’t have the control needed to make a delicately balanced photo like the one above.

What’s your take on Photoshop? …ask a bride considering hiring us…

Well, this is a convoluted topic. I’d be glad to discourse some art history and theory with you if that’s your style, but here don’t want to get too long winded. I already have ‘award winning‘ work that utilizes photoshop so I do understand what can be done, it just a question of if you want it done. My painting professor really wanted me to focus on paining, and keep me from graduating a photographer, but I was determined to make a living from my skills – ha, ha. In that core skill set that is an artist’s I think you’ll find that the ‘toning’ (which is a term used in newspaper photojournalism to describe the expressive alteration of tonal scale without rearanging pixels) in our work is extremely well developed to a consistent high quality throughout the entire wedding’s set of images. Most of the work we do afterward is to get at what is already there. To depart from toning and re-arrange the pixels of an image can have positive or negative effects – we’ll talk about momentarily. But most of the photoshop that we do does not change the visual accuracy of an image, only enhances the perception of color and tone.

What a difference a year will make!

Here is an image I posted in September of 06 from an Adirondak wedding’s preview website.

This is what the image looked like with my photo shop skill level that year. Can you see the clouds in the sky? Below is what the image looks like without any editing or color correction – straight out of the camera.

I would call this image, ‘machine perception’ and I would call the following image, processed after another year of detailed color theory study and advances in the software we use to handle images ‘artist’s perception’.

Neither one nor the other is more accurate, however the last image is clearer to see and I feel enhances the viewers experience of the photo. So I use photoshop to get at what is already there in the most expressive way possible. The best way to look at my work is the finished album, or the wall presentation. Sometimes the wall image can go fine art in a painterly way, sometimes the album should be left completely documentary. A single over edited image can ruin the flow and design of an album, whereas an expressively printed wall piece can significantly enhance the meaning in your wedding photography. Thus, I offer two packages for the two preferences.But in a very general sense, I feel the particular pendulum that herds the art world over the arc of art history is pushing photographers into photoshop. I think this is a bad thing unless it’s properly understood and thus this article for you to digest. I think I have come to believe that style is a crutch, a construct for the purpose of selling. And some photographers use photoshop solely to achieve a style. The general purpose photography has assumed in our lives and art history is telling, the general purpose of painting has assumed as a response is asking. Some photographers bring the ‘art’ of painting (asking) into their images, and use photoshop to help make the question obvious. I enjoy creating this work as well from a wedding but I document first, and manipulate second.This little passage from Tao 38 sums it up for me:

“Those highest in TE take no actionAnd don’t need to act.Those lowest in TE take actionAnd do need to act.”

So for my clients that I feel want a little enhancement, I do whatever is best…..I get a giant natural fog machine to fill a 400ft gorge with clouds, then just put my clients in front of it for a nice shot. Neither one is harder than the other! Photoshop helps me control the myriad of variables that connect to form an expressive picture. Other times, I’m working on a tight time line in Grant’s park and I pull elements from the surroundings into the picture in a painterly way to create a nice wall piece.

Some photographers push their work for artistic reasons and enter contests for manipulated images, and othes rally against the need at all.

I’d be glad to sell you a custom painted photograph as a compromise (-;

One of the challenges I face is how to know what to photograph, so to make myself better by understanding your perspective I’ll give you a free enlargement (whatever size you request) if you call up 1(641)985-7878 ex*4210197 and leave a message describing to me what was your favorite picture, and why. No, easy answers like ‘Neil you’re a genius’ don’t count – you really have to tell me what’s important to you and how it made you feel to have it captured….I know you can do it….just look at the picture while you call and it’ll be easy. If you’re having trouble getting started then just think about what happened leading up to the image, and tell that story starting there and then your thoughts will flow out.

If the groom has a separate favorite image, then he can call in on his own and leave his story for a second print.When I hear it, I’ll know the picture – or you can e-mail me the number and I’ll get an enlargement made in the size you request in the e-mail.

To get this shot I had Tanya sit on the diving board of the pool and Erik jumped in to get some hugs and poof the picture was made. I had communicated with Tanya about her picture preferences and she didn’t want anything too posed and didn’t want to spend precious time away from her wedding posing — and that desire was balanced by the somewhat traditional need to produce a representation of herself and her husband on the thank-you card. So in this shot she enjoyed the mood – as well as the representation – and was freed from any expectation to go all out on the back:

I feel this image provides a very good representation of the ‘empathetic’ side of display preferences I first started talking about in another page(link). Now from this shot you can better understand my opening statement “Display preferences don’t change how we shoot…but good communication from you can free us up to do our job the best way we can” you see it’s very easy as a wedding photographer to become afraid of black. By afraid of black, I mean the fast pace and the stress of the job can lead you to only make ‘normalized’ images. Exposures that capture the action or emotion, but the tonality within the image itself does not represent the same emotions and mood that the subject matter does. In this nearly silhouetted photo, where Tanya and Erik nearly kiss, and the nearly setting sun speckles the tenting with golden drops – I’ve achieved a photo who’s emotions, visuals and actions parallel each other and drive home the same golden experience.

The most expressive and unique images may be found, but in the process of doing so we fall short more often than we achieve the goal. As we are talking with you about your wedding day and plans, it’s good to encourage us that abnormal is ok. Hiring a real artist, who will express your wedding is a risk; a risk worth taking for sure! A risk that you minimize by actually looking through many of the events your artist has shot and really taking stock of the expressive powers of the artist. When you really know your artist you can then commit with confidence to those talents.

You can also read more of our thoughts on photography display preferences or choosing a wedding photographer in those categories.

So it’s been a while since I’ve discussed a picture, and I thought this would be a good one to talk about. I shot this image at a recent November wedding with it’s bride only counterpart. I enjoyed creating this image in an empty lot next to Christina’s (the bride’s) parent’s home where she prepared for the wedding. The enjoyment came from being able to create mood and style easily in the early evening that comes in November. The frame above was made at 5:03:22PM between the ceremony and reception. The early sunset gave me the chance to control the lighting in the image by using my strobes instead of relying on the mood of the natural light.

Planning for pictures

The early evening gave us ample time between the ceremony and reception and the double bonus of having both daylight and dusk to make pictures in. With a wedding plan that allowed us two hours of shooting between the ceremony and reception I was able to shoot several styles of pictures with the wedding party and the couple. The November temperatures, the foliage valiantly holding on the Red Oaks and a freshly dressed bride inspired this photo’s tonality:

Even though the day was started with a light snow and the grey skies remained through the day – with my equipment and vision I was able to create a unique photo for Christina. She was brave enough to wear her lacy dress into the weeds before the ceremony to win this great photo!

Composition and presentation

I made a new category today in the content management system here called presentation as I will be posting some interesting presentation options soon. Let me talk just a moment about the composition and how it affects presentation of the photo. First, the proportion – or the size of the couple related to the overall image – has several relationships to how you may or may not appreciate presenting the image in your home. My experience in preparing images for display in my clients homes, mailing as postcards and designing into websites has shown me that there are two general groups of clients that hire me; the visuals and the emotionals. One group are generally more bold and visually literate, meaning they have greater experience reading, using, or collecting images. The other group of image buyers are less sure of what they want in visual terms but are drawn to My wife & I’s work on emotional terms and the romance of documenting real moments of family and friend’s connections.

The visually literate bunch, often work in advertising, communications, or practice photography as a hobby and have more graphic tastes in photos and a stronger tolerance for seeing themselves in the photos. The emotionally motivated bunch, have less of a tolerance for displaying themselves and would rather see demonstrations of love but not of themselves. Interesting paradox, I know since it’s their love that is demonstrated.

Print size and proportions

No client represents either of these polarities completely, however I felt Christina and Mike were somewhat of the more romantic type and so I composed several of these images in this proportion to give them the opportunity to make a large print where they don’t feel visually large in the print, but can cherish their togetherness and warmth in the chill night air under the moon. The scale of this image should allow it to be printed as large as some of our largest prints, meaning 4 feet tall by 6 feel long on a fine canvas frame. If you have a big blank wall to cover in your home, we can take care of you!

Browse the ‘Where Art Lives’ category to get more ideas about how to frame, mount, and creatively present your wedding and portrait images.

∞

They had so many great options for their cards they had a hard time deciding but liked the vertical format and the sparkling water in this shot.

Here’s one of their save the date card designs, front above is for self mailing – and the previous one needs an envelope:

This over sized postcard (8×5″wide by 5.5″ high) demands full postage from the post office whether or not you mail it as a flat (without envelope) so I generally recommend you use the full space and enclose it within an envelope.

You can look forward to their wedding in September.